“Well, naturally those decisions weigh on them,” Outlander creator Diana Gabaldon told Parade in a new, exclusive interview about episode 2. “Who wants to a) be responsible for the lives/well-being of a large number of people who may well be on opposing sides from each other (i.e., whose side do you pick?) or b) impart information whose impact you can’t possibly evaluate?”
Gabaldon compares the dilemma to the well-known quote: “All that is necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing.”
“That’s usually credited to Edmund Burke, and if that were the case, Jamie would recognize it (he having read Burke in The Scottish Prisoner). As it is, Burke evidently didn’t say it, and the closest known quotation with similar intent is John Stuart Mills: ‘Let not anyone pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing. He is not a good man who, without a protest, allows wrong to be committed in his name, and with the means which he helps to supply, because he will not trouble himself to use his mind on the subject.’ Which Jamie wouldn’t be familiar with, as JSM said it in 1867."
But Claire (Caitriona Balfe) or Brianna (Sophie Skelton) could have told it to him, so we can assume he’s either heard it, or espouses it as a result of independent thought.
“Either way, he’s not a man to sit on his arse while all hell is about to break loose around him,” Gabaldon added. “He’s used to not having good, clear-cut choices and having to act, regardless—but as Mills advises, he troubles himself to use his mind on the subject. And he does know what’s going to happen.”
Then later in the episode, Ian (John Bell) asks Brianna about the future of the Native American tribes, and he is upset with the answer, so he vows to do his part and get the Cherokee the guns himself.
“Now, Young Ian’s a bit different,” Gabaldon continued. “He is an Indian, if not Cherokee. He does know, value, and love these people, and while he still has personal affections for the white side of his family, he knows—from what Claire and Bree (and maybe Roger) have told him, which side is going to come out best in the time to come. His sense of ’the good’ is much clearer than Jamie’s, because it’s more sharply focused. For him the question isn’t a question, and reason is not required: if there are guns to be had, then the Indians should have them."
“It’s reason versus instinct, but both Jamie and Young Ian are men of courage, honor and decency, and neither one will turn aside from an action he feels justified. In the end, per show (it doesn’t happen quite this way in the books), Jamie is led to share Ian’s point of view upon realizing the closeness of Ian’s ties to his Indian family. This is more or less reasonable, if we see Jamie as what he is: a member of a close-knit tribe (clan) himself, trained from birth to protect those he sees as his responsibility. With Ian’s revelations, he now sees the Indians as part of Ian’s family, and thus, a part of his.”
Then back at Fraser’s Ridge, the women continued with their daily lives. Brianna, who has a degree from MIT, has received a gift from Lord John (David Barry) of white phosphorus, which she excitedly turned into matches—a new invention for 1773.
“Well, as Marsali rather snidely remarks, she’s never had any trouble starting a fire…,” Gabaldon pointed out. “This is not true; by the way; even if you’ve done it all your life, fire-starting is a long, tedious business, which is why people were so careful not to let a fire go out. So yes, matches are a wonderful invention, and it would have been nice, had the show had a moment to show Lizzie or someone starting a fire the old-fashioned way, earlier. But you don’t always have time for foreshadowing in a 60-minute episode.”
Back in her cabin, Roger (Richard Rankin) did his best to be supportive when they got an unexpected visit from one of the Ridge’s children and he showed them the “magic” of the matches.
Back in the first episode of the season, Claire and Brianna did have a conversation about how Brianna’s inventions would have to be presented, and Claire pointed out that the Romans had heated water, so it would appear the two women have had conversations regarding the transition to the 18th century—and it isn’t without its frustrations.
“How frustrated is she?” Gabaldon asked. “I don’t know—we don’t really see her being stopped, or even actively discouraged, from doing anything she wants to do. In episode 1, she’s afraid people won’t like her ideas—but there’s no evidence that they won’t; she’s just scared because she sees the attack on her mother as having been due to Claire’s scientific ventures—which it really wasn’t, despite Lionel’s resentment of her interfering with his sex life. Claire was just a convenient point d’appui in the Browns’ long campaign of revenge (for Jamie’s having aided and abetted the flight of Richard Brown’s daughter) and greed (Brownsville is not the limit of their ambitions, and if they can get their hands on Jamie’s land, they want it)."
She continues, “Lionel aside, there’s no evidence that being pushy scientific broads will get them raped or killed. And we don’t see anybody beefing about Bree building kilns or trying to make pipes or water-wheels.”
There also has to be a degree of consternation on Brianna’s part that the underwhelming response she received when she demonstrated the matches was because her family and friends—mom Claire being the exception—were more excited because they thought her news was that she was pregnant.
“Now, being mad because people are excited at the thought of her being pregnant… yes, feeling that your only value is as a broodmare would probably irk any intelligent young woman who grew up thinking that pregnancy is a choice—specifically, her choice,” Gabaldon continued. “On the other hand, we’re led to believe that she actually does want to be pregnant. So presumably her upset is the result of ambiguous feelings, as much as purely cultural persecution.
“As to how she copes—she eventually figures out that her mother’s advice is pretty much all she’s getting: You can’t be afraid of who you are (or what people think about who you are). So she shrugs and starts making things (including babies).”
Back to Fraser’s Ridge and Roger’s decision that the ministry is his calling. He gets his first “big” opportunity when he is asked to conduct the service for Granny Wilson’s funeral in the half-built church Tom Christie is overseeing.
“They’re actually handling that side of things pretty well, treating it matter-of-factly, as a need that any good community has: for moral leadership, spiritual guidance and social ceremony in dealing with substantial things like Death,” Gabaldon said of the way the series is handling faith on the Ridge.
“The show naturally has to soft-pedal minor things like differences between Christian sects (i.e., we don’t have reason to think that Tom Christie is a Presbyterian—he’s just an overtly pious evangelical type who hates Catholics, which is not uncommon at the time—so while he and Roger act as though they’re nominally on the same side, so to speak, there’s not much made of differences that would, in real life/history, be Noticeable), but as such differences would either interfere with the action or become the plot (as they do in episode 1), it’s best to just skate on by.”
For readers of the books, the elements of Granny Wilson’s funeral are very recognizable, including the fact that she wakes up part way through, the sin eater, and Claire diagnosing her actual condition.
“I was delighted that they went ahead with Granny Wilson’s funeral, speaking of that,” the bestselling author said. “I saw it in the dailies, but it was left out of the locked cut. When I said I thought that was too bad (religion quite aside, it’s a really good scene (if I do say so myself, and I do… it’s straight out of the book, including almost all the dialogue), they explained that owing to the COVID restrictions, they’d had to film things from so far away from the actors that they couldn’t get good shots inside the barn-like church; the whole sketch seemed awkward and unfocused. I said I understood—but bless them, they went back and either re-shot or re-cut things and got it to work.”
The fun part of the episode is that as part of major storylines, there are several especially watchable moments, which are taken from the book, including the scene in the Cherokee village where two women come into Jamie’s bed and Ian has to rescue him, and when Marsali is in labor, and Fergus suckles her breasts to aid in her delivery. They may not be necessary to advance the plot, but they do add wonderful color to the story.
“Aren’t the Cherokee girls wonderful? Truly beautiful, and so matter-of-fact about their hospitality (and surely flattering to Jamie that Chief Bird sent him two),” Gabaldon commented. “They add a valuable note of the cultural differences that exist on/near/within Fraser’s Ridge, and the way in which Strange and Unfamiliar customs can be negotiated with good will and a willingness to understand where they’re coming from.”
As for Fergus having the information to hand on easing Marsali’s delivery, he explained that it was something he learned as a young boy back in Paris during his time in the brothel, which takes us wonderfully back to Dragonfly in Amber.
“In Fergus and Marsali’s case, it was not only a slightly startling (and therefore entertaining) custom [It works, too; nipple stimulation causes the brain to secrete oxytocin, which makes the uterus contract], but also the venue for showing us the true love that exists between them, in spite of the conflict between them—and shows Fergus’s courage in putting aside his own fear and weakness to succor
