The Outlander season 7 finale is here. Even when we thought we were ready for some book storylines to arrive, we weren’t! Let’s take a look inside the events of the episode.
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS from the Outlander season 7 finale
With the previous episode ending with Claire on the operating table and Denny performing the first surgical cut, the biggest question was about whether Claire would survive. Well, an image for the Outlander season 7 finale made it clear that she would.
There was a great moment as Claire did wake up from surgery. “I’ve decided not to die,” she told Jamie, which he was relieved to hear. Of course, she had something to check before she was ready to accept that she had been saved fully. With her left kidney hurting so much, she needed to see if there was blood in her urine. Fortunately there wasn’t, so the focus could be on healing.
A surprise from the past returned in the Outlander season 7 finale
One night, Claire did awake to get a surprise visitor. Master Raymond appeared in his cloak, looking older but still very much like his season 2 self. He came to see Claire to ask for forgiveness, but she had no idea why. He told her she would understand, and if you were left wondering what he meant for a while, you’d be forgiven. It wasn’t until the end of the episode that it all came together.
We’ll get there!
When Claire woken up the next morning, Jamie was seated hear her although drifting into sleep. Claire asked him if Master Raymond appeared that night, and he said that there was nobody there. Being close to death and the fact that Master Raymond saved her life in Paris, it was understandable why she was dreaming about him. Was it all a dream, though?
William turns to his fathers for help
Meanwhile, William had a situation to deal with. Now that he knew Jane had been arrested, he needed to find out where she was. Lord John Grey would be able to help that.
The episode had opened with Jane sharing her “story” with a printer. He wanted to share her story before her execution, but she didn’t care. She made it clear that she had stabbed Captain Harkness 26 times, one for each red card in the deck. We know that isn’t the truth, and it doesn’t make sense why she would be so defiant at this point. I guess she just knew what was to come.
What she didn’t know was that William was trying everything he could to get to her. Lord John Grey found out where she was being kept and the crime she was accused of. He couldn’t help William free her, though. So, William decided to turn to another father.
Jamie Fraser might be able to help. Jamie and Claire had already been warned that William was at the risk of a broken heart, which is something nobody can protect from. Lord John Grey came to see Claire after learning that she had been shot, and while it wasn’t the warmest of interactions between Jamie and John, it was so sweet to see John and Claire interact the way they did. This was definitely needed, although it certainly felt like a permanent goodbye.
Back to William, he did turn to Jamie for help, who went off to the house where Jane was being kept. Sadly, by the time William and Jamie got to Jane, she had already taken her own life with the broken wine bottle she had been drinking from. She was slumped over on the floor, but William couldn’t leave her like that. He laid her on the bed and Jamie cut a lock of her hair for Frances.
What to do about Frances in Outlander
William now had to figure out what to do about young Frances. Jamie and Claire would help with that, and so William brought Frances to them. This was a chance for them to break the news to Frances and help her figure out what to do next. Claire and Jamie wanted to take her to the Ridge, where she would never be harmed by a man for as long as Jamie lived.
Frances couldn’t leave without seeing Jane’s body. She’d already been buried in an unmarked grave, though, leaving Frances lost and heartbroken. Claire spent some time with the girl, handing her the belongings of Jane’s for Frances to keep. One of those was a locket of Frances and Jane’s mother with the name “Faith” on it. Considering Claire had just been thinking about Faith and wondering if she and Jamie would be reunited with their stillborn daughter, this was an eery time to learn the name of the mother of Jane and Frances.
Back with Jamie and William, Willam wanted to learn more about his own mother and the circumstances of his conception. Jamie wouldn’t go into the details, but he did confirm that he never raped Geneva. As William shared the words that people used to refer to Geneva, Jamie shared his thoughts of her. While he didn’t love her, he found her courageous and bold. They were clearly words that William had never heard, and I do think it will help on a path of healing. However, William makes it clear that he’ll never call Jamie “father.” That hurts, but it’s understandable why he feels this way. This was how Brianna felt for the longest time.
Brianna and Roger reunite in 1739 in the Outlander season 7 finale
Meanwhile, we get to see Brianna and Roger reunite. It starts with Roger and Buck leaving Lallybroch seeing Jem running toward them. Roger acts the way any parent does when they finally find the child they’ve been looking for. You don’t know whether to hug them or strangle them!
When Roger asks where Jem has been, Jem shares with Mandy. That naturally confuses Roger considering Mandy hadn’t been with Brianna. Well, that’s when Bree and Mandy walk out of the fog. I felt for Buck in this scene. As Roger rushes toward his family, you can see that Buck thinks about the fact that he’s not likely to ever get that. However, Buck brushes it off. Brianna had made it clear with her insistence that he comes in for the group hug that he is part of their family.
We do get that meeting between Brian and Brianna. It’s not quite the way it happens in the book, but Brian is taken aback by how much Brianna looks like Ellen. I think there’s a lot about Jamie that is like Brian, which Brianna certainly comments on. With Outlander: Blood of My Blood arriving this summer, I loved hearing Brian talk about Ellen, including how much he still loved her and how he built Lallybroch for her.
Now Roger and Brianna need to figure out what to do next. It’s clearly not safe in 1980 with Rob Cameron still after Jem and the gold. So, what do they do? Roger notes that it’s not about where they are, but when. Isn’t this a hint that they’re heading back to 1778?
The most heartbreaking death of all of Outlander
While Claire and Jamie talk to Frances about going back to the Ridge, Young Ian and Rachel need to discuss what to do next. Young Ian shares that he will remain with the Continental Army if that’s what Rachel wishes. Does she want to stay with Denny—who had such an adorable smile when Claire praised him for the difficult task he had of performing surgery on someone who was family to him—or does she want to go to the Ridge?
Rachel decides that the Ridge it is. After all, she’s pregnant!
Of course, we can’t have happiness without heartbreak in the world of Outlander. The next morning, Young Ian wakes and calls over Rollo. Despite knowing this death was coming, it still hurt like hell to watch play out. It didn’t help with the way the show opted to keep Rollo’s eyes open and have the camera focus on him three times. Rollo was supposed to have died in his sleep, which should have meant his eyes were closed and it was peaceful.
Young Ian is naturally heartbroken finding out that Rollo has died, although he notes that it’s like Rollo was holding on until he knew Young Ian had Rachel and his child on the way. Rachel is also grieving the loss. She didn’t just marry Young Ian. Rollo became her family, too. So as Young Ian shares that he knows where to bury Rollo but it’s far away, Rachel makes it clear that she will go with him.
Getting ready to head to Fraser’s Ridge
The end of the Outlander season 7 finale was focused on packing up to return to Fraser’s Ridge. Frances will go with them, but her singing inside the church catches Claire’s attention. Frances is singing a song she shouldn’t know, “Oh I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside.” When Claire asks how she knows the son, Frances shares her mom would sing it to her.
We get a quick flashback of Claire singing that song to the stillborn Faith in Paris. It was always naturally going to take Claire back to that, and suddenly everything seemed to fall into place. Master Raymond wanted Claire’s forgiveness for something that she would understand later. Is this what he wanted forgiveness for?
Did Master Raymond manage to bring Faith back to life? Did Faith go on to have Jane and Frances? As Jamie walks in to find out what’s going on, Claire is white as a sheet. She is sure that Faith survived long enough to have two children. Is Frances Claire and Jamie’s granddaughter?
That’s where we end the episode. I’m heartbroken, shocked, confused, but also excited about the storylines to come in Outlander season 8.
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