Last week, as regular readers of Outlander bestselling author Diana Gabaldon’s commentaries here on Parade know, we were harsh on Episode 7 because we felt the changes it made from her novels were just too different from the books.
But this week, Episode 8 of Season 8 added several things that weren’t in the books, and they were happy additions to the story created by Gabaldon.
Gabaldon feels Buck’s return is ‘invaluable’ to Jamie
One of those was bringing Buck MacKenzie (Dairmaid Murtagh) to Fraser’ Ridge. Buck fits right in with the family, especially Jamie (Sam Heughan), and his return has served a purpose. He helped save Jamie from Captain Cunningham’s (Kieran Bew) plot to get him hanged, he helps look after the young children, and now he’s helping Jamie train the militia for the battle at Kings Mountain.
“I love Buck,” Gabaldon tells Parade. “So does everybody else–or they love Diarmaid. Both actor and character are immensely appealing; that’s why he suddenly turned up (out of nowhere) in this season–they couldn’t resist bringing him back, and I think that was a great decision.
“Aside from his personal appeal, Buck’s filling the ‘Murtagh’ slot in the story–the invaluable person who’s got Jamie’s back and who can be trusted with valuable things, like small children. He can be wherever the Frasers need him to be: gathering information, delivering guns, carrying barrels of sauerkraut, etc. (I don’t recall whether he actually did carry the sauerkraut, but I’m sure he would have, if he was present.)
And he is, after all, blood; he’s Jamie’s first cousin, though I don’t think the show mentions that in this season. (We did hear about it last season, when Buck reproaches Roger [Richard Rankin] for not telling him that Dougal [Graham McTavish] was his father, when he (Buck) could have had a chance to tell Dougal that he loved him, as Roger had the chance to do for Jerry [Nicholas Ralph].) And–totally coincidental–the actor’s real name is Diarmaid Murtagh. (He’s Irish, but then, so is Caitríona…).”
Gabaldon loved Jamie and William’s reconciliation — even if it wasn’t in the book
Also, just for the show: William (Charles Vandervaart) does turn to Jaime for help in locating the kidnapped Lord John (David Berry) at the end of Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone, but what’s not in the book is the reconciliation of father and son on Fraser’s Ridge, when William ostensibly comes to visit Brianna, but ends up finally making peace with his father. In fact, this was one of my favorite moments of the episode.
Of course, it doesn’t start off smoothly, and William gets angry at Jamie while they are fishing when they discuss Lord John. And he is about to leave when Claire (Caitríona Balfe) suggests to him that maybe he needs to reconsider. There is a war happening and Jamie, who will lead a militia, could die in battle. Does he want their fight to be their last interaction?
William takes this to heart and invites Jamie to go hunting and as they get ready to dress a deer that Jamie brought down, they finally have the talk they needed to have. As part of that, an especially nice touch was the Season 3 flashbacks to Helwater with William remembering the time he and Jamie, who he then knew as Mac, spent together when William was a young boy.
“I like William and Jamie together, too. Though this being show (rather than book), their rapprochement is pretty much instant,” Gabaldon says. “In justice, it has to be if that loose end is to be tied up before the show ends, but it works. William’s been through enough by now to have some perspective on things like being a bastard and having two fathers. (I don’t think he’s come to terms with the fact that his other father is gay–I totally didn’t like that they did that in the last episode. But at least it’s not getting in the way at the moment.)”
Brianna is locked and loaded
Then, it was also enjoyable to see Brianna (Sophie Skelton) get the opportunity to put her MIT mechanical engineering degree to good use by modifying the guns she and Roger brought back from Savannah for the battle at Kings Mountain. As much as Bree feels safer in the 1700s and enjoys being with her family, she is frustrated at times by the “women’s” role she’s forced to play.
“As to Brianna and guns…she feels good about being able to put her skills to work in an important cause; this is her father’s (and husband’s) life she’s (hopefully) protecting,” Gabaldon says. “She does like guns for their own sake, though; remember that Jamie taught her to shoot, way back in a previous season (don’t recall which one…). She can hunt for the family, and her marksmanship definitely came in handy when she euthanized Steven Bonnet [Ed Speleers].”
Outlander will air new episodes each Friday at midnight ET on the STARZ app, all STARZ streaming and on-demand platforms; and at 8 p.m. ET/PT/7 Central on the linear network.
