Look at these lucky 17th century people! Outside, what a concept.
Look at these lucky 17th century people! Outside, what a concept.

Pop CultureApril 14, 2020

Outlander recap: Jamie Fraser plays a mean game of hide and seek

Look at these lucky 17th century people! Outside, what a concept.
Look at these lucky 17th century people! Outside, what a concept.

Is Roger alive? Can Marsali predict the future? Will Fraser’s Ridge ever have enough candles? Tara Ward recaps season five, episode eight of Outlander

If you were planning on escaping through the stones to 1771 for some light relief from this mad old world of ours, think again. Turn back, you shall not pass. It was a grim time in North Carolina this week, with nearly all of Outlander‘s characters weighed down by grief and trauma. Jamie and Jocasta mourned their beloved Murtagh, a forlorn Ian returned to Fraser’s Ridge, Roger survived but could not speak, Brianna worried about everything, and Marsali’s tarot talents went up the wazoo. There were no cute goats or or jovial Lord John dancing scenes, and I don’t know about you, but I could really do with a jovial Lord John dancing scene right now.

Jamie Fraser is all of us.

The last episode left us unsure if Roger was dead or alive, and Outlander teased out this cliffhanger like it was a grape in Jamie Fraser’s hand and we were his hungry time-travelling wife feasting on a grazing platter in a dodgy Scottish brothel. We began in 1969, with Roger very much alive and teaching at Oxford University.

Roger has a big brain and a lovely turtleneck jumper, and no idea that when he travels back in time he will end up nearly dead and robbed of the ability to speak, and will experience recurring flashbacks of this traumatic experience in the form of a 1920s black-and-white silent film. Let’s not focus on why. Life is full of unexpected surprises.

Back in 1771, Claire performed an emergency tracheotomy and saved Roger’s life. Jamie tried to comfort his semi-conscious son-in-law by telling him that “all is well”, which is right up there with “it’s just a flesh wound” and “I’ll give the book back when I’m finished”.  Three months later, things were still a bit shit for Roger, who couldn’t escape his trauma. He self-isolated and social-distanced, probably washed his hands a lot, definitely cried a lot of silent tears. We’ve all been there, either in 1771 or March 2020.

Grief, Outlander style.

There was another level four situation up at the big house, where Jamie and Jocasta grieved the loss of old mate Murtagh. A hungover Jamie perked up during a hectic game of hide and seek, until his nephew Young Ian turned up out of the blue and shot a wild boar. Ian was miserable too, even sadder than that dead pig, so he came to the right place. Ian’s reunion with the Frasers was quietly emotional, and Roger and I cried a few more silent tears and then I washed my hands again and took 4,000 screenshots of Jamie Fraser hiding behind a tree and felt a little bit better.

Remember outside? Remember games?!

With everyone on Fraser’s Ridge struggling with their own inner turmoil, it was up to Marsali to brighten the mood. Marsali is the light in our lives, the gem in our 18th-century crown, the life-saving balm trapped inside Outlander’s emotional glass cloche. She tried to cheer Roger up with a tarot reading, but stopped after turning over the Hanged Man card. Twice. Not cool, Marsali. Not cool.

What else happened? My vision was shrouded by the torrential downpour of feelings, but there was something about Tryon giving Roger a shitload of free land to make up for almost killing him, and Roger and Ian going on a lads’ weekend and bonding over their shared grief. Roger had an epiphany on top of a mountaintop, regained control of his vocal cords and came home to tell Brianna that he will always sing for her. Ian literally buried his hatchet, but sadly, neither Roger nor Ian wanted to play hide and seek in the forest.

Note to self: lockdown is not the time to get this haircut.

We’ve been through dark times on Outlander before, so let’s count this week’s positives. Marsali’s about to have another baby, Claire and Jamie are on solid ground, and the candle situation on the Ridge looks extremely healthy. It was an emotional week, but these are emotional times, and when all else fails we must make like Jamie Fraser in an 18th-century forest. Find a tree, hunker down behind it and wait for the good times to find us again.

Read all of Tara Ward’s Outlander recaps here.

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church & ap in final mix

VideoApril 14, 2020

Church & AP eat doughnuts and test out a new single in episode two of Final Mix

church & ap in final mix

In the new series Final Mix, music journalist Yadana Saw chats with local musicians and listens to their latest tracks in the ultimate testing ground: the car. The second episode is with young-gun hip-hop duo Church & AP.

Their first big single, ‘Ready or Not’, dropped early last year. Almost immediately, Elijah Manū (Church) and Albert Purcell (AP) shot to the top of NZ’s hip hop charts and tastemakers’ lists. In just a few months they’d toured London, LA and Amsterdam. They came home in time to headline Auckland local music festival The Others Way in August, playing to a rain-drenched crowd of jumping hipsters before performing to 30,000 campers at the infamous summer festival Rhythm and Vines.

Church & AP have both breadth and depth of appeal, winning over critics and the masses alike. The two bandmates weren’t close before teaming up to make ‘Ready or Not’, but on making that track, they realised combining their individual musical styles was a winning formula. Last year’s 10-track album, Teeth, was a no-skip mélange of bops. It’s hip hop tinged in places with modern house, old school R&B, ballroom, and some grungier trap. 

Church & AP were nominated for breakthrough artist of the year at last year’s Vodafone Music Awards, and since then they’ve well and truly broken through. They’ve crushed it on radio and torn up dance floors. Their latest track, ‘Aston Martin’, is another in a rapidly growing list of smash hits. It’s an ode to 2000s R&B, with musical and lyrical nods to Busta Rhymes’ and Mariah Carey’s ‘I Know What You Want’ and Kelis and Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s ‘Baby, I Got Your Money’.

Church & AP play with voices as much as beats. On ‘Moneytalk’ they pitched down producer Soraya La Pread to sound like a man. On ‘Aston Martin’ Church pitches up his typical falsetto to sing the hook in character as a car-loving party girl.

When the Covid-19 crisis reached pandemic level, music was one of the most rapidly affected industries. With shows cancelled and studios off-limits, there’s not a lot of money to be made; but the show must go on. Church & AP jumped on the Down Bad Challenge, a freestyle challenge started in Australia set to the Downbad beat by Dreamville. Church featured on one of Melodownz’s isolation cyphers, spitting some freestyles with Diggy Dupe and dharmarat. He’s also been watching The Godfather a lot.

The duo has been prolific over the past year, and the only thing slowing them down during lockdown will be a painstaking game of Monopoly.

In the second episode of Final Mix, Church & AP talk about where they’ve seen an Aston Martin in the wild, what they do on stage when the other one is having a turn on the mic, and how to win over a love interest by keeping tabs on their Spotify plays.

They also talk through ‘Aston Martin’ with Yadana, explaining how they took Y2K influences to develop their own YKK style. It has electric guitar riffs, lyrics about Star Wars, and a bouncy bassline underneath. Like the entirety of Teeth, ‘Aston Martin’ is inspired, hectic, and really fun. Lockdown or not, budding hip hop savants Church & AP are here for a good time.

Final Mix is made with the support of NZ On Air.