Should Lord John Grey appear in Outlander season 3 episode 12?
Yet, is it also going to have an appearance from Lord John Grey? That, (at least for the time being) remains one of the story’s central mysteries — especially for fans of the books. All Outlander readers know already that this character, (played by David Berry on the series) was aboard the Porpoise during the novel Voyager. Yet, he was MIA on the show. We recently wrote about the omission, and while we’re not a book reader ourselves we felt as though the reason for this change was to present Claire with even more of a me-against-the-world mindset while working to stop the spread of typhoid. With Lord John Grey there she would have had at least one more potential ally.
As for whether or not Berry will be appearing on Outlander season 3 episode 12, there is a reason for there to have hope. Without spoiling too much he’s pretty fundamental to the story of the ball in the books, and we like to imagine that the writers had a larger plan for the character when they chose to omit him recently. If you are to bring him back during the ball it adds to the element of surprise and has him present at a time when Jamie needs him the most. Remember that Jamie is currently being sought out by Captain Leonard and the entire crew of the Artemis, and Lord John is one of the few high-ranking men who knows both him and his character. It’s a potential get-out-of-jail-free card, or at least this is how it appears to be on the surface.
Whether it be this season or the next, Lord John remains one of the show’s biggest mysteries. The other is the status of Murtagh, a character who has not appeared since the early part of Outlander season 3 and is already dead in the books. We feel like Murtagh is better suited as a surprise during the fourth season, but we could be wrong here and the writers could find an interesting way to integrate him into what’s going on in Jamaica. Seeing him there could help to make up for how some people were feeling rather bummed-out about the previous Lord John omission.
One way or another, know this: Lord John Grey still has a major role to play in the Outlander journey to come.
Do you think that Lord John Grey should appear on Outlander season 3 episode 12?
Be sure to share some of what you think now in the comments!
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DaonnaDeas
December 3, 2017 @ 3:59 pm
As long as I am commenting: In her books, Gabaldon likes to introduce characters so that she can have Claire and Jamie mull over certain historical subjects that interest her. Thus, “Mr. Willoughby” is introduced. (Personally, I hope that the TV scriptwriters use that potentially-interesting character in a different way than he was used in the books. Why not?) In any case, one NYC reviewer seems to have liked Willoughby’s shipboard commentary about Scottish women or prostitutes “who smelled like bears,” as if this were some kind of noble rejection of Western “racism.”
Nonsense. “Racism” as we know it barely existed then because 99% of the mostly-illiterate populace did not travel more than 20 miles away from their villages in their lifetimes, and never saw any other races, or even read about them. They lived in autocratic “caste” societies, where the thin layer of their lofty rulers diligently tried to marry only amongst themselves, and avoided mixing with the lower orders as much as possible. In those muscle-powered societies, the top caste controlled military and police forces, made all the draconian laws, and despised the lower orders without much discrimination. Everywhere in the world, the vast population of peasants, serfs and slaves, white, brown and black were usually bound to the land, and sold with it.
What the people disliked were the adjoining tribes and nations, and often then only by second-hand notions. Thus, the Highlanders and Lowlanders (in Scotland), Yorkshiremen and Cornishmen (in England), Gascons, Catalans and Bretons (in France) or Andalusians, Catalans and Galicians (in Spain) might dislike each other as separate “races.” But very few Scots would ever have seen anyone from China. To make the point again: ALL the world was tribal and local. Everywhere. Africans, First Americans (so-called Indians), Asians, and Europeans knew too little about each other to make more than the most superficial and vague generalizations…if even those.
Willoughby was a mandarin refugee from the perfumed Manchu imperial court. He would’ve made the same “smell like bears” comment about the Han, Mongol, Korean, Siberian, Tibetan, Vietnamese, Burmese, etc., women in the imperial periphery, had he hidden there.
The Manchus are the “foreigners” that the current Han-dominant Chinese mean when they talk about past foreign domination of China. (Which is why they reference the prior Han-controlled Ming Dynasty.) Other such foreigners have been the Mongols, and the Japanese imperialists in the 1930s.
In Jamie’s era, the European mercantilist empires were tightly confined by the Manchus to Canton and Macau, and had little contact with the greater Manchu empire beyond.
In the books, Gabaldon wanted to talk about the now-odious custom of Manchu foot-binding of highborn girls (which the communists finally suppressed under Mao.) This process started very young; was painful; saw some or all of the girl’s toes removed; and made it impossible for such girls to do manual labor…considered a social attribute amongst the highborn. The crushed-insoles formed two more cylindrical female orifices, very sexy to certain jaded tastes, one assumes. Needless to say, Willoughby’s fetish was for womens’ feet, not their elbows, as the TV show would have it. And the mandarin poet considered uncrushed Scottish feet crude and ugly.
As for bathing: European men and women routinely washed their faces, hands, underarms and privates, perhaps with cold water. What they feared were whole-emersion baths as bringers of illness. And obtaining hot water for such baths and clothes-washing was laborious and costly. I have read that the rise of linen underwear over woolens actually encouraged this notion, as body grime was thought to rub off with the linens, to be boiled away in a laundry that lacked modern detergents and which used harsh soaps.
–DD
DaonnaDeas
December 3, 2017 @ 2:21 pm
In the books, physician Claire speculates that the “charming” psychopathic serial killer–with at least 5 ever-wealthier spouses murdered along the way, and who is now called The Bakra–is increasingly insane, possibly due to the terminal effects of late-stage syphilis acquired in many sexual encounters along the way. One assumes that The Bakra is emerging from an appalling bath of blood in the scene with Young Ian. I cannot remember from the books if it is animal blood or human blood. (The sinister fate of those virgin boys, after all….)
DaonnaDeas
December 3, 2017 @ 2:01 pm
It is odd that “Captain” Leonard should be called that on land. “Captain” is the courtesy title of a person in charge of a ship, but Leonard’s actual rank couldn’t have been higher than a naval “Lieutenant” at his age–and likely lower–and on land that lower rank is the most he would be called. A British 74-gun battleship was a very plum command, and the local admiral or commodore would’ve immediately assigned it to a far more senior officer. It was even a “post-captain’s” command, that is, a senior office inevitably destined to become an admiral should he live long enough, and only if the officers senior to him had died. (The “admiral’s” rank was attained by seniority.) As a reward, the sea-worthy Lt. Leonard might’ve been promoted to second-in-command of a small sloop-of-war (or maybe a frigate) by having saved his capital ship from plague. Capturing Jaimie Fraser (Malcolm) might help, but is clearly just a plot device to keep the cast of characters simpler, and to get Jamie imprisoned again….to be recued by Claire’s ingenuity. (This saga IS a woman’s adventure series, after all. And why not!?!)
Susan Stein
December 1, 2017 @ 5:42 pm
I hope he will appear. I love the book LJG and I also love David Berry. I do worry how they fit everything into 2 more episodes.
Avid Reader
November 27, 2017 @ 7:21 pm
I expect that LJG will be reintroduced in episode 312, but there have been many deviations from the story line in the book so one can never be sure. I have been struggling with the television adaptation of Voyager so I am not sure how I would feel if LJG were omitted – there have been other omissions (like the chemistry between Jamie and Claire when you would most expect it to shine through) which have been disappointing at times but which I still hope can be dealt with in a new and exciting way. There is still some time left.
distachio
November 27, 2017 @ 7:11 pm
The description of the episode states that J&c encounter adversaries and “old allies.” Seems LJG would be the ideal ally in this situation, both to help Jamie elude Cptn. Leonard, but in finding Young Ian.
becky
November 27, 2017 @ 3:31 pm
I will riot if he won’t appear in the next episode!
In fact LJG should helm his own series on STARZ ?
p.s. I am not a book reader therefore no idea what will happen next
Donna Bean Kursey
November 27, 2017 @ 2:34 am
I am a book reader. It seems as though they
have so much to do in the next 2 episodes. The ball, find Ian get to the cave and wind up in America. We will have to see how they do it.