The bonding and family magic continues until it's over. But is a TV family even a family without at least one misunderstanding followed by a volatile exchange between them? I think not.
Their first fight! What a doozy. And it was Da that got grounded. Usually it's the other way around.
On a scale of 1 to 10 how wrong is it that I enjoyed that fight? Not the fake fight where Jamie strong armed some sense into his daughter and helped her realize that she had done all she possibly could do against her attacker. Because that was actually hard for me to watch. I instinctively turned away a couple of times. I don't know if it was seeing a father get physical with his daughter or seeing Bree get pushed around and manipulated, but it was unpleasant for sure. That's not a dig at all. Sam Heughan played it very well. Showing the camera and audience what he was trying to do while still pushing Bree's buttons and enraging her to react. It was well written and well acted. And how horrifyingly poignant to have a parent with their own sexual trauma to help you cope with yours. What a sad shared commonality.
No, I'm talking about that knock down drag out when Bree found out that Jamie put the beat down on Roger. Bree and Jamie go toe to toe in the tempered rage department! He did not come out very well here at all. It was a little odd seeing the king of men knocked down a few pegs. And I guess there is where she will hold him for the foreseeable future seeing as how they aren't going to see each other for four(ish) months. I appreciated that Bree wouldn't let him off the hook. Not because he beat up Roger, which admittedly wasn't his finest moment, but because of the nasty rant he spewed when he thought she lied about being raped. It was not a good color on him. She didn't ask him to beat anyone up for her and it's cheap to place the blame of his actions on her shoulders. Get it together, Jamie.
So much emphasis is being placed on the father/daughter relationship that it might be easy to miss the mother/daughter beats that are peppered in. I enjoyed them just as much as anything we got between Bree and her dad. Especially after seeing the strains of their relationship through the years, I really enjoyed the emotional stability between them now. Claire, a surgeon, is able to give Brianna the option of a surgical abortion, a conversation fraught with emotional landmines under any circumstances. It was nice of her to afford Bree that choice and to extend it so gingerly and give her the dignity of supporting any decision her daughter made. Of course it was also sad to think of all the women that wouldn't have a surgeon to rely on. And Claire stayed by Brianna's side often even embracing her during that entire confrontation in the cabin. She had her back. Let's not forget that Jamie lied to Claire too, but she didn't call him on it until after Bree had walked away. Not making the betrayal about her at all even though she was kept just as in the dark. Good mom points.
And then there's Roger. He's not having a great time. Beaten and sold and marched. His friend dies and then he is face to face with a ticket home. A ticket out of the horrors he has come to know in the past. A way out of bleeding and being chased. Back to his books and cheeseburgers and plumbing. (Maybe. I think we are supposed to assume that since he can hear the buzzing he would be able to go back to his place. Or something.) Anyway. You guys. It would be hard to stay, right? Ugh, I thought Richard Rankin really, really killed it with this scene. I wanted give him a hug. I'm always very impressed when an actor makes me feel what the character is feeling. As much as I don't want him to abandon Bree, I also really wanted him to save himself. The war between self preservation and self sacrifice danced on his face and in his gestures and in the pained noises he made. Wow wow wow. Gold stars. But I'm pretty sure he won't be leaving. I could see it playing out like Claire getting dragged from the stone at the last second a la season one, though.
Almost weekly wig-related rant: This has been the season of the low ponytail. Was the low pony to 18th century North Carolina really what the side pony was to Kelly Kapowski? This isn't rhetorical, I'd like to know. Either way, I'm not here for it. It looks a little off on practically everyone. Maybe it's a family thing? But if Frasers don't have the countenance to pull it off then there really is no hope for the rest of us. I feel obligated to say that Murtagh's wig and low pony look the best in a sea of low ponytailed wigs.
3 out of 4 knots in a rope
Bits and pieces
According to TPTB, the title The Deep Heart's Core came from a poem that was originally supposed to be included in the ep but was cut from the final version.
Also, I have to say that I loved the life on the ridge montage that we got. Very Little House on the Ridge. I could have watched more of that for a while. So sweet.
The nightmare where Roger turned into Bonnet was well shot. I knew it wasn't real from the start but it made my skin crawl anyway. Ick. In season two, Jamie had nightmares where Claire turned into Black Jack Randall.
Bree smacked Jamie and Ian in this episode. Murtagh had the good sense to bolt out of the door. I also really loved Bree telling Jamie that he was insane for thinking she would trust him to go and find Roger alone.
Around the campfire the Mohawk told stories in their language, effectively excluding their white English speaking prisoners. Much like the Highlanders excluded Claire using Gaelic. This was, for some reason, a strong throwback episode. Reminding me a lot of seasons past. Not complaining, though.
Murtagh had a few silent moments that I loved this week. It was so nice of him to volunteer to take Bree to River Run. Much like he took charge of looking after Jamie for most of his life. He just belongs.
I also loved seeing Murtagh with Aunt Jocasta. They were flirting, right? Cute. Murcasta sitting in a tree?
There were a few that made sense given the time period but that I really could've lived without:
Jamie insisting that Brianna get married.
Jamie lashing out at Brianna when he annoyingly jumped to conclusions and tried to blame his actions on her.
Ian proposing to Brianna should he not be able to save her current husband whom he sold for a silver dangly bit.
Brianna: "I don't want to be married."
Jamie: "With a bairn coming, you must."
Brianna: "Where is Roger? Lizzie told me Roger was here, and Jamie beat him."
Jamie, not Da.
On a side note, Da is still hard for me to swallow. It sounds more like something Maria von Trapp sings about than a name. I'm sure I'll adjust eventually.
Jamie: "To think I was defending your honor, and now I come to find you claim yourself violated upon finding yourself with child."
Bree: "I was violated, you self-righteous bastard! By someone else! You beat up the wrong man."
Brianna: "No! You do not get to be more angry than me."
This was such a good point. You go girl.
Bree: "I'm sorry, Mama."
Claire: "Whatever for?"
Bree: "For making you leave me."
Murtagh: "You must have taken careful note of my hands, to recall them even after thirty years have passed."
Jocasta: "How could I not? You could hardly keep them from my sister, every day of her young life. Every time I looked at her, there you were with a hand out to help her, or with flowers in them for her."
Loved the fight in the cabin! Best TV I've seen this year since Sissy Spacek's "dementia" episode on Castle Rock. Like you I thought "you don't get to be angrier than me" was the highlight. I pumped my fist and yelled out "You go, 20th Century girl!".
ReplyDeleteThey set the scene with Bree in the middle of everyone else who all seemed backed up to the wall with gasps on their faces. And then she got to slappin'. Bree is a combination of both her parents, for better and worse (make your own two column lists), and Sophie Skelton really nails that. Plus Bree loves a good PB&J! Thanks again for the review.
ReplyDeleteBree was being a brat in that cabin fight. She acted the aggrieved party when she took no responsibility for the miscommunication she set into action. Jamie didn't know Roger wasn't the rapist, and he believed with certainty that he beat up the right man because Lizzy verified that it was her rapist with certainty. Bree acted in an immature way, and continued to after the fight, demanding that they all go and find him after she had set this all in motion with her decision to keep important information secret. But what made me so angry at Bree is that she didn't stop and consider her role and stop yelling and punching everyone. Was she punching everyone back in Boston? She needed to own up to her role in the moment in the cabin but she didn't.
She needs to apologize to Jamie.
Jamie was confused in that moment when he says what he says to Bree in the cabin because he was told Roger came and left, and that Lizzie confirmed to Jamie that that man near the cabin was the rapist. Then Bree says she was handfast to Roger--Jamie had no clue about that. I can see why Jamie would say what he did because it appeared Bree had sex with Roger and lied about her rapist, which meant he might have killed an innocent man.
"No! You do not get to be more angry than me."
ReplyDeleteExcellent line! Go Bree! :)