Outlander: Heaven and Earth | Season 3, Episode 10 | Rating: 8.5/11 |
Separated again, we find Claire hard at work as the Porpoise’s surgeon trying to save 100+ sick crew members from Typhoid Fever. Claire befriends Elias Pound, a 14-year-old boy who has been at sea since joining his uncle aboard the Triton at age 7. Elias has been charged with assisting Claire and becomes a very valuable ally.
Meanwhile, Jamie has been prisoned aboard the Artemis and is being treated like cargo. Jamie encourages Fergus to start a mutiny to overthrow the captain and have the crew follow Jamie, but Fergus knows the men will not follow and the punishment will be worse. Not to mention, Fergus wants to protect Marsali.
This episode has a running theme of boys becoming men. Elias dealing with the death of friends, and having to take a higher leadership role on the ship. Fergus learning to not blindly follow instructions, but make those oh-so-important adult decisions. You know the ones, the kind with no solid right answer and no matter which path you pick it will upset someone you care about but yet, at the end of the day, you have to trust you’re doing the right thing. He did great too!
And if that wasn’t enough to take in, Jamie has been recognized as the wanted traitor to the Crown known as Alexander Malcolm by a man aboard the Porpoise. Jamie will be arrested when they arrive in Jamaica, unless Claire can warn him. Claire’s first attempt fails and the episode ends in the midst of a second attempt.
EMOTIONS RUN WILD
Like nearly every episode this season, Heaven and Earth is full of emotional punches. The death of a character we’ve recently grown to love (heartbreaking to lose Elias), more backstabbing, more scheming, escape attempts and more obstacles for Claire & Jamie to overcome in order to be together. Poor Claire, poor Jamie, they just want to live their happily ever after. Sigh.
Episode highlight: The portrayal of Annekje Johansen by Chanelle de Jager is fabulous. Annekje’s English is not very strong so it’s really up to her facial expressions to really convey sentiment and emotion. Where her limited English fails, Chanelle’s eyes speak volumes conveying humor, concern, trust, ambition, sadness, happiness and more. Brilliant.
One Quirk
Heaven and Earth ends when Claire’s new friend Annekje Johansen (the gunner’s wife) helps her escape by jumping off the Porpoise with a makeshift raft. However, throwing the raft overboard created quite a loud splash. This sound occurred while Claire stood on the ledge, stripped of half her garments, and then – after a long pause – she jumps into the water.
Wouldn’t someone have heard the sound of the raft? At least enough to look over and see Claire standing on the edge, less than fully dressed? And if, by chance, they didn’t, wouldn’t they then hear her jump into the water? Claire can’t doggie paddle with that raft faster than the ship could catch up to her. I mean out of the 200+ men aboard, nobody happened to be looking in that direction of the ship? Just my two cents.