Sunday, August 24, 2014

Outlander s1e3 "The Way Out" liveblog roundup

Awwww yisss.

Last night's episode expanded the world some, don't you think? And laid so many more timebombs and landmines for Claire to have to walk through!

Here goes:

  • Now, before that even settles, Outlander!*
  • Oh, Claire, don’t tell them magical things happened to you in the magic stones where everyone knows witches go.
  • I love how bored Dougal’s Eyes Not His Heed looks.
  • Every single person in the castle is related to Mrs Fitz.
  • Jamie, you are being so dense.
  • Oh, physicking as an excuse to get someone naked.
  • "do you never sit down?"** — oh, look, first hand account of the life of a woman!
  • You don’t tell Claire not to do something.
  • What a sucky world, where your first thought is not “poison”, but demons, and saying its not demons makes you also a demon. That right there is the biggest problem with superstition.
  • Save the girl from being beaten for being loose, then go participate in her looseness. Bright.
  • This girl’s attic is the best thing ever.
  • Nailed?
  • So the kid gets gangrene or tetanus instead of losing a hand. Not much better.
  • A bit too fascinated, with your crazy eyes, Mrs Duncan.
  • Those are startlingly strong fingers, Jamie, if you can pull that huge ass nail out at once.
  • He must be purged or suffer damnation? Well, purge him with an antipoison! Or is letting kids die the way you keep power?
  • "didnt you see me waving? Nearly re-injured my arm!"
  • "I must escape castle leoch" she says in ep 3 out of 16…
I got a little heated with that priest and the kid--I mean, they're isolated and superstitious, but they should understand poisoning, shouldn't they?? And then Claire's all "stfu I'm going to help him" and Mrs Fitz was all "you ain't gonna let my nephew die, asshole" to the priest, and I think maybe Claire's daydream didn't give her enough credit. That was a great scene.

So we have a friend who is maybe a witch and maybe just an herbalist, who's married but not above sleeping her way to the top, or at least acting like she would to get her way; we've got a judge who's a farty idiot, easily swayed by a pretty face, and thinks nailing a kid to a pole is a fair and gentle punishment; we've got an asshole priest who thinks that women who know things must be evil; we've got the McKenzie warming up to her, but Dougal still being suspicious; we've got Jamie getting tangled up with Leerie (I know that's now how it's spelled!), who looks a little crazy around the eyes, even as he's falling for Claire; we've got crazy ass superstitions, and the idea that if you don't believe in them, you're probably a heretic, at best; we've got a harper with a beautiful voice who sings plot-significant songs that we barely get to hear because of either translations or other talking; and we've got a potential way out in episode three when the end isn't until episode sixteen.

::wipes brow:: That's a lot of story!

And it's still beautiful. It's filmed gorgeously, it's full of emotional resonance all over the place, it's realistic but also leaves open the option for magic, and it's generally sort of quiet. Like, everything everywhere is a pitfall and a trap, but it's all under the surface, in looks and implications and turns of phrase.

I love it so much, you guys.

How about you?



NOTES:
*That being THE NEW EPISODE OF DOCTOR WHO! Also liveblogged, and to follow.
*Or "Doo ye nayvar sit doon?"

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