‘Outlander’s Finale Asks: Have We Come to Journey’s End or Not
It’s taken 12 years, eight seasons, 10 novels, not to mention four related Lord John novellas, assorted stories, and a graphic novel to tell this many-decade multi-plot saga.
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
And I shall have some peace there,
For peace comes dropping slow
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings
-William Butler Yeats, “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”
Well, we’ve had a long journey of it, whether you began by reading in 1991, the first novel, Outlander, or by watching, from 2014 to 2015, the 16 episodes of the first season, Sassenach. It’s taken 12 years, eight seasons, 10 novels, not to mention four related Lord John novellas, assorted stories, and a graphic novel to tell this many-decade multi-plot saga.
With the announcement of the final episodes, suspense has been reinforced by Brianna carrying a 21st-century present for Jamie: Frank Randall’s Soul of a Rebel, The Scottish Roots of the American Revolution. Frank predicts Jamie’s death at Kings Mountain through voice-over, and becomes revenant in flashbacks (Tobias Menzies is fittingly there).
