After lighting the cross, Jamie makes it clear he’ll go to war to save Claire. Here’s everything that happened in the Outlander Season 5 finale.
I can’t quite believe we’ve got to the Outlander Season 5 finale already, but here we are. We picked up off the back of the previous episode, focusing on Claire’s abduction (and treatment at the hands of her captors), Jamie’s willingness to go to war for Claire, and where Bree and Roger ended up.
There are major spoilers in this Outlander Season 5 finale recap, as you would expect! Let’s get into it.
Disassociation to survive
Throughout the episode, Claire thought of a safer time in the future. However, this wasn’t events that had once happened to her. She focused on a fantasy to disassociate herself from the physical and mental torture she was facing.
Sometime in the 1960s, Claire imagined Jamie being with her. Murtagh, Jocasta, Marsali, Fergus, and Young Ian were all there, along with the children. It was a beautiful chance to see what could be in the future, but what I found interesting was that Jamie still looked like he belonged in the 18th century with his clothing, while all the others looked like they belonged in the 1960s.
There were many throwbacks to past seasons throughout these scenes. The vase threw us back to the pilot episode, the red dress and orange were a connection to Season 2, while the rabbit was a throwback to the Culloden battlefield (and the theme for Season 3). It focused on items or memories Claire held dear—and while she wasn’t at Culloden, the rabbit theme was throughout the third season, including a stuffed toy Brianna grew up with.
However, in the dissociative state, Claire experiences memories or thoughts of her current situation. Lionel Brown shows up now and then and there’s a moment where she learns Brianna, Roger, and Jemmy have been killed in a car accident. Lionel popping up is easy to explain, but the car crash is a connection to Claire’s belief that she will never see Bree, Roger, and Jemmy again. In this fantasy, the deaths of them link back to that belief.
Throughout the fantasy flashes, Claire listens to “Never My Love,” which is where the episode title comes from. The song is from 1967 and is extremely important for the setting in the fantasy world. It’s all about how the person singing says that they will never stop loving their partner, which is definitely Claire and Jamie.