Episode 713: Hello, Goodbye

Hey, let’s talk about men! Bloody men, as Claire would say. The good ones, the not-so-good ones, and the ones who save the world.

Warning- Contains spoilers from Outlander Episode 713: Hello, Goodbye

(p.s. this is a bit shorter than usual…presents to wrap, trees to trim, children to wrangle, etc).

What if we only had few moments to say all that we needed to say to a person we love? What would we ask? How could we impress upon them all that they mean to us? Perhaps all we can ever say is “I love you.” Perhaps that is all that we ever need to say…it is enough.

The men were front and center this episode and what defines good men, this episode seems to posit, are the ones who show up: a husband commits himself to his bride, a brother leaves a warfront to see his sister married, a pilot risks his life for a war effort, a son helps his father survive, and a general dons a uniform. These things are not done for fame or glory, they are done for love. Moreover, the best men are the ones who know that masculinity isn’t defined by how much power you can wield over women (ahem, Rob Cameron), but rather by the acknowledgement that valuing women strengthens us all.

“A woman?” Jerry asks incredulously with the revelation that someday a woman prime minister will serve a woman sovereign. “On your feet soldier,” Jemmy says to rally himself to freedom, quoting his grandmother and remembering how his mother previously found her way out of the dam. From Henry Grey openly crediting Mercy and Claire for his recovery, to Ian worshipping his new bride, this is an episode full of men who are unafraid to let the women shine.

In contrast, Rob Cameron is a small-minded man with a narrow view of women and of the world. Can you imagine a man like Rob Cameron suiting up for battle, willing to sacrifice his life in the name of independence or democracy? Knowing that our own lives are limited, but we commit ourselves to a greater good for the benefit of future generations? No, we cannot imagine it. His only purpose is greed. There is a certain type of man who will lock children away…Rob Cameron is one of them and, as Jerry MacKenzie reminds us later, Hitler was another. Years, decades, and centuries pass—the mountains remain the same—but there will always be men in this world willing to destroy families for the advancement of their own personal glory.

Relatedly, can you imagine Denzell telling Rachel she was being hysterical? Can you imagine Jamie not believing a woman when she claims a man is trying to harm her? Could we imagine Ian ever calling someone a “fucking bitch?” No, we cannot imagine it. Men do not live without fear or regret—and the individual monologues from each of those characters prove that—but the good men learn to accept the responsibility for those emotions.

As Claire tells Rachel in her wedding preparations, a marriage isn’t made in the ritual or words…it is made in the living of it. And so it is with all things in this world worth living for. We cannot merely say the vows of marriage, we must show up every day for our spouse. We cannot pretend to love freedom and equality without being willing to fight for it. There are things in this world larger than ourselves—we drive all night to search for our children (Brianna), we agree to go on classified missions (Jerry), and we make painful decisions to keep our loved ones safe (Roger).

Tomorrow is the winter solstice, symbolically marking the death and rebirth of the sun. We are reminded that time is cyclical, and there is comfort in the predictable patterns of nature. There is solace, too, that the world of our ancestors is not so different than the world of ours. Sometimes the days and the world seem very dark (and tomorrow marks the darkest day of them all in the Northern Hemisphere) but we embrace the gradual return of light. We grieve for the ones we’ve lost, but somewhere in the past they live on. And as we gather for the holiday next week, we will pull our loved ones close, we will whisper “I love you,” and we will commit to serving purposes greater than our own.

Sláinte.

Screencaps provided by Outlander Online.