Recap of Outlander
Season 7, Episode 1:
A Life Well Lost
Tropes
- Anachronistic Clue: Roger's use of Muhammad Ali's famous phrase alerts Wendigo that Roger and his family are fellow time travelers.
- Anxiety Dreams: The episode opens with Claire on a scaffold and shows her last few seconds before being executed by hanging. The screen blacks out and then shows a close of Jamie's closed eyes, revealing that it is a nightmarish daydream Jamie is having, fueled by his fear that Claire will be executed for murder before he can rescue her.
- Appeal to Flattery: Brown tries to talk Jamie out of taking revenge by flattering him as a good, moral man who would never kill an unarmed man in cold blood. Jamie assures him that this is not true.
- Armor-Piercing Response: When Brown is trying to talk Jamie out of exacting revenge.Richard: You're a good man. A moral man.Jamie: I'm also a violent man. Any goodness that prevails in me is because of my wife, and you tried to take her from me.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Roger describes a period of his youth in which he was a delinquent. He says he smoked, drank, and stole candy from the post office.
- Batman Gambit: Wendigo appeals to Roger, depending on his compassion as a minister and his soft spot towards fellow travelers, to help Wendigo escape from the British.
- The Bus Came Back: Wendigo was last seen in the season 5 finale and last heard from in Season 6, whistling a tune in the jail after stealing a stone from Flora MacDonald
- Bystander Syndrome: Invoked by Brianna when she argues why they shouldn't help Wendigo who stood by and did nothing as Claire was kidnapped and raped. However, Roger argues that sometimes there's nothing that you can do.Roger: I watched Bonnet throw a child overboard on that ship and her mother jump in after her. And though I was desperate to intervene, I was frozen. I wanted to save them but I couldn't. I had to fight every instinct in me, because I had to stay alive to find you. I was outnumbered. Bonnet and his crew would have killed me. And it was the same for Wendigo. So how can I condemn him, as a man or as a minister?
- Call-Back:
- Roger reminds Bri of his struggle to survive when he landed in Bonnet's crew after coming through the stones.
- Jamie invokes the promise he made to Claire on their wedding night (the protection of his name, his clan, and his body if need be).
- Tom, in turn, highlights that he is the Foil of Jamie, as he has no name and his family is broken. All he can offer to make things right is his body.
- Daydream Surprise: Claire's execution is just a figment of Jamie's worried imagination.
- Deception Non Compliance: When Claire is forced to work as a midwife for the governor, she convinces him to write a list of supplies and have it taken into town to someone who will be able to secure them quickly. Unbeknownst to the governor, she addresses the letter to Tom Christie who she knows will be searching for her and then uses latin to ask him to bring Jamie.
- Evolving Credits: The opening credits have been updated to reflect the greatly increased presence of the Red Coats in the colonies as well as the growing resistance from the rebel faction of colonists.
- Failed a Spot Check: Richard stumbles into his room and fails to spot Jamie sitting in a chair mere feet from the door. Somewhat justified as Richard is clearly inebriated and Jamie is intentionally sitting in the shadows, but it proves to be Richard's final bad decision.
- Faith in the Foe: Averted. Richard Brown invokes Jamie's reputation as a good, moral, and fair man who would not kill in cold blood. Unfortunately for Brown, he and his family have pushed Jamie too far one time too often.
- Family Relationship Switcheroo: Tom reveals that Malva was not his biological daughter, but instead was fathered by Tom's brother Edgar with Tom's wife while Tom was in prison following the Rising.
- Fille Fatale: How Tom describes Malva, saying that she used her looks to charm men into doing things. He also reveals that he believes she attempted to poison both him and Claire in addition to crafting a love charm. Tom believes Malva targeted Jamie for his power and position, but Claire disagrees, stating that what Malva probably really wanted was the freedom Jamie represents. Claire is as bold and brash as she wants to be and few dare act against her because she is under Jamie's protection.
- Good Shepherd: Roger is serving as minister, offering religious succor to men preparing to go to war regardless of whether they've chosen to be loyalist or rebel.
- Hiding Behind the Language Barrier: Knowing that both Tom and Jamie speak latin, Claire uses her knowledge of the language to hide a message in what appears to be a list of medical supplies. As the term is hidden in a list of other medical words, anyone who might intercept the list would likely skim over it.
- Historical Domain Character: Governor Josiah Martin was the actual governor of North Carolina when the Revolution broke out. As portrayed in the show, he was run out of town by the rebels and, like many loyalist governors, forced to take refuge on British ships, hoping to have his post restored by a British victory.
- Hope Spot: Roger is this for Wendigo. He is obviously very compassionate and is geared up to help rescue a fellow time traveler. But Brianna stops him as he's gathering supplies for an attempted breakout, pointing out that freeing a prisoner from the British is extremely dangerous and would put their whole family at risk of being arrested for treason against the Crown. Ultimately, Roger decides that all he can do for Wendigo is pray.
- Immediate Sequel: The episode picks up right after the events of the season six finale with Jamie and Ian having dispatched Jamie's captor and now turning to search for Claire and Claire having just been dropped off at the Wilmington jail.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Tom is so in love with Claire that he is willing to die for her freedom, even knowing that his feelings are not returned and his sacrifice will only result in Claire returning to Jamie, her true love.
- Leonine Contract: Averted. Governor Martin attempts one of these, knowing that Jamie is desperate to save Claire from execution. He asks for Jamie to muster a militia, something that will take months, cost a great deal of money, and force Jamie to publicly declare for the King. Luckily, Tom is willing to admit to the murder charges, nullifying the threat Martin holds over Jamie.
- Love Confession: Tom declares his love for Claire, even knowing that his feelings will not be returned.
- Missed Him by That Much: Jamie, Ian, and Tom Christie show up mere hours after the soldiers have taken Claire.
- Oh, Crap!: Brown's reaction when he realized that his plans against the Frasers have fallen apart and he's accidentally trapped himself unarmed in a room with Jamie Fraser.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Jamie is surprised to see Tom drinking whiskey. Tom is basically trying to drink enough to get the courage to tell Jamie how he feels about Claire and ask to be allowed to sacrifice himself for Claire.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Elizabeth is desperate to carry her baby to term. She says she's given birth to six children and has lost three of them, as young children according to Josiah. Historically, the Martins had eight children, four of whom would survive to adulthood.
- POW Camp: The men Roger encounters at the military camp are prisoners who have been conscripted to fight for the British.
- Preacher's Kid: Roger jokes that he had a rebellious stage like all proper preacher's kids.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Wendigo and his friends traveled to the past to warn the Natives of the threat the European settlers will be to their existence.
- Shout-Out: Steve McQueen (actor) in The Great Escape.
- Silly Prayer: Roger's prayer for Wendigo takes a detour into contemplation of the phrase "God helps those who help themselves" and Roger considering if that means helping like helping yourself to the last slice of cake?
- Threat Backfire: Richard Brown threatens Jamie that if Brown is harmed or killed, his family will take revenge on the Frasers. Jamie assures him that he has already thought of this and so Ian and their Cherokee friends have taken a trip to the Browns' settlement and taken care of anyone who might be a threat.
- Too Stupid To Live: After laying siege to Fraser's Ridge, getting Claire arrested, dragging them both across the county through a variety of dangerous settlements that he riled up, and then having Jamie kidnapped to be shipped back to Scotland, Richard decides it's a good time to get blackout drunk. What's the worst that can happen? It's not like Jamie has a well proven history of escaping would-be captors or avenging slights towards Claire.
- Trapped in the Past: Wendigo and his friends can't figure out how to get back to their own time period.
- Unreliable Narrator: Wendigo claims that he was completely innocent in what happened to Claire and that he always intended to help her but never got the chance. Viewers will remember that he had the chance to help her but instead told her that she needed to learn to be submissive to men and left her to her fate.
- Upper-Class Twit: Elizabeth Martin comes across as this as she complains about the inhumanity and incivility of the colonists driving her and her husband from their palace. Never mind that the colonists are the ones who paid for said palace.
- What Are You in For?: Sadie and Claire discuss why they've been locked up. Sadie ends up pretending to be Claire when soldiers come in looking for "the murderess". Claire plays along, reasoning that being a forger is better than being a murderer, but that's only by modern standards. In the 18th century, forgery was a capital crime with a mandatory death sentence while women were fare less likely to be executed, even if they were accused of murder.
