Welcome back to Lallybroch, Sassenachs, where you can hear the drums of war with each passing day throughout the Highlands. As the war goes on, the Highlanders head north, and someone from Claire’s recent past reappears. Let’s find out who, by the end of this episode, can claim “Vengeance is Mine!”
It should also be noted that Outlander is very much an 18+ series, with graphic violence and sexuality throughout. As well, there may be spoilers within for both the tv show and the novel series.
1. Wartime Update
The Stuart army is on the march south to London, and things are looking good for them: British in retreat, supplies at the ready, and English sympathizers expected to join with the redcoats hasn’t materialized. They can taste the Thames on the tips of their tongues, the taste of God’s will. But in spite of everything coming up Milhouse, the generals are still bickering if now is the right time to make that assault on London. Jamie rises to the occasion as leader, saying it’s a case of now or never for the Jacobites, as winter is coming. It doesn’t seem to sink in for the allies, even after Charles lays on a very thick guilt trip.
The decision made, the troops make the decision to return north for the winter. Jamie will see everyone home, but that home may or may not be Lallybroch for Claire. Remember that he wants to ensure Claire’s safety, even if that means sending her 200 years into the future to her proper time.
. . . but Jamie and Dougal aren’t going home. They’ve been exiled to Inverness, presumably on order from Charles’s generals as punishment for their embarrassment. The Prince himself, with his generals, has already left camp. The depth of this influence will have consequences.
2. Clever Clever Claire
One has to wonder if there is a mole in the ranks of Stuart’s generals, as the camp heading to Inverness gets a British ambush. Poor Rupert takes a bullet to the eye, which does force the party to stop in a church order for Claire to treat him. She’s working with minimal tools and certainly under pressure, and it isn’t a pretty extraction, but the job gets done and Rupert gets to look forward to a black eye patch like a proper pirate.
Even with just one eye, Rupert (and the others) can see trouble’s afoot. The British have found them and they demand surrender by any means necessary – – including setting fire to the roof of a house of God. Under pressure to make a very quick decision, the men bicker over who is to surrender . . . but Claire comes up with another way: faking that she’s been captured by the Scotsmen. She’s an Englishwoman and they won’t fire if they know one of their own is in danger. It takes Jamie a lot longer than the others to realize this, perhaps out of his devotion to Claire’s safety above all else. Eventually he gets it, and turns his wife over to the English army . . . but will be following them (with Murtagh) the entire way to Hazelmere to get her back.
Moral of the story is: Never send a man to do a woman’s job. She may be a bad liar, but it gets the job done.
3. A Familiar Face
The British, with Claire in tow, set off for Hazelmere, with a stop for the night in a nearby town for food and rest. It’s there Claire sees a familiar face: Hugh Munro, the beggar without the tongue we saw back in season one’s “Both Sides Now.”
Morning, though, brings a wrench in the plans for Claire and Jamie: the trip to Hazelmere instead is now a trip to Belmont, which puts Jamie and his men off of the path of Claire. Recognizing Hugh, Claire uses the opportunity to break up a fight between Hugh and one of the soldiers while mentioning that she was going to Belmont several times in front of Hugh. Clever, clever Claire once more.
And upon arriving in Belmont, another familiar face presents himself: the Duke of Sandringham. No doubt he recognizes Claire, but plays it cool offering the “Mrs. Beacham” refuge and hospitality. (He has his own ass to cover as well – – he’s still suspected of being a Jacobite sympathizer.) Wonder who else could be with him . . . ?
Continued below4. Another Familiar Face
Also staying with the Duke is Mary Hawkins, his goddaughter also recently betrothed again. Duke Godfather found her a nice British merchant who wasn’t too picky about her being “spoiled,” and the fact that he’s British keeps this suspected Jacobite on the right side of the law. Naturally she’s despondent about the situation and asks for help from her friend.
But when Claire starts to plead Mary’s case to the Duke, she recognizes a birthmark on the hand of his valet. That birthmark was one also on the hands of the men who raped Claire and Mary in France. The Duke was in on the plot, using the attack to pay back a debt he had to the Comte St Germain. (And the sexual assault was the toned down version of the plan: the early draft involved having Claire murdered!) And by luring in two Scots, the Duke continues to cover his ass and those rumors of Jacobite sympathies. They know Jamie’s on his way, and they know he’s Claire’s husband. It’s quite the cunning plan, right down to using poor Hugh Munro to lure Jamie right to this door.
Say it with me, friends:
5. Vengeance is Mary’s
Claire is very much the princess in the story that saves herself. Locked away in the Duke’s estate, she manages to slip out her room after a failed attempt to convince Mary, a woman with more freedoms around the house at the present time, to warn Hugh. Somewhere in there Mary does put her courage to the sticking place and finds Hugh to deliver the message to Jamie. The Scotsmen find their way to the kitchen where the secrets get revealed and things get very bloody: Mary stabs the servant, and Murtagh beheads the Duke.
Vengeance has been granted, and has it been bloody. Just as Jamie said last week, war is brutal, no matter the outcome.
The Lost Papers of Black Jack Randall (Our Afterthoughts Section)
- The events of this episode come from Chapter 44 of Dragonfly in Amber, which has the rather amusing and appropriate title of “In Which Quite a Lot of Things Gang Agley.”
- As for the episode’s title, it’s another reference from Scripture, this time Romans 12:19.
- Did you watch the premiere of House of the Dragon on Sunday night? You may have seen the face of one Dougal MacKenzie (aka Graham McTavish) as Ser Harrold Westerling, protecting young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen. Never say he isn’t cast against type!
- Things are tight for the British when their cook can only come three days a week. Heavens to betsy! *eyeroll*
We’ll see you next week for “The Hail Mary” and let us know what you thought of the episode in the comments.
As of this writing, the first five seasons of Outlander are available for viewing on Netflix in the US and Amazon Prime Video in the UK. All six seasons of the show are also available with a subscription to the Starz network in the United States. The seventh season of Outlander is currently in production.
