‘Outlander’ Recap: ‘A Practical Guide for Time-Travelers’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Richard Rankin, Sophie Skelton and Chris Fulton as Roger MacKenzie, Brianna Fraser Mackenzie, and Rob Cameron in Episode 707 of ‘Outlander’ – ‘A Practical Guide for Time-Travelers’. (Photo Courtesy of STARZ.)

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 707 of ‘Outlander’. To revisit the previous episode, click here. Also, this piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.
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At the conclusion of last week’s episode of Outlander, on STARZ, it truly seemed as though… rough storytelling was on the horizon. For Jamie had signed up for another tour in the American Army, and he of course… was talking about heading to Saratoga, wherein some incredible battles took place that eventually cemented a decisive victory for America. Which meant, war was going to play out on screen, and we would be privy to dark visuals within it since this is a series that understands the gravity of brutality. Which undoubtedly meant we all steeled our nerves for the ugly to come… only to be deeply surprised by this week’s episode, in every possible sense of the word. Mainly because… ‘A Practical Guide for Time-Travelers’ took the majority of the story in a vastly different, yet still dark, direction.
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For this was a tale, that spent a lot of time in 1980. Wherein we came to learn that the man that Roger smacked around a bit last week, was none other than Buck MacKenzie. Who learned the hard way that he was rash and foolish with Roger and should have never gone the route he did. Not against family anyway. Which cooled tempers and allowed for forgiveness and a plan to of course, get Buck back to his own time. Regardless of the fact that it might mean his end, since the family tree spoke to the year of his end being the same as the year, he left for 1980. But he was fine with this regardless and made every effort to integrate into family life for the time being, and that led to peace while another surprise made itself apparent to the MacKenzine family, in the form of one Rob Cameron. For he uh… he basically made himself at home at Lallybroch as well.

All because he jumped at the chance to learn more about the family and enjoy their presence and of course… he was eager to flirt with Brianna, much to Buck and Roger’s chagrin. All of which made it appear as though, nice times were ahead for this family. But alas, we came to learn at the end of this storyline that Rob was not whom he appeared to be. In fact, he knew something was off about this family, and that they did not belong in this time, and that prompted him to play nice, to gain access to everything Roger had written down about time travel and use that to his advantage. By taking gemstones to the stones nearby and Jem with him as well. Leaving this family one child lighter and leaving Roger and Bree in a furious place. Since this man dared to mess with their family and time travel. All of which truly lifted our worries about something gory and violent happening, but definitely delivered some darkness. 

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Caitríona Balfe and Sam Heughan as Claire Fraser and Jamie Fraser in Episode 707 of ‘Outlander’ – ‘A Practical Guide for Time-Travelers’. (Photo Courtesy of STARZ.)

For that sequence was still pretty worrisome since an innocent child was lost to time for reasons we don’t understand. But we were truly expecting commentary on the darkness of war, and even the scenes back in 1777 spoke to little action in this tale. For we spent a lot of time with Jamie and Claire as they prepared for the first Battle of Saratoga and enjoyed their downtime together, and William Ransom, just went about his life as well. Which in this instance involved trying to stay on the frontlines for the fight ahead when others wanted to send him away as a messenger boy again, and well, he was eventually granted his wish and treated to the spoils of war. Since he did stand at Saratoga and saw his friends fall as bullets whizzed by him. 
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Which was, gloomy for certain and uncomfortable, but still tame by what the show had foreshadowed. Not to mention, when the gunpowder settled, and the dead were buried, William just returned to base, a changed man that had taken part in hard combat. But that’s when the show… really took us off guard like never before. Because in the wake of Saratoga, on the American side… we came to learn that the fight did not go as well for Jamie as we had hoped. For somewhere in the madness of cannonballs and hand to hand bloodshed, Jamie was badly wounded… or worse. For all we saw in the closing moments of this tale was him lying still, leaving us to wonder if he is alright or if this story is about to take quite the turn and sadly… we won’t know for two weeks courtesy of a quick break before the midseason finale.

But what mattered more here, was that this episode shook us ways we didn’t expect. By first having an innocent child go missing at the hands of a man whose intentions remain a mystery, and one of the most important characters in this tale is in a bad place physically. All of which leaves us beside ourselves and in a worried state. For we really thought this story was going to say more about the horrors of the bloodshed of the Revolutionary War and what it taught those who fought it, about freedom, and war in general in a powerful and sobering manner. But leave it to this show to invest us in such lessons personally and leave us deeply unsettled about the fate of Jem and well, all of these elements are going to make the two weeks wait for the midseason finale quite painful. Since we simply must know how Roger is going to bring Jem home, and whether or not Jamie Fraser is okay. Until next time.

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