Outlander: The Devil's Mark Books Included

April 19, 2015 6:55 AM - Season 1, Episode 11

Claire and Geillis stand trial for witchcraft; Claire learns a secret about Geillis's past.

Well, this was fun.

posted by olinerd (17 comments total)

Okay so my major beef with this is that in the books, as Claire is explaining her truth, Jamie is fucking scared of her. He's not, in the show, and for some reason it was really powerful to me in the books that this was the case and it disappoints me that in the show he's just straightaway like "yeah sure whatevs lass".

Also, he doesn't see her start to go through the stones? I thought that was critical to him 100% believing her?
posted by olinerd at 6:56 AM on April 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

so geillis is actually dead now then? i know she shows up again later in the series but i didn't realize it would be in claire's future timeline.
posted by poffin boffin at 8:10 AM on April 19, 2015

In the book he definitely saw her start to go through and he stopped her. Even with some of the book changes (like I really needed to hear the line "is there really nothing here for me?" from Claire before Jamie leaves her at the stones), I loved that episode so much. I was so worried watching the clock as the trial kept going on for so much of the episode, I thought they'd give the truth-telling and back to the stones scenes short shrift, but I think they managed to pull it off. Also, Geilis was amazing, I loved the bbq line.
posted by banjo_and_the_pork at 9:06 AM on April 19, 2015 [2 favorites]

I loved all of it. Best episode of the series so far! I do wish they'd kept in the bit with him starting to see her go, but other than that and Laoghaire's continued over-the-top villainess routine, it all worked for me. I'm relieved they didn't leave us with a lame cliffhanger of will she/won't she go.

poffin boffin, we don't ever get on screen confirmation of whether Geillis dies until much later. If the show holds true to books, we'll find out what happened in season 3.
posted by something something at 10:38 AM on April 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

Gabaldon has made it clear that the reader shouldn't assume a character has died unless it is directly written so.

I wonder if Brianna and Roger will be able to save Otter-Tooth....
posted by brujita at 12:06 PM on April 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

I never got past Voyager, so maybe I'm confused ... but since they encounter Geillis in Jamaica, then didn't she necessarily survive the burning and although I don't recall it, isn't it explained somehow in that book?
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 4:35 PM on April 19, 2015

Yeah, basically everyone finding out she's pregnant (by virtue of her stripping) means they give her a chance to have the innocent baby and give it up before they burn her, then there's so trickery with replacing her body on the stake with a recently dead lady, or something. Dougal helps. But she survives.
posted by olinerd at 4:53 PM on April 19, 2015

We MIGHT see Geillis in season 2 if there are any scenes from Raymond's or St. Germain's pov.
posted by brujita at 5:14 PM on April 19, 2015

But she survives.

yay
posted by poffin boffin at 5:17 PM on April 19, 2015

As I smugly tell my wife whenever we watch this show, THE GHOST OF RON MOOOOOORRREEE HATHE CURSED THEEEEEEE TO HOPE AND CANON VARIANCE AND DESPAIR
posted by robocop is bleeding at 6:27 PM on April 19, 2015 [2 favorites]

I mean generally I did really enjoy this episode. The Geillis 1968 reveal foreshadowing was a lot more obvious than in the book, in a way that was especially delicious to me since I knew what was coming, so I'm super interested to read all the reactions from around the internet from people who don't know the books.

But I just wish Jamie had... reacted... more. Maybe next episode we'll have a delayed freakout?
posted by olinerd at 7:09 PM on April 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

If nothing else, I need to see their conversation where she tells him about future stuff like airplanes. I really hope next week picks up right where this ended, so we can get more feels and Jamie telling her that walking away was the hardest thing he'd ever done. Delicious feels!

I'm super excited to read commentary from non-book-people, too. I feel like this is our GoT Ned Stark moment.
posted by banjo_and_the_pork at 7:24 PM on April 19, 2015 [2 favorites]

At the end of A Breath of Snow and Ashes Jamie describes to Claire the telephone and light fixtures he's telepathically dreamed; she says that she's told him what they do but not much how they look.
posted by brujita at 9:24 PM on April 19, 2015

The small deviations from the book felt pointless. Why not have Jamie react more strongly? Why have Claire dither about letting Geillie take the blame, instead of it playing out like in the book? Why not have Claire start to go through the stones? Why have Jamie say goodbye so brutally on the hill? It felt like deviation for the sake of it, not to further anything.

Aside from the niggly differences (and I should really, seriously let them go), it was a good episode. Father Bain was a really good surprise. Ned waving a gun around the courtroom was hilarious. Laoghaire's testimony was that of a petulant jealous teenager, and it's a pity the audience was so unsympathetic towards Claire and Geillis so her testimony was allowed to carry far more weight than it should, especially after Ned had the housemaid's testimony withdrawn (or whatever it was).

It was interesting that they moved the hearing into a real courtroom instead of the town square. Was that because of historical inaccuracy, or just because a courtroom made it seem more formal? Gabaldon has already said she took liberties writing in a witch trial, since the last such trial had been decades before, so I assume it was only for dramatic purposes.

And...here's the worst part: I love Jamie, and Sam Heughan looks the part for sure, but Heughan seems to have a very limited range. Watching him react to Claire's tale was a combination of Jamie frowning/staring into the distance/turning to look at Claire, and repeat. He just looks glowery and a bit irritated with her, really. It doesn't seem so bad on rewatch -- maybe I was in a bad mood myself the first time through.
posted by tracicle at 5:33 AM on April 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

Tracicle, I totally agree about the small deviations being kind of pointless choices- especially not having Claire start to go through the stones. In the little after-episode thingy Ron Moore said he purposefully didn't do the start-to-disappear thing because he thought that made it too science fiction and would take the audience out of the story. Which, ok, I guess, but it is a story that is based on time travel! I hope this isn't too spoilery a thing to say, but is the show never going to show any characters disappearing through stones? That will end up seeming sort of willfully obtuse by the time later seasons roll around, assuming later seasons transpire and they don't veer completely off book.

I thought that maybe Heughan was trying to play Jamie really close to the books, because doesn't Jamie's face get really stony and remote when he's struggling to contain strong feelings? I could be mis-remembering, or giving him too much credit for being super method, but that's how interpreted those expressions.
posted by banjo_and_the_pork at 6:01 AM on April 21, 2015 [3 favorites]

I think you're right about the stony expression, banjo. I re-watched last night and I don't think we're supposed to get the impression that he's taking it all in stride.
posted by something something at 8:28 AM on April 23, 2015 [2 favorites]

I liked the choice not to have her actually go through the stones visually, just the humming sound and the expression of her being drawn closer to the stones was way more evocative than a visual effect could have been.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 8:05 PM on April 26, 2015 [1 favorite]