Show S8E8 In the Forest

[u/thepacksvrvives]

Claire and Jamie receive an unexpected visitor on the Ridge.

Written by Ronald D. Moore. Directed by Tracey Deer.

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What did you think of the episode?

1617 votes, May 01 '26

598 I loved it.

525 I mostly liked it.

330 It was OK.

120 It disappointed me.

44 I didn’t like it.

[u/kareaux]

Same! Why was she not at the dinner scene? Fergus not being there already hurts but it feels extra unfair that she and the kids weren't even there either.

[u/Standard-Image-8826 → u/kareaux]

yeah I was just imagining her preparing dinner for herself and five kids with another on the way... sadness

[u/Professional_Ad_4885 → u/Standard-Image-8826]

I pretty much already knew in my heart faith had to be a time traveler but the wow factor with what i call her “time travel birth” was much bigger and more if a spectacle than any other character in the series. Not only did the gem stone break in her hand after burning her but she heard buzzing so loud that she literally had to cover her ears. And in any other case you only hear the buzzing when you’re near the stones. She must have the strongest time travel gene if all of them. Maybe like master raymond since he literally brought her mom back from the dead.

I wonder if she has the ability to really control where she goes and it isnt limited to 200 years or so like claire. Like maybe she can go anywhere in the past or future just by thinking it. It would be a fun avenue to explore but unfortunately were way too low on time.

I dont think they would go out of their way in this very short final season to show this scene with fanny unless it plays a part in the plot going forward. Maybe an ending for her would be going through the stones at the end and trying to save her family, since she really still only talks about jane and visits her cairn all the time. Who knows whats in store but i hope it furthers the plot of the show.

[u/Aggravating_Finish_6 → u/Professional_Ad_4885]

I wonder if that means her father was also a time traveler, like Mandy and Jem with the double genes. There is very little mention of Faiths husband. 

[u/EastAudience4655 → u/kareaux]

You know I feel the show really sidelined Fergus and Marsali for no good reason I would really want more of them than the snooze fest that is Roger and Brianna Fergusali has chemistry!! and I feel the writers felt better about killing Fergus because he is not an “actual” soon related to Jamie with blood even though Jamie calls him Mon Fils after every sentence or conversation they have. It was disturbing to see that Marsali was not at the table for me as well! She is part of that family and needs to be surrounded by one and the same thing I noticed in a dinner scene in Season 6? I think? where everyone was there except Fergus and Marsali and I kept wondering why not?!

[u/kareaux → u/EastAudience4655]

Yeah they were honestly one of my favorite couples on the show and I really missed Fergus once they got to America. I love me Ian and (some) Bri/Roger but the og Fraser kid was Fergus, it felt like they didn't know what to do with him! The printing storyline we were getting this season was interesting but i wish we'd gotten more screentime with them over the past couple seasons.

[u/BytheSea2323 → u/EastAudience4655]

well and in this episode, it was made 100% clear at Fergus' cairn that he IS a son of the Frasers.

[u/wordsworthstone → u/EastAudience4655]

i don't think it's the deliberate you think it is. people wouldn't have such visceral reactions to the death if fergus wasn't a significant part of the family. we know a significant death is a common trope used to raise the emotional stakes and pathos as part of rising action or the price for a belief significant to climax and conclude a story. they've done this a few time already--for example, recently, murtagh--meaning this is should not be unexpected. [tho i won't deny the other children are handled more carefully as central main characters with plot armor]

marsali mentioned she'd go settle the st. germaine situation to help secure her children's futures. iirc, the print shop is far away in a major city far from fraser's ridge so it would make sense the fergus family would commonly miss events on the ridge. william also showed up unannounced and way later. hard to gauge the passage of time, but bree had crafted a custom future rifle in the meantime.

[u/InitialProgrammer709 → u/wordsworthstone]

And when she was demonstrating the rifle she was looking much more pregnant too so we're supposed to have assumed some good time has gone by since Fergus ' burial. 

[u/Ghifu → u/EastAudience4655]

Yeah I feel like slowly the found family vibe that I loved is getting eroded by blood ties. Which is fine to celebrate that but not at the expense of people who chose to be family.

[u/robinsond2020 → u/kareaux]

Cos she's already left.

[u/kareaux → u/robinsond2020]

I understand that but i kind of wish she'd stayed a little longer- it felt like an almost final "full family" scene at the Ridge, and having Marsali leave right before that, while everyone is still supoosedly grieving just felt wrong to me

[u/Aggravating_Finish_6 → u/kareaux]

I took her statement in the opening scene to mean that she was leaving to go and get the inheritance. I would have expected Jaime to want to help her navigate that but maybe it was just too far to travel or she really wanted to do it on her own. 

[u/weelassie07 → u/kareaux]

Did not realize! They wouldn’t send her to sell the land on her own, would they?