Outlander Season 8 Episode 10 Review: And the World Was All Around Us

Outlander Season 8 Episode 10, “And the World Was All Around Us,” closes the book on one of television’s greatest love stories.

The final hour is a romantic declaration of the love that blankets Outlander’s success. It syncs the beat of soldiers marching with the fluttering heartbeat of Claire and Jamie’s epic love story.

With grand romantic confessions and capable storytelling, we will gladly go tell the bees that this was a fine ending to the series.

Is it a perfect ending? No, but alas, these series finales rarely are.

When you watch enough shows end, you come to appreciate when a series manages to deliver an okay ending. With the overwhelming feeling being appreciation and not anger as the final credits roll, it’s clear this is nowhere near the worst fate a show can face.

Outlander’s ending is decent, with a farewell that can be considered a mixed bag of good and mediocre storytelling. But it’s unlikely most will leave this series unsatisfied to the point they feel robbed.

That, in large part, is not because Outlander pulled out all the stops with this finale. There are no grand setting changes or parades of familiar faces to elevate this episode above the rest of the season.

The clear indication that this is a series finale comes in the swells of emotional dialogue exchanges, and gushing walks down memory lane that pester the moments before battle.

Outlander marks the end not with grandeur, but with an unnervingly ordinary day on the ridge.

Ordinary is a luxury that Claire and Jamie are rarely afforded. So it makes sense that when given the chance to prepare for their last day on earth together, the couple chooses to bask in a lifestyle they never truly experienced.

The scenes shared between Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan are meticulous and soothing, solidifying the performances as a romantic pairing we’ve come to expect from them, and then some.

The morning shared in bed together is a favorite of the episode. It’s cozy and comforting, despite never shying away from the death sentence looming over the couple.

Claire’s story about the bees thought to be dead but simply cuddling in a flower becomes a piece of imagery that carries this episode through its roughest patches. All while cleverly foreshadowing the finale shot of the series.

That powerful imagery, coupled with talk of ghosts and the vase left unbought in a store window all those years ago, solidifies the sentimental dialogue as the real hero of this final stand.

Lines like “I still don’t have the blue vase, but I have everything I never knew I wanted” and “I should want to sleep in a flower with you, Sassernach” hold our hand through this goodbye with a noble compassion.

It’s all this talk of ghosts and time-traveling that ultimately saves Outlander from a worse fate when it pulls out its big twist ending.

To few’s surprise, one of the most polarizing storylines of the season comes back to haunt Claire as Jamie lies dead in her arms. The fantastical blue light that glows from Claire’s hands does, in fact, save Jamie. And the prophecy of Claire’s power coming into itself when her hair turns white comes true.

On paper, it’s exactly what we didn’t want to see from the series in its final minutes.

Yet, shockingly, the outcome is not as sensational as expected. Glowing blue hands are replaced with a montage of images flashing across the screen, suggesting a love as magical and enduring as theirs has the power to build to something breathtaking.

Watching Jamie guide Claire to the stones with forget-me-nots after he begged her not to forget him is emotionally diabolical. Meanwhile, the suggestion of a cracked stone beneath their bodies as the air buzzes with anticipation is a vicious blow to any sensibility.

The actions themselves are deeply flawed. Claire’s magical healing power was never introduced into the series in a way that garners it enough respect to bring Jamie back. And the concept of Jamie’s ghost traveling through time is riddled with headache-inducing inconsistencies.

For those who want to prod at those issues, you have certainly earned that right.

It’s no clean getaway for this series. Ultimately, this finale’s choice to disregard the season that came before it is a mistake. It leaves so much to the wind and the faeries to explain, knowing they never will.

After wasting all this time on Faith’s lineage, the controversial storyline leads nowhere. We never learn what comes of most characters in this series, from the newly widowed Marsalie to Buck’s ability to escape death. And any clues that Claire’s parents are still alive in Jamie’s time are left unwritten.

We have questions that will never be answered and storylines that will never be wrapped up.

Not to mention the ending itself is no real ending.

Outlander may be a historical period drama, but its ideals are no less modern than the rest of TV. The desire to keep things open-ended in case there’s money left on the table to create more episodes in the future drives this ending. As such, it leaves us with nothing definitive that could contradict its survival, and that’s always a weak move.

Alas, in this case, it may work in the series favor.

By leaving us with the final frame and the confirmation that Claire and Jamie lived, the series doesn’t have to get into the logistics of why and how. Keeping the fantastical elements of its time-travel magic simple and vague has always aided the series. One has to hope this final shot is a continuation of that, rather than a gimmick to franchise their story further.

In the end, Claire and Jamie’s love conquers any sensibility or hesitations we may have about this finale. Because when Jamie said, “And when my body shall cease, my soul will still be yours, Claire,” he meant it.

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All seasons of Outlander are available to stream on STARZ.

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