Reality? What reality? #mondayblogs

For this week’s edition of #mondayblogs, let’s examine my full immersion into the fictional world. Maybe you can relate.

I have a small issue with reality. Events and characters from fiction are real to me. Not in the sense I need therapy to help me differentiate flesh and blood people from actors playing roles/CGI/’people’ in books. My problem is I take the experiences to heart. This is a 50/50 deal because the emotional payoff can be GLORIOUS or it can turn me into a shuddering mess of snot and tears.

Being selective and spoiler friendly minimizes the risk of a nervous breakdown. The Fault in out Stars is probably a great book. I will never read it because I need to be able to function as a human being afterwards. Minimal exaggeration here. I can’t cry it out and move one. No, the trauma will bury itself in my soul and cause be to burst into tears at random times until the day I die. A few times I have managed to escape by refusing to believe the fake reality. For example, I refuse to believe any Alien movie after James Cameron’s film exist. So, two movies and then the rest are just a non canon fever dream. Why? Because Hicks and Newt. You want to tell me I’m wrong because there is just no way Ripley could have gone on to live a happy life with Hicks and Newt? Prove it.

Bioware is a company known for producing the Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises. They are also synonymous with ripping your heart out of your chest and laughing while you bleed out on the ground. The stories of Bioware heartbreak are many. For some, it helps us to cope by sharing our pain with others who understand. Beware of spoilers in the video below.

With every choice, even in previous games, effecting future events you gamble with your chances of a happy ending. I don’t know anyone who played through one time and got it all ‘right’. Maybe you don’t care about that kind of thing but for me it is personally vital to my sanity. Yes, I’m striving for the fluffy bunny and magical unicorns of joy conclusion. If you think it makes me a loser, you can bite my magical unicorn ass.

Rent, Episode Five, Outlander Watch Along

Outlander Watch Along. Discuss the episodes. Win prizes.

Astrid’s Blog

Bridget’s blog

The rules:

• Be nice! This is meant to be fun. Rude or mean comments will not get approved so do not waste your time.
• No spoilers beyond the episode currently being discussed. If we are watching episode four but you are commenting on episode one, please do not spoil for anyone trying to catch up.

The Prizes:

• Third Prize – Book Lover’s Soy Wax Tarts in Sassenach by Frostbeard Studio
• Second Prize – Sassenach t-shirt in your choice of  Unisex (black, grey, maroon, green, or blue) or Women’s fit (blue, green, grey, pink, or pistachio) by Socialpop Tees
• First Prize – Hand Stamped “Sassenach” Stainless Steel Dragonfly Necklace with Amber Bead by TaggYourIt

The Virgin View by Bridget Blackwood

How do I feel about this week’s episode? Angry. I was mad at everyone. Mad at the men for their treatment of Claire. They purposefully keep her out of their circle and act like she is scum. Yeah, it was nice to see them rise up to protect her honor but for me it was too little too late. Dougal was a royal ass using Jamie to garner support. We know from earlier episodes that Jamie is sensitive about it. So what does Dougal do? Show it off like a trained monkey in a three ring circus far and wide!! If I had the power to reach through and slap him I would have. The red coat showing up at the end to ask is Claire was being held against her will makes me nervous. I don’t want her to leave Jamie. If things played out how I wanted them to she would have told him “No I am fine but since you are here could you stab this sour ass scot behind me?” *le sigh* It’d cause too many problems but would be worth the satisfaction.

The hot piss for the dye the women were doing made me glad I live in the now and not the then.

I like Claire, but am I the only one that thinks she comes across as holier than thou too often? I don’t know if I would like her much in real life.

I wish I had more to say this time. I’m freaking irritated at the episode and after reading Astrid’s post I just want to curl up with the book. I need more Jamie screen time and less history channel.

The Professional Fangirl by Astrid V. Tallaksen

Wow! I missed the last 2 weeks of the watch along and so much has happened! I felt a little intimidated getting back into the swing, so I’m just going to kind of ignore the two episodes I didn’t talk about for the most part because while this episode doesn’t stand alone necessarily, it doesn’t really need exposition for it to be understood as long as you’ve been watching along already. Claire is setting out with Dougal and his men to collect rents for the Mackenzie clan. In the show Dougal tells her he’s bringing her along because it will be good to have a healer. Of course, we’re all wondering what he really plans for her. In the book he tells her straight out that Colum wants him to take her along to Fort William for the commander of that garrison to figure out what to do with her. He’s also taking Jamie along, supposedly because he’s good with horses, but Claire wonders about this later because she thinks most of the men would know enough about horses to figure out which ones are good enough to take, and there wouldn’t be many horses offered as rent anyway. Not sure why they are so cryptic about everything in the show when the spell it out in the book pretty clearly. That seems to be becoming a pattern though. Who knows?

It kind of bothered me that they keep having the men being rude to Claire, excluding her from conversation by using Gaelic and obviously picking on her while keeping her from actually knowing what they were saying. Honestly, in the book we really don’t see much of the camping at all thus far. It makes for some interesting interactions with Jamie though, and I really like these even though they aren’t in the book. He tells her at one point to remember where she is, and that she isn’t in England anymore and should be careful to act like it. Ned Gowan! I was excited for the awesome elderly lawyer to show up. I just really like the guy – he’s got the soul of a romantic, an adventurer, and other than Jamie he’s really the first person to treat Claire without much suspicion or as anything less than an equal. He talks to her some about where he’s from and how he came to be working for the Mackenzies. He kind of glosses over some of his history with the clan though. On the show he’s fairly vague, just saying he started out working for Jacob (Colum and Dougal’s father) after looking for a Highland laird who’d take him on. The story is far more interesting than that though! He calls Jacob a “wicked, red auld rascal” (apparently Jamie takes after his great uncle in the appearance department), and it turns out that he met Jacob for the first time at the end of his gun as Jacob robbed him. When Jacob took off with everything, Ned followed him until he decided to make him the clan’s personal lawyer. Ned also gives some history of how Colum’s disability sort of started – with a couple of accidents and broken legs – and how he came to be laird in spite of his deformity and difficulty moving around.

I loved the ladies in the village who sang their songs while walking wool (eeww hot piss on your hands, no thank you!). While they aren’t in the book at this point (Claire does do wool walking later on), it gives a basis for Claire to have the curiosity about the standing stones without the internal monologue that’s in the book. Craigh Na Dun is a fairy hill, and in the book Claire wonders if standing stones all over are warning markers for strange occurances like disappearances and appearances much like hers. There’s no argument over the goat that’s needed for milk for a hungry baby, and therefore no British officer questioning if Claire’s alright and then rushing off to tattle tale on the Scotsmen keeping her with them. Not sure why there’s the major change here, because it IS pretty major as I’ll discuss later on. Neither is there the later generosity from Dougal for the father and son who were affected by the English Dragoons who came through and left them without food. Ned called Jacob a wicked auld rascal, but Dougal is certainly even worse. Using his nephew to stir sentiments and raise money is just horrible. It’s plain how much it hurts Jamie, and I just really hate Dougal for it, both in the show and the book. Claire thinks at first that Dougal is just stealing, although in the books she recognizes immediately that he’s raising money for the Jacobite rebellion. She only watches the one time, and I wish we’d have only seen it the one time, because I’m actually getting pretty tired of the constant long dialogue in Gaelic. It’s an interesting language, and I understand that the whole point is that Claire is cut off from understanding the world around her, BUT it’s getting old, and I worry that it’s going to lose viewership from those who aren’t dedicated to the show.

Anyway, they move on and run into the Watch burning a house because supposedly the people there were informing to the British. This isn’t in the book, nor are the traitors crucified by the British. I’m sure this is supposed to illustrate some sort of roughness and danger to being a Scot at the time, especially when it comes to how one deals with the rebellion. After another night of Dougal using Jamie’s back as a motivation to get money for his cause, there’s a heated discussion between the two, and Claire listens in. In the book we have an interesting interaction after Dougal leaves where Jamie tells Claire she can come out (how cute, he knows she’s there!). The show just has her watch him punch the tree and then joke about him not hitting anymore trees (The whole “don’t do anymore xyz” joke is getting old, how many times can you re-use this dialogue pattern? It’s not even in the book!). I prefer the way it was handled on the page – Claire advises Jamie that he needs to hit something, which he does. There’s a cute little description of him hitting a cherry tree and the petals falling all over him. Too bad we don’t get to see Jamie showered in flower petals.

We also missed out on a little discussion about Jamie being left-handed and a demonstration about how he sword fights. I need more Jamie time! **pout** Jamie doesn’t say anything about “he’s my uncle” or “what’s worth fighting for”, but whatever. They’ve been adding and rearranging dialogue all over the place and I don’t suppose this particular bit matters too much. We move on to yet another village and another taproom. Claire tries to warn Ned (and later Dougal) that they will not possibly win this rebellion and many lives will be lost. Yeah, because men EVER listen when you try to steer them away from danger, especially when it comes to something they’re passionate about. She doesn’t even think about warning them in the book. In this same tavern we have a huge fight between Dougal’s men and the village men over something said about Claire, that results in a list of injuries. In the book this plays out far differently. In this case the fight only involved Jamie and three of the villagers, and it’s over something personal they said about him. The laundry list of injuries were all Jamie’s. As Claire’s fixing Jamie up, binding his possibly broken ribs, he tells her he learned to fight from his father, and that his father is dead. Poor Jamie. I absolutely loved the interaction that night when Claire finds Jamie outside of her door by tripping over him. I wish they’d have let this interaction play out like it did in the book because it’s adorable and witty and I love how it establishes an even stronger rapport (and fun flirting) between the two. When she trips over him in the book she falls and hits her head. As it turns out, she bumped HER head on Jamie’s head. He says “How much do ye weigh Sassenach? Ye nearly crushed my liver.” His shock about sleeping in the same room with her is sweet, although how it plays out in the show vs. the book is a bit different. His reason for being upstairs turns out to be twofold, although this isn’t said in the show. The people downstairs that he’s worried about coming upstairs to rape her are actually English Dragoons, who he obviously would want to avoid as well. Of course that would be easier done in a stable than outside her door, so she’s still definitely the priority (awwww young love <3). In the book she asks him what would happen if they came upstairs and found him. He says they wouldn’t see his face in the dark and would just think he was waiting his turn (he says this with a smirk and wink – I love cheeky Jamie so much!!!! And how cute is it that he’ll blush one moment about sleeping in the same room as her, and then turn around and make a dirty joke?). Why would you take away all this awesome interaction between these two?!?! Urgh!

So we come to the end of the episode with the same Brit as before showing up again with backup to ask Claire if she’s ok. What will she say? I don’t know to be honest. In the book this doesn’t happen at all.Instead Dougal tells her he’s taking her to Brockton, just the two of them, to meet the commander of the garrison from Fort William. I’m sure you can guess how that’s going to turn out. What did I think of the episode overall? It was slow moving, mostly because of so much Gaelic, the majority of which was Dougal riling up the Scots. They left out a lot of awesome interaction between Claire and Jamie, and I feel that’s such an important part of the story, if not THE most important part. Definitely NOT my favorite episode. Let’s hope this picks up a bit next episode.

What did you think? Don’t forget to comment for a chance to win one of the awesome prizes!

The Gathering, Episode Four. Outlander Watch Along

Can you say l-a-t-e? Yeah, I am so late on this post. I pulled my back and sprained my wrist but the bigger issue is my laptop is broken and I am forced to do things a bit differently. With less functionality as I am used to, I am attempting to get this week’s episode review up. For the prizes and rules information, please refer HERE: https://bridgetblackwood.wordpress.com/2014/08/27/the-way-out-episode-three-outlander-watch-along

Astrid was still out but I look forward to her return tomorrow!

Lets get down to business.

Claire has been busy working on her way out of Castle Leoch. She plans to use the chaos of the gathering to cover her tracks. Love her to pieces but this idea is so bad. Geillis, slippery eel, she knows a scheme when she sees one. It took her days to get to Leoch with the guys and they knew where they were going. Is there a clear trail to follow to Inverness? What about Randall and his men? These are massive holes in the plan. Ms. Fitz dresses Claire up for the oath taking, causing her to wait to make her escape. Diana Gabaldon had a cameo as an obnoxious guest. During her flight from the castle, Claire is almost raped by three men. Douglas saved her only to think on committing the same act he just saved her from. How many times has Claire escaped rape now? My count is five.

She actually makes it to the stable, shocking me to no end, only to trip over Jamie. Like, literally. I like that Jamie didn’t berate her too much about trying to run away. Would anyone in her place not do the same? I didn’t get why Jamie needed to stay away from the gathering but apparently it has to do with the oath taking. Jamie can’t not take the oath but he can’t take the oath either. One way or the other, he’ll have Colum or Dougal looking to remove his head from his shoulders. Men and politics, sheesh. Jamie proved one again he is extremely smart and talked his way out of his own beheading.

I found most of this part to be kind of boring. I learned a lot of history and the such but I don’t watch Outlander for that. Je suis pret means I am ready? Well, I am ready for Jamie to kiss Claire.

The hunt was pretty awesome! I’m a Texas native and wild boars are not unfamiliar to me. I wouldn’t ever want to meet in person. Claire was so worried about the poor little piggy. HA! Little piggy isn’t so helpless. Sadly, Geordie learned the lesson about tangling with wild boars the hardest. Claire’s day as a nurse in the war prepared her for watching men succumb to wounds. Dougal and Claaire’s efforts to ease his passing made me cry.

What the heck was up with the game after the hunt? Was is hockey? Extreme golfing? If golf was played like that today I’d watch it. Dougal barrels into the game with a serious bent for Jamie. For a show being touted as a bodice ripper (don’t get me started) there is a lot of male posturing I don’t get. Thankfully, I have Astrid to tell me what I am not getting. The book explains everything better because it has longer than an hour. Another thing I don’t get? Why does Dougal want Claire along to collect the rents? She’s a healer but he has to know she is going to be a pain in his rear end. I don’t buy for a minute that Dougal wanted Claire to help heal the people they collect the rents from. He’s got something up his sleeve.

The Way Out, Episode Three. Outlander Watch Along

Behind schedule this week! Apologies for the delay and thank you for bearing with us!

Outlander Watch Along. Discuss the episodes. Win prizes.

Astrid’s Blog

Bridget’s blog

The rules:

• Be nice! This is meant to be fun. Rude or mean comments will not get approved so do not waste your time.
• No spoilers beyond the episode currently being discussed. If we are watching episode four but you are commenting on episode one, please do not spoil for anyone trying to catch up.

The Prizes:

• Third Prize – Book Lover’s Soy Wax Tarts in Sassenach by Frostbeard Studio
• Second Prize – Sassenach t-shirt in your choice of  Unisex (black, grey, maroon, green, or blue) or Women’s fit (blue, green, grey, pink, or pistachio) by Socialpop Tees
• First Prize – Hand Stamped “Sassenach” Stainless Steel Dragonfly Necklace with Amber Bead by TaggYourIt

The Virgin View by Bridget Blackwood

My thoughts this week are all over the place. Geilis, who I initially liked is too nosey. She isn’t the kind of nosey nellie looking for gossip, you can tell she is dangerous with information. She’s slippery as a snake and I want someone to take a shovel to her. My, what a difference a week makes!

I cannot spell the young lassie’s name and have taken to calling her long hair because it kind of looks like her name. I know it is pronounced Leery. I feel bad for her and I don’t. Being on the crappy end of unrequited love is the pits. I know it hurts and having experienced it as a teen I hate to see her suffer it. On the other hand, didn’t she just escape a public beating? Why is she right back to kissing men in places she can easily be caught? Is she looking to trap Jamie in matrimony? Looks like it. Not much going on between her ears besides jealousy and scheming.

Jamie. Oy. Does he know Long Hair likes him or not? He acted clueless one minute and was swapping spit with her the next. If Long Hair didn’t have it out for Claire before, she does after his cold shoulder routine and comment about her being just a kid back then therefore not memorable.

I was relieved to see the Mrs. Fitz/witch scene was a daydream. I was going to be disappointed in Claire if she told Mrs. Fitz. I fully believe it would have gone down exactly the way she imagined it. What I loved was Mrs. Fitz getting in the priest’s face and telling him to vamoose. HA! She is a great character and I love her sass.

The Priest! O.M.G. He is a monster. A product of his time, I know, but still. I have heard about nailing ears to the pillory before but I never thought about what it meant. Ow ow ow! This man in black is going to be a problem, I can feel it.

The scene with Jamie and Claire checking his wound was H-O-T!

Between saving the kiddo and helping ease Collum’s pain, Claire is finding a place in the community very well. They like her and the more she helps out the less they will be suspicious of her. The scenes in the beginning with Frank served to remind us that she really does want to go back home. We all love Jamie but Claire wouldn’t be nearly as likeable if she fell through the stones and gave up on her husband overnight.

Claire’s resolve to get home is commendable but dangerous. I’m afraid she is going to do a lot of damage in her reckless attempts to escape back to Inverness. How does she expect to even get there? No one is going to go against Collum or Dougal to help her.

Discussion Questions!

1. How do you think Claire plans to escape?

2. Is Long Hair reckless and dumb or scheming to trap Jamie?

3. Who is more dangerous, Geilis or the priest?

The Professional Fangirl by Astrid V. Tallaksen

Astrid is not able to write on this episode or the next due to prior commitments. I need you to tell me what was different from the book, was it better/worse, etc. -Bridget

Castle Leoch, Episode Two. Outlander Watch Along

Outlander Watch Along. Discuss the episodes. Win prizes.

Astrid’s Blog

Bridget’s blog

The rules:

• Be nice! This is meant to be fun. Rude or mean comments will not get approved so do not waste your time.
• No spoilers beyond the episode currently being discussed. If we are watching episode four but you are commenting on episode one, please do not spoil for anyone trying to catch up.

The Prizes:

• Third Prize – Book Lover’s Soy Wax Tarts in Sassenach by Frostbeard Studio
• Second Prize – Sassenach t-shirt in your choice of  Unisex (black, grey, maroon, green, or blue) or Women’s fit (blue, green, grey, pink, or pistachio) by Socialpop Tees
• First Prize – Hand Stamped “Sassenach” Stainless Steel Dragonfly Necklace with Amber Bead by TaggYourIt

The Virgin View by Bridget Blackwood

Met Mistress Fitzgibbons, who prefers to be called Mrs. Fitz. She came barreling out into the yard with a smile on her face and greeted all the men like sons. She made a quick assessment of Claire and after checking her healing skills were up to snuff, left her to tend Jamie’s shoulder. Nothing gets past this woman. She’s the one who runs Leoch’s day to day affairs.

Claire removes Jamie’s shirt and we get a look at his back. OUCH! Someone flogged Jamie! I was shocked at the scars because I’ve never seen someone flogged before. I’ve seen my share of scars from all sorts of life events, but flogging isn’t one of them, praise the Lord. Having an idea of flogging I wanted to know the actual definition.

“flogging,  also called whipping or caning ,   a beating administered with a whip or rod, with blows commonly directed to the person’s back. It was imposed as a form of judicial punishment and as a means of maintaining discipline in schools, prisons, military forces, and private homes.” –Encyclopedia Britannica

How does a person end up getting flogged? In Jamie’s case, his crime was obstruction. I didn’t know this, but it is considered obstruction if you stop soldiers from raping your sister. Nice. Black Jack Randall is disgusting and makes Jamie look at his sister Jenny’s bare breasts. If Jenny had been his wife, I still think he would have made Jamie look, but once he knew they were siblings it became a game. Shaming them both by ripping her dress open and then flogging Jamie in an effort to force Jenny to have sex with him willingly. And she did, of course, because she loves her brother.

Newsflash for Randall, blackmail and coercion as tools to make a person say yes to sex still rape.

Jamie was knocked out and woke up in a cart with chickens on the way to some fort as a prisoner.

Great Jamie-ism “Chickens are very poor company.”

Claire has a breakdown at the mention of her husband and Jamie comforts her. That look between them, woo it sizzled! Annnnd of course it was over practically before it began. *grumble grumble* Jamie reminds Claire that she is English in a place were being english is bad. Very sound advice.

***next day***

Mrs. Fitz wakes Claire and helps her dress in the style of that period, or as Mr. Blackwood called it, a crap ton of clothes. Claire is taken to Colum, the Laird of Castle leoch. There is something seriously wrong with his legs but his mind is sharp. He attempts to interrogate Claire but gets nowhere satisfying. He tells her a tinker will be at Leoch in five days and she can leave with him for Inverness. Gonna be a loooong and bumpy trip. Besides, who can say the stones would work? Does it need to be Samhain?

Claire joins the Laird, his wife, and Dougal at the head table for dinner. Dougal and Colum ply Claire with food and Rhenish wine to loosen her tongue. I’d say they got more information than Claire realized she was handing out. Claire makes an error by commenting on a boy named Hamish playing with his father, Dougal. He is actually Colum’s son and heir to Leoch. Either there is more to this than I know or it was taken as a slander against Colum’s wife. Did they think Claire was accusing the child of being Dougal’s bastard with Leoch’s lady? I dunno. I suspect this will develop. Claire makes a hasty retreat and realizes she goofed by being so friendly and chatty.

Claire seeks out Jamie to change the dressing on his shoulder. Honestly, the dressing change was just an excuse if you ask me. She finds him in the stables working with a horse. He was doing well until Claire spooked the horse. Jamie was visibly frustrated, probably at the horse and Claire, but he quickly recovers. He has a great deal of patience and self-control over his emotions. Jamie is level headed. He’d make a great leader. He comments that the horse is a “lass with spirit, always a good thing” and you can’t help but think he is also talking about Claire.

They eat lunch and talk which leads to a conversation about the price on his head for murder during his escape. Jamie wasn’t the one who killed the soldier, but he was charged with the crime. Only Colum and Dougal know about the bounty, and now Claire. Jamie is both trusting her with the information and testing her loyalty. I think Claire was equally miffed and impressed that he trusted her. Kind of reckless on Jamie’s part but he is carrying a torch for her so I can understand wanting to know if she is worth it. Encounter #2 interrupted by blasted people. Argh!

Next we met Geilis Duncan. I like her. The way she talks and moves adds to her mystery. She shares Claire’s interest in botany. Girls in the village seek her out to bring on their flux to rid themselves of unwanted pregnancy. Some people think she is a witch, but I think she has the potential to be a neat character. Fingers crossed she isn’t crappy. Geilis translates for Claire in the great hall that evening. The people of Leoch are bringing their disputes before Colum to settle. A man drags his daughter, Laoghaire, forward and accuses her of loose behavior. No idea what she did that qualifies as loose but I’ve probably done it six times since Tuesday. Jamie steps in to take the punishment for her because it would shame her too much. Okay, glad you are a chivalrous gentleman and all but shut up! Some other guy should have stepped up with Jamie injured. Bunch of louses. Jamie chooses fists over the strap, imagine that. The guy handing out the sentence on behalf of Dougal hits him several times before finally slugging him in the injured shoulder! There was more going on here, subtle looks between Colum and Dougal. Politics! Bah! Curse politics.

Claire fixes Jamie up, again. Mrs. Fitz thanks him for stepping in because the girl is her granddaughter. Aw. Okay, I take it back. Good on you, Jamie. Since Claire is leaving for Inverness, she and Jamie say goodbye. Might have been a more satisfying goodbye but encounter #3 is interrupted by Laoghaire waiting to say thank you to Jamie. These side characters are really harshing on my romance. I’m not sure about this girl. Knowing she’d be treated to a beating in front of everyone she know and still misbehaving leads me to believe she is empty headed and frivolous.

Claire is ready to jump on the Tinker’s cart to Inverness, but you knew something had to stop her. Remember when Mrs. Fitz asked Claire if she was a Beaton? What’s a Beaton? Better question is who are Beatons? Turns out they are a clan of skilled healers. Leoch used to have one, but he died from a cold (ironic, huh?). Colum has Claire brought to him in the mysterious locked room from episode one. It is a surgery. Column won’t let Claire leave because he knows she has secrets. Until he is sure her secrets are harmless, he is going to keep her as a “guest.” She can keep the title unless she attempts to leave, then she will become a prisoner. While she is at Leoch and behaving herself, she will find a place as the new healer.

Poor Claire. She’s cursing up a blue streak, but I am clapping. More Jamie and Claire! Colum and Dougal are underhanded in their dealings with Claire. I get they don’t trust her and women are not high on the totem pole, but they are irritating.

Discussion Questions!

1. What is up with the whole Hamish thing?
2. Geilis; friend or foe?
3. How sad was it seeing Frank look for Claire?

The Professional Fangirl by Astrid V. Tallaksen

Let me just say that as amazing as last week was, this week’s episode was even better. It had more. momentum, and now that we know our main characters we can really find out who they are. Anyway, onto the differences between show and book. If I don’t mention it as a difference then you can assume it’s similar to, if not straight out of, the book, or that I didn’t see it as enough of a difference to care or really notice. Episode One was based off of the first three chapters of the book. Episode Two was based on chapters 4-7. Things were a bit out of order from the books in this episode, but I think that’s mostly because there was a bit of what might have seemed confusing or like an overlap perhaps.

The first character we meet upon reaching Castle Leoch is Mrs. FitzGibbons. The actress who plays her is quite perfect for the role (although I have a bit of a hard time seeing her as something other than the Slaveen alien from an episode of Doctor Who – I’m sure that will wear off as I see her as Mrs. Fitz). Mrs. Fitz rules the Castle with, lets not necessarily call it an iron fist, but she does know what’s going on in every corner and every person in the castle knows she means business when she tells them what to do.

Jamie’s poor back. It’s so much worse than I imagined. In the book the scars from the floggings are described thusly: “…a criss-cross of faded white lines… silvery scar tissue in some spots where the welts had crossed, and irregular patches where several blows had struck the same spot, flaying off skin and gouging the muscle beneath…” The telling of what happened regarding his back is the same aside from a few points, mostly not noteworthy except for one. In the episode, Jenny’s pretty well under control of Randall. In the book though, she stomps on his foot, elbows him in the ribs, and knees him in the balls. Jenny (Jamie’s older sister) doesn’t put up with nothing from nobody, and I really, really, really wish they had left this in because it A: gives a hint to who she is (you’ll meet her again later), and B: gives a hint to who Jamie is, because his big sister is going to have had an impact on his personality. Still, both in book and show, the rape Randall alludes to being about to take place still occurs (as far as we know, since we don’t see it in either book nor show).

Right after the telling of the story of Jamie’s scars, Claire starts crying because of missing Frank and realizing that he is, for all intents and purposes, dead. I feel so bad for her. I can’t imagine trying to deal with all the stress of what’s happened to her, and then wondering what Frank must be thinking, and then having the horrible realization that he’s not even been born yet. Jamie being Jamie, he comforts her. Now, in the show she jumped up and put distance between them presumably because the electricity was too much. Fun fact, in the books it’s because there was a certain physical, ummmmm shall we say sign (you get my drift?), to let her know Jamie’s pretty into her and THAT is why she jumps up, because that tells her things are a little close for comfort.

The next big thing that happens is the intial meeting of Colum Mackenzie – the laird of Castle Leoch and Clan Mackenzie. In the books he’s described as a bit more handsome (as far as I interpreted) than he is in the show, with a “beautifully molded head and long torso”. He’s also supposed to have lovely black hair that he oils and curls for Hall. Of course, as I pointed out in Episode One, Colum’s brother Dougal looks nothing like he’s described either. In the episode Colum told her he’d let her go with a tinker the following Saturday, but there’s no promise or even possibility of this offered in the book. He intends for her to stay until he’s figured out who she really is. I’m really not sure why exactly they changed this. It’s a pretty major departure, and the whole idea in the book is that she’s been told she can’t leave and she’s being constantly watched. A pretty large portion of the story is that she’s going to have to figure out how to sneak away somehow. Granted, they get back to this by the end of the episode, but in a round-about way.

Next we meet Geillis Duncan. At least in the show we do. She’s nowhere to be seen at this point in the book. Mrs. Fitz is the one in the garden (although she doesn’t say anything about witches or anything of the like), and Mrs. Fitz is the one translating at Hall that night. Speaking of Hall, there are a few things different here as well. There’s no laughter or humor in the discussion about whether Jamie will take Laoghaire’s punishment for her. It was a serious matter, and without any subtitles to tell us what Jamie said that was so funny, it all seems a bit of an unnecessary difference (although Jamie is absolutely wonderful when he smiles and laughs). Another big difference is that in the episode we see Dougal essentially tell the guy to keep hitting Jamie past breaking drawing blood. It seems he’s specifically supposed to hit him in the wounded shoulder. Again, I really don’t understand why this was changed. Maybe they’ll tell us later.

Remember how last week I said I thought I knew what the room was where Frank and Claire had their tryst? I WAS RIGHT! I was doing a little dance because I love being right. At the very end of the episode Colum takes Claire downstairs, leading her to this room. He doesn’t tell her where he’s taking her, and I would be willing to bet she’s thinking he’s taking her to a dungeon of some sorts. But in the book he tells her exactly where he’s taking her, specifically with the idea of making her useful while she stays. There are several scenes in the book where she’s doing her thing down there, going through inventory and what have you. I’m sure we’ll see some of that next episode.

So overall what did I think? While I don’t understand all the changes they made, I’m still loving everything about this show. It’s lovely, and the more I see of the characters the more I love them. (Oh and did you see Claire’s lovely hair – those frizzy curls are straight from the book!)

I hope you enjoyed the episode as much as I did! What differences did you notice? Comment for a chance to win prizes!