An Eviscerating Depiction of Misogyny in an Episode That Deals With a Difficult Storyline
with Sensitivity and Tact. CONTAINS SPOILERS.
Knowing what was going to happen to Claire (Caitriona Balfe) in this week’s episode, needless to say I wasn’t looking forward to watching the season finale. Unsurprisingly, it was an uncomfortable watch, but the difficult storyline was thankfully handled both with sensitivity and tact.
Right from the start you were made aware that it was going to be an unsettling hour of television. Unusually, snippets of the protagonists and events leading up to Claire’s kidnapping were shown but set against a background of eerie and discordant music.
From there the scene shifts to Claire in the 1960s like some kind of Stepford wife in a model home, full of symbols from her past such as the orange which she took after she had allowed the King of France to have sex with her to win Jamie’s (Sam Heughan) freedom to the blue vase that she spotted in a shop window in Inverness in the first ever episode.
This scene is intercut with what is happening to her in the 18th century, and we quickly realise that this 1960s scene is in Claire’s head. It is her way of disassociating herself from what is happening to her. And it’s not long before we get a glimpse of her agony when we see her trussed up, gagged, beaten and bleeding.
This imagined modern life is a refuge from the agony she is going through. Jamie is beside her, keeping her safe while most of her family including Jocasta (Maria Doyle Kennedy), Fergus (César Domboy), Marsali (Lauren Lyle), Ian (John Bell) and even a resurrected Murtagh (Duncan Lacroix) surround her.
Back in the 18th century, we soon find out that Claire’s ‘crime’ is that of being an outspoken, intelligent woman who believes women should have agency over their own body. She stands out all the more because as a 20th century woman she doesn’t fear men the way your average 18th century woman does growing up in such an entrenched patriarchal society. Inadvertently advising women such as the wife of Lionel Brown (Ned Dennehy) on how to avoid becoming pregnant has outraged the likes of Lionel who has always had a problem with Claire as a self-confident woman. If anything, this episode gives a chilling insight into how intelligent, strong women scare the hell out of inadequate men whose only recourse seems to be to despise them, to try to control them and to demean them.
Give Claire her due, she puts up a good fight and is resourceful, trying to get both Tebbe (Alexis Rodney) and Wendigo (Brennan Martin) on side to help her escape. But being so spirited only infuriates Lionel all the more. In his anger, he beats her, gags her and has her tied to a tree. He evidently isn’t used to meeting a woman with such a fighting spirit. In the meantime, Claire discovers Wendigo is also from the future and was a friend of Otter Tooth. Hoping that this link they have in common will encourage him to help her proves to be misguided.
Worse is to follow for Claire when she is first raped by Lionel’s nephew Cuddy (Michael Monroe), savagely beaten up by Lionel and then raped by him and gang-raped by several of the others. Fortunately, the gang rape is hinted at rather than shown, as Claire disassociates back into her imagined world, but even here she’s not safe, as it turns into a nightmare with the arrival of Lionel and fellow kidnapper Hodgepile (Gerald Tyler) appearing in her imaginary world as policemen informing her of the death of Brianna (Sophie Skelton), Roger (Richard Rankin) and Jemmy.
As for the MacKenzies, it turns out Brianna and Roger’s trip through the stones didn’t get them very far. Having wished to go home, the stones have returned them back to the 18th century, where they spot a rather surprised Ian. All four go back to the Ridge and arrive just in time for Roger and Ian to join Jamie and his men in their search for Claire. To be honest, the time line doesn’t really work here. The stones are meant to be a two weeks’ ride away from the Ridge, and given that Jamie would have set out the very next day to search for Claire, the MacKenzies and Ian would not have got back in time. Presumably in adapting the storyline from the book into a workable TV episode something went slightly awry in the mix.
Needless to say, Jamie and his men soon come across the Browns and make short shrift of them including Roger who kills someone for the very first time. Jamie finally finds Claire and it’s a touching moment. Great acting as always from Balfe as Claire, so traumatised she can hardly speak, and Heughan, as the angered husband. Congratulations too to the make-up department who succeed most effectively in making Claire’s injuries look horribly realistic.
Unable to say who did what to her, Jamie orders all the prisoners to be killed. In a throwback to their first ever meeting, Jamie then covers Claire in his plaid. He then takes her to see the bodies of the men who violated her. As bad luck would have it, Lionel, although badly-wounded, has somehow managed to survive. Jamie decides to take him back to the Ridge to question him further although you wonder how polite Jamie will be in interrogating him once Claire tells Jamie exactly what Lionel has done to her.
Back at the Ridge, not only does Claire have to deal with the trauma of what has happened to her, but she also has an added moral dilemma to face. As a doctor, Claire has sworn an oath to do no harm. Glad that her kidnappers were killed, at the same time she is ill at ease in feeling like this. She also has to face the quandary of whether she should permit Jamie to kill Lionel despite her oath. One suspects there is no such moral dilemma for Jamie on that score. Finally, in another heart-rending moment, Claire states her resolve to Jamie that she will not be shattered by what has happened to her.
Later in Claire’s surgery, Lionel begs for mercy. At first, you can’t believe his cheek and, secondly, like all bullies, you see the pathetic man behind the shell. Claire manages to steel herself and promises to do him no harm but, not surprisingly, is shaken to her core from being in the same room as him. Lionel, true to form, cocky now he thinks he’s safe having won over Claire’s caring side, decides to show his true colours and is both rude and snide to Marsali. It seems Lionel has evidently not taken to heart the basic lesson of ‘never to piss off a Scot’. He soon learns the error of his ways when Marsali kills him by injecting him with hemlock, pointing out to him that whereas Claire has taken an oath to do no harm, she hasn’t. Having killed him in anger, Marsali afterwards fears Lionel will haunt her and that she will go to hell, as any god-fearing 18th century woman would. Jamie reassures her that this won’t be the case. Given her strongly-held beliefs, it is a reflection of Marsali’s feelings towards Claire that she risks her soul on Claire’s behalf.
Then, in what can only be described as a foolhardy move, Jamie rides into Brownsville with Lionel’s body. Jamie informs Richard Brown (Chris Larkin) of what happened. All things considered, Richard seems to take the news of his brother’s death relatively well, until his parting shot when he hints to Jamie that he too will take his revenge.
The episode ends underlining what makes Outlander such a compelling story – the great love between Jamie and Claire. We see them holding hands, declaring their love to each other as they watch their family go about their day. The final scene is of them both naked in bed, presumably having just made love, Jamie holding Claire in his arms. How do you feel he asks her. Safe she replies. United together once more; presumably the thunderstorm in the background a sign that trouble, as usual, lies ahead for our star-crossed lovers.
With Jamie’s rape in Season 1, Outlander turned the usual trope about sexual violence on its head. Moreover, as I argued in a previous article, by making Jamie Fraser, a traumatised victim of a prolonged sexual assault, Jamie Fraser became the top contender for bravest romantic hero of them all. By season five, both Jamie’s daughter and his wife have been raped. It’s beginning to seem as if Diana Gabaldon, the author of the Outlander series of novels, has a rather prurient interest in rape as a means to drive both story and character development forward. My initial response on learning what would happen to Claire was ‘not again’.
That sexual violence is all around us, even today, is self-evident. But to have your three main characters as victims of sexual assault does seem excessive. Moreover, given how patriarchal 18th century society was women were regarded as property. By violating Claire, the real victim of all this, as far as 18th century thought was concerned, was Jamie. You were damaging his property. The settlers might not be entirely aware of Jamie’s past, but he’s a powerful man, a born leader of men, able and powerful enough to raise a militia. The Browns would have been aware that Jamie had both the gumption and the manpower to take back his ‘property’. Irrelevant of how much Lionel despised Claire, it seems foolhardy in the extreme if not unbelievable for Lionel to have kidnapped Claire and to have left witnesses alive to facilitate Jamie finding them.
That said and done, this episode is eviscerating in its depiction of the underlying misogyny that fuels Lionel’s hate, and crystallises the anger and hate that women have traditionally faced for daring to speak out. Full marks to the production team for handling a difficult storyline so well. At times, less really is more. Needless to say, Balfe was superb as always: she is without doubt one of the best screen actors around. Heughan too was in fine form; and the cinematography was magical at times, particularly in the ‘kill them all’ scene, where the lighting gave us the impression we were in hell.
As with most seasons of Outlander it was a season of two halves. The first half seemed mainly to consist of filler; the latter half was engaging television. As for season six, the storm clouds are gathering and I suspect young Willie will make an appearance. In the meantime it’s going to be one hell of a long Droughtlander!
