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.
When we last left Claire, her stay at Castle Leoch received an extension, and it wasn’t by choice. Will she find “The Way Out” and back to 1945 this week?
It should also be noted that Outlander is very much an 18+ series, with graphic violence and sexuality throughout. This episode does contain a content warning for violence against a child.
1. Railway Farewell
The opening scene of this episode packs a punch in characterization. It’s a flashback to the war, where Claire is leaving for her service as a nurse on the front, with Frank dangling an offer of his connections in front of her to put her someplace else, presumably farther removed from conflict and thus safer. Claire takes the moral high ground and will have none of that. The other men on her train don’t have that privilege, so she should not either. Frank remains bemused at his wife’s stubbornness but admits to finding it quite a turn-on, and as the train pulls out, she promises him she will return.
In these short minutes, we see Claire’s convictions to play by the rules, even when those rules could put her in mortal peril. We’ll see if she can hold up to those convictions in the 18th century, where women had less autonomy. The switch in gender roles reaffirms Claire’s place as a woman truly out of place. As Frank remarks, it should be him leaving for the battlefield, not her. And we also see a moment of organic sexuality between them, Frank clearly turned on by his wife’s headstrong nature. Compared with the antiseptic scenes of a marriage trying to find itself anew again after the war, you can clearly see that there was genuine love and attraction between them, something wartime separation stripped away.
And then there’s the promise she makes, to come back to him after the war. How we can unpack that on so many levels.
All of it is Ron Moore character development at its finest.
2. Loose Lips
After the hard lesson last week of sharing information that put her on a course of a more long-term stay at Castle Leoch, I was surprised to see Claire unburden herself to Mrs. Fitz and share her story – – and it immediately blows up in her face, with Mrs. Fitz declaring a witch. Fortunately, this is all in Claire’s mind, as she keeps quiet and strategizes the right way to find her way out. And for now, that’s playing the hand she’s given as castle healer. Just as in 1945, her convictions to play by the rules she’s given remain strong, even when she doesn’t like them. It won’t be easy, as she has to translate her 20th century medical knowledge to the 18th century without revealing her true identity. Handling live wood lice (EW), pigeon’s blood (double EW), and a powdered human skull (way more EW than I can express here) is a walk in the park at this rate.
Although Claire’s work as a healer has selfish motives, she remains true to that calling in the Hippocratic Oath that reads “into whatever homes I go, I will enter them for the benefit of the sick” having a moment of sympathy for her captor Colum and his Lautrec syndrome. This sympathy does endear the Laird to Claire and provides an invitation to the gathering at the castle that evening.
3. There’s Something about Geillis
Claire does have at least one friend in 1743: Geillis Duncan, who joins her for a herb picking expedition one morning. We had the hints last week that there was more to this woman than meets the eye, and her conversations with Claire about magic and situations “with no earthly explanation” do deepen those questions. They not only strike at the core of Claire’s logical nature from her work in medicine, but a deeper chord in the context of the experiences that brought her here. And you can hear in Claire’s voice that she’s unnerved. Could Geillis be a fellow time traveler? Now I’ve watched this show before, so all I will say at this point is: stick around.
Continued below4. The Power of Medicine Compels You
“A priest once told me my healing skills were a gift from God.”
The gossip of the day at the castle is of two young boys who visited the ruins of an old church and returned behaving strangely. The adults believe that this church, the “black kirk,” is a place of darkness and demonic possession. While one of those young boys dies a short time later, the other (Tammas, nephew of Mrs. Fitz) survives, though doesn’t appear to be long for this world. Father Bane has already read him last rites, and he’s strapped to the bed to prevent thrashing. Claire knows better, diagnosing Tammas with poisoning of some sort, and begs to take over treatment. Faith in God, though, wins out over faith in science for the moment, underscoring that Claire isn’t as important as she may think.
Remember, though, that Claire is stubborn. With Jamie’s help, she travels to the church that the boys visited. And after a conversation about faith and education and how the two still live side by side in Jamie’s world, Claire discovers just what the boys were poisoned with: lily of the valley. They mistook it for wood garlic. With Claire’s help Tammas lives, but she ends up with an enemy in the woman-hating Father Bane.
And that’s Claire’s lesson for the episode: an understanding of just how deep religion runs in this community, and how she has to use her scientific knowledge in the right ways to heal while not undermining those beliefs.
5. Life As a Song
The episode closes with some music at the gathering, a song that seems way too close to home for Claire. It’s a song about a man out late on the eve of Samhain (what we call Halloween today) when he hears a woman’s song from the rocks on the hill. I’ll let Jamie tell the rest of the story for you:
I am a woman of Balnain. The folk have stone me over again, the stones seem to say. I stood upon the hill and wind did rise, and the sound of thunder rolled across the land. I placed my hands upon the tallest stone and traveled to a far, distant land where I lived for a time among strangers who became lovers and friends. But one day I saw the moon came out and the wind rose once more so I touched the stones and traveled back to my own land and took up again with the man I had left behind.
Sounds quite familiar, doesn’t it?
Does the woman come back through the stones, Claire asks. Yes, Jamie says, she always does. And while there isn’t explanation for how or why this happens, it’s enough to point Claire to what she needs to do: get back to those stones, or die trying.
The Lost Papers of Black Jack Randall (Our Afterthoughts Section)
- The events of this episode correspond to chapters 7 and 8 of the Outlander novel.
- Those who have read the books and watched further seasons of the show will get a chuckle upon seeing Jamie sit between Claire and Laoghaire MacKenzie (the teen he took punishment for in the previous episode) at the gathering, knowing that he later ends up intricately entangled in both these women’s lives.
We’ll see you next week for “The Gathering” 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).
