Attacks, Secrets Revealed, Parting of the Ways, Precarious Sex & Jamie on the Warpath.
CONTAINS SPOILERS.
The start to this week’s episode is hardly auspicious even by Outlander’s standards when Claire (Caitriona Balfe), Jamie (Sam Heughan), Brianna (Sophie Skelton) and Roger (Richard Rankin) come across a burnt out cabin: its inhabitants murdered before the cabin was set alight. Worse is to follow when Roger stumbles across a badly burnt woman, barely alive among the ashes. It’s a sign of how far Roger has changed that he does as Jamie did with Mr Beardsley and puts the girl out of her misery, albeit in a far gentler fashion.
It’s against a backdrop such as this that the Frazers discover that Jemmy can travel through the stones thanks to his ability to find Claire’s opal hot to the touch while non-travellers such as Jamie and Ian (John Bell) do not. This means Brianna and family can go back to the future, something Roger has wanted to do for ages. Given what’s happened to him, working as a sailor on an 18th century ship under a psychopathic pirate, beaten half to death and sold into slavery to the Mohawk by his future father-in-law and then hung almost to death, you can’t really blame him for wishing he was back teaching history in 1960s Oxford. Brianna is understandably more conflicted, but it is definitely not good news for Jamie for whom, as we know, family is everything and who, after all these years, is finally surrounded by his loved ones.
If that’s not enough of a bad start to the day, Richard (Chris Larkin) and Lionel (Ned Dennehy) Brown arrive at the head of a rather large group of men. Richard claims it’s a Committee of Safety but it has more the air of a protection racket. Claire, ever observant, notices Lionel has a wounded leg and offers to look at it for him. Given that Lionel destroyed her one and only hypodermic needle at the Battle of Alamance, I would say that’s very forgiving of her.
Meanwhile Richard asks Jamie to join them. Jaime says he needs time to think about it which is manspeak for no. Once the Browns have departed, Jamie has another tricky situation on his hands. Having witnessed the scene of Jemmy and the opal and how the others reacted to the incident, Ian knows something is afoot, and hands Claire and Jamie a journal, belonging to Otter Tooth (the original owner of the opal) which for some reason he’s written in Latin. We don’t know much about Otter Tooth but he does seem to have had an exceptionally classical education.
Put on the spot, Claire is forced to tell Ian the truth about her being a time traveller. As with Murtagh, Ian seems remarkably unfazed by the news, although, unlike his fellow Frazer, he doesn’t feel the need to sock Jamie in the mouth for not telling him sooner.
In other news, following on from his murder of Forbes (Billy Boyd), Ulysses (Colin McFarlane) is in hiding and being looked after by Jamie and Claire. Interestingly, Jamie gives Ulysses a novel to pass the time ‘Pamela or Virtue Rewarded’. The latter title will hopefully be apt for Ulysses although the choice of novel is problematic. Incredibly popular in the 18th century, it seems an odd choice for Jamie, given his past and that of his daughter’s, when the conceit of this particular story is that the eponymous hero marries her would-be rapist and then lives happily ever after.
Tastes in 18th century literature aside, Ulysses proves how devoted he is to Jocasta (Maria Doyle Kennedy) by showing his document of manumission to Claire and Jamie. Proof positive that Ulysses stayed with Jocasta not because he was forced to as a slave but, one suspects, out of love.
Finally, there’s a bit of good news with the welcome arrival of Lord John Grey (David Berry). Two things are clear: Grey still has the hots for Jamie (understandable) and the constant references to Jamie’s illegitimate son, Willy, no doubt means Willy will be making his presence felt in season 6. Jamie even goes as far as to tell Brianna about her secret half-brother who seems as unfazed by the news as Ian was about her coming from the future.
Later on there’s a lovely scene between Grey and Brianna where we get to see what good friends these two are and also learn that Jamie has devised a brilliant escape route for Ulysses by having Grey pretend that Ulysses is his servant and thus get him away to England where once he is on British territory, Ulysses can be a free man.
There’s also good news for Claire when Jamie decides to go down on her while she sits at an open upstairs window. All I can say is that Claire has an incredible sense of balance and an amazing ability to multi-task while being enjoyably distracted. I don’t know about you but that was one of the most precarious sex scenes I’ve ever witnessed. It should have come with a warning sign: for goodness sake, don’t try this at home unless you’re prepared to fall out of an upstairs window leaving your partner to explain what the hell happened to the authorities.
This being Outlander the fun times do not last for long. Sure enough, Lionel Brown makes an unwelcome return. He first pins down Jamie on his response to joining the Committee of Safety. When Jamie declines the offer, it sounds as if Lionel is threatening him somewhat. He then asks if Claire can treat his wife (Hayley Doherty) who has a broken wrist, an injury he no doubt caused. Brown is clearly a controlling figure: not letting his wife talk and answering in her stead every time Claire asks her a question.
Presumably, it’s pure dramatic irony when Claire asks Marsali for balm of Gilead to treat Mrs Brown’s injury, given that The Handsmaid’s Tale was written long after Claire had left to go back through the stones. It’s apt nonetheless. While in the surgery, Brown also spots Claire’s medical bag which used to belong to Dr Rawlings and which has his name engraved on it. This seems to be of significance to Lionel Brown. Maybe he has concluded that the said Dr, whose medical recommendations, including advice on preventing pregnancy, ended up being printed in the newspapers, may be none other than a nom de plume of Claire’s. If so, he doesn’t seem very happy about it.
Finally, Brianna, Roger and Jemmy go through the stones but we’re left wondering if they’ve managed to get back to the 1960s or not, given their surprise at what they see once they are on the other side. Hopefully, for their sakes, it’s not present day America and they find themselves in the midst of a Trump rally. If so, they may be jumping back through those stones pretty sharpish.
Understandably, Jamie and Claire are distraught at having to say good-bye to their family, but worse is to come. While the men rush to the whisky still which seems to have exploded, Brown and his men turn up at the Ridge. In a violent attack they knock out Marsali (Lauren Lyle), kill Claire’s patient and kidnap Claire. For Jamie, taking Claire is an act of war. (Have they no idea what type of man Jamie is?) Furious (and that’s an understatement), Jamie sets fire to The Fiery Cross, a call to all those of the Ridge to help him get her back. We’re left in no doubt: Jamie means business.
Written by Diana Gabaldon, this episode had a lot of plot, was fast moving and at times poignant – Jamie with his grandson on the horse, the peanut jelly sandwich scene to name but two. It seems the strands of the various storylines are well and truly set up for one hell of a finale – Jamie looking for (and hopefully finding) Claire; Jamie killing anyone who gets in his path – I personally don’t reckon the Browns have long to live – and finding out where Roger, Jemmy and Brianna have ended up. After a bit of a slow start, it looks as if season 5 is planning to go out with a bang!
