Outlander perspectives: Was ‘A. Malcolm’ or ‘Of Lost Things’ best season 3 episode?

Last week, we kicked off our ongoing Outlander perspectives series with a fairly simple question: What was your favorite season 3 episode? There were many fantastic choices, and we figured that, as a result of that, there would be a spirited debate.

In the end, we’re largely surprised by just how close the debate ended up being. There are only about a dozen votes between the top two episodes, but before that there are a few other interesting factoids to point out. CarterMatt readers gave every single episode at least one vote, with some being the recipient of a little bit more love than others. Unsurprisingly, episodes that were more momentum-based like “Surrender,” “The Doldrums,” and “The Bakra” failed to receive too many votes. We were somewhat surprised to see “The Bakra” receive fewer votes than “Creme de Menthe” and “The Doldrums” given that it did bring you the return of Lord John Grey and had a pretty great cliffhanger at the end.

As for the top two, the title of our article gives it away: “Of Lost Things” and “A. Malcolm.” (Our personal favorite season 3 episode in “First Wife” was in third place.) Both were outstanding episodes for the Jamie character, with “A. Malcolm” being in particular the Jamie – Claire relationship that was many weeks in the making on the show. It was the most-watched episode of Outlander to date and it’s with that in mind that we’re not shocked to be reporting the follow: “A. Malcolm” is your favorite Outlander season 3 episode.

Even if you were to take the Print Shop scene out of the episode (though why would you want to?), there were still many powerful moments within here that make it pretty memorable to viewers. For starters, this episode offered up almost everything that you can want if you are an Outlander fan — great performances from Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan, a visual sense of wonder, opportunities to see Older Fergus, and plenty of action. It also set the stage for a lot of exciting stuff to come given that Jamie and Claire’s time in Edinburgh was not meant to be particularly long-lasting. It celebrated romance, but it was also a portrait of two characters trying to understand themselves and each other after so much lost time.

Related – Want to see some other Outlander perspectives articles?

Was “A. Malcolm” your favorite Outlander season 3 episode? We want to know in the comments! Meanwhile, be sure to also like CarterMatt on Facebook to get some additional insight on the series. (Photo: Starz.)