Episode 702: The Happiest Place On Earth

Well, it doesn’t get much better than that. Grab those tissues and let’s revisit this excellent episode.

Warning-Contains spoilers from Outlander Episode 702: The Happiest Place On Earth.

“To all who come to this happy place: Welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past, and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America, with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.” – Walt Disney; July 17, 1955.

Will it be worth it, Jamie asks of Brianna of the future United States of America. Will the bloodshed and the destruction and heartache and grief all be worth it? Is war a sufficient cost for a country that will invent the electric light of Jamie’s dreams and the airplane in Jem’s hand and the Mickey Mouse of Brianna’s childhood and the surgery itself that will save Mandy’s life? Will it be worth it?

Because, truly, all of those things seem like pure fantasy. Light that is delivered to your home from miles away in fractions of a second? Being able to fly in a huge metal container through the air? An adult dressed up in a giant mouse costume who is beloved by children and adults alike? Fixing the smallest of hearts so it learns to beat the way it should? It all sounds crazy, does it not? And it is! It is crazy and magical. It is Disneyland and the America of Brianna’s future is straight out of Fantasyland.

Yes, Brianna assures Jamie, it will be worth it. This America that is only just a fantasy will actually exist, and that’s the point of this episode: we have to believe in things we cannot see. Whether it’s a future country or an electric light or our loved ones gone to another century or another life…we have to sometimes trust in things that our beyond our grasp or understanding. Just as we do when we step into Disneyland, we have to choose to believe. Some might call it fantasy, others may call it faith.

Because without it we may never be able to let things go. Like releasing a firefly, sometimes we have to trust that things will be okay once they are gone from our hands. Our children, our grandchildren, a precious (in every definition of the word) gem that we’ve had for twenty years, our families and our lives…sometimes we have have to learn to let things go and have faith that it is for the best.

The alternative, this episode seems to argue, is untenable. The men who cannot let things go—Allan Christie and Wendigo Donner—destine themselves and those around them to tragedy. They take that which does not belong to them (sisters, gemstones) and refuse to release them. As for the Bugs taking bars of gold? I think this episode has foreshadowed how that may end (no spoilers, please, for show-only fans).

The hour opens with Allan returning to the Ridge and confessing to the rape and murder of Malva. The dialogue here was almost verbatim from the novel and all the actors delivered on it beautifully. The scene’s flashbacks served to humanize Malva and appropriately place her actions within the context of abuse and rape and all I can do is echo Claire’s sentiments at the senselessness of it all: what a waste. What a horrible, tragic waste. There is no magical kingdom here. There is no suspension of disbelief for this family or fairy tale ending for Malva. All that is left is an unjust and perverse reality.

And that’s only just the beginning for this gut punch of an emotional episode. This episode, in which a child’s congenital heart disorder drives much of the plot, is awash in broken hearts. Grief for Malva, the MacKenzies leaving, John and Jamie parting indefinitely…much of this hour served as a direct foil to the episode’s title. Far from the happiest place on earth, our characters found themselves within the depths of the most unimaginable pain.

Grown William’s introduction in this episode felt organic and very sweet, and as a novel reader I always get a bit of a thrill to see certain elements of the story fall in to place. Appropriately, his soldier’s uniform evokes the costuming of a Disney prince and his earnestness and manners do not dispel the illusion. As with everything this hour, however, happiness is fleeting. Brianna’s sense of magic at meeting her brother is overshadowed by the knowledge that she may never see him again.

Jamie mentioned Murtaugh more than once this hour and we really get an overwhelming sense of how much loss this man has endured with not only the deaths of his kinsmen and family but also Claire’s twenty year absence. For Jamie and Claire to now lose their daughter and their family is an almost unspeakable grief.

All that is left to do is what Walt Disney invited: relive fond memories of the past and trust that they will bring us happiness. And listen, there are many, many things one can say—from the very problematic to the very inspirational—about Walt Disney and the Disney company and the intersection of entertainment and capitalism in American culture and all of those things can be equally correct. But what is indisputable is Walt Disney was a revolutionary with an unshakable vision and from that vision grew an empire. Revolutions and empires…sound familiar?

And so Brianna and Roger and their family leave Frontierland for Tomorrowland. For time travelers, there is an extra layer of meaning in the sign that greets visitors at the Disneyland gates: “Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy.” We are invited to find happiness no matter where we may land.

The hour ends in confusion and terror as the Big House explodes in an ether-fueled conflagration. Did the Frasers make it out alive? Well there is comfort, this episode argues, in the faith of things we cannot see.

Slàinte.

Screencaps provided by https://outlander-online.com/