Outlander Season 4 is Coming!

Je Suis Prest!!

After an excruciatingly long Droughtlander, Season 4 of Outlander is nearly here.  In less than 48 hours, we, the obsessive fans of the show, will be listening and watching the opening credits of the new seasons episodes  – hearts racing with excitement.

The Outlander book series was recommended to me by the wife of my husband’s cousin (how’s that for a proper Scottish genealogy prior to the telling of a story!).  We were/are mutual fans of another little book series turned tv show, Game of Thrones, or GoT.  We were at a family wedding of all places when she gushed, “Oh my gosh you’ve got to read these books!  Jamie Fraser is the King of Men!”  I laughed.  She laughed and told me a few nuggets of the storyline.  And a few days later I found myself in a bookstore, looking about for something to read and fill the gap until Mr. Martin could see fit to grace us with the next installment of GoT.  I asked the book store clerk, “Do you have the book about some lady in the 1940’s who finds herself back in the 18th century set in Scotland?”  I couldn’t remember the book title, author or any more of the story.  I thought this was a lost cause.  But the store clerk looks at me knowingly and leads me directly to the Historic Fiction section “G” and pulls out a paperback book with the image of a mud-streaked and worse for wear woman sitting in the arms of a battle worn Scot on horseback.  I started reading the book that night.

Within a few short weeks, after plowing through the book as if it was newly found water in a desert, I’m sitting in my living room with laptop and headphones, scouring YouTube for a link to the first episode.  It was the middle of the first Droughtlander, the year between Outlander Season 1 and Season 2, and this was the only way to see how well the producers did with converting book to screen.

I was in love.  Not with Sam – although, yes, he IS the King of Men and all men everywhere, young and old, could take a good lesson on how to properly love a woman and treat her well from James Alexander Malcom McKenzie Fraser.  I wasn’t in love with Claire’s boldness or how she was always ahead of her time no matter what year it was.  I was in love with the story, the intrigue, the love story, the scenery, the costumes, the Gaelic, the casting, how well the episode matched the book, and the history!

I love how Herself, Diana Gabaldon, takes factual history and blends it with bits of fiction in order to weave a tale to last through centuries.

Fast forward to the now.  I’ve read the books – all of them – four times over and on the fifth go around now, and I know many many more fans have read them countless more times than this.  The DVD’s, numerous objects from the fandom adorn my home, and of course, the 6ft cardboard Jamie that proudly stands guard in my front room greeting guests, a gift from my co-workers last Christmas.  And though I’ve read the books so many times, and know exactly what awaits us in Season 4, I am STILL excited.  I am ready!

So what to expect….. At the end of Voyager, Season 3, Claire and Jamie have washed up on the shores of Georgia.  Lucky enough, young Ian and friends also survived the hurricane and are a scant miles away.

Drums of Autumn, otherwise known as Season 4’s Brave the New World, opens with the lot of them witnessing the hanging of one of their own.  They’ve riches taken from Geillis in Jamaica.  Claire and Jamie seem well set to head into Cross Creek in North Carolina and meet up with Jamie’s Aunt Jocasta Cameron, who he hasn’t seen since he was a young babe.  But naturally, things don’t go as planned.  Danger awaits and trouble is around every turn of the road.  Lions, tigers and bears!  Oh my!

There are scenes I can’t wait for…..(without major spoilers…..)  Claire’s first real surgery in the New World.  Getting caught in the rain.  Bathing in a river by moonlight after a long hot day’s ride.  Fraser’s Ridge.  The cabin.  The thunderstorm, flood, buried treasure, and then how Jamie cares for  Claire….The big house.  The big reunion. The big breakup and so, so much more.

If you’ve not yet read the books, you should.  The on screen story is rich and full of intrigue, but the books just enhance what you see on the screen.  When I read the books now, I hear Sam’s voice as well as Caitriona’s.  I can see their facial expressions and how the scene would be played out in my head, even for the books and seasons yet to come.

Sunday cannot come fast enough!  Je Suis Prest!  I am ready!