“Famous Last Words” deals with the traumatic aftermath of last episode’s haunting final image: Roger hung from a tree. He survives—with significant physical and mental trauma. And to explore this dark story of recovery and PTSD, Outlander breaks from its usual form. It’s a smart and surprising choice. Despite the show’s tendency to take a lot of narrative risks and combine several genres at once, the show has never played with form before quite like it does here. It’s a brilliant choice and one that achieves several things at once, keeping it from feeling like mere gimmick. By interweaving scenes styled like a silent film with its normal scenes, Outlander reinforces the cracks in Roger’s reality and perceptions as he grapples with significant trauma.
The episode opens first with a flashback to Roger and Brianna’s time before in the future. Roger’s teaching his history students about the importance of words—specifically, last words. It’s an effective setup for the themes the episode contemplates but also a stark juxtaposition of Roger’s life before with his life now. In his life before, war and death were mostly things to be studied, concepts to be tilled for philosophical and cultural meaning. He was a professor and a historian, and he lectured on wars. He didn’t fight them. Roger imagines his final words with a heavy dose of fantasy and romance: “I’d say let history forget my name so long as my words and my deeds are remembered by those I love,” he muses for his students, eyes flitting over to Brianna who’s sitting in. Death and war do not allow room for such musings though. His death is brutal and lonely and violent, and there’s no time for final words. It’s all the result of a massive miscommunication, but it’s also the result of war, which Roger finds himself embroiled in in his new life in the past with Brianna.
That contrast between his two lives is palpable. From the warm classroom we next transition hard into Jamie, Claire, and Brianna finding Roger hanged, filmed in the style of a silent film. The dialogue is sparse but urgent, conveying only what is exactly necessary in that utilitarian way that silent films use text. The rest has to be conveyed visually. Throughout the episode, Roger’s PTSD flashbacks take the form of these silent black-and-white images. It’s an effective way to establish just how disorienting and out-of-body these intrusive thoughts are for him. It also allows Outlander to really intimately show horrific images, slightly softening the gore of it. A close-up of Roger’s hands intertwined moments before he’s hanged is instantly stirring and also personal. Another shot shows what Roger sees through his hood. Even as it takes off some of the grisly edge, the silent film style also makes the scenes feel even more visceral, making Roger’s trauma immediately immersive.
Outside of these flashbacks, his hurt is palpable, too. His relationship with Brianna is fractured. She doesn’t quite understand why he won’t even try to talk or why he still struggles mentally even when he’s doing physically well according to Claire. Brianna has experienced her own traumas, but there’s still a rift between them, and while the relationship writing when it comes to these characters has been wobbly, it’s nuanced and intricate in “Famous Last Words” in ways that ring true. Brianna sings to Jemmy, and it’s meant to be a sweet moment, but just off to the side, Roger weeps, knowing he won’t sing to his son like he did before. The use of contrast and juxtaposition in the episode is exquisite, burrowing into ideas of how trauma splits the self. One of the more devastating instances of the silent film interruptions happens when Roger tries to play the ukulele. Music used to be a passion of his, but now even that can’t provide escape. Roger feels trapped, alone, depressed, and all of these deep, affective emotions are expertly embedded in these scenes. The acting and direction are both at their finest. Slow fades throughout the episode lend a somber feeling.
“You’re still the man I married, and I want him back,” Brianna says, frustrated. It’s not a fair accusation, but it comes from a very believable place. Her monologue is tough to watch, because it’s true that she felt pressured to continue on with life in the wake of her trauma for the sake of both Roger and Jemmy, but it’s also true that not everyone works through trauma in the same way or on the same timeline. There’s no real roadmap for any of this. And Brianna’s frustration only widens the divide between them. Roger further retreats into himself.
There are other happenings in the episode, including the sudden return of Young Ian, who swoops in to save the day when a wild boar interrupts Jamie and Claire playing a very cute game of hide-and-seek with Jemmy. Ian’s arc parallels Roger’s. He’s similarly evasive and silent, struggling to fit neatly back into his old life. When Marsali tries to fill him in on her life, all bubbly and hopeful, Ian pulls back. Like Roger, he struggles to accurately express his pain when surrounded by people who seem to rather casually just be going about their lives.
Outlander then deftly intertwines the two men’s arcs, forcing their fates together when Tryon offers up a chunk of land to Roger. He needs someone who knows how to work the land, so he teams up with Young Ian. In the woods, away from the others, with only each other’s company and an implicit understanding that they’ve suffered similarly, they visibly relax. There’s an easy comfort between them and zero pressure to share. “It flies but does not sing,” Ian says of the paper plane—which he calls a paper bird. It’s an obvious metaphor for Roger, but it’s a genuinely tender moment between them. Roger still has nightmares of his hanging when he’s with Ian, but Ian is also the first person to really make him feel assured about those flashbacks, to ground him by reminding him he isn’t there but here.
Both struggle with thoughts of suicide, though Roger decides to live when he remembers Brianna’s face on the brink of his near-death. Ultimately, it wasn’t the last words that mattered; it was the last visual. Again, the silent film device perfectly evokes this. Last words sound grand and romantic, especially to a historian. But that’s not how memory and feelings always translate.
Claire notices that some of her hemlock has been stolen, intensifying the suspense enveloping Ian and Roger. Claire even thinks it might have been Roger who swiped it. But it’s Ian who has taken it, and it turns out he lost someone he loved, though we don’t get all the details. Which is fine. Part of the point is that Ian doesn’t want to talk about it; he isn’t ready. Just like Roger isn’t ready to really try talking again. The episode situates itself firmly in Roger and Ian’s heads and asserts that healing requires more than patience. It’s a long, grueling, sometimes never-ending process. It’s a contemplative and layered exploration of grief, and the silent film experiment yields brilliant results.
Stray observations
- I do wish the show consistently treated Brianna’s trauma with as much nuance and while giving her as much agency as it does for Roger and Ian here.
- Usually episodes that are light on Claire and Jamie are not the best, but this episode absolutely shines even with minimal scenes of its two protagonists.
- Now I absolutely understand why there were so many scenes of Roger singing earlier in the season.
27 Comments
This episode didn’t work as well for me. It didn’t feel like an accurate representation of PTSD, which more often consists of periods of both good days and very bad days. It also crammed in far too many metaphors, from the “last words” lesson to the silent film to the “lost and gone forever” lyric to the Hanged Man card to the paper-airplane-as-voiceless-bird to “I will always sing for you”…. Ok, writers, we get it. And at the cliff when he had the vision of Brianna’s face, the lighting and editing made her look nightmarish instead of comforting.
Point taken. The imagery related to “My Darling Clementine” comes directly from the novels. Jocasta has a daughter named Clementina, and Roger and Brianna sing this bit of Americana to Jemmy. Part of the American folksong tradition, it’s melancholy subject is often treated almost like a jingle. It offers a jarring form of grief. When my son was just a little older than Jemmy in this episode, he’d make his father play the piano and sing through every verse of every song in one of those charming children’s music books. My son’s cover of his father’s version is pertinent here: “Thou art lost and found forever, dreadful sorry, Clementine.” In the context of the song, I’m OK with the silent film imagery, too, since it’s a take on Westerns in this genre. So no mixed metaphor there. Note that in Roger’s head the clips of this movie are not really silent. There’s sometimes piano accompaniment and now and then the sound of twentieth-century artillery, a link to Claire’s service on the battle field in season 1.“Famous Last Words” has to do with the return of the Mohawk theme, though that is not mentioned at all in this episode, a missed opportunity to bring up material from the Ottertooth story. Remember, he is the time-traveler who tries to save Native American culture in the colonies and fails so badly that the Mohawks try to kill him themselves, only he refuses to stop singing his Death Song, no matter how many parts of him they chop off. The title of the episode would have fit like a glove, if Roger’s lecture had focused more on these famous last words instead of wasting time dealing with classroom management.Finally, the paper airplane is related to Roger and Bree’s first anniversary, which is paper. The topic sped by too quickly, in my opinion. In Bree’s hands, the plane links back to season 2, when Claire and Frank land at Boston’s Logan airport. Her paper airplane is a symbol for the institution of marriage itself, a major theme in each of Diana Gabaldon’s novels. When you stop to think of it, Bree is at the center of Claire’s marriages to Frank and to Jamie. Lord John’s appearance in the episode is a reminder that Bree almost married him, which would have made her marriage to Roger her second marriage. Jocasta’s appearance in the episode sheds light on marriage in that generation. Ian’s marriage is the unspoken topic of the episode, the “silent movie” going on in his head.
Point taken. The imagery related to “My Darling Clementine”
comes directly from the novels. Jocasta has a daughter named Clementina, and
Roger and Brianna sing it to Jemmy. Part of the American folksong
tradition, it’s melancholy subject is often treated almost like a
jingle: It offers a jarring form of grief. When my son was just a little older
than Jemmy, he’d make his father play the piano and sing through every verse of
every song in one of those charming children’s music books. My son’s cover
of his father’s version is pertinent here: “Thou art lost and found forever,
dreadful sorry, Clementine.”In the context of the song, I’m OK with the silent film imagery,
since it’s a take on Westerns in this genre. So no mixed metaphor there. Note
that in Roger’s head the bits of this movie are not really silent. There’s
sometimes piano accompaniment and now and then the sound of
twentieth-century artillery, a link to Claire’s service on the battle field in
season 1.“Famous Last Words” has to do with the return of the Mohawk
theme, though that is not mentioned at all in this episode, a missed
opportunity to bring up material from the Ottertooth story. Remember, he is the
time-traveler who tries to save Native American culture in the colonies and
fails so badly that the Mohawks try to kill him themselves, only he
refuses to stop singing his Death Song, no matter how many parts of him
they chop off. The title of the episode would have fit like a glove, if Roger’s
lecture had only focused on this instead of wasting time dealing
with classroom management.Finally,
the paper airplane is related to Roger and Bree’s first anniversary, which is
paper. The topic sped by too quickly, in my opinion. In Bree’s hands, the
plane links back to season 2, when Claire and Frank land at Boston’s
Logan airport. Her paper airplane is a symbol for the institution of
marriage itself, a major theme in each of Diana Gabaldon’s novels. When you
stop to think of it, Bree is at the center of Claire’s marriages to Frank and
Jamie. Lord John’s appearance in the episode is a reminder that
Bree almost married him, which would have made her marriage to Roger
her second marriage. Jocasta’s appearance in the episode sheds light on
marriage in that generation. Ian’s marriage is the unspoken topic of the
episode, the “silent movie” going on in his head.
Point taken. The imagery related to “My Darling Clementine”
comes directly from the novels. Jocasta has a daughter named Clementina, and
Roger and Brianna sing it to Jemmy. Part of the American folksong
tradition, it’s melancholy subject is often treated almost like a
jingle: It offers a jarring form of grief. When my son was just a little older
than Jemmy, he’d make his father play the piano and sing through every verse of
every song in one of those charming children’s music books. My son’s cover
of his father’s version is pertinent here: “Thou art lost and found forever,
dreadful sorry, Clementine.”In the context of the song, I’m OK with the silent film imagery,
since it’s a take on Westerns in this genre. So no mixed metaphor there. Note
that in Roger’s head the bits of this movie are not really silent. There’s
sometimes piano accompaniment and now and then the sound of
twentieth-century artillery, a link to Claire’s service on the battle field in
season 1.“Famous Last Words” has to do with the return of the Mohawk
theme, though that is not mentioned at all in this episode, a missed
opportunity to bring up material from the Ottertooth story. Remember, he is the
time-traveler who tries to save Native American culture in the colonies and
fails so badly that the Mohawks try to kill him themselves, only he
refuses to stop singing his Death Song, no matter how many parts of him
they chop off. The title of the episode would have fit like a glove, if Roger’s
lecture had only focused on this instead of wasting time dealing
with classroom management.Finally,
the paper airplane is related to Roger and Bree’s first anniversary, which is
paper. The topic sped by too quickly, in my opinion. In Bree’s hands, the
plane links back to season 2, when Claire and Frank land at Boston’s
Logan airport. Her paper airplane is a symbol for the institution of
marriage itself, a major theme in each of Diana Gabaldon’s novels. When you
stop to think of it, Bree is at the center of Claire’s marriages to Frank and
Jamie. Lord John’s appearance in the episode is a reminder that
Bree almost married him, which would have made her marriage to Roger
her second marriage. Jocasta’s appearance in the episode sheds light on
marriage in that generation. Ian’s marriage is the unspoken topic of the
episode, the “silent movie” going on in his head.
While the device certainly looked really cool, I thought the reasoning behind it was a bit convoluted.
I think the silent film flashback device was done simply to spare us from Sophie Skelton trying to act grieved.
I said the same thing.
“Famous Last Words” deals with the traumatic aftermath of last episode’s haunting final image: Roger hung from a tree.Isn’t it “hanged” in this case?
I’ll need photographic evidence Roger is not hung.
I see what you did there.
Decent episode. Like many this season, not good, not bad. Jut pretty “meh”.The first time I saw the silent film-style flashback, I thought it was annoying, but it grew on me. Didn’t mind it too much. Not sure it worked that well either though. It’s just an aesthetic choice by the filmmakers. I appreciated a different approach. That took guts. YMMV.I was dreading Young Ian returning. I couldn’t STAND his character for seasons 3-4. Every time he was onscreen I thought he was about to break out into some corny song and dance routine. I was pleasantly surprised to see he’s grown up a bit now, although he’s clearly saddened by what happened with his time with the Mohawk. Perhaps we’ll just have “Ian” now instead of “Young Ian”. I would welcome that.“I do wish the show consistently treated Brianna’s trauma with as much nuance and while giving her as much agency as it does for Roger and Ian here.” This is a strange interpretation. They spent the entire second half of season 4 wallowing in Brianna’s trauma. They spent plenty of time on it. In fact, I thought it kind of killed the second half of the season. They spent TOO much time on it, IMO.Brianna and Roger actually felt like a legitimate married couple this episode. That was a nice change.I thought this was a necessary episode in terns of dealing with Roger’s trauma, but I have to tell you, I’m more than ready for the more interesting developments of this season to play out. At the moment, there aren’t very many compelling storylines going on.
I’m having trouble remembering what else happens in this book. The later books really run together in my mind.
There’s that long stretch about the rattlesnake bite. And I think there are some initial info drops about Arch Bug and the gold. I think this is the book where we first read about hearing a voice that no one recognizes. But yeah, the 200 page gathering, Jocasta’s 100 page wedding, and then the rattlesnake are pretty much the whole book.
I’m kind of surprised we aren’t seeing more about the Bugs. They really are non-entities. Maybe they’re going to scrap – or significantly rewrite – that whole bit.
I’m surprised they didn’t move the Bug story to season five. Book six has a lot of plotting and a lot of stories wrapping up – or at least being answered – at once (the fire, the other time travelers, the Bugs, Stephen Bonnet, Bree and Roger’s decision) and I’m almost nervous about how it’s all going to be balanced.
I am so over Roger and Brianna. I agree there are (hopefully) more interesting things that could play out this season.
Even as it takes off some of the grisly edge, the silent film style also makes the scenes feel even more visceral, making Roger’s trauma immediately immersive.Agreed. I really liked the effect of the silent film images. It would have been just fine to show it in a more conventional way, but I found myself paying closer attention each time the images replayed, catching different details each time. I also liked that Roger’s story is mostly contained in this one episode (though I’m sure his trauma won’t be completely forgotten for the rest of the season). I think the emotional impact would have been lessened if we were just checking in with Roger each week while the other storylines continued. And even though it’s a departure from the book, the decision to pair him up with Ian works well, as the two have been connected since the Mohawk storyline last season.
The silent movie flashbacks were terrible! The show is already portraying two vastly dissimilar eras, using to stylistic device belonging to neither diminishes the effect. Justifying it by shoehorning an earlier scene with the silent movie marathon doesn’t work either. If silent movies were so important to Roger that he needed them to cope with his near-death, surely they should have laid some groundwork earlier. I bet we never see silent movies mentioned ever again. I get it writers, somebody thought it would look cool, but they never bothered to think about whether this stylistic flourish self involved wankery would actually pertain to the story they’re trying to tell.
Speaking of “self involved wankery,” I always resent the way the“Outlander” writer’s room and directors never overlook a chance to draw attention to themselves. Case in point, putting their names in the silent movie credits in this episode. It was particularly odious in episode 6 season 3, in which Jamie and Claire reunite after twenty years, when this team, so addicted to self-flattery, had Jamie printing eighteenth-century hand-outs with their names on them. Unfortunately, one not very well concealed motive behind this anachronism is to show their disdain for the novels they are tasked with adapting, which belong to the genre of historical fiction. Ronald Moore goes out of his way to aggravate book fans with these and other self-indulgences. It would be nice if he and his writers could find something else to do with their time. I’m sure there are many professionals in the industry who appreciate Diana Gabaldon and her novels.
It is a legal requirement per guild agreements with Hollywood. Go find something else to shit on, Millennial edge lord.
Speaking of “self involved wankery,” I always resent the
way the“Outlander” writer’s room and directors never overlook a
chance to draw attention to themselves. Case in point, putting their names
in the silent movie credits in this episode. It was particularly
odious in episode 6 season 3, in which Jamie and Claire reunite
after twenty years, when this team, so addicted to self-flattery, had
Jamie printing eighteenth-century hand-outs with their names on them.
Unfortunately, one not very well concealed motive
behind this anachronism is to show their disdain for the novels they are
tasked with adapting, which belong to the genre of historical
fiction. Ronald Moore goes out of his way to aggravate book fans with
these and other self-indulgences. It would be nice if he and his writers
could find something else to do with their time. I’m sure there are
many professionals in the industry who appreciate Diana Gabaldon and
her novels.
I really enjoyed this episode, though I did not expect to. The section of the book that deals with the near aftermath of the hanging is a really tough read so I’m glad that we skipped the first three months. I was delighted to see Young Ian back but I’m kind of sad that goofy Ian is apparently no more.
The show actually did devote a few episodes to Brianna’s stoic PTSD. Roger is entitled to one episode.
That’s pretty much what I said too. Brianna had a TON of time devoted to her trauma last season. Too much time, IMO. I don’t understand the issue here.
Plus she’s still sketching Bonnet and having nightmares. Her situation is completely different from Roger’s. Rape casts a shadow over your life but if you’re lucky it eventually fades into the rear view. But roger was a singer whose voice was permanently damaged, due to being in an entire living situation that he never wanted to stay in. Neither trauma is harder or easier than the other but briannas current life situation is somewhat improved by an element of choice that roger doesn’t have, because he gave it up for her.
To be fair, he did have a choice and he made it. Every day he doesn’t head for the stones to go back by himself is another choice he’s made.
Wait, avclub- how dare hollywood have a white actor voice a non-white animated charactor avclub- seems to be perfectly fine with LARPing as a Mohawk Ian?