Outlander Season 7 Episode 7 Review: A Practical Guide for Time-Travelers

This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.

Outlander Season 7 Episode 7, “A Practical Guide for Time-Travelers,” continues to showcase the wise storytelling this show offers in its senior years.

The latest outing, written by Margot Ye, delivers a delightful balance between time-traveling buddy comedy and wartime dramatization.

This episode takes advantage of its situation to prod the cheeky comedic undertones Outlander so often can’t indulge in.

When shows live long enough, they inevitably backtrack in search of new but familiar content. With Brianna and Roger rediscovering the magic of time travel and Claire and Jamie amid war, Outlander feels more than a little nostalgic this season.

However, unlike other shows, this one has no intent of desecrating old stomping grounds. On the contrary, “A Practical Guide for Time-Travelers” heals old wounds and finds a new angle to attack the British army from.

The first half of Season 7 has done an excellent job of returning to what worked in the early days of Outlander while affording itself a little less discretion.

Displacing Brianna and Claire across time to further dampen the spirits with another deadly war effort seems like a mood killer. Still, this episode reaps the benefits of a much more entertaining, rich combination of events.

A Friendly Nuckelavee

We had every right to assume the point of the plot would disappear entirely when a re-casted Buck MacKenzie appeared in Roger’s window.

Instead, the episode throws us into an entertaining, time-travel-heavy adventure with this displaced Nuckelavee. Moreover, the new addition adds a great deal of endearing character development to the mix as Buck goes from a nasty antagonist to a Roy Kent softy who prefers to spend his time watching TV with the kiddos.

Each scene is brimming with adorable dynamics as Brianna and Roger struggle to be caretakers for a gigantic Scottish time traveler. It’s almost a relief when Roger says he forgives Buck because he has already become the most likable aspect of this episode (maybe the season).

It is so refreshing to see Outlander have fun with its time-travel elements and send someone forward in time not to fight but to heal the wounds they opened in their time.

Oh, you think we’re done talking about Buck? Not a chance.

How does Outlander continue introducing the vilest, emotionally stunted men and bringing them back for a redemption arc that shakes us to our core? Tom Christie was no fluke; he was simply the warm-up.

Also, you have to love that Brianna and Roger have been mingling with Cameron for months, and yet it is Buck who gruffly informs the couple they are being had. It makes sense that the man so paranoid he hung Roger would instantly spot Rob’s red flags.

And it’s nearly impossible to choose which character dynamics have a better payoff because the kindness Roger shows a hurting Buck is heartwarming, but Brianna taking Buck to work for the day in his little jumpsuit is too hilarious.

Buck’s return is undeniably enjoyable, so can we please keep him Outlander?

Time Traveling Turn Ons

This season has done a fabulous of handling Roger and Brianna’s time in the 1980s.

None more so than the time-traveling elephant we have avoided staring directly in the eye before now. This episode title refers to a time traveler’s guide and feels appropriate with how much lore Buck’s arrival forces on the historical drama.

Additionally, Buck’s death date helps ease us into the latest revelation as to how the children connect to the stones. The lore surrounding Jemmy and Mandy has supported the sci-fi elements of this story. Still, it has also given this season reason to flesh out Brianna and Roger’s family dynamics more.

And time travel is in part to thank for the superb sex scene between Brianna and Roger. This choreography is excellent, and any intimacy coordinators involved should take a bow.

Love Is a Battlefield

Lastly, the revolutionary war takes a backseat to time traveling, and there are times when the transition from entertaining dinner parties to the horrors of war proves challenging. But everyone on this side of the stones knows their assignment.

Claire and Jamie part ways on the battlefield, and despite the repetition of the act, this farewell is the most gutwrenching yet. That quiet “Always” from Claire as Jamie swoops her up with a knee-weak kiss is all that’s needed to convey heartache.

That goodbye kiss is challenged triumphantly by William’s first taste of war as his friendship with a fellow soldier ends traumatically.

The parallels between Sandy and Murtagh’s deaths justify the introduction to William’s “Red Jamie” persona, and this entire performance is proof Charles Vandervaart is the one to watch out for in the finale because the man is a force.

War is inevitable in Outlander, but its ability to cultivate new understandings from the bloodshed is always refreshing.

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Outlander airs Fridays at 8/9c on Starz.

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