Now, I like Outlander very, very much, but every so often, I find the Starz hit asks a little too much of me. In seasons past, this would mean inundating my senses with too much sexual violence or even trying my patience with annoying subplots set in the colonial Carolinas. In Outlander Season 7 Episode 14 “Ye Dinna Get Used to It,” however, I was undone by a simple dinner scene. The whole sequence where Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire (Caitriona Balfe) welcomed General George Washington (Gary Fannin) and the Marquis de Lafayette (Charles Crehange) for dinner in 1778 Philadelphia had me screaming. I was hysterical, I was gobsmacked, I was undone.
A World War II nurse falling through time after touching stones in the Scottish countryside and then meeting her soulmate in an 18th century Highlander with impeccably straight and white teeth? I’ll buy it. That could totally happen. James Alexander Malcolm Mackenzie Fraser making a toast to “the United States of America” in front of George Washington in 1778? You have GOT to be kidding me!
Sorry, but the George Washington dinner scene in this week’s Outlander completely shattered my suspension of disbelief and I don’t care who knows it!
One of the reasons I’ve always adored Outlander is its inherent reverence for history. Diana Gabaldon’s books are painstakingly researched, full of rich details about period-appropriate clothing, historic battles, and botany. Starz’s adaptation is similarly well-researched, meaning that even though the show is technically a fantasy, there’s enough historical accuracy to make you feel you’ve traveled back in time with Claire. Heck, historic documents and the study of history have even served as key plot points over the course of the show’s seven season run.
So it’s always fun when Outlander finds a way to merge Jamie and Claire’s soap opera-esque saga with real world events. When Claire met Benedict Arnold (Rod Hallett) at Fort Ticonderoga in Season 7 Part 1, that made total sense! He was a key player in that Revolutionary War campaign and Jamie and Claire would have been affected by his actions, inadvertently or otherwise. However, when Jamie gets to meet George Washington in Season 7 Part 2, and the General promptly heaps our hero w ith praise, I have to chuckle.
Jamie Fraser fighting alongside a supporting character in the Revolutionary War? I buy it. Jamie Fraser earning the notice, respect, and admiration from George Washington? If that happened, it would be in history books, folks! Not just in our world, but Claire’s, thus negating that whole Season 3 subplot where Roger (Richard Rankin) had to go digging deep in the archives for Jamie’s fate.
Which brings me to the very important dinner that Jamie and Claire host — in Lord John Grey’s (David Berry) commandeered Philadelphia home — in Outlander Season 7 Episode 14 “Ye Dinna Get Used To It.” Claire’s early interactions with Lafayette might have been charmingly goofy, but that dinner scene was insane. Even if I could get over Claire’s verklempt reaction to getting one of the first American flags designed by Betsy Ross, nothing will erase how cringe it was to hear Jamie raise a toast to “the United States of America”…in 1778.
I understand that Claire has given her 18th century husband a rundown of how the Revolutionary War will eventually lead to the birth of the USA, but “the United States of America” was not a “thing” in 1778. At this point, the colonies were simply fighting for their independence. What came next wasn’t still up for debate. In fact, our new nation would first launch as a failed Confederacy before pivoting to our present three-branch system of “United States.” For Jamie to end a dinner at this time with this present company is literally insane. He would come across as a lunatic muttering random nonsense words.
What’s crazier to me is the knowledge that this episode is attributed to Diana Gabaldon. If so, is the great architect of all things Outlander suggesting that the “United States of America” is a phrase, an idea, a dream gifted to our first President by James Fraser? Stranger things have happened on Outlander, after all. We’re actually in the middle of a subplot where professional engineer Brianna (Sophie Skelton) is using her toddler’s mysterious psychic powers to track down her kidnapped son.
If Outlander is nothing else, it is an entertaining yarn that constantly asks us to suspend our disbelief. In return, we get to experience the intoxicating highs of Claire and Jamie’s eternal love. We get to visit places and moments otherwise lost to the haze of time. We get to escape. The only problem is sometimes our disbelief takes over and, sadly, that happened to me when Jamie raised that toast to the good ole US of A.