Review of Outlander 3.6

Well, some things are worth waiting for. And that would be an apt description of this past Sunday's Outlander 3.6, in which Claire and Jamie finally get back together.

The hour+ took its time, in a reunion that moved at a winningly human pace. They kiss pretty quickly — which is what they of course would do — but take their time before they get back in bed, which was realistic. The two need to get to know each other again, or at least know that the love they had twenty years ago is still coursing between them.

Twenty years is a long time. And this reunion, after all that time, is what makes Outlander unique in time travel stories. Ordinarily in time travel — which seems a little oxymoronic, because there is nothing ordinary when time travel is concerned, but — people can spend years or longer away from one another in different times, and then travel back to the original time, where one of the two people hasn't aged a day. That of course can be strange, but what we saw this week was even stranger — but, in some ways, more human.

The acting both by Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan was really sensitive and superb. The expressions on their faces, their tones of voice, their body language, was just right for a couple spending a night together after twenty years — on the way, one and they can certainly hope, to being this way, together again, for the rest of their lifetimes.

I almost wouldn't have minded if the season had ended with this episode, it was so satisfying. But there are problems, arising not only out of Jamie's work, but Claire's ultimately not wanting to go without ever seeing their daughter again.

It took a long time to get there, but Outlander is back on track.

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