Claire and Jamie offer no assistance.Īnd as soon as Roger is back, the episode drops the Mohawk entirely, returning to the plantation and the Frasers. The jailbreak collapses in violence and their Mohawk ally is banished. One thing is for sure: It’s hard to fault Otter Tooth’s point here, given how things play out.Īs Claire bargains for help with rescuing Roger, she promises a small group of Mohawk to “help you preserve the memory of the man who fought for your future.” This word-salad oath heralds a rush to put this whole plot to bed. (I’m not in a position to parse the issues of erasure and cultural preservation this line touches upon, but Native American nations still exist, and projects like “ Reel Injun” and “ American Indians in Children’s Literature” have explored the importance and impact of these stories - and of who gets to tell them.) There is also a fatalism about the disappearance of culture that touches on a discussion as old as America. As a warning about genocide, it is correct. There’s a lot going on in that pronouncement. The nations of the Iroquois will be no more. Many dismissed him, but some remembered his words a generation later: “You will be forgotten. He came back to warn the Mohawk against encroaching colonials. In the Mohawk village, Claire discovers her necklace belonged to Otter Tooth, a fellow time traveler. But watching this episode, that’s hard to imagine. Some beats - like this episode’s “Cowboys and Indians” opening vignette - suggest the show is aware of the fraught history here. When the Cherokee were upset by that, Jamie won them over with a classic white-savior move. Jamie honored the Cherokee’s fight against land grabs, only to claim ten thousand acres. Slavery didn’t stop anyone from accepting hospitality at River Run - even Brianna. That is even more unfortunate considering that when Claire was at the fore, it was usually during strained, and often failed, attempts to engage race issues. And Claire’s darting in for a last-second goodbye reminded us that she was practically demoted to a supporting act for large stretches of this season. But that moment brought into relief how scattered this season has been. The show made time for a heart-wrenching goodbye, and the actors John Bell and Sam Heughan did a great job. Take Ian - particularly noticeable this episode after he agreed to stay with the Mohawk in exchange for Roger. And then there was Bonnet, whose ability to appear in every aspect of the Fraser story strained credulity.Īll this busy work pushed some characters into the background. Some were convenient, as when Lord John moved in next door. Some of those reunions were satisfying, as when Brianna joined her family through the stones. For one thing, it spent more narrative energy on bringing familiar faces back into the Frasers’ circle than on giving those characters much to do. In the season premiere of the Frasers’ American adventure, “Outlander” prompted big questions: Why bring Claire and Jamie to this place, at this moment in history? To what purpose did they cross the ocean into the tumult of colonial America? “Must you fight the same fight again? Do you not recall how it ends?”
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