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.
In the very first episode, we got a look at Black Jack Randall, who bears a strong resemblance to Frank Randall. Claire now gets some additional time with her husband’s ancestor in “The Garrison Commander” – – and he’s determined to learn whatever he can about this mystery woman.
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. The Most Non-Answer Answer There Is
You’ll recall last week when we left Claire, the English guard who found her asked if she was with the Highlanders of her own free will. After the most pregnant of pauses, Claire simple answers “I am a guest of the Clan MacKenzie.” It’s the most non-answer answer there is, as she clearly evades the question. With both the English and Dougal watching her, she knows whatever answer she gives will turn things very hot very fast, so she goes for the vaguest way out. Is it a smart move? Well, in the short term, yes – – as I said, it prevents the situation from turning very dangerous. But the Englishman who finds her sees through this, and wants to take her to his commander. For Claire, it’s an odd sigh of relief, for she’s around her own people.
There is a thread of sympathy in her thoughts for Dougal, who accompanies her to the British outpost – – he’s now the Outlander she’s been since she arrived. We’ll see how this level of understanding colors her meeting with the British.
2. A Budding Friendship
Claire and Dougal’s dinner at the English outpost is full of microaggressions against the Scottish, signs to us modern viewers of just how tense the political situation between the two really is. It also lends some credibility to the reason that the show’s first season had a delayed airing in the UK: concerns over stoking Scottish separatist tensions, since the premiere was right before the 2014 vote for Scottish independence.
In the midst of this teasing about language and dress, we start to see the alliance and budding friendship between Dougal and Claire. The latter defends the former during comments about language and accents, and the former admonishes the English for their behavior around a lady such as the latter. But there’s still some gentle teasing, as a compliment of Claire’s bold nature gets a “yeah, she does that a lot” from Dougal.
Is this a means of survival for Claire or something more genuine? In the moment, it’s survival, as her charms get her passage to Inverness with a British escort. And all is happy and wine-soaked until someone comes in all dusty, spoiling the claret and sucking the life out of the room. And that’s when we get to see Claire’s true sympathies to her Scottish hosts come to the surface. Bad timing, Claire. Bad timing. Once again her loose lips sink her ship.
3. A Commander and a Consort
After watching Tobias Menzies in The Crown as Prince Philip, I gain a new appreciation of his portrayal of both Frank and Black Jack Randall, and see how the Outlander role played into The Crown. As Frank, Menzies is a man that plays second fiddle of sorts to his wife’s bold nature. (Remember a few weeks back how he doth protest Claire going to the front lines of battle!) While this tension plays out more in the early seasons of The Crown with Matt Smith playing the late Duke of Edinburgh dealing with a wife more powerful than he, it’s an undercurrent throughout Menzies’s tenure as the character as well. The brash and menacing nature of Black Jack Randall underscore the Philip we see in those later seasons of The Crown, particularly in one chilling scene from the fourth season finale that adds fuel to certain conspiracy theories about Diana Princess of Wales’s death in 1997.
Continued below4. A Familiar and Yet Unfamiliar Face
While this face of Tobias Menzies is a gentleman, apologizing to Claire for their initial meeting in the woods, there is a sinister undercurrent to all his conversation with her. He pokes holes in nearly every aspects of her story, infers she is a woman of loose morals (even though he admits she is one “not to rouge her nipples”), and puts out more than one veiled threat. You can see on Claire’s face how much it unnerves her, that this ancestor of her beloved Frank could be his complete opposite.
It also unnerves the viewer as he retells how he flogged Jamie. His voice is even, showing little if any emotion, and when it does, there’s even a slight hint of pleasure at how well he was able to execute this punishment, the beauty he found in the violence. This, along with his threat to Corporal Hawkins during his shaving earlier in the episode, is the seed that of what we will see later: his true sadist nature.
And yet, Claire still believes there is good in this man. That’s a belief misplaced as he punches her in the stomach and offers her up to Hawkins for kicking.
5. Wedding Bell Blues
Dougal rescues Claire from her torture at the hands of the English, but with a threat from Randall to return her to Fort William the following day for further questioning. But there’s a way out, Dougal explains: with a wedding. Not to Dougal though, as much as he would like it: but to Jamie. Make Claire a Scot, and he can’t turn her over to the English without tangible proof of a crime. The thought turns Claire’s stomach, but on the other hand, Jamie’s somewhat delighted by the prospect. He’s not betrothed to anyone else, he’s come to like Claire as a friend, and he certainly doesn’t want to see Claire turned over to the English.
I said in an earlier recap that we would soon see a more outward expression of Claire’s conflict between her life in 1743 and 1945. And while I wasn’t thinking of this particular episode, this one does provide a moment that fits the description. As Claire sits in the Highlands contemplating her face, the scene starts with a focus on Claire’s hand – – the hand with her wedding ring from Frank – – holding her marriage contract to Jamie. A symbol of how she’s now part of both worlds, and there’s no easy way out of it for her.
Dig out your Highland finery, for next week we’re going to be attending some nuptials.
The Lost Papers of Black Jack Randall (Our Afterthoughts Section)
- The title of this episode is the title of chapter 12 of the Outlander novel, and the events cover that chapter as well as chapter 13, “A Wedding is Announced.”
- This episode does contain a graphic scene of an amputation and Jamie’s flogging, in case you have a delicate stomach.
We’ll see you next week for “The Wedding” 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).
