What a rather scorching episode we had with Starz’s Outlander season three episode seven, figuratively and literally. So much about this episode is not directly in line with the book’s events that I will not belabor the point. The end results are the same – don’t worry, book fans. You just get there in a bit of a different way. This episode moves quickly so try to keep up if you can. Your head might spin a bit, but hold on tight.
We pick back up with Claire (Caitriona Balfe) in danger. The man who was turning over Jamie’s (Sam Heughan) room was attacking her when we left the show last week. Our Sassenach is no woman to go down without a fight, so naturally she gets in a few slashes with a knife. Through the course of events, the man trips and smashes his head on the hearth in Jamie’s room.
Jamie comes in just after the man knocks himself cold. Claire starts doing what she does – she is a doctor, remember – and Jamie tries to talk her out of trying to help the man. Claire wasn’t one to let a person suffer without trying to help them before she became a doctor, she certainly is even more resolved in that belief now that she’s taken the Hippocratic Oath. Jamie remarks on her stubbornness, that she has not changed in that respect either…{giggle-snort}. Everyone jumps to and starts handling things once Jamie discovers the man is working for the Crown. Madame Jeanne (Cyrielle Debreuil) and Fergus (Cesar Domboy) start attending to orders as Jamie and Claire shout them out.
Claire asks for that horrible drill that gives me the full-body shivers in the opening title cards during the “Skye Boat” intro. Jamie sends Fergus out to gather his men so they can move the smuggled liquor from the brothel basement.
Claire gets dressed and visits the apothecary for supplies to treat the intruder. Jamie sends up Yi Tien Chow, a.k.a. Mr. Willoughby (Gary Young), to help Claire with the man. The men down in the basement are commenting on Claire’s desire to save the man’s life while they’re moving the large barrels of liquor.
Claire finds another patient while she’s purchasing herbs at the apothecary, no surprise there. She is a magnet for people needing help.
Young Ian (John Bell) and Fergus are hard at work trying to sell the barrels of liquor before Lord Percival (Paul Brightwell) and the rest of his men find them. Ian is rather like his uncle when it comes to talking people into what he wants. Ian asks Fergus about Claire, and Fergus tells him about her fearless behavior to treat people during the rising.
Claire returns to the room and sees Jamie and Willoughby trying to hold the intruder down on the bed. He woke and started making racket that would draw attention. Claire pulls out the Laudanum and doses the man back to sleep. Just as the man gets still again, Madame Jeanne knocks at the door to inform Jamie that Lord Percival is downstairs.
Claire continues to treat the man upstairs, with Willoughby watching. Very delicate ‘dancing’ is going on both in the attic and in the basement. OMG the grinding of that horrible drill into the man’s skull… nails on a chalkboard. {blah} Lord Percival is walking through the basement but finds nothing. As always, Jamie is a few steps ahead.
Jamie goes back upstairs to find the man died anyway, despite Claire releasing the brain clot. Jamie doesn’t understand how Claire feels when she loses a patient. The man was a bad man, but doctors don’t judge their patients; they just treat them. She’s not used to losing patients so she’s visibly upset.
Claire then remarks how she has caused him a great deal of trouble since she dropped in out of nowhere. Jamie says he’s grateful she has returned, no matter the cost. They share a look that conveys love without saying the words. Claire breaks the gaze and informs Jamie she has a patient to go see. Jamie is rather shocked by this and warns her that it could be dangerous. Claire informs Jamie that no one in town knows her, so there is no danger. Jamie stops her for a quick second to say with begging eyes, “You will return, won’t ye?” I think he was more concerned with her maybe not coming back than anything else.
Young Ian and Fergus are celebrating in a tavern and Fergus works to get Ian into a woman’s bed. Fergus waves to a barmaid who Ian has cut eyes at, apparently many times. Ian talks her into taking a drink with him. In the back of the room, watching all this activity is a man who works for Lord Percival.
Claire checks in on Mr. Campbell (Mark Hadfield) and his sister. Claire diagnoses her with a mental disorder and instructs Mr. Campbell on how to treat her. He informs Claire they’re leaving for the West Indies the next day. Claire bids them safe travels and instructs him on some herbal teas instead of using Laudanum to treat his sister.
Ian takes the barmaid to the back room of the print shop, where he stays. He’s serenading her very poorly (couldn’t carry a note in a washtub), yet the barmaid is still enticed by the effort and instructs Young Ian in his first time at lovemaking.
Claire returns to Jamie’s room in the attic of the brothel. Claire asks what Jamie did with the body of the man who died and he reveals they put him in a barrel of Crème De Menthe since most Scotsmen don’t drink the stuff. Claire suggests they find another home other than in the brothel. Jamie said he sends almost everything he makes to Lallybroch and his room in the brothel is free. Claire suggests she can open an establishment to earn money for them to live somewhere else.
Just then there’s a knock at the door letting Jamie know that Ian (Steven Cree) has shown up looking for his son. Ian has gone grey and lost a bit of weight since Claire last saw him. He’s shocked to see Claire because everyone was under the impression she was dead. They explain she went to Boston, leaving out that pesky trip through the stones part, and that she only just realized Jamie hadn’t died at Culloden. Ian is visibly shaken by the experience but happy to see her.
Jamie lies to Ian when he asks about young Ian’s whereabouts. As Ian walks out with Jamie, Ian assumes Claire took Jamie’s ‘news’ well. Jamie informs Ian that he hasn’t told Claire yet. It’s the same topic that Fergus asked about in the previous episode. You’ll find out in the next episode what all the secrecy is about, and it is NOT good.
Ian and the barmaid are right in the middle of ‘business’ when they hear a crash. The man who works for Lord Percival is looking for the liquor. As he and Ian struggle, they knock up against a cabinet and the man finds the sedition pamphlets that could put Jamie’s neck in a noose. Through the course of events, the print shop starts burning. Ian backs into the back room where there’s no door out of the building and he’s trapped. Lord Percival’s man manages to escape out the back door.
Claire glares at Jamie when he returns upstairs to the room. Jamie makes a joke and says he knows the meaning of that look, even after 20 years have passed. Jamie explains how he’s tried to send young Ian home but he keeps returning. Claire’s angry that he lied to Ian about it. They get into the inevitable back and forth about the various lies that have been told, even going back to their time in France. Claire points out that Jamie shouldn’t be making the decisions for young Ian since he’s not his father. Jamie shoots back that he knows he is not young Ian’s father, he is Brianna’s (Sophie Skelton) father but did not get a say in her upbringing. Frank was given that right. And so, the conversation turns. Jamie asks if Claire loved Frank when she returned to him. Claire tries to assure Jamie that Frank was a good father to Bree and that Claire was not in love with Frank after she returned.
A knock at the door informs Jamie there’s a fire on the street where his printshop is located. Little do they know at this point that it IS the printshop that’s on fire. Jamie and Claire get there to see the shop in flames. Jamie goes in because he knows that young Ian sleeps in the back of the shop. Jamie finds young Ian laying in the back room almost passed out from the smoke. Jamie jumps over the side of the upstairs railing to get down to where Ian is. The stairs are engulfed so Jamie has to move his printing press over to use as a ladder to get them both out.
Jamie grabs his picture of his son and young Ian. He manages to get out with young Ian on his shoulders. The printshop is starting to collapse behind Jamie as he’s coming out.
Once Ian can stop coughing, he tells Jamie about the man who took the pamphlet. They decide to take young Ian home to Lallybroch. Fergus asks Jamie in a side conversation if Claire knows about Jamie’s other wife yet. DO WHAT?!! Like I said, book readers know of this, there you go show viewers. Just take a wild guess at who it might be. Prepare yourself for a shock next week. Be sure to have your whisky ready for this one, folks!
More on Outlander:
– Outlander Season 3 Episode 1 “The Battle Joined” Recap
– Outlander Season 3 Episode 2 “Surrender” Recap
– Outlander Season 3 Episode 3 “All Debts Paid” Recap
– Outlander Season 3 Episode 4 “Of Lost Things” Recap
– Outlander Season 3 Episode 5 “Freedom & Whisky” Recap
– Outlander Season 3 Episode 6 “A. Malcolm” Recap
– Outlander Season 3 Episode 8 “First Wife” Recap
– Outlander Season 3 Episode 9 “The Doldrums” Recap
– Outlander Season 3 Episode 10 “Heaven and Earth” Recap
– Exclusive Interview on Season 3 with Executive Producer Ronald D. Moore
– One-on-One with Sophie Skelton
– Richard Rankin Interview on Outlander Season 3 and Playing Roger
– Caitriona Balfe, Sam Heughan and Tobias Menzies Q&A
