Image Source: TV Insider
Synopsis:
When Jamie is bitten by a venomous snake, Claire fears she may not have the resources to save him; Jamie asks Roger to complete an important task in the event of his death.
The long-awaited episode finally came, where we saw Jamie get bit by a snake. So happy that it was another great episode, and I thought everyone did a great job with their performance. Even though we were dealing with some intense situations, it was nice that it was balanced out with some humor.
From the get-go, I was already loving the episode. Roger calls Bree a sadist, which was a nice little call back to Season 1 when Claire said the same to Jamie. And when Jamie enters their house, what an awkward situation it was. It was kind of a role reversal, of the kid catching their parents having sex, except, in this case, Jamie realized that he walked into something that he shouldn’t have.
A bunch of the guys, including Roger, go hunting, and along the way, Jamie gets bitten by a horribly bad CGI snake. It threw me out of the scene for a bit, because the snake didn’t look like something you’d see in the Carolina’s, and not to jump ahead, but later, Bree reveals that it was a pit viper, and that looked nothing like that. The prop snake looked more realistic. But anyway, it was interesting to see how Jamie immediately became stubborn, after getting bitten, because Roger offered to help him, and Jamie was not having it. I think Jamie didn’t want to seem weak. I did like that the snake bite, and Roger sucking the venom out of Jamie’s leg, seemed super authentic, so thumbs up to that. It made me cringe, and I’m pretty sure, that’s what they were going for. Later on, we see that Jamie and Roger’s bond, develops a little more, because they have some witty banter, and Jamie actually admitted that he was glad Roger came back. That’s a big statement coming from Jamie. It was terrible to see Jamie’s progression of suffering, but what we got next, was amazing. We now know, that when Jamie is dying, he comes out with some of the best one-liners. He was insulting Roger, but I loved that he insulted his own wife, when she revealed that the only time she had seen a snake bite, was when she went to observe an autopsy of a man who had died from a king cobra bite. When Jamie said, “you should work your bedside manner, Sassanach,” I died laughing. And it was funny that Jamie was used to hearing Claire scold him after the many times that he had injured himself, but knew something was wrong when she was being kind to him. But then we saw Jamie’s stubbornness come out again when he grabbed Claire’s saw. At that moment, he wasn’t keen with the idea of his leg getting amputated, which totally makes sense, because that’s something that any person would need to process, but in this case, when you think of Jamie, he’s a soldier, and he’s used to running around protecting everyone, and if his leg got amputated, I think his pride would have been taken away. He would have to rely on others more often, and that’s not in his vocabulary.
When Bree and Roger are in the woods, looking for maggots for Jamie’s leg, Roger lets Bree know that Jamie asked him to kill Stephen Bonnet. He also mentions that Bonnet might try to steal Jemmy’s inheritance to River Run. That angers Bree, and sadly for the time their living in, saying that Bree was raped and that Roger is the father, wouldn’t do much good, because during this time, even though Bree was raped, apparently she would still be considered a willing participant, and did have the child. So much for laws back in the day.
Back at the Ridge, we later see that a bison decides to wander onto the property, and scares Lizzie and Jemmy. Bree runs to the rescue, and distracts the bison, and has it comes towards her instead. And then we had another bad CGI moment. The bison runs towards Bree, and it looks like she flies pretty high in the air, after getting attacked, but magically, she appears to be unharmed. I’m pretty sure if that had happened in real life, she would have been seriously injured or dead. It was awesome that Claire ended up shooting the beast, but I had to have another laugh, because then we saw Jamie, dragging himself outside to see what the commotion was about. So stubborn. We continue to see his stubbornness when he asks to be taken to his bed, and we get two moments, where Roger feels uncomfortable. First, when Ian makes him stay, when he feels hurt that Jamie would think that getting a limb amputated would be shameful, coming from the fact, that his father and Fergus, both have fake limbs. And also, when Claire finds Jamie in his bed, and asks what’s going on. That night, we get that great scene between Jamie and Claire, where Jamie feels like he’s going to die, and wants Claire by his side. In that moment, Claire doesn’t know what’s happening, but when she all of sudden realizes that Jamie isn’t breathing anymore, she desperately tries to bring him back. I’ve read so many thoughts on this scene, but it all really comes down to the fact that Claire is this time, protecting Jamie’s body with her own. And her touch will bring him out of any dispair. It was a powerful scene because we got to see that deep connection between them, and it was reminiscent of when Claire tried to heal Jamie of his pain from getting raped by Randall. It was in a different way, but she got him out of his suffering and used her love to heal him. It was nice to see that in the morning, Jamie came to his senses, and was ok with Claire taking his leg. Then, we have Jamie lying on the table, ready for his surgery, and it made me tense, because poor Claire was shaking, and all I thought about was, how awful it must have been to have a body part amputated during that time. There really wasn’t anything to numb the pain, and if she would have cut Jamie’s leg, he would have been screaming bloody murder. Thank god, Bree engineered a new syringe for Claire to use. It was inventive, that she used the snake’s tooth, and I didn’t even think about that a snake’s tooth could be hallow. Very scientific indeed. We got to briefly see Marsali’s new baby, but what intrigued me, was that Roger was all about gloating at Jamie for being alive. I love that their relationship has really blossomed, and that they can dig at each other, when they want to. But also, that Roger still wanted to go with Jamie to Wylie’s Landing, to see Bonnet. It’s going to be an infamous showdown.
