Surrender Ep 101

Surrender 

Directed by: Jennifer Getzinger

Written by: Anne Kenney

Podcast Episode 101

 

That's a whole lot of storytelling to digest. Anne Kenney did an amazing job with the material given, but it definitely felt like too much for one episode. I wanted it to slow down to a more comfortable pacing. Overall, I liked it. There was a good flow to it. The direction was thoughtful as well.

Here are my basic thoughts on Jamie, Claire, and Frank. To get my deep thoughts and ideas, you'll need to listen to the podcast. 

It's 1752 at Lallybroch. Six years since the Battle of Culloden. 

Jamie Fraser, aka Dunbonnet and Red Jamie, showed us a desolate, purposeless, and wounded man. He was emotionally isolated and barely spoke when he was amongst the family. He was a ghost of a man, until he again found a purpose to live for. He looked dirty and without care for his own comforts or needs. Jamie's relaxed posture when Mary McNab shaved him was a subtle beauty. When he shed a tear as she gifted him with wholeness the night before he left for prison, was gut wrenching. Sam Heughan can convey emotion without much speech or overacting.  

I wanted to know more about his time in the cave though. I wanted to see him dream of Claire, as she did of him to give layers to his desolation. I want to know why he wore his hair down underneath the brown hat.  

Claire is trying her best to re-integrate into married life with Frank and to mothering Brianna. She's also desolated and emotionally isolated. She thinks she can be one place in her mind and heart, while going through the motions in real life. She cannot. At one point, she wakes Frank to have sex with him saying, "I miss my husband." That is top level cold right there. I am dumbfounded they would write that depth of disconnect into Claire. That was downright mean. She thinks Frank won't notice her lack of intimacy while he is connected to her body, ultimately her internal betrayal sinks Frank's ability to be close to her. It is awful to watch play out. I don't like to think of Claire as so selfish. Hurt, grieving, acting out...sure, but cold like this, it's too much. In the end, being a stay-at-home mother and wife isn't enough and she enrolls in medical school. On her first day, she meets her soon to be BFF Joe Abernathy. 

The heavy handed play of her being a feminist is over the top. Claire goes to medical school because she must. It's not to further a feminist agenda. She can't not be a doctor. She finds her deeper purpose there. 

Frank Randall is a good man who keeps hoping Claire will open to him and be his honest to goodness wife. He loves her. He wants her. After the dinner party, the jig is up. He knows for sure she is thinking of Jamie while giving her body to him. It's too much. Something broke revealing that truth. He chose to stay. I feel so terrible for him. 

I wanted to see more of their everyday interaction to reveal what type of husband he was overall. what were his expectations of home and hearth? I think it's a missed opportunity to flesh him out more than Claire being a cold bi*ch to nice guy Frank. 

The shot panning back from their twin beds was an absolute acknowledgement of the type of relationship they moved into, after that fateful night. 

Jamie surrendered in a literal sense to the British, for the betterment of his family. He went from one prison to another to serve a greater purpose. 

Claire surrendered to her different life, different marriage, and found purpose in going back to medical school. She found a lifeline. 

Frank surrendered to being a father to the only child he would ever call his own, and to be a husband in a loveless marriage.

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What’s Coming up? Season 3 Episode 3.

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