Outlander recap: Jamie and Claire join the fight
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The last time we left Roger (Richard Rankin) and Brianna (Sophie Skelton), they had just discovered that Lallybroch was for sale. I assumed they would take little Jemmy out for ice cream to ask him to explain the mystery behind the Spaniard in the cave so they would have the means to restore Jamie's childhood home.
That was two years ago, and unfortunately, the Mackenzies have not found the lost Jacobite gold. Instead, they've been living in an RV outside the castle while local Scottish contractors take them for all they are worth. They are quickly running out of money, and it's clear that Bree and Roger have no clue that a skeleton in America is guarding the answer to their problems. They just want their kids to be kids for a while before reminding them that they can travel through eerie stones to other timelines.
Roger eventually discovers that the musket balls in the secret chest are gold, but that doesn't keep his face from shifting as Bree asks him to wish her luck. She's got an interview for an engineering job and doesn't care that a man would traditionally hold the position. Bree is a lady of the '80s and will stop at nothing to provide for her family.
We later learn that this moxie is the cause of Roger's moody behavior. He thinks he's a big fat failure and hates that he promised Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire (Caitriona Balfe) he would take care of their daughter. Bree assures Roger they will be fine, and he is everything she ever wanted in a husband. Plus, she needs him to deal with Jemmy's insistence that he's seen a horse demon who demanded food.
Roger pauses. Perhaps Jemmy is seeing magical creatures, which explains why he hid his sister in the secret priest's hole behind the coat closet. Do they chalk it up to the imagination? Or do they need to investigate what Jemmy can "hear" when it comes to fanciful folklore? Consider me intrigued.
Back in revolutionary times, William Ransom (Charles Vandervaart) celebrates with his cousin on the young man's newly appointed assignment in New York. Although William has yet to receive his military orders, it doesn't stop him and a ton of other redcoats from partying it up in the streets of Williamsburg.
Things get rowdy, and a fellow soldier abuses a prostitute. The man pours alcohol on her body and shoves her into a nearby flame, immediately catching her gown on fire. William is the only one in the crowd who finds this behavior abhorrent and rushes to try and save the woman from burning to death.
Although his heroic gesture is too late, his act does turn the head of an officer who thinks William's intervention showed courage. As a result, the man would like William to act as a messenger, delivering three unmarked letters to three different men in a colony in a nearby swamp. Once he delivers the letters, he is to report to New York for his military assignment. That is, if he doesn't die.
William is ready for the task and has no intention of being killed by rebels or any other riffraff in the forests of Virginia. What he doesn't expect is a snake in the middle of the trail, which spooks his horse. Will venom take the young man out? No! The horse throws its rider, causing him to roll down a hill, where a stick slams through William's forearm. Brutal.
Meanwhile, Jamie, Claire, and Ian (John Bell) arrive in Williamsburg to catch their boat bound for Scotland. Harnett (James Weber Brown), who you remember as a leader in the Sons of Liberty, spies Jamie and invites him to "join the cause" by signing his name on a piece of paper. When Jamie calmly explains his travel plans, Harnett threatens to force Jamie to sign the paper. They are low on their quota of men, after all. Or Jamie could send someone in his place. Either way, a name will be written on the paper.
And just like that, without any arguing or shouting, Jamie tells Claire and Ian that he is going to fight. He's uninterested in doing it for freedom or winning, but he's fighting for their family. Seconds later, Claire warns Jamie that he's not going without her because she's going to sign up as a physician. Both will be heading to Fort Ticonderoga in the morning.
I expected a little more push and pull, which finally unfolds when Ian volunteers to sign up, too. Jamie's voice raises to his nephew, forbidding him from joining the war, reminding Ian that he promised his mother that he would return to Scotland. He is to get on that boat immediately!
Ian will get back to Scotland. They all three will return one day. But now, he's going to do some reconnaissance with the Shawnee Indians to see where their loyalties lie. If Harnett is willing, Ian will offer his services through the forests of Virginia to see what he can find.
And what does young Ian find? William struggling to stay alive in the woods. Apparently, no person or animal is going to kill this man. He's going to die by a stick. What in the world?
Ian bonds with William immediately, reminding the soldier that he knows his father, Lord John Grey (David Berry), who knows Jamie Fraser. Then he uses his big knife to pick out bits of wood from William's disgusting-looking wound. William asks Ian if it's true that the Mowhawk faces death with no signs of outward distress. Ian rolls his eyes, ensuring William that he is not about to die, but he might want to craft a death song just in case.
Poor William is unable to conjure any words other than his own name. The guy hasn't lived! He has nothing to proclaim or brag about in his hypothetical last hours on this earth. Exactly, Ian prompts. William needs to live so he can generate some super cool stories for his deathbed. Then Ian pours boiling hot water over William's wound, and we all groan as it bubbles up.
Back in Williamsburg, Claire exits a store with her little apothecary basket and runs smack dab into the arms of Tom Christie (Mark Lewis Jones), who straight up kisses her hardcore on the mouth for a long time. It lasted as long as it took you to read this sentence.
Is Claire making out with a ghost in Colonial Williamsburg? Nope. Tom didn't die that day he turned himself in for the murder of his daughter. But he's not the only one surprised to see a dead person walking. Tom assumed Claire and Jamie died in the fire at Fraser's Ridge. In fact, he put an obituary in the newspaper as a sign of respect!
Tom asks if Claire told Jamie that he was in love with her. Upon hearing that she absolutely did, he tells Claire that he will have no peace while she is alive. He said it while smiling a sad smile. Do we feel sorry for Tom or entirely creeped out? I'll let you decide.
Claire complains to Jamie that Tom kissed her in the middle of the street, and to Jamie's defense, he totally gets why Tom would perform such a grand gesture. Claire is worth it. This leads to a discussion about jealousy, and they end up horizontal in a cushy bed at the Red Falcon.
Do you know who isn't having a cushy time in the woods? Ian and William. William is so sick, Ian has flung him on his horse and frantically tries to find help. This comes in the form of brother/sister duo Denzell (Joey Phillips) and Rachel Hunter (Izzy-Meikle Small). Denzell is a surgeon, and once he spies William's gross arm, he barks at his sister to "fetch the saw."
Seriously? Is a stick going to take this man down?
Denzell commands Ian and Rachel to hold William down, and when he presses the saw to William's arm, yellow puss oozes from the hole. Although entirely alarming to the rest of us, the good doctor swears this is excellent news. The arm will not be amputated. William does not need to devise a quick, jaunty death song on the fly.
Ian leaves the next morning, but not before sending out some big time vibes in Rachel's direction. It seems the Scottish Mowhawk is fond of the Quaker nurse. Later, Rachel shares with William that he came in the nick of time. She and her brother are leaving the homestead to head north.
Rachel explains that they are members of the Society of Friends, and when Denzell outwardly stated he was in favor of independence, he and Rachel were kicked out of the organization and will be joining their neighbor, Samuel Cartwright, at his outpost.
William perks up. Samuel Cartwright is the recipient of one of his letters. He wonders out loud if he could escort the siblings to their destination, which I'm sure you've guessed, is none other than the infamous Fort Ticonderoga.
Will father and son reunite? And which side of the line will each be fighting?
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