My Voyager Re-Read: Chapter 04 – 06

Things have calmed down around here – or more precisely on Twitter – so I found the time to write another Voyager post.

For future reference – or anyone who doesn’t follow me on Twitter or was hiding under a rock these past two days *g*  – Wednesday night this had happened…

…and then all hell broke loose in my notifications tab for 24 hours and visits to this blog exploded. It was quite the extraordinary experience. In a totally good way! If you’ve found my blog through this and maybe plan to stick around and read some more: Hi! And Welcome… xoxo

But now back to my re-read of Voyager.

04: The Dunbonnet | 05: To Us a Child Is Given | 06: Being Justified by His Blood
in which we learn about the years Jamie’s lived hidden in a cave near Lallybroch

As interesting as a lot of events in these three chapters about Jamie’s time at Lallybroch in 1752 are, I think it all will probably be condensed into half an episode. According to JustJared and some other sources they are filming Culloden Battle scenes at the moment. But I doubt they will start with these scenes, but keep closer to the book. At least I hope we will only see the battle in various flashbacks all throughout the season. We’ll see…

I really don’t want to spend too much time thinking about how I would transfer the events of these chapters onto the TV screen, because I really do lack the expertise of creating a TV show. But if it were up to me ;-), I think I would start this sequence with Jamie hunting the stag at night, in a very visceral way. To show how far apart from normal civilization he exists at this point. Yes, there are the frequent visits to Lallybroch and such, but listening to these chapters again, one of the things that stuck out to me was how removed Jamie feels from this life, physically and even more so emotionally. Open the scene with a long haired, full beard, dirty Jamie stalking the deer at night, killing it, drinking the stag’s blood. You can’t get further away from sophisticated Lord Broch Tuarach who is dining with royalty than that.

I also hope, that the writers and directors will give Sam enough room to portray the loneliness and in parts desolation Jamie experiences in these years, because these emotions are some of the reasons for his decision to give himself up to the English after all. And let’s get straight to the point: I read a rumour that instead of Mary McNab visiting Jamie in the cave in the end, Laoghaire would visit. And I hope that’s really just a stupid rumour. I have to admit I won’t put it beyond Ron to do this scene with Laoghaire to keep her in the viewers mind, but the scene would get such a different vibe with her instead of Mary McNab or any other woman from the estate. Mary has no interest in Jamie other than giving her laird a good memory to take with him to prison, whereas we all know Laoghaire’s agenda. So… I really should put that rumour out of my mind asap.

When I realized Jenny is very pregnant for most of these chapters I had to grin, because I was wondering what Laura Donnelly, who plays her on the show, might think about having to wear a large baby bump for most of her scenes again *g*. I hope we’ll see some of the banter and deeper conversations between Jamie and her.

I’m very much looking forward to Jamie hiding with baby Ian in the closet, because it’s Sam and a baby and we all know how adorable this looks. The other essential scene of this chapter of course is how the redcoats encounters Fergus with the cask of ale. I listened to this on my way to work this morning and Jamie’s reaction to this while he helplessly looks at it from the cave entrance, brought tears to my eyes. Jamie’s guilt about how he caused Fergus to loose his hand will be another interesting bit to play for Sam.

In my previous post I was wondering if they will bring in two actors to play Fergus, one as very young man (teenager we would say today) in 1752 and one for the 30 year old from 1766 onward. Still haven’t made up my mind what I would prefer. Find a good looking 2o-something Frenchman to play the young and middle-aged one? Or might they bring in Roman again and just age him 6 years? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Some thoughts about technicalities (make up, costumes, sets):

  • It’s going to be interesting to see how gaunt the makeup department will make Jenny and the children and everyone else look, because they lack food and proper nutrition.
  • I’m also curious about how ferocious “caveman” *g* Jamie will look which leads me to wonder if Sam will have: no beard , a fake beard or a real beard. For now my guess is fake, like when he got out of the Bastille in season 2.
  • Except for the cave Garry and his team won’t have much to build for these scenes. At least makeup and prosthetics have one unique task to create Fergus’ hand.

 

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