Come sail over the sea to Skye with us this summer, as we take a trip through the stones to the first season of the television adaptation of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander book series. First published in 1991 with Outlander, Gabaldon’s multi-genre novels features the time traveling love story of Claire (Caitriona Balfe), a 1940s woman who finds herself out of time and place in Scotland in the era of the Jacobite rebellion. The U.S. pay TV network Starz debuted the Outlander TV series in 2014, with the show concluding its fifth season last year. In celebration of the ninth novel out this autumn and the sixth season of the TV series debuting in early 2022, we’re spending our 2021 summer vacation at Castle Leoch.
Claire’s going on a road trip to collect the “Rent” for the MacKenzie lands, but it’s not going to be an easy trip. And her knowledge of the future makes her realize that a certain pivotal event is fast approaching and there’s nothing she may be able to do about it.
It should also be noted that Outlander is very much an 18+ series, with graphic violence and sexuality throughout. And of course, spoilers within for both the tv show and the novel series.
1. A Moment of Poetry
The poetry Claire recites in the opening scene is that of John Donne, specifically “That Time and Absence proves rather helps than hurts to loves.” Claire’s clearly missing Frank and 1945, and uses the poetry of the time to covertly express her longing for home. Now that she’s out in the world, she has to take even greater care not to show too much of her background.
The moment also introduces us to Ned Gowan, lawyer to the MacKenzie clan. His new kinship with Claire allows her to find some joy in the journey (but not too much so as to distract her from returning home), and provide Greek chorus commentary to educate Claire (and us) on the ins and outs of the task at hand. This will also be an important friendship to her later, as Ned will be called upon when Claire is in need.
It also contrasts with how the rest of the travelers treat Claire, as that Sassenach, that outsider. Whether it’s the dirty jokes or the use of Gaelic, Claire knows she’s not trusted around here. Even Jamie is starting to wonder what’s up with this Sassenach in his presence.
2. A Waulking Song
After comics (and baseball), my other passion in life is fiber crafts. And I forgot that this episode has a wonderful scene of women waulking wool, a process to make the wool clean and thick. This is a process no longer in use thanks to the Industrial Revolution, and it’s a fine bit of history to behold, even if the sight of urine poured on the wool will make you squeamish.
But we also learn during the waulking that perhaps the collection of rent isn’t a fully fair one. Claire discovers one of the women gave up the family goat to pay the clan, thereby depriving her baby son of needed milk. She tries to release the goat to bring it back to the family, but is outnumbered by Angus, Dougal, and the men.
Claire’s attempts at saving the goat do have a later impact on Dougal, as he does offer one villager in the next town food and an invitation to drink that evening instead of the rent, as the man has nothing to give for rent. But is this a truly altruistic gesture or is Dougal still just out for himself?
3. The Whoring Of Jamie
Side hustles apparently were a thing back in the 18th century, and Dougal has one. It involves showing off Jamie’s scarred back (courtesy of the English) as a way to get the villagers to give more money. But that money isn’t on the books that Colum sees. Claire figures this out quickly, much to Ned’s joy. The other men aren’t having the same reaction as Ned, particularly Dougal, when Claire calls them out on this.
I’m of two minds of Claire’s decision. On one hand, we have a duty to speak out against injustice when we do see it. On the other, Colum is a smart man and would have figured it out eventually. And Claire’s only slowly getting the trust of the rest of the clan, trust that she needs to help plan her eventual escape. Being the thorn in Dougal’s side and not doing as she’s told (painful as that is) is not going to win friends and influence Clan MacKenzie.
Continued belowOne thing we both agree on, though: her heart goes out to Jamie, whose pain being used as a prop in Dougal’s scheme.
4. One of the Boys
Throughout this episode, Claire has to put up with a lot of dirty jokes, insults, and innuendos from the men, and you can see the discomfort plain as the nose on her face. Insult to injury: she knows they already don’t like her, so they’re just going to make it as miserable as possible.
Now they may not like Claire, but they respect her and her role as healer. And they will defend her to the death, which they do in a local pub. They can insult her, but if anyone else does the same they are going to feel the MacKenzie wrath.
It’s a weird expression of love, but Claire finally gets it. She has earned their respect, even if they show it in a weird way. And with one pretty witty dirty joke of her own, they earn hers.
5. A Familiar Name
Although Claire still can’t understand the Gaelic, she starts to figure out just what Dougal’s scheme is when she hears a familiar name: Stuart. Thanks to her 1945 history lessons, she realizes that Dougal isn’t raising extra money to line his pockets. He’s raising money to raise a Highlander Army to fight the English. We’re two years off from the most famous of the Jacobite rebellions, so this makes sense, and changes how Claire perceives them. They’re not criminals to her but rebels – – rebels on a losing side. She comes to appreciate their passion to their cause, but her heart breaks knowing they will not be successful.
The appearance of Culloden Moor and memories of a MacKenzie grave unnerve Claire. Frank predicted that it was the end of the Highlander way of life, and Claire’s knowledge of this tears her heart apart. These history lessons are alive in front of her face. It’s a first person seat on the wrong side of a battle, where the people in unmarked graves in 1945 have names and families in 1743. If anything is going to move her stance on going back to 1945, this might be it. At the very least, she’s going to try to change history by warning Ned and the clan of what will happen, but they’re not budging from raising their army. This is history she cannot change.
So when she’s confronted by a group of English soldiers asking if she is with these Highlanders freely, one has to wonder just how that advance knowledge will play into her answer.
We’ll find out next week, friends.
The Lost Papers of Black Jack Randall (Our Afterthoughts Section)
- The events in this episode correspond to Chapter 11 of the Outlander novel.
- This is an episode where we get to see the first of several beautiful hand knits on Claire. And if you’re a fellow fiber crafter that found inspiration from this episode, there’s no shortage of patterns available!
We’ll see you next week for “The Garrison Commander” and do let us know what you thought of the episode in the comments.
As of this writing, the first season of Outlander is available for viewing on Netflix, where seasons 2-4 are also available (except in the UK). In the UK, the show is available on Amazon Prime Video UK. All five seasons of the show are also available via Starz (in the United States).
