Outlander Recap: “Vengeance Is Mine”
Voiceover Claire gives everyone a quick sitrep on the war: Those Jacobites have had some success since that big Prestonpans win, but, dammit, Northern England and the Lowlands just aren’t that into this whole rebellion. “We gotta turn back,” the Lord General says. Prince Charles, that spoiled brat, just wants to take London right now because of it is God’s will and His Divine gift and blah, blah, blah. Kind of a hissy fit, actually. In a surprise twist, he didn’t say, “Mark me!” Even more shocking, Jamie’s on his side! Ready to take on 30,000 British troops with only a mere five thousand. Uncharacteristically stupid, right? No, don’t worry; there is a brain in that pretty ginger head.
“If we had marched on London, then things would be different than what you said happened in your history books. It would mean that, just maybe, history could be changed,” he tells Claire. As the battle of Culloden grows closer and things are sort of falling into place as predicted, it feels like these two are just trying to nudge the ship off-course in any way possible. Just sort of roll the dice of history!
On that note, does anyone else wonder if Claire ever worries about The Butterfly Effect or creating an alternate universe or Chaos theory or anything like that? Does she ever consider how messing with the timeline could obliterate her own existence or create a paradox? Scientists and theorists definitely thought of such things by the 1940s, but time travel novels wouldn’t really start making it mainstream until the 50s. And The Terminator wouldn’t come out until ’84, so she couldn’t have seen that. Perhaps it’s all a moot point; Claire doesn’t seem like the kind of girl who has read a ton of sci-fi anyway. Even so, you’d think a WWII nurse would be more about heading over to whatever Austria was called and giving some nice vasectomies to every guy with a variation of history’s most reviled surname: Hiedler, Hüttler, Hytler and Hittler.
Dougal bursts in on Claire and Jamie. Those generals don’t appreciate Jamie’s influence on the prince. They’re sending his team off to Inverness. Everything always comes down to office politics, doesn’t it? And they’re on the road for two whole seconds when the British start shooting at them! The Redcoats kill a few redshirts and Claire cries, “Fergus!” because, yes, this kid is still right in the middle of the action! (He is gonna be so messed up from all this violence during his childhood! This is not a safe environment for him.)
There’s a chase on horseback and Rupert, not a redshirt, takes a shot right to the eye. This allows the episode to include two great and necessary Outlander elements. First, never forget that Dougal MacKenzie is a rough, tough badass War Chieftain! He jumps from his own horse, mid-freaking-gallop, onto Ruperts’s for a rescue! Seriously, how old is Dougal MacKenzie?! The actor is in his mid-fiftes and he’s like a freaking superhero! (Again, i say, Highlander life must be even better than Crossfit.) Later, as they hide out at a church, the wound allow’s Claire to use those future medical powers to remove the bullet. (To be fair, doctors back then could probably have done it too, but she’s just so much cooler and efficient.)
The British soldiers find them and Claire pulls her I’ll-just-use-my-English-accent-to-pretend-I’m-a-prisoner trick, and Jamie and Murtagh immediately follow in order to rescue her from her rescuers. They didn’t need to worry. Yeah, one soldier makes half a pass and speads his legs in her direction, but on the whole, they are pretty nice. That is, until one lieutenant (pronounced “‘leftenant”) kicks the ass of some homeless-looking guy who dares approach her. It’s Hugh Monroe! Remember that friend of Jamie’s who uses really crude sign language because his tongue was cut out because the world is just beyond horrible? Well, Claire’s able to tell him the name of the estate she’s heading to. All right! Go, plot!
Since it’s an oddly small Outlander world, the lord of that estate is an old frenemy: The Duke of Sandringham, who is being kept semi-hostage in his home and somehow has become even more affected and slimy. (The show, perhaps like the culture of its setting, seems to favor manly men of action over these cultured aesthetes, such as the duke and prince, who always prove to be untrustworthy.)
A deal is struck, a message is delivered, and, hey, Mary’s there! Remember the sweet girl who was attacked in the alley? The Duke is marrying her, his goddaughter, to a wealthy merchant for political advantage. But they’re all escaping anyway, so it probably won’t happen and it looks like everything will be okay—until Claire sees it: a birthmark on a servant’s hand. It’s the same mark she saw on one of the men who attacked her and Mary in that alley! It was all set up by Sandringham, of course, because the Comte St. Germain wanted revenge. Remember when Claire spotted that smallpox outbreak and the Comte’s ship was burned in the season’s first episode? Well, no good deed goes unpunished, Claire. (Sidenote: all this doesn’t really explain why it was Mary, not Claire, who was raped but okay. That’s enough exposition, so let’s just go with it.)
Just when you think it couldn’t get worse than arranging your goddaughter’s rape, Sandringham is also betraying them now! It’s all a trap! The Redcoats are waiting for Jaime and he’s getting close. Jamie, Murtagh and Monore are there. Claire tries to warn them but is held hostage by Sandringham. She tries to subtley grab a knife, but His Royal Sliminess is too quick.
This makes little sense because, c’mon, would she even need a knife? Couldn’t Claire just overpower this old guy? She’s a sturdy and gutsy lady and he’s skittered away from every physical battle presented to him thus far. (Perhaps the casting makes this less believable. No offense to actor Simon Callow, but I’m fairly certain, if it came down to it, Caitriona Balfe would 100% win in a fight. A tall, strong thirty-something woman like her could totally take out this small man in his late 60s. You can’t almost see her, Caitriona, thinking, “Damn, I could totally kick this guy’s ass if I wanted to!” But she’s a great actress, so she hides it. )
Mary finds her courage and warns Jaime; the Redcoats are overtaken; they all end up in the kitchen: Jaime, Claire, Sandringham, Mary, that evil servant and Murtagh. As expected, those virile macho men overcome the wimpy aristocrat and his rapist. Unexpectedly, Mary avenges herself! She very thoughtfully takes a knife and stabs that servant to death—and it is so satisfying! Like chocolate cake and whisky mixed in your mouth at the same time. (I admit it: I flat-out cheered!) And because Outlander is desperate to win the Bloodiest Show on TV award, Murtagh takes off Sandringham’s head with an axe. Chop, chop, chop! Like a Highlander gentleman, he presents it to the ladies on his knees. “I kept my word. I lay your vengeance at your feet,” he says. “I think we better go,” says little Mary, quite collected, not at all contrary. I don’t know about Fergus, but I think that kid is going to be all right. Maybe just a little violence during childhood isn’t such a bad thing after all.
