Outlander Season 3, Episode 10: Revisiting and reassessing the episode

Seeing Claire in her element

The episode also gave us Claire in her element: as a doctor or surgeon. As I watch this episode more, I start to wonder if “Creme de Menthe” was really necessary. While Episode 7 certainly showed us the type of doctor Claire was in the 1960s, there were other storylines that could have been focused on instead. We got the nurturing and healing ways of Mrs. Fraser in “Heaven & Earth.”

She was compassionate, strict, and thoughtful at the same time. Elias learned a great deal from her, even if it was stressful and tiring for her at times to teach him. She was able to separate the stress of the situation and the expectations and education of the time when she needed to, making Elias a young man who would have been a pride and joy to his mother.

It was this development that made me so sad for Elias in the end. After all that work to follow Claire’s instructions, he succumbed to the disease. Claire did all that and he was her last victim; the one she had to soothe into death–and she did it reminding us of the wartime nurse she once was.

There were certainly elements of this episode I didn’t like. For the most part though, I enjoyed it. The storylines were realistic for the situation of the characters and the show’s adaptation of those characters.

What did you think of “Heaven & Earth?” Have your thoughts changed over the course of rewatches? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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