TV Show Review

TV Review: OUTLANDER: Season 3, Episode 13: Eye of the Storm [Starz]

Caitriona Balfe Sam Heughan Outlander Eye of the Storm

Outlander Eye of the Storm Review

Starz’s Outlander: Season 3, Episode 13: Eye of the Storm was end of one chapter for Outlander and the beginning of the next. As one would expect, stakes for the present were raised significantly in Eye of the Storm but it was the stakes for the future that became of paramount importance. Brianna Randall was not on-screen during Eye of the Storm but for part of the second and almost all of the third act, she was the central motivating factor.

Between The Bakra and Eye of the Storm, it was a brilliant narrative element how the prophesy of a 200-year-old baby was brought up, dismissed, then ultimately made essential by Geillis’ focus, the prophesy’s consequence, and the ingenuity of the prophesy’s engineers.

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Gillian Edgars / Geillis Duncan / The Bakra (Lotte Verbeek) had been correct in her assessment during her questioning of Dr. Claire Beauchamp Randall/Fraser (Caitriona Balfe) in Eye of the Storm. Geillis Duncan and Claire Fraser’s paths were intertwined, twisted around each other so that they would meet again and again throughout time, eventually needing each other.

The viewer may have thought that Geillis’ quest for a Scottish Prince / King had ended with Prince Charles Edward Stuart and that she was on a new crusade. That assumption was completely wrong but not in a non-beneficial way, rather in a relevant, surprising way, a way in which it was a source of strength for the episode and the series.

Geillis had found a new path to her ultimate goal, a darker path.

The outer cave of Geillis’ teleportation pool (her dark path to murdering Brianna Randall and creating a new Scottish monarch) and her death in Eye of the Storm were partially cinematic in their presentation e.g. the way the standing stones in Jamaica were illuminated from behind and the pool backdrop during the final Geillis Duncan / Claire Fraser confrontation.

The gigantic wound created on Geillis’ neck may have been so shocking to the viewer that they didn’t realize what Claire had used to create it until a.) the camera cut to it and b.) Claire was shaking outside the cave holding it. Didn’t Geillis see the machete? Did Geillis really believe that she could get past such a weapon? Perhaps Geillis was so blinded by her cause that the machete that Claire held was as irrelevant to her as the lives of Ian Murray, Jr. and Brianna Randall? Or maybe Geillis truly believed in her cause, regardless of the danger, like the Scottish soldiers at the Battle of Culloden that bravely walked into musket fire (i.e. a direct allusion to their sacrifice).

The reason behind Geillis Duncan’s lack of hesitation notwithstanding, her final act for her cause made her one of the most interesting characters in Outlander. Her escalating, malevolent presence, like The Governor on The Walking Dead, will be missed.

Lord John William Grey (David Berry) standing up for James “Jamie” MacKenzie Fraser (Sam Heughan) in Eye of the Storm, shielding him from prosecution, was an eventuality that most frequent Outlander viewers saw coming from a mile off. What they couldn’t foresee was how Lord Grey was going to get Jamie out of his trial and noose. Turning the law against itself, using logic, and rank against Captain Thomas Leonard (Charlie Hiett) were clever maneuvers. It was Grey’s third or fourth most memorable scene in Outlander following those in The Bakra and Of Lost Things.

The sea storm and sailing machinations in Eye of the Storm were like the maelstrom scene in episode XX. of Black Sails, expect in Black Sails, the ship, sea, and crew conflicts were far higher and more perilous. In place of some of those narrative elements in Eye of the Storm, the viewer was given above/below deck danger for passengers and crew. It was good but not as good as the Jamaican cave scene that proceeded it, even-though the stakes were higher. A suspension of disbelief just wasn’t there, though: 1.) the underwater kiss was sweet, 2.) Jamie telling unconscious Claire that he’d kill her if she were dead was idiotic, and 3.) the two of them being in the eye of the storm was a beautifully shot moment.

Before the man on the beach said it (I haven’t read the book yet) in Eye of the Storm, I knew that he was going to say that they were in America. Narrative-speaking, America was the best location that Claire, Jamie, and company could have ended up – new storylines, characters, and adventures was waiting to be had in America. Diana Gabaldon knew that and its television adapters did as well, especially when one considers that the time period was 1766 (the Declaratory Act was passed that year). In 1770, the Boston Massacre occurred. If Claire and Jamie are in America for the latter event, they may play a role in the America Revolution.

Leave your thoughts on this Outlander Eye of the Storm review and this episode of Outlander below in the comments section. Readers seeking more Outlander can visit our Outlander Page, our Outlander Facebook, and our Outlander Google+ Page. Readers seeking more TV show reviews can visit our TV Show Review Page, our TV Show Review Twitter Page, our TV Show Review Facebook Page, and our TV Show Review Google+ Page. Want up-to-the-minute notification? FilmBook staff members publish articles by Email, Twitter, Tumblr, Google+, and Facebook.

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Rollo Tomasi

Rollo Tomasi is a Connecticut-based film critic, TV show critic, news, and editorial writer. He will have a MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University in 2025. Rollo has written over 700 film, TV show, short film, Blu-ray, and 4K-Ultra reviews. His reviews are published in IMDb's External Reviews and in Google News. Previously you could find his work at Empire Movies, Blogcritics, and AltFilmGuide. Now you can find his work at FilmBook.
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