Outlander Season 7 Episode 9 Review: Unfinished Business
You don’t get a much better homecoming than that.
Outlander Season 7 Episode 9, “Unfinished Business,” rolls out a melancholy parade of cathartic performances and grief-fueled confrontations to welcome Jamie and Claire home.
No gesture is too small, and no old wound is safe as Outlander returns to Scotland in peak form, ready to deliver a bittersweet reunion.
The show’s much-anticipated return to Scotland pulls out all the stops while keeping Jamie and Claire in an antagonistic light as they reckon with their hasty departure from the highlands all those years ago.
Scotland doesn’t welcome Jamie back without consequence, and the heavy premiere delves into a very different battle for the Scotsman to navigate.
Outlander brilliantly mirrors the pilot episode by likening Jamie’s homecoming to Claire’s first journey through the stones. The world he knows still exists, and it looks familiar enough, but so much of it has changed beyond recognition, and he feels unwanted in its wake.
The powerful comparison becomes a reversal of roles that carries this episode through the more sluggish, uncomfortable moments to a cathartic ending.
A lot has changed since Jamie and Young Ian left for the Americas, and Outlander does a fabulous job of rolling with the punches.
Recastings are never ideal, but with time and the right replacement, Kristin Atherton does her best to imbue the role of Jenny with the maturing motherly spunk that makes her so loveable.
Watching Young Ian fall back into the Scottish banter between his mother and father is lovely. Each parent gives him the much-needed reality check to justify leaving his father to find Rachel.
The final shot of Ian in his tartan, waving goodbye to his son one last time, is a heartbreaking triumph that wraps the bittersweet grief of this reunion into a snapshot of emotions.
If you had told me back in Season 3 that the best part of this episode would be Jamie and Laoghaire’s reunion, I would have laughed.
Now we laugh, not in mockery but genuinely, as Laoghaire’s return imbues Claire and Jamie’s relationship with a mischievous, cheeky drama that feels hilariously youthful.
From Claire trying to suppress her disdain as she jokes about Laoghaire to Laoghaire managing to call Claire a whore ten times in under a minute. Some relationships will never be mended, and for the sake of this running gag between the feuding woman, I hope they never make up.
Watching Laoghaire go toe-to-toe with Jamie, meeting him at his height and chewing him out, is a lighthearted way to bring his ex-lover back into the fold.
During a heavy outing, cracking under the weight of such sad subject matter, Laoghaire’s scorn is a breath of fresh air.
The Roger/Brianna storyline could have been withheld until the second episode so they would have more room to explore Roger’s realization that he is in a new time.
That said, the clever reveal with two different Frasers opening the front door of Lallybroch is an excellent excuse to have the two periods take up the same space.
Sadly, I just want so much more of this new time period — more of Jamie’s father inhabiting the same spaces as his son and much more of Buck and Roger in forced proximity.
This episode has a more significant time-travelling crisis to deal with, so Roger and Brianna’s crisis is rightfully put on the back burner.
Returning to Lallybroch brings a sweet sense of homesickness, and there is indeed nothing like seeing that homestead come back into view over Claire and Jamie’s shoulders.
That said, passing the antagonistic role back to Geillis Duncan with a cliffhanger entrance and custom villain theme music is perfection.
Roger’s reaction is icing on the cake of what is sure to be another memorable family reunion with the time-travelling terror.
Laoghaire and Geillis stand the test of time as the fiercest female foes to grace this series. We still speak of them in hushed whispers, with the utmost respect for their ability to deliver such entertaining treachery.
So what a treat it is to see both of them back in their element, terrorizing the Fraser-Mackenzies to kick off this premiere.
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What did you think of this episode of Outlander? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Outlander airs Fridays at 8/9c on STARZ.
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Alicia Gilstorf
Alicia is a Rotten Tomatoes Certified Critic and a Critics Choice Association member. She credits her passion for TV to workplace sitcoms, paranormal dramedies, and coming-of-age stories. In her free time, Alicia loves to curl up with a good book and lose herself in a cozy game. Keep a lookout for her coverage of Ghosts. You can also find her work on Eulalie Magazine and Cool Girl Critiques. Follow Alicia on social media: @aliciagilstorf
One thought on “Outlander Season 7 Episode 9 Review: Unfinished Business”
S7 ep9 has Claire racing back from Scotland to the colonies to do surgery on Henry, who has two musketballs in his stomach and will die without her surgery skills. What poor writing! It took 5-8 weeks, weeks, to cross the Atlantic by sail, depending on the wind. So the letter to Claire is already that old, plus more, and for her to go back will be another 5-8 weeks! There is no way that Henry will survive such wounding and should already be dead before the letter even reached Claire. Plus the continued nonsense that bullets are the problem and can’t be left in patients, when it’s the blood loss, damaged tissue and organs, and infection that are the problem, not inert pieces of lead. Very very disappointed in the writing.
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