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Review of 'Outlander' 4.13

Fair Trade

By Paul LevinsonPublished 5 years ago 2 min read
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A really satisfying and superb finale to Season 4 of Outlander, concluding the best season of the series so far. Among the highlights (spoilers aplenty follow):

  • The Mohawk "fair trade" that resulted in Ian for Roger: the whole Mohawk segment, especially the stone originally around the time-traveler's neck, was excellent. It looked like we saw him sitting on the bench in the present (actually looked like some-when in the 1960s), before he time traveled to the 1700s, with that stone around his neck. This ties up the loose end from earlier in the season when Claire discovered a skull with that stone, and dental work which showed the teeth had been worked on in the 20th century. Time travel stuff like that is always my favorite part of this series.
  • Ian staying with the Mohawk—a full member of the tribe, after he successfully runs the gauntlet—was also a just-right ending, at least to this part of Ian's story. He was never completely comfortable, even with Jamie, because he was still a boy in that context. With the Mohawk, Ian can be, as they say, his own man (I have no idea in what century that phrase arose).
  • Murtagh and Jocasta together in bed was also a great ending, or a beginning, or maybe continuation, would be a better word.
  • And best of all, in terms of the human relationships, is Roger coming back to Brianna. That took long enough to happen, but the wait made his return all the more satisfying.

Of course, there will be another season, which means some big things had to be left unresolved this year. We still don't know who fathered Brianna's baby, which makes Roger stepping up for the woman he loves all the more admirable. For that matter, we still don't know what happened to Bonnet. I have a feeling we'll be seeing both Ian and Bonnet next season.

And, back to the time travel, we still don't know much about the American monoliths. Was it a coincidence that a Native American from our age is the only person we know who actually traveled back in time, or do Native Americans have a special connection to the big stones?

Something to think about until Season 5.

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About the Creator

Paul Levinson

Novels The Silk Code & The Plot To Save Socrates; LPs Twice Upon A Rhyme & Welcome Up; nonfiction The Soft Edge & Digital McLuhan, translated into 15 languages. Best-known short story: The Chronology Protection Case; Prof, Fordham Univ.

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