Outlander Season 7 Episode 2 Review: The Happiest Place on Earth

Outlander Season 7 Episode 2, “The Happiest Place on Earth,” establishing ties to Disneyland is poetic, given this episode is a heart-pounding amusement ride.

Despite plowing through multiple season-defining plot points in one outing, the result isn’t any less thrilling. Miraculously, the severity of this pacing doesn’t seem to be overwhelming the performances or the performers tasked with conveying such emotions in a few fleeting moments.

Outlander jams seasons of development into one episode and thrives. Meanwhile, Marvel still struggles to cover this much ground in 6 movie-length episodes.

“The Happiest Place on Earth,” makes a crucial choice to center the episode around Brianna and Roger’s trip through the stones.

By bookending the larger chaos of this episode between the birth of their daughter and a trip through time, the heart-pounding pace anchors itself to the swelling emotions of the Frasers as they face another goodbye.

Outlander is a show with a fascinating time-traveling element it can never fully embrace. So when we get installments like this steeped in expanding the lore and pulling Jamie into a modern world of thought, it’s pure storytelling bliss.

Plus, the itches we can’t quite scratch, with Jemmy hearing his baby sister’s thoughts and Jamie dreaming of electricity when he’s never seen it suggests there’s so much more to delve into.

Most importantly, this episode doesn’t mistake urgency for importance. It takes breathers to showcase its spectacular character work and monologues.

Star Crossed Companions

Lord John and Jamie fans can have their cake and eat it too.

The slow burn tension as Lord John dodges around Jamie’s name with Brianna just for Jamie to catch his gaze and translate so much pain in one nod is palpable.

That would be enough because their chemistry operates best in the unsaid. But the following scene between Jamie and Lord John features a truly heartbreaking monologue of loss, longing, and memories having to be enough for them.

The scene forcing Lord John to abandon attempts to leverage his son against his friend is clever as it unleashes emotional warfare on a conversation between allies. John confirming what he’s known, that the stubbornness of the man he loves is precisely the thing that will drive a wedge between them, is heartbreaking.

Sam Heughan is right there to drive the tension home with his choked speech as he tells John they must become strangers yet again.

This show knows what this relationship is and what it can never be. Outlander also understands that a fight between the British and America means another opportunity to draw a line between the two reluctant soldiers.

Knowing the powder keg of emotions that comes with the history between these two, their latest goodbye goes for the jugular, reading much more as a romantic coded breakup than a hearty slap on the shoulder.

The acknowledgment in Jamie and John’s features, one of recognition that this isn’t just two friends parting ways, drives home this bitter-sweet reunion in ways we could not have expected.

“Damn this war!” Lord John says as he chokes back tears. Damn, this show for orchestrating such a beautiful goodbye.

Michael the Mouse

Jamie and Brianna’s heart-to-heart before she returns to her time has many wonderful family farewell scenes to contend with during this episode, but this is easily a top-ten Outlander scene.

What doesn’t this scene have? Time-travel talk, Disneyland, excellent character work, and deeper reflection. It is a triumph that combines the historical political elements of Jamie’s time and the modern, child-like whimsy of Brianna’s time.

It is an excellent reflection on Jamie and Brianna’s sweet father-daughter relationship. Brianna brainstorming job occupations for Jamie and imagining him in a three-piece suit is fun imagery and ties in beautifully with her Lord John run-in earlier.

And the light-hearted, comedic beats as they discuss the merits of a mouse-themed amusement park pay off when Jamie tells Brianna to give his regards to “Michael the Mouse” beats before she is ripped from their lives again. It is a perfect callback to break the tension.

If there was a storytelling sequence to demonstrate how excellent Outlander is at executing its premise, this goodbye is it.

Arrow to the Heart

While Outlander largely seems to be nailing the shortened, intensified format this season, there are issues with its pacing.

For the most part, this faster pacing isn’t hindering the show’s storytelling so much as propelling it forward by doubling the quantity without squandering the quality of the performances. But with such a jam-packed schedule, something has to suffer.

Just as Jamie’s deadly encounter with Brown was thrown in as collateral at the end of Outlander Season 7 Episode 1, “A Life Well Lost,” without proper build-up, Allan’s confession to killing Marva experiences the same lack of care.

It is the only time this episode feels clunky, as Allan’s sinister undertones are squashed quickly to wrap the Christie storyline up. The build-up to Tom’s sacrifice was so well done that brushing off this reveal’s potential by opening on Allan’s villain monologue is disappointing.

But since Season 7 has had more triumphs than failures, I hope to see Outlander continue on this warpath.

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Outlander airs Fridays at 8/9c on Starz.

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