References of Never my Love 

By Éloïse Picquet 

Introduction and remarks by  Valérie Gay-Corajoud
 

Dark and uncompromising, the last episode of season 5: Never my love, explores the limits of each of the protagonists as well as the way they manage to live through the dramas, the pains and the obstacles that stand in their way.
Let it be the incapacity : that of Brianna and Roger to cross the stones, that of Jamie to protect Claire and avoid her pain and finally that of Claire to let go of her bonds and to prevent the rage of Lionel Brown from spilling on her…
But just as much the capacity : that of Brianna and Roger to admit that Fraser Ridge is ultimately their home, that of Jamie to federate around him to go in search of his wife and to avenge her immediately, and of course, that of Claire , to find in it a protective nook where to find shelter so as not to sink into madness.
They all stay on the edge… on the edge of the abyss, but still carried by the others, like a building of which each stone supports those around and carries the whole.
Eloïse Picquet found a multitude of winks in this episode, which refer to other key moments of the saga.

If you have seen others, feel free to let them know in the comments.

First, the references found in Claire's hallucinations

🔹 It is of course not trivial if Claire wears a red dress during her hallucination. This dress refers to the one she wears in Versailles (see note written by Eloise: The red dress)
But red is also a symbol of passion, love, action, elegance, prohibition and even sin in some societies, all that Lionel Brown cannot tolerate on the part of a woman! And then of course, red, like the blood escaping from his mistreated body.

🔹 The modern chalet takes us back to a Fraser's Ridge from the 1960s. It is also, (The producers of the series confirm it), taken from a magazine that Claire leafed through during episode 5 of this same season: Adoration Perpetual.

🔹We cannot ignore the presence of the microscope that Jamie gave Claire and which sits proudly on the desk.

🔹 The blue and white vase, meanwhile, reminds of the one Claire looks at in the Inverness window at the very beginning of the Saga and which makes her wonder if one day she will own a house of her own in order to install a vase there. The vase then becomes a symbol of home.

🔹 The painting she is looking at from her sofa is obviously a representation of the big house in Fraser’s Ridge. Is she waiting for it to catch fire?

🔹 Jamie wrapping Claire in a tartan recalls the very first episode of the series when he protects her from the cold while they are on the horse. The same tartan with which Claire wraps Jamie during their wedding night. It is a strong symbol of the care and protection that Claire needs more than ever.
🔹 Besides, the reference to this scene from the first episode is blatant when Jamie says to Claire: 'You shake so much that I chat my teeth'

🔹 The tapestry on a section of the chalet wall looks devilishly that of their bedroom in Lallybroch.

🔹 The dragonfly with which Germain plays skillfully refers to two strong symbols of the saga.

- First the dragonfly in amber, offered by Hugh Munro as a wedding gift to Claire and which has become, in a way, the talisman that accompanies Jamie during his agony on the heath of Culloden. Agony that looks terribly like the one Claire is going through.
But this dragonfly is also the small plane that the very young Roger flies over his head while Frank and the Reverend Wakefield are looking for Claire, missing ...

🔹 The rain dripping from the ceiling may refer to the putrid body of Aaron Beardsley whose excrement ends up flowing through the floor, which alerts Claire (Season 3 Episode 3: Free Will). But just as well it can evoke the endangered hearth, or, the life which runs out).

🔹 The orange that Claire takes on the small table undoubtedly evokes the one that she seizes upon leaving Louis XV's bedroom when the latter has just abused her ... A form of symbolic compensation.

🔹 It is not trivial if Ian is represented in uniform! First of all, this makes it possible to identify him as different from the others, just as his Indian attire differs from the other colonists. But he is also the one who sacrifices himself for the common good, as he sacrificed himself for Roger and Bree by giving himself up to the Indians.

🔹 The announcement of the death of Brianna, Roger and Jeremiah in a car accident by Lionel Brown and Hodgepile, refers to Claire's comparison between her first passage through the stones, and a car accident she had child.
In addition, Frank died in a car accident, which suggests that the 20th century ultimately poses as many dangers as the 18th. Dangers from which she cannot protect her children. Let's not forget that at this point in history, Claire does not yet know that Bree and Roger finally did not cross the stones.

It should be noted that during this vision of an ideal world in which Claire feels protected, Jocasta is no longer blind and Fergus has both hands.

But it is not only in Claire's hallucinations that this episode swarms its symbolic references.

🔹While trying to escape Lionel Brown's clutches, Claire is filmed from behind, just like in this scene from season 1 when she runs in the woods playing with the children of Castle Leoch. Scene that has been repeated in all the credits.

🔹 While Claire is tied up, Wendigo Donner evokes the moon which is the same everywhere, this moon which is often evoked, notably in season 3 when on the boat Jamie speaks of the man of the moon and that Claire speaks to him of the first steps of the man and the song she sang to Brianna as a child.

🔹The plan seen from above of Claire tied up and injured in the forest evokes the confinement of Jamie in Wentworth when Claire finds him on the ground in his cell.

🔹 The rabbit on the carpet and then in the grass is of course the same one that appears to Jamie on the Culloden Heath, but he is also the little plush rabbit of Brianna as a child.

🔹In the early hours of the morning, when Jamie rescued Claire, she stands in front of the river. This brings us back to the first season when Jamie has just learned that his wife is from the future. He asked her then if she wanted to go home. The plan is identical ... Claire from behind, wrapped in Jamie's blanket, the latter slightly overhanging her, and ready to take her home.

🔹 It is devilishly ironic for Lionel Brown to be finished using a syringe since it was he who destroyed Claire's, which almost cost Jamie his life during the snake bite. It should be noted, however, that in Diana Gabaldon's original work, Lionel died suffocated by a pillow.
🔹 As for the sublime final scene, it undoubtedly evokes the way in which Claire had protected Jamie's body while he was dying following the bite of the snake. This time, it is Jamie's body that protects against the pain.

🔹 Brianna helps her injured mother wash in the bathtub. The scene is filmed as when Jamie washes Claire's back in season 4.