#outlander 02x13

Brianna: “One of my earliest memories is dropping an ice cream cone off the ramparts of Fort Ticonderoga…”

– Outlander 02x13, “Dragonfly in Amber”

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Jamie: "There it is - Ticonderoga..."

Welcome to the Outlander 31 Day Challenge!

Today's challenge is: Favorite Season 1-3 Episode

Let's see...

For me, it has to be 02x13 "Dragonfly in Amber".

It was a wonderful mix of familiar things from the Books, and thrilling new twists.

I loved the 1960s scenes. I loved how we lived minute by minute with Jamie and Claire on the morning of Culloden.

I loved seeing who Claire had become.

And more than anything, I loved the famous "dance to the stones".

In 06x08 "I Am Not Alone" - we literally see him do that. Writer Luke Schelhaas' commentary on the script makes this explicitly clear - Jamie and Claire's journey in the wagon is a descent into hell.

If I must endure two hundred years of purgatory, two hundred years without you -- then that is my punishment, which I have earned for my crimes. For I have lied and killed and stolen, betrayed and broken trust... but when I stand before God, I shall have one thing to say, to weigh against the rest. Lord, ye gave me a rare woman, and God! I loved her well.

-- Jamie to Claire, 02x13 "Dragonfly in Amber"

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Everything that’s happened from the moment I came to this time... because of my selfishness in wanting so desperately to be with you.

If ye’re selfish, let me be accused of the same crime. I dinna care what the right and the wrong of it may be, so long as you are here wi’ me. If it was a sin for you to choose me, then I would go to the Devil himself and bless him for tempting ye to it.

...I would do it all again -- and more -- to be with you...

-- Claire to Bree, 04x10

Sam Heughan’s heartbreaking performance in 02x13 “Dragonfly in Amber” always reminded me of this passage from Outlander - where Jamie brings Claire to the stones for the first time; when the implications of the impossibility of her life with Jamie spring to life - as does the unbearable, unexpected burden of sadness at leaving him behind. For this passage perfectly captures Claire’s frame of mind at this moment as well:

He pulled himself gently from my grasp without answering and stood back, suddenly a figure from another time, seen in relief upon a background of hazy hills, the life in his face a trick of the shadowing rock, as if flattened beneath layers of paint, an artist's reminiscence of forgotten places and passions turned to dust. 

I looked into his eyes, filled with pain and yearning, and he was flesh again, real and immediate, lover, husband, man.

...and their final moment together in Season 2 is another gorgeous shot of their hands - this time entwined, united, joined for the last time as Jamie sends Claire back through time.

Because it’s the exact same music - softer, but still distinct - that strikes up in 03x06 “A. Malcolm”. When Jamie removes his stained breeks in the printshop - and just stares at Claire, unable to believe she is really there with him. And then, as the strings rise and tension crackles between them, takes her hand. He asks to kiss her. She says yes.

All is finally well, in the printshop - for the music crests, bearing so much joy. Infinitely louder and happier than the last time we heard this music - the last moments they shared, on that lonely hill, with the cannons from Culloden booming in the distance.

1766: There is no better place than right here, right now, with you.