Outlander 4.2 last night, another strong episode, continued the blending of opposites that is the essence of the series.
This time it was Jamie's aunt's plantation in South Carolina. It's a beautiful, bucolic paradise on first glance. But on closer inspection, it thrives on the backs of hundreds of slaves. Jamie's aunt is kind -- meaning, she treats her slaves well. Claire with her future sensibilities is horrified. Jamie's not to happy either. And before the hour is over, we're treated to an in-depth, sensitive tour of the law and practice of slavery in pre-Revolutionary War America.
It's a wrenching picture — which, again, has relevance to this very day, where the results of the voting for Georgia governor, with an African-American woman running against a white state official, are being hotly contested. Yes, we as a nation have made enormous progress since 1767. But we still have a ways to go.
One of the things I'm already liking about this fourth season of Outlander is that, so far, each episode features a different venue for our band of travelers. There's a whole continent ahead to explore, if the narrative goes that way, and it will be fun to see where it goes.
Boston, for example, would be an especially neat place to visit in 1767. Claire could leave a hidden message for her daughter to discover in the 1960s. (Leaving a message for Claire herself to discover in the 1940s would be paradoxical, unless Claire for whatever reason never sees it. If she had, then, well ... she would have seen it already, earlier in her life in the 1940s, if you get the picture.)
And I'll be back here next week with more,
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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