#a malcolm

Written for the duel prompts: Do you remember from @fictober-event and Tender for the writers write October prompt: Tender. Canon compliant to A. Malcolm.

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It is in the early hours after their reunion. The noises from under them had finally quieted. A bloody brothel, she thinks, on the edge of hopeless giggles. Of all the places… her thoughts are interrupted by her husband’s soft sleepy voice.

“Do you remember our wedding night?”

Remember! How was she to forget it? “Yes Jamie.”

He must hear the sarcasm in her voice for he does giggle. “Aye of course. I meant, more specifically, the question I asked you, the next day.”

She recalls. Sitting on that mountain top, their hands moving together, making love without making love. His shy question. “What this was between us and was it the normal way between a man and a woman.”

“Aye, when I touch you and when you lay with me.”

“Right.” Their hands come back together, moving instinctively. “I told you I didn’t know but it was unusual. “

“Aye, I still don’t but…”

“It is still here.”

“Aye.”

Let’s Talk About Sam’s Acting Choices in the Bree Photos Scene in A. Malcolm 

I recently received an anon thanking me for my recent defense of Sam’s acting. In it the anon lavished praise on Sam’s performances as Jamie--with one exception.

“I believe no other actor could have filled the role of Jamie Fraser as powerfully as Sam Heughan has throughout the Seasons. He fully embodies Jamie Fraser in every way. I only had one disappointment and that was in the A. Malcolm episode when Claire was showing Jamie pictures of his daughter, Brianna. It would have been nice if he had showed more emotion 😭 like the way it was done in the books.”

I admit that at the time, I was also disappointed in the Brianna photo scene because I had expected Jamie to be more emotional. I wasn’t as disappointed as some other fans but I was clearly disappointed. 

However, after Sam defended his acting choices, I realized there was another perspective to the scene that I hadn’t considered. Also, looking in more detail at how the show’s writers constructed that scene (i.e., from two different book scenes and the addition of a new plot twist), Sam’s acting choices made even more sense. 

Jamie’s Reaction in the Original Book Scene

This is how Diana Gabaldon wrote Jamie’s reaction to seeing Bree’s photos fro the first time in Voyager:

“He splayed a hand out over the photographs, trembling fingers not quite touching the shiny surfaces, and then he turned and leaned toward me, slowly, with the improbable grace of a tall tree falling. He buried his face in my shoulder and went very quietly and thoroughly to pieces. [emphasis added]

“I held him to my breast, arms tight around the broad, shaking shoulders, and my own tears fell on his hair, making small dark patches in the ruddy waves.”

---Diana Gabaldon (1994/ 2004, p 263)

Yes, Jamie “went...to pieces” in the book scene BUT he also “went very quietly.” We know he was crying because his shoulders were “shaking” but we didn’t hear him cry or “see” his face when he cried. 

No, Sam didn’t choose to cry or hide his face in Claire’s body. But IMHO he did convey “very quietly” going “to pieces.” 

Sam’s Defense of His Acting Choices in the Bree Photo Scene

When the show’s writers were being attacked by certain fans for how Jamie reacted in the Bree photo scene, Sam tweeted that he was the one who made the decision to interpret the “action lines” about “falling apart” to be “internal” rather than externally crying. This is what he tweeted:

So Sam made a deliberate choice not to cry but he did try to convey that he was internally “falling apart.” I actually think he succeeded in that, as seen in the gifs above.

Sam goes on to explain more of why he chose an “internal” as opposed to an external display of emotion. 

“J hasn’t met Bree. Has had relationship with Willie. Plus wonder at situation, new tech, never seen B etc.”

All of that is true. Jamie must have been feeling conflicting feelings. Besides being in awe at seeing photos for the first time--much less of his daughter--Jamie must have also been slightly disoriented by having his “child” finally be gendered. Suddenly, it was no longer “the child” but his “daughter.” Knowing he had a daughter with Claire also undoubtedly reminded him of the loss of his first daughter Faith (which he mentions in the scene). Consequently, we can probably add a touch of grief to the mix of Jamie’s emotions.

Jamie was also coping with the shock and joy of seeing Claire again after 20 years (while probably feeling guilt because he’s also married to Laoghaire 😱). The discussion of their child also clearly reminded Jamie of both the joy and guilt he felt about Willie’s birth. 

Given all these contradictory feelings, Sam may have felt that Jamie would have probably emotionally “short-circuited.”  IMHO Sam as Jamie captures that “emotional short-circuit” look perfectly.

In addition, I want to point out that how Jamie reacted in the book was a female author’s idea of how a man would react. Yes, Matt Roberts wrote episode 306 but he has women on his writing team--and he was trying to stay as close to the book as possible in the emotional tone of this scene.

But Sam was viewing Jamie as a man of the 18th century, and he didn’t think Jamie would fall apart sobbing. To me that is a valid perspective.

The Jamie “Action Lines” for the Scene in the Script

Below are the “action lines” for Jamie from the script for this scene.

So let me get this straight. After, “one beat,” Jamie “recovers”? Seriously?!

As scripted, after a beat Jamie has to recover from sobbing to deliver a funny line about Bree’s name being “awful.” Then he has to go on to another humorous moment that happened at a completely different point in the book--the scene where he sees a photo of his daughter in a “bikini” and has a predictably distraught reaction:

This was a funny scene but IMHO it was a contrived joke even in the book. Undoubtedly Diana included it so that Jamie and Claire could have a time culture clash regarding female clothing norms. But by Claire’s second visit to the 18th century, she should have known that showing a photo to Jamie of his nearly ‘naked’ (from Jamie’s perspective) grown daughter, would be a bit of a shock to say the least. 

In fact, both the book and the show (not unwisely) downplayed Jamie’s reaction. In reality (if you can say such a thing about the plot of a fantasy show) Jamie’s reaction probably would have been closer to the reaction below:

After barely recovering from that cultural shocker, Jamie goes on to tell Claire about his illegitimate son Willie (a scene that didn’t happen in that way or at that point in the book):

In short, the show’s writers put Jamie on an emotional roller coaster within a short period of time in that scene, and Sam put his foot down. He felt to have briefly broken down in tears and then recovered in a beat, would have been too “melodramatic” and would have “stalled” the flow of the scene.

Given all of the above, I think that Sam had a point.

It is perfectly okay if people don’t agree with me. Everyone’s judgment  of any “art” form (including acting) is unique and usually has some validity. This is just my judgment--in retrospect (after having thought the whole thing through with a lot more information than I had when I originally viewed the scene).  

I’m curious about what others think.

[edited]

____________

Disappearances, after all, have explanations

“I can touch you now”

A Malcolm GIFs by ladywynneoutlander