After Rewatching Outlander's Midseason Finale, I'm Still Not Sold On One Plot Twist
Spoilers ahead for the midseason finale of Outlander Season 7.
The first half of Outlander's seventh season came to an end on Starz in the 2023 TV schedule after an eventful eight episodes. While Claire, Jamie, and Young Ian had peaceful final moments of the midseason finale after a huge love triangle development with their arrival back on the shores of Scotland in the 18th century, Roger and Bree were dealing with a terrible crisis in the 1980s. Rob Cameron kidnapped Jemmy and took him through the stones to try and get his hands on the Jacobite gold that only the youngster knew the location of, and it made for a great cliffhanger for the MacKenzie branch of the story... but upon rewatch, there's one element that I'm not sold on.
The entire Jacobite gold storyline is reliant on one thing: Jemmy knowing the location from a code with Jamie back in the 1700s. That'd be all well and good... if Jemmy had been older when he and his grandda discovered the gold and came up with their secret message about its location. The time jumps of Outlander make it a little fuzzy about exactly how old Jemmy is by the midseason finale of Season 7, but if I'm going by looks alone, the little boy was still quite young when the family had to return to the 20th century for Mandy's sake.
And it seems like a big gamble to count on a little boy remembering a secret that he had with his grandfather about a cave in the wilds of North Carolina well enough to actually guide an adult to find it. This plot point actually bugged me as far back as Episode 4, when Roger and Bree debated whether or not they should ask Jemmy about where the gold was. They ultimately decided not to, and even at that point I had my doubts that he would be able to remember. Years have passed for the MacKenzie family since then; is it believable that Jemmy would be able to guide Rob Cameron to the gold even if he wanted to?
Now, I'm several books behind in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander novel saga, so for all I know, Roger and his ancestor will catch up with Rob Cameron and Jemmy before they can get very far in 18th century Scotland, and this could all be resolved in the first twenty minutes of the midseason premiere with the Jacobite gold not actually mattering much. Still, for the sake of realism in a show that isn't exactly known for being realistic, I'd enjoy if Rob Cameron went to all the trouble of kidnapping Jem, only for Jem not to remember how to get the gold and karma catching up with Rob in the 1770s.
I also don't mean to suggest that I'm not a fan of the storyline. It has been absolutely harrowing in a way that Jamie and Claire's story hasn't been for me, and the reveal of Rob Cameron as a new villain after it seemed like Buck MacKenzie could be the troublemaker raised the stakes in the '80s. The highest the stakes were previously were Brianna finding what could be a time travel portal in a tunnel and the construction on Lallybroch. Jem's kidnapping was horrifying and tragic for the MacKenzies, but pretty thrilling for me as a viewer... as long as there's a happy ending for the family and Rob Cameron gets what's coming to him!
Whether or not you're sold on the idea of Jemmy still knowing how to find the Jacobite gold, we're all in for a wait before seeing what's next in the super-sized seventh season. The second half of Season 7 won't premiere until at some point in 2024, and for now we can just focus on what we know (and suspect) for what comes next. Revisiting earlier years of Outlander is also an option for those with a Netflix subscription, as that platform hosts the first five seasons.
