Recap of Outlander
Season 5, Episode 8:
Famous Last Words
Roger struggles to cope with the physical and mental fallout of his near-fatal hanging. As his family tries to help him, another family member shows up in need of refuge.
Tropes
- Behind a Stick: When Jamie and Claire are playing Hide and Seek with Baby Jemmy, Jamie hides behind a skinny tree, mere feet away from the toddler.
- The Bus Came Back: Ian returns from his time from the Mohawk.
- Buy Them Off: Governor Tryon grants Roger 5,000 acres of land in apology for unintentionally having him hanged. Jamie's grant was 10,000 acres and characters repeatedly remark on what a large amount of land that is, so it's a pretty decent "Sorry I had you hanged" gift, however insincere.
- Call-Back: When Claire voices her concerns about whether Roger may be suicidal, she brings up the fact that Jamie was extremely suicidal after his traumatic experience with Black Jack Randall.
- Cessation of Existence: Discussed by Roger and Young Ian after the first stops the latter's attempted suicide. Since he had nearly died by hanging, Young Ian asks Roger what he saw. Roger says he saw his wife, which Young Ian interprets as there being an afterlife. He is disappointed, stating that he'd hoped it would be over (it turns out his attempt was due to losing his wife).
- Closing Credits: Features Brianna and Roger singing "Oh My Darling Clementine", Roger's Leitmotif.
- Commonality Connection: Roger and Young Ian have both been traumatized to the point of being speechless. They also both recognize that the other is struggling with suicidal ideation.
- Driven to Suicide: Averted. When Claire discovers that some of her hemlock (a potent poison) is missing, she's worried that Roger may have taken it, too distressed to continue living. It is actually Young Ian who traumatized by whatever happened to him with the Mohawk. He intends to brew the hemlock as a tea and end his pain. Roger ends up having to intervene and save his life.
- Due to the Dead: Unable to publicly reveal their connection to Murtagh, Jocasta and Jamie hold a private funeral memorial for him at Fraser's Ridge. He's buried on Jamie's property and Jocasta sings a song of mourning for him.
- Emerging from the Shadows: Young Ian initially is positioned in the sun in such away that Jamie and Claire can see is the outline of someone who appears to be Native American. Then he steps forward revealing who he is and his distinctive dog, Rollo, runs in behind him.
- Flashback Cut: Roger keeps mentally reliving the events surrounding his hanging
- Flash Forward: The episode begins with a scene from Roger while he was working as a professor in the 1960s. He and his class are discussing the importance of the final words before dying. Particularly importance as Roger's brush with death left him physically incapable of speaking.
- Forgiveness: Young Ian and Roger parted on bad terms because of Ian's role in selling Roger to the Mohawk. Now, Young Ian has returned after trading himself for Roger's freedom and Roger gives him a big hug to show that all is forgiven.
- Framing Device: The rescue of Roger and his memories of the event are presented as a silent film, completing with crackling black and white photos and dialogue cards.
- Instant Drama, Just Add Tracheotomy: After discovering Roger hanged but not yet dead, Claire performs a tracheotomy to ensure Roger has an airway once the throat tissue starts to swell when the noose is cut away.
- Leitmotif: Brianna sings "Oh My Darling Clementine" to baby Jemmy, a song that Roger often sang to their son. He previously sang it in "The Ballad of Roger Mac". Now, it just reminds Roger that he can no longer sing. A slow instrumental version plays in the scene where Roger and Brianna reconcile and the closing credits feature the two actors singing the song as a duet.
- The Lost Lenore: Subverted. Young Ian says his wife is not dead but she's irrevocably lost to him. Given what has been shown of the tribes, most likely something has happened and his wife rejected him as her husband, causing Ian to be exiled from the tribe, forbidden to return.
- Manly Tears: After Jamie and Jocasta part ways after memorializing Murtagh, Jamie sits on a step, takes out Murtagh's plaid and brooch chest piece, and sheds a single tear.
- Memento MacGuffin: Jamie keeps the patch of Fraser plaid and brooch that Murtagh used to wear in defiance of the anti-tartan Dress Act.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Young Ian has always been an extremely talkative character who loves to share stories about adventures. But when he returns from the Mohawk, he barely says more than a few words at a time, refusing to be engaged in conversation.
- Parting-Words Regret: Alluded to by Jocasta, as her final words to Murtagh were rejecting his request to wait for him and rebuking his dedication to the Regulator cause.Jocasta: How careful we'd be if we kent which goodbyes were our last.
- Past Experience Nightmare: Roger has repeat nightmares of being hanged.
- Silly Prayer: While joking with his students about what his final words might be, Roger makes a joke about praying to God for his students to make write cohesive papers with arguments supported by facts.
- Silence of Sadness: Both Roger and Young Ian are sad and not doing much talking.
- The Speechless: Three months after his hanging, Roger is unable to speak. Claire believes it might be psychosomatic, but even when he's alone he can't do much more than croak. After he's forced to yell in order to save Jem's from being burned, proving that he can speak if he tries hard enough, Roger still functions as an Elective Mute, hating the raw, scratchy sound of his voice.
- Straying Baby: As the adults talk and prepare the table for their meal, baby Jemmy is wandering around the cabin. He's attracted to the whistling tea kettle and attempts to grab it. Roger, who has been unable to speak, is the only one who sees the child is in danger of tipping the kettle and its scalding hot water down on to himself. Roger strains his voice to scream and warn of the danger.
- Terrifying Rescuer: Averted. After thinking he'd have to fight a wild boar with only a dirk, the boar is killed by an arrow. Jamie then turns to see what looks like a Native American. Not sure if the Native is from a friendly tribe or not, Jamie puts himself between the man and Claire and Jemmy. Luckily, the archer turns out to be Young Ian.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: Invoked by Bree. She's initially describing the shell shocked state of her roommate's boyfriend after he returned from Vietnam. She compares that to Roger's current state following his hanging.
- Trauma Button: Hearing Brianna sing to baby Jemmy when Roger no longer can causes Roger to break down crying. Roger has been established over the past three seasons to have a deep love of music, singing in particular, and he's afraid he'll never be able to do it again.
- *Twang* Hello: Just as Jamie is about to try to kill the boar with his dirk, the boar squeals and drops dead, an arrow in its neck. They look up to see what appears to be a native american, but is revealed to be Young Ian.
- Undying Loyalty: Jocasta mourns Murtagh's loss, wondering why he couldn't have stayed by Jamie's side where he would've been safer. Knowing that watching Jamie's back is ultimately what got Murtagh killed, Jamie assures her that Murtagh never left his side. Jocasta agrees, saying that Murtagh was loyal above all else, no matter the danger.
