The opening scene showed us that Fanny Pocock is smart, observant, strong-willed, and stands up for herself. Who does that sound like? Claire, maybe? Sadly, Fanny knows the evil in people way too well, but not how good people behave. She believed that Jamie and Claire would send her away to a life of whoredom if they were mad at William.
Fortunately, Jamie is such a good dad to kids that are not his own (unless he is indeed Fanny's grandfather). He took Fanny to Murtagh's cairn where he had also created one for Jane, giving Fanny a place to grieve and talk to her sister.
Jamie is a good dad, but not perfect in every way. I'm tired of his unreasoning jealousy of Claire's grief-filled roll in the hay with John. (My favorite scene in this episode was Bree figuring it out just from the expression on Claire's face.)
But I'm starting to think that Jamie's issues are less about John Grey and more about Frank Randall. Is Jamie only just now internalizing that Claire spent over twenty years with Frank? Is the situation more real to Jamie now that Frank is sorta kinda in the eighteenth century communicating with him through that book? It's also interesting that Claire is now thinking that Frank wrote the book specifically to warn her about what is going to happen to Jamie. Of course, Claire knows Frank much better than Jamie ever could.
The Faith situation was further explained when, luckily for her, a distressed woman in difficult labor with twins ended up in Claire's surgery. (I so wanted her husband, who was so determined not to let his family be victimized by white anger, to accept their help, and glad that he did.) When the second baby was stillborn and Claire performed CPR, she had a flashback to Master Raymond healing Claire with his hands. Is that the answer, then? That Master Raymond healed Faith the way Claire healed Susannah's daughter, and then, after being banished from Paris, was unable to return baby Faith to Claire?
Is Claire's hair white enough now for her to have come into her full power? (As Adawehi told Claire in season four's "Common Ground.")
Moving on to the political situation, I didn't despise what's-his-face Cleveland so much this time, since he took out two Loyalists, one of whom was the nasty pedo who propositioned Fanny. Because as it turns out, Cleveland was right about Loyalists bringing in muskets and coded messages. Which Jamie took right to Captain Cunningham, who is recruiting Loyalists while hiding in plain sight. If Cunningham thinks he's going to turn Jamie into a Benedict Arnold, he has a surprise coming his way.
Fraser's Ridge needs a rebel leader. It's time for Jamie to be a laird again.
Meanwhile in Savannah, William was still tracking what happened to his cousin Benjamin while carrying on an intriguing flirtation with Benjamin's widow Amaranthus, a name I hate typing nearly as much as Laoghaire. Amaranthus shares her father's interest in naturalism and actually embroidered a waistcoat for Benjamin with every beetle found in the Colonies. A waistcoat of bugs shouldn't have been as pretty as that one was. It looked really good on William.
I am again feeling that Amaranthus might not be truthful. The fact that she has William's tin soldier makes it more likely that she's the real thing. But she seemed to be moving on from Benjamin to William a bit quickly. When William gave her Benjamin's uniform, it didn't seem to give her so much as a twinge.
While Fanny is much like Claire, William is like Jamie: principled, determined, talented at managing people. And quite possibly keeping his suspicions about Amaranthus to himself, like Jamie is with Cunningham. We got a couple of glimpses of the drawer containing the tin soldier. Were there a lot of letters in those drawers? Should William perhaps take a look at those for clues?
Bits:
— The post-credits vignette was a lot of mounted and framed dead bugs.
— More narration by Frank Randall. It's lovely that they've found a way to include Tobias Menzies in the final season.
— Savannah is in the northern part of Georgia just below South Carolina. Lord John wants Bree to come there to paint a portrait of Amaranthus and baby Trevor. Back then, portrait painting was lucrative, a nice way to make a living.
— At the luncheon, General Leslie told William that John had been governor of Ardsmuir Prison. Did John not mention it to William before because it pointed toward his relationship with Jamie?
— Gold acting stars for young Florrie Wilkinson, who plays Fanny. She's just marvelous. Wonderful casting.
— Perseverance Whatever, a.k.a. Percy Beauchamp, John's possible love interest and I'm glad he has one, showed up at the luncheon and was surreptitiously feeling up John under the table.
— Percy is still searching for Fergus. This plot thread has been dangling way too long. They're in the same town now; let's get the two of them in the same room together already.
Quotes:
Nasty Loyalist: "How would you like to keep me company on my travels?"
Fanny: "I shouldn't like that at all."
Nasty Loyalist: "Oh, come now. You seem like quite the adventuress."
Fanny: "And you are a toad-faced foot licker."
Point, Fanny.
Bree: "Why is Da mad? Sounds like John was protecting you. It's not like you slept together. (Claire looks away.) Mama!"
Claire: "It only happened once. We were both drowning in grief and alcohol. I can't really explain it."
Bree: "Wow. How in the hell will I look John in the eye when I see him? Wait. I don't have to call him Da now, do I?"
Claire: "Do not joke about that in front of your father."
Jamie: "We go to bed fighting about your third husband, and I wake to find you gazing at a book written by your first."
Claire: "Well, lucky for you, I'm only in love with my second."
Jamie: "One can be tortured with the truth as well as a lie."
Jamie: "I've seen you bring people back from the brink of death before."
Claire: "This is different. Did you see any..."
Jamie: "Anything blue? No. But I did see you try to save their wee bairn. I kent you were thinking of our Faith. I was, too. But I didna see any light."
Claire: "If Master Raymond was able to do that for me, maybe that's how he was able to bring Faith back."
Good episode. (Seven to go!) Three out of four dead and mounted beetles,
Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.
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