Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 251

Sentimental Journey in Harwich

Well, here's something you never expected:  Apropos McLuhan's hot and cool, Tina and I went to see Sentimental Journey, a big band, play for about an hour at the First Congregational Church in Harwich on Cape Cod tonight.   Bob Cormier, who joined the band in just last year or two and plays trombone, invited us to the performance.  Bob and his wife Sue have a cottage not far from ours on Cape Cod Bay, so we couldn't resist.   (We've known each for many years - astute readers may recall a character named Cormier in one of my novels, The Pixel Eye - she asked me to put her name in one of my novels, and I said yes to that, too.)

But back to the band - they were good, playing numbers from George Gershwin, Tommy Dorsey, E. Y. Harburg ("Over the Rainbow") all the way up to Stevie Wonder's "You Are the Sunshine of My Wife" in time. The 15-person band, with a guitarist, drummer, bass, piano, singer, and the requisite horns, gave spirited, evocative renditions of every song.

As someone who came of age in the 1950s, when rock 'n' roll was aborning and big-band music was mostly over, I've always found these sounds unexpectedly appealing.   On the one hand, they seem old fashioned.   On the other hand, I can hear an energy in them which rock music took a different way, and it's invigorating to hear and see it live, almost like traveling in time (another one of my favorite themes).

So if you ever get a chance to see Sentimental Journey, go for it.  In the meantime, here's a photo - with Bob Cormier in the second row, white mustache and red tie and trombone in hand.


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Parsing Trump's Racism

Here is Donald Trump's response to Elizabeth Warren's excoriating attack on him last night:



Although I disagree with most of it - I, too, would be very happy if Warren were Clinton's VP choice - I don't fault Trump's right to say most of it.  He's entitled to say Warren has not been productive as a US Senator (though I think she's done a great job), and even that she has a "nasty mouth" (which does have an anti-woman tinge to it, but no one could deny that Warren was nasty about Trump last night - justifiably nasty, to be sure - but nasty no doubt).

But there's one word in that tweet that Trump is not entitled to say, and for which he should be called out by all decent and fair-minded Republicans.  "Pocahontas," as used here by Trump, is plain and simply a racial, racist epithet, no different from the slurs that have long been hurled against other minorities.

There is a difference between even the harshest political denunciations, correct or not, and the kinds of demeaning racist comments that roll out of Trump on almost a daily basis.   I hope everyone who has even remotely toyed with voting for him, for any reason, in November, keeps this in mind, and what it is doing to our public discourse.


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Suggestion to MSNBC: Stop Taking Money for Scurrilous GOP Ads

I said this on Twitter earlier tonight, but thought it deserved a slightly longer screed here on my blog: Suggestion to MSNBC: why don't you stop being so greedy, and stop taking money for scurrilous anti-Hillary Clinton GOP ads.

The ad that occasioned this tweet aired on MSNBC right after Rachel Maddow's superb interview of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and her endorsement of Hillary for President.  You likely have seen it, and I'm not going to give it any more currency by posting it or a link to it here.  But in case you haven't, it's been around for a little while, and intercuts Bill Clinton dissembling about Monica Lewinsky and Hillary explaining what happened with her email when she was Secretary of State.

The ad is classic false association propaganda, a term first introduced by the Institute for Propaganda Analysis to explain what happened in Nazi Germany more than half a century ago.  What Bill Clinton did and said about Monica literally has nothing whatsoever in common with Hillary's explanation of her private email server (and, by the way, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice's staff also used private mail when they were Secretaries of State).  The only thing that Bill's very nuanced explanation about his sexual activity has to do with Hillary's straightforward explanation of her email server is the two people in question were and are married.  

So why did MSNBC take money for and play this textbook example of propaganda?  My colleague Bob Blechman provided the historical explanation in response to my tweet: he pointed out that CBS shifted its news operation from a cost- to a profit-making division decades ago, and all other commercial broadcast media followed suit.

I think it would be a very healthy development for our body politic if news media stopped doing that. Either that, or maybe I'll resort to DVR'ing all the news I see on TV, watch it a minute after it's been broadcast, and delete any Republican garbage in the form of lying ads that may appear.




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12 Monkeys 2.8: Time Itself Wants Time Travel

A really tight, excellently plotted and played, episode 2.8 of 12 Monkeys Monday night, in which time itself plays the decisive role in how the time travel plays out, with time travel itself and its continuance at stake.

12 Monkeys has been building up to this personification of time as an entity with a will of its own all season.  I like this approach, and used it to very different effect in The Chronology Protection Case.

In Monday's episode, the fun begins when Katarina orders Cassandra to go back in time and kill Katarina.   She doesn't want to leave her daughter Hannah without her mother, so the time of the killing is literally as Hannah is dying, presumably of the plague.  James is furious about this, and goes back in time to stop it (especially fortunately for this episode, the arrival times of travelers to the past have been perfected to the instant).

Katarina understandably feels guilty about all the death her time-travel machine has engendered, especially recently.   Fortunately for the series, not only James but time itself is against this.   Every killing of Katarina results in a "re-set" of the day, with Katarina and her capacity to invent a time-travel machine still very much alive.  (I like the re-set gambit in time travel a lot, too, and used it in Unburning Alexandria).   In some ways even more heart-rending, every attempt to save Hannah's life - who, it turns out, is suffering not from the plague but something more curable - also results in a re-set.   Time itself not only wants Katarina alive, but heart-broken over the loss of her daughter - this is what it takes to get Katarina in a proper state of mind to invent the time-travel machine.

Fortunately for James and the audience, we have Jennifer on hand to explain what's going on and what needs to be done, as befits her talents as a primary.   James is able to decode her advice to change history by doing nothing, and I won't tell you the ending, in case you haven't seen it, but it's perfect.  It's also gratifying to see James and Cassandra working together and getting closer.

A great ending to a great episode, and I'm looking forward to more next week.

See also 12 Monkeys 2.1: Whatever Will Be, Will Be ... 12 Monkeys 2.2: The Serum ... 12 Monkeys 2.3: Primaries and Paradoxes ... 12 Monkeys 2.4: Saving Time ... 12 Monkeys 2.5: Jennifer's Story ... 12 Monkeys 2.6: "'Tis Death Is Dead" ... 12 Monkeys 2.7: Ultimate Universes

And see also this Italian review, w/reference to Hawking and my story, "The Chronology Protection Case"

And see also 12 Monkeys series on SyFy: Paradox Prominent and Excellent ...12 Monkeys 1.2: Your Future, His Past ... 12 Monkeys 1.3:  Paradoxes, Lies, and Near Intersections ... 12 Monkeys 1.4: "Uneasy Math" ... 12 Monkeys 1.5: The Heart of the Matter ... 12 Monkeys 1.6: Can I Get a Witness? ... 12 Monkeys 1.7: Snowden, the Virus, and the Irresistible ... 12 Monkeys 1.8: Intelligent Vaccine vs. Time Travel ... 12 Monkeys 1.9: Shelley, Keats, and Time Travel ... 12 Monkey 1.10: The Last Jump ... 12 Monkeys 1.11: What-Ifs ... 12 Monkeys 1.2: The Plunge ... 12 Monkeys Season 1 Finale: "Time Travel to Create Time Travel"

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The Americans Season 4 Finale: Neighborly Relations

An excellent season 4 finale to The Americans last night.  As befits this series and is the case in so many episodes, the very last moments were pure gold.

Gabriel has advised - but not commanded - Philip and Elizabeth to pack up their belongings and kids and go back home to the USSR.   William on his deathbed is babbling to Stan about Philip and Elizabeth, saying how pretty Elizabeth is and how lucky Philip is, without actually mentioning their names.   Philip and Elizabeth look nervously out the window, half or more expecting Stan to rush up with a bevy of Chevy police cars to arrest them, but instead-

Stan comes home, and realizes that Paige and Matthew have been making out.   He's laughing and winking when Philip comes over to fetch Paige, and that says it all:  William hasn't had said anything more to incriminate Philip and Elizabeth, and they can continue living as they have, right across the street from this FBI guy, and doing their business.

Whether it will be business as usual remains to be seen next year.  It's not clear that William has died when Stan comes home, so conceivably he could still divulge something else, but that's not very likely.   What is clear is that Stan's not faking - he's genuinely relaxed and amused about his son and Philip's daughter.

There was a close call earlier, when William was apprehended, and we've yet to see if Stan recognizes Philip when he sees Philip in one of his disguises.  Some are better than others, but at very least something about Philip in disguise should look familiar to Stan.

Meanwhile, Paige wants Elizabeth to teach her how to defend herself, and Elizabeth says she'll oblige.  Philip and Elizabeth have told Paige they don't want her to get involved with Matthew as a way of helping them get more information about Stan, but either Paige still thinks that's a good idea, or really cares at least a little about Matthew, or both.   Significantly, though Philip and Elizabeth would not be comfortable with Paige in Matthew's arms because she might inadvertently reveal something dangerous about them, it's their very being together that has reassured Philip and Elizabeth, and has given us two more seasons of The Americans.

Which I'm very glad about, and I'll be back with more next year.

See also The Americans 4.4: Life and Death ... The Americans 4.6: Martha, Martha, Martha ... The Americans 4.8: Whither Martha? ... The Day After The Americans 4.9 ... The Americans 4.10: Outstanding! ... The Americans 4.11: Close Call ... The Americans 4.12: Detente and Secret History
And see also The Americans 3.1: Caring for People We Shouldn't ... The Americans 3.3: End Justified the Means ...  The Americans 3.4: Baptism vs. Communism ... The Americans 3.6: "Jesus Came Through for Me Tonight" ...The Americans 3.7: Martha. My Dear ... The Americans 3.8: Martha, Part 2 ... The Americans 3.10: The Truth ... The Americans 3.12: The Unwigging ... The Americans Season 3 Finale: Turning a Paige
And see also The Americans 2.1-2: The Paradox of the Spy's Children ... The Americans 2.3: Family vs. Mission ... The Americans 2.7: Embryonic Internet and Lie Detection ... The Americans 2.9: Gimme that Old Time Religion ...The American 2.12: Espionage in Motion ... The Americans Season 2 Finale: Second Generation

And see also The Americans: True and Deep ... The Americans 1.4: Preventing World War III ... The Americans 1.11:  Elizabeth's Evolution ... The Americans Season 1 Finale: Excellent with One Exception

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The Flaw in Bernie Sanders' Speech Last Night

I actually thought Bernie Sanders' speech last night in California was pretty good, with the exception of one crucial point.

When he pledged to "continue the fight," he was ambiguous as to whom that fight would be against.

He said it would be against Trump, which is exactly what the country needs.  But he also said that the fight would be part of the nomination contest - even though that contest has now been decisively decided in favor of Hillary, by millions of votes, and huge leads in pledged and super delegates, including in California last night.

This distinction is important, especially in the weeks ahead.   Bernie's power and eloquence will be a crucial component of the fight against Trump, the most destructive and toxic nominee for President by a major party in my lifetime.   What is the point of directing even an iota of Bernie's attack and influence against Hillary Clinton, the only person who now stands between Trump and the White House?

In addition to all of that, Bernie is highly unlikely to win or even do passably well in the last primary, in the District of Columbia, next week.   What he should be campaigning for, between now and then, as well as after, is a Democratic platform that marshals the greatest number of voters against Trump.

Based on his speech, Bernie is almost there.   I hope he moves the final piece into place, and puts Trump and only Trump into the focus his attack, as soon as possible.

Our country and the world need this.

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A Great Moment for America!

It was wonderful and inspiring watching Hillary Clinton step up to claim the Democratic nomination for President a few minutes ago.  I only wish I could have seen this historic moment in person instead of on television.

As I've said many times since 2008, the Democratic primary back then presented a very tough decision for me. Two excellent candidates - Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.  The election of either would right a profound historical wrong in our country.  I went with Obama, by a very narrow margin in my mind. I've never had cause to regret that, but I always hoped I would have a chance to correct the other wrong.

And tonight it's clear we have been given that chance - the opportunity to elect the first woman President in the United States.  Obviously, the candidate has to be more than a woman to deserve any thinking-person's vote.  I would have voted for almost any privileged, rich white dude instead of someone like Sarah Palin.

But Hillary will be a superb candidate, progressive and strong, on every important issue, including gun control, health care, and all the things the Republicans are so retrogressive and wrong about. And as a former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton probably has more foreign policy experience than any candidate for President since, I don't know, Thomas Jefferson.

All that's left is for Hillary Clinton to beat the worst candidate for President by a major party in my lifetime.  That should be easy.  But it won't.  It never is.  The media have to do more than they've done until very recently in reporting the ravings, lies, and inconsistencies of the Republican candidate for President.  We all need to do whatever we can - Bernie supporters as well as Hillary supporters - to see that Trump is defeated and Hillary Clinton is in the White House in 2017.

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Bones 11.18: Meta-Bones

A delightful Bones 11.18 last week - probably the best of this season - told through the lens of a TV documentary being made about the whole Bones operation.

The occasion gave all of our characters a chance to really shine, including conducting all of their conversations with an awareness of they're being on camera. The actors and actresses gave masterful performances, imbuing these conversations with just the right amount of nervousness, braggadocio, or whatever was most appropriate to the character's personality.

Much of the conversation was laugh-out-loud funny, beginning with Bones indicating she doesn't like the moniker "Bones" at the start of the narrative, and calling Booth "Seeley" when he gives an unresponsive response.   Likewise Bones in Christine's classroom, regaling the kids with a graphic depiction of what she does at work.

There were threads of the story that struck other powerful emotions, as when Booth, talking with Bones about Sweets, countering Bones' steadfast view that psychology is "not a science," says that Sweets and his advice to Bones and Booth is what got them together.  That moment was the best epitaph we've seen about Sweets over the years, and there have been many.

Also memorable, even extraordinary, was Hodgins talking about Zack Addy, who remains to this day one of the most enigmatic and pivotal characters in the series.

There was a big happy ending, as Cam and Arastoo get back together, a little after Arastoo talks to the interviewer about Nigel-Murray being killed on the job, and the impact it had on Bones.

About the only discordant note was Angela saying she wished had gone to Paris years ago rather than staying at the Jeffersonian.  I don't know, this may be an indication of more of rocky road ahead for her and Hodgins, which I'd hate to see, but let's hope not.

All in all, a real gem of an episode, which reminded me of why I've been enjoying Bones so long.


See also Bones Back for Season 11: Aubrey and 'Audrey' ... Bones 11.2: Back in Place ... Bones 11.5 Meets Sleepy Hollow 3.5: Time Travel ...Bones 11.10: Shake-Up ... Bones 11.11: Meets Ironside

See also Bones 10.1: The Fulcrum Changes ... Bones 10.2: J. Edgar and the DNA Confession ... Bones 10.3: Meets Rush and a Dominatrix ... Bones 10.4: Brennan and Angela on a Bench in the Playground ... Bones 10.5: Two Jokes and Three Times ... Bones 10.6: A Thousand Cuts ... Bones 10.7: The A-Word and Quarks ... Bones 10.8: Daisy's Doula ... Bones 10.9: The Milgram Experiment and the Birds ... Bones 200: 10.10: Just like Bogey and Bacall ... Bones 10.11: Life after Death, and Sweets in Wonderland ...Bones 10.12: The Digital Revolution ... Bones 10.13: The Almost-Serial Killer ...Bones 10.14: meets La Parure ... Bones 10.15: Cards in Hand ...Bones 10.16: Hodgins' Money ... Bones 10.17-18: Bullies and Capital Punishment ... Bones 10.19: Do You Buy Booth's Gambling Addiction? ...Bones 10.20: Intimations of a New Jeffersonian ... Bones 10.21: Ten Years Isn't Enough ... Bones Season 10 Finale: Rehearsals for Retirement?
And see also Bones 9.1: The Sweet Misery of Love ... Bones 9.2: Bobcat, Identity Theft, and Sweets ... Bones 9.3 and NCIS 11.2: Sweets and Ziva ... Bones 9.4: Metaphysics of Death in a Television Series ... Bones 9.5: Val and Deep Blue ... Bones 9.6: The Wedding ... Bones 9.7: Watch Out, Buenos Aires ...Bones 9.8: The Bug in the Neck ... Bones 9.9: Friday Night Bones in the Courtroom ... Bones 9.10: Horse Pucky ... Bones 9.11: Angels in Equations ... Bones 9.12: Fingernails ... Bones 9.13: Meets Nashville, and Wendell ... Bones 9.14: "You Cannot Drink Your Glass Away" ... Bones 9.15: Hodgins' Brother and the Ripped Off Toe ... Bones 9.16: Lampreys, Professors, and Insurance Companies ... Bones 9.17: Spartacus in the Kitchen ... Bones 9.18: Meets Day of the Triffids ... Bones 9.19: The Cornucopic Urn ... Bones 9.20: Above the Law ... Bones 9.21: Freezing and Thawing ... Bones 9.22: Promotion ... Bones 9.23: The New Intern ... Bones Season 9 Finale: Upping the Ante

And see also Bones 8.1: Walk Like an Egyptian ... Bones 8.2 of Contention ... Bones 8.3: Not Rotting Behind a Desk  ... Bones 8.4: Slashing Tiger and Donald Trump ... Bones 8.5: Applesauce on Election Eve ... Bones 8.6: Election Day ... Bones 8.7: Dollops in the Sky with Diamonds ...Bones 8.8: The Talking Remains ... Bones 8.9: I Am A Camera ... Bones 8.10-11: Double Bones ...Bones 8.12: Face of Enigmatic Evil ... Bones 8.13: Two for the Price of One ... Bones 8.14: Real Life ... Bones 8.15: The Magic Bullet and the Be-Spontaneous Paradox ... Bones 8.16: Bitter-Sweet Sweets and Honest Finn ... Bones 8.17: "Not Time Share, Time Travel" ... Bones 8.18: Couples ... Bones 8.19: The Head in the Toilet ... Bones 8.20: On Camera ... Bones 8.21: Christine, Hot Sauce, and the Judge ... Bones 8.22: Musical-Chair Parents ... Bones 8.23: The Bluff ... Bones Season 8 Finale: Can't Buy the Last Few Minutes

And see also Bones 7.1: Almost Home Sweet Home ... Bones 7.2: The New Kid and the Fluke ...Bones 7.3: Lance Bond and Prince Charmington ... Bones 7.4: The Tush on the Xerox ... Bones 7.5: Sexy Vehicle ... Bones 7.6: The Reassembler ... Bones 7.7: Baby! ... Bones 7.8: Parents ...Bones 7.9: Tabitha's Salon ... Bones 7.10: Mobile ... Bones 7.11: Truffles and Max ... Bones 7.12: The Corpse is Hanson ... Bones Season 7 Finale: Suspect Bones

And see also Bones 6.1: The Linchpin ... Bones 6.2: Hannah and her Prospects ... Bones 6.3 at the Jersey Shore, Yo, and Plymouth Rock ... Bones 6.4 Sans Hannah ... Bones 6.5: Shot and Pretty ... Bones 6.6: Accidental Relations ... Bones 6.7:  Newman and "Death by Chocolate" ...Bones 6.8: Melted Bones ... Bones 6.9: Adelbert Ames, Jr. ... Bones 6.10: Reflections ... Bones 6.11: The End and the Beginning of a Mystery ... Bones 6.12 Meets Big Love ... Bones 6.13: The Marrying Kind ... Bones 6.14: Bones' Acting Ability ... Bones 6.15: "Lunch for the Palin Family" ...Bones 6.16: Stuck in an Elevator, Stuck in Times ... Bones 6.17: The 8th Pair of Feet ... Bones 6.18: The Wile E. Chupacabra ... Bones 6.19 Test Runs The Finder ... Bones 6.20: This Very Statement is a Lie ... Bones 6.21: Sensitive Bones ... Bones 6.22: Phoenix Love ... Bones Season 6 Finale: Beautiful

And see also Bones: Hilarity and Crime and Bones is Back For Season 5: What Is Love? and 5.2: Anonymous Donors and Pipes and 5.3: Bones in Amish Country and 5.4: Bones Meets Peyton Place and Desperate Housewives and Ancient Bones 5.5 and Bones 5.6: A Chicken in Every Viewer's Pot and Psychological Bones 5.7 and Bones 5.8: Booth's "Pops" and Bones 5.9 Meets Avatar and Videogamers ... Bad Santa, Heart-Warming Bones 5.10 ... Bones 5.11: Of UFOs, Bloggers, and Triangles ... Bones 5.12: A Famous Skeleton and Angela's Baby ... Love with Teeth on Bones 5.13 ... Faith vs. Science vs. Psychology in Bones 5.14 ... Page 187 in Bones 5.15 ...Bones 100: Two Deep Kisses and One Wild Relationship ... Bones 5.17: The Deadly Stars ...Bones Under Water in 5.18 ... Bones 5.19: Ergo Together ...  Bones 5.20: Ergo Together ... Bones 5.21: The Rarity of Happy Endings ... Bones Season 5 Finale: Eye and Evolution
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Game of Thrones 6.7: Giveth and Taketh

A great Game of Thrones 6.7 tonight - as it's been all season long - with all  kinds of notable, actually highly important, developments.

The Hound is back, and the destruction of all who have taken him in at the end of the episode promises his unleashing on the rest of this world.   Should be fun times ahead on that score.

But Game of Thrones has always taken as it's giveth, and Arya is now in the worst shape she's been in quite a while.   The fact that she's living at the end of the episode, though badly stabbed, suggests - I guess - that she will survive, but that will require someone's benevolent intervention.  One thing we can know for sure is that it can't the memorable, short-lived character played by Ian McShane - who brought back The Hound from the brink of death - because, well, that character was short-lived, as in now dead.  (I haven't read more than the first novel of the series, so don't know anything useful at all at this point in the grand story.)

In some ways the most interesting development was the turning of Theon Greyjoy by his sister to sailing to that "dragon" woman.   These two will give Daenerys some crucial knowledge to guide her in her plan to retake her rightful crown and homeland.  She's assembling quite a brain trust now, with the two Greyjoys joining Tyrion, Varys, and of course Jorah Mormont.   Or, if you consider Theon, Varys, and the Unsullied, a powerful eunuch fighting force.

But the most endearing moment, for some reason, involved another Mormont - Lyanna - child Lady of Bear Island, and her decision to give her crack fighting force of some 60-whatever armed people to Jon and Sansa.   Should be some powerful scenes ahead on this front, too.

See also Game of Thrones 6.1: Where Are the Dragons ... Game of Thrones 6.2: The Waking ... 
And see also Game of Thrones 5.1: Unsetting the Table ... Game of Thrones 5.8: The Power of Frigid Death ... Game of Thrones 5.9: Dragon in Action; Sickening Scene with Stannis ... Game of Thrones Season 5 Finale: Punishment

And see also Games of Thrones Season 4 Premiere: Salient Points ... Game of Thrones 4.2: Whodunnit? ... Game of Thrones 4.3: Who Will Save Tyrion ...Game of Thrones 4.4: Glimpse of the Ultimate Battle ... Game of Thrones 4.6: Tyrion on Trial ... Game of Thrones 4.8: Beetles and Battle ...Game of Thrones 4.9: The Fight for Castle Black ... Games of Thrones Season 4 Finale: Woven Threads

And see also  Game of Thrones Season 3 Premiere ... Game of Thrones 3.3: The Heart of Jaime Lannister ... Game of Thrones 3.6: Extraordinary Cinematography ...Game of Thrones 3.7: Heroic Jaime ...  Game of Thrones 3.9: A Critique 
And see also Game of Thrones Back in Play for Season 2 ... Game of Thrones 2.2: Cersei vs. Tyrion

And see also A Game of Thrones: My 1996 Review of the First Novel ... Game of Thrones Begins Greatly on HBO ... Game of Thrones 1.2: Prince, Wolf, Bastard, Dwarf ... Games of Thrones 1.3: Genuine Demons ... Game of Thrones 1.4: Broken Things  ... Game of Thrones 1.5: Ned Under Seige ... Game of Thrones 1.6: Molten Ever After ... Games of Thrones 1.7: Swiveling Pieces ... Game of Thrones 1.8: Star Wars of the Realms ... Game of Thrones 1.9: Is Ned Really Dead? ... Game of Thrones 1.10 Meets True Blood

And here's a Spanish article in Semana, the leading news magazine in Colombia, in which I'm quoted about explicit sex on television, including on Game of Thrones.

And see "'Game of Thrones': Why the Buzz is So Big" article in The Christian Science Monitor, 8 April 2014, with my quotes.

Also: CNN article, "How 'Game of Thrones' Is Like America," with quote from me

 
"I was here, in Carthage, three months from now." 

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Outlander 2.9: Flashbacks of the Future

A quiet Outlander 2.9 last night - strange, given that the venue was war, and preparation for it - in which a significant part of the story is Claire flashing back to when she was in the war in the 1940s, that is, World War II.

This puts her a few years before we meet her with Frank after the war, and it's fun to see her young and perkier, except when she becomes literally shell-shocked in the deadly action.  Her mental trip back 200 years in the future to the Second World War is occasioned by Jamie doing his best to train a Scot brigade to attack the English.

And that's pretty much where the story for this hour ends.   We're still at the brink of battles which will determine whether Claire's voyage back in time can change history in Jamie and the Scots' favor. We already know what Claire, who has seen the other side of this history in which the English prevail, thinks of these efforts.   And we've already seen Claire going back to the future, pregnant presumably with Jamie's child, something she said she would do only if Jamie were dead.

So what will happen in the upcoming battle?   The obvious answer is that the Scots will lose and Jamie will be killed - or, at least, Claire will think that's what happened.   But killing Jamie will kill the very fabric of this story, and Claire thinking he's dead when he's really alive is a fairly trite move, one which I hope this series doesn't pull.

With all that in mind, it will be especially good to see how all or even most of this is resolved.  And I wouldn't mind another look at Claire and Frank in America in the 1950s where - who knows - maybe she'll run into a mad scientist with a time machine.

See also Outlander 2.1: Split Hour ... Outlander 2.2: The King and the Forest ... Outlander 2.3: Mother and Dr. Dog ... Outlander 2.5: The Unappreciated Paradox ... Outlander 2.6: The Duel and the Offspring ...Outlander 2.7: Further into the Future ... Outlander 2.8: The Conversation

And see also Outlander 1.1-3: The Hope of Time Travel ... Outlander 1.6:  Outstanding ... Outlander 1.7: Tender Intertemporal Polygamy ...Outlander 1.8: The Other Side ... Outlander 1.9: Spanking Good ... Outlander 1.10: A Glimmer of Paradox ... Outlander 1.11: Vaccination and Time Travel ... Outlander 1.12: Black Jack's Progeny ...Outlander 1.13: Mother's Day ... Outlander 1.14: All That Jazz ... Outlander Season 1 Finale: Let's Change History




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