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‘Outlander’ Season 6, Episode 3: Fergus, Jamie Scene — Commentary

March 21, 2022

Outlander faithful, we need to have a wee chat. Because that big scene between Jamie and Fergus in Sunday’s episode? Wasna it.

I know that Season 6 was cut short because of COVID and Catriona Balfe’s pregnancy, skewing story plans and making things difficult on the whole. So it’s very possible that the season didn’t unfold the way the writers and producers originally envisioned, and changes had to be made for practicality’s sake.

And perhaps because of those changes, Fergus’ emotional nadir takes place not at the same time as the other gigantic blow that’s on the horizon — as it does in the season’s source material, Diana Gabaldon’s novel A Breath of Snow and Ashes — but as a separate incident. And that’s about as much as I can say without speaking about both a suicide attempt and book specifics, which may or may not be spoilers for the show, so please bail now if you’re so inclined.

OK. Fergus’ declining emotional state in the show is depicted pretty much as it is in A Breath of Snow and Ashes. He’s distracted over the fact that his newborn son, Henri-Christian, is a dwarf. He feels ineffectual in both protecting and providing a life for his family. And he’s been drinking too much, too often. So he decides to end his life by cutting his wrist; it is only luck that Jamie notices Fergus acting oddly, follows him and gets there in time to save him.

As someone who’s read and loved the books for years, I’ve always been very moved by Jamie’s recounting of the incident to Claire, who was not present to witness it. (Why? We’ll get to that in a moment.) As Claire narrates:

They had knelt together by the spring, embracing, wet with blood and water, locked together as though he could hold Fergus to the earth, to his family, by force of will alone, and he had no notion at all of what he had said , lost in the passion of the moment—until the end.

You must continue, for their sakes—though you would not for your own,” he had whispered, Fergus’ face pressed into his shoulder, the black hair wet with sweat and water, cold against his cheek. “Do you understand, my child, my son? Do you understand?

I felt his throat move as he swallowed.

See, I kent ye were dying,” he said very softly. “I was sure ye’d be gone when I came back to the house, and I should be alone. I wasna speaking to Fergus, then, I think, so much as to myself.

He raised his head then, and looked at me through a blur of tears and laughter.

Oh, God, Claire,” he said, “I would have been so angry, if ye’d died and left me!

Here’s the part where we have to talk about something that certainly happens in A Breath of Snow and Ashes and might or might not take place in Outlander Season 6. (I truly don’t know; though Starz provides TVLine with screeners, I haven’t seen the entire season yet.) In the novel, the reason Claire has been out of the action for a while is because she becomes deathly ill with what is believed to be a “bloody flux” that’s infecting various inhabitants of Fraser’s Ridge. At one point during her ordeal she has an out-of-body experience, but ultimately pulls through to “Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ” another day.

Fergus’ attempt to end his life takes place while Claire apparently is circling ye olde drain. So Jamie is so out of his mind with worry and grievance that he’s seen much at rock bottom as he sits there, dripping and crying by the spring with his adopted son. I’ve always thought of this scene as being on the level of Mr. and Mrs. Fraser’s infamous reunion in the Edinburgh print shop: a defining moment in the story and an instance of when the normally stalwart Jamie — who has with stood a Choose Your Own Crappy Adventure of misfortune and physical pain throughout his life — is overcome by the emotions roiling inside him.

So the Jamie who finds Fergus in Sunday’s episode of the TV series isn’t the same Jamie who finds him in the book: He hasn’t been laid low by the very real fear that Claire may die. And while I lament that the convergence of the two storylines may not have been doable this season, I’m really irked by the way what we saw unfolded.

I’m no book purist who needs chapter and verse to play out just as Herself wrote it. But Fergus’ despair is deep, and Jamie’s love for his adopted son is even deeper. So I have to believe that, even on an otherwise totally average day, Jamie would be ripped apart by finding his child trying to end his life. Instead — after Big Red stops Fergus, tussles with him and then winds a tourniquet around his arm — we get… a pep talk? Yes, Jamie says the things he says in the book, but the feel of the scene is “let’s right this ship” and not “good Jesus my kid nearly just said goodbye for good.” Even when Fergus collapses against his father, sobbing, Jamie stands tall and strong. The entire scene takes only two minutes.

There’s a chance Outlander is saving Jamie’s giant catharsis for when Claire, against all odds, pulls through her nightmare illness. If so, I’d like to raise the point that dudes can cry more than once a season, especially given such good reason to do so.

So now I want to hear from you. Book lovers! Show-only lovers! Hit the comments and tell me what you thought of Sunday’s episode.

If you’re thinking about suicide, are worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline’s toll-free number: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)