#witchie analysis

Jamie & Claire’s theme is one of the most beautiful scores I’ve ever heard. The sweeping melody echos the romantic that could only belong to the greatest Russian composers while the solitary echo of a flute perfectly mirrors the hollow ache of twenty long years our beloved couple spent apart. We don’t need sixteen bars to know that this is one iconic piece of music. Haunting. Mysterious. Captivating.

As such an important piece of the score, we all know when the first time occurs... right? It’s the first time Jamie and Claire see each other in the cabin, after Jamie’s dislocated his shoulder and Claire’s journeyed through the Stones...

Nope... okay is it when we first encounter Ghost!Jamie in the 1940s as he gazes upon his one, true love, his Sorcha?

Wrong Again.

Would you believe the first time we hear Jamie and Claire’s theme is before we even have a chance to meet Frank? Would you believe me that we hear this theme within the first three minutes of the first episode?

I was having a Wedding/Reunion rewatch marathon with my dear friend @ecampbellsoup (the queen of analysis - I’m so out of my element here), when she asked me the question:

Do you know when we hear Jamie & Claire’s theme for the first time?

Would you believe that I didn’t know? (Because I didn’t.)

As the lovely @ecampbellsoup pointed out, t’s within the first three minutes of the first episode... when Claire is chugging champagne on VE Day in France.

Now let’s think about this coupled with Claire’s opening monologue. She’s discussing her random disappearance in the middle of her second honeymoon with her first husband... she’s weighing the consequences of her choice against the simple life she might have had... while she’s remembering her time in France...

France... who else spent time in France...

Jamie...

I’ve spent a lot of time pouring over the timelines of this pair (don’t ever try to write a canon divergent fic and play with the time travel element - you will go insane). There are plenty of unique and interesting coincidences that happen to line up perfectly. For example, Claire travels through the Stones on Beltane or May 1st in the books, which just so happens to be Jamie’s birthday. Crazy right? When I looked at the timeline to see when Claire was in France, guess who just happened to be in France at that very same moment in time but ~200 years in the past?

James. Alexander. Malcolm. Mackenzie. Fraser.

That’s right... the first time we hear Jamie & Claire’s theme is when they’re together in France, but separated by the space of two centuries. From the very beginning, Bear McCreary pulls a genius level move in setting up the major theme of our beloved couple - a love that transcends time.