Outlander Premiere Recap: Claire Is Saved by an Unlikely Hero — Plus, Grade It!
Our long, international nightmare — aka Outlander’s ongoing saga of the Brown family’s hatred for the Frasers, particularly Claire — comes to a tidy end in the show’s Season 7 premiere. And thank Gabaldon, because I don’t know about you, but I’m kinda ready to head back to the Ridge and chill for a bit.*
Read on for the highlights of “A Life Well Lost.”
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*Before the horrors of the Revolutionary War are upon us all.
NO NOOSE IS GOOD NOOSE | Claire is hanged for murder in the episode’s opening moments, but JK! It’s really just Jamie’s worst fears about how his wife’s current situation might end, made visual to fake us all out. In a voiceover, he tells us that even though they’re still separated, he’d know if she were no longer alive. Young Ian is with him, and he reports that the Cherokee are on board to help with a task to which we’re not yet privy. Jamie seems steeled by this. “Let’s go get my wife,” he says, and they ride off. (Side note: Did that make anyone else flash back to Season 1’s “I’ll thank you to take your hands off my wife?” scene like it did me?)
Meanwhile, Claire is in prison, tossed in a cell with a forger named Sadie Ferguson. We learn that in the pre-war tumult, the courts have shut down and the justices have gone into hiding. So it’s not likely that Claire’s case will see the light of day anytime soon. She’s worried that she’ll languish in the dank cell without hope of rescue, but then some British officers come and ask for the “healer.” Claire stands up, and when they question her about whether she’s the murderess or the forger, Sadie quickly pipes up that she is the killer in the house. (Though it seems altruistic, we later learn that forgers have a much lower chance of escaping the gallows than do murderers.) So, before the ladies can even begin rehearsing their rendition of “Cell Block Tango,” the Redcoats take Claire in a hurry.
Jamie arrives in town the next morning and is incensed to learn that Claire was moved overnight, when Tom Christie — who’s been keeping an eye on her from outside the jail — wasn’t there to do anything about it.
ALL AT SEA | Claire is ferried out to a ship where the governor and his very pregnant wife are hiding from anti-British sentiment. But she’s taken ill, so Claire is their best bet for medical care. After a bit of nervous back-and-forth, Claire asserts that she didn’t kill Malva — the governor’s wife has heard the story and thinks Dr. Fraser is “quite notorious” — and diagnoses a mild case of food poisoning. The two women develop a mutual respect, leading Mrs. Governor to say she won’t tell her husband about the real accusations against Claire.
But that doesn’t matter, because Major MacDonald arrives on board, outs Claire to the governor and stirs the pot by mentioning Jamie’s wavering loyalty to the Crown. Even worse: The governor announces his plan to sail away from danger, potentially putting more distance between the Frasers. So Claire asks him to send someone ashore and pick up a few medical supplies she’ll need. On the list, which is delivered to Tom Christie, she includes “vir meus” — Latin for “my husband.” So Tom delivers the secret message to Jamie, who rows out to the governor’s ship.
A SELFLESS ACT | Jamie is relieved to find Claire alive and well. He is less happy about the way the governor says he’ll release her… as long as Jamie gathers 200 men from his area of North Carolina and bring them to support the British forces. “Very well,” Big Red says, telling Claire not to despair as he kisses her on his way back to shore.
A worried Jamie and Ian head to a bar and run into Tom Christie, who is kind of drunk. Jamie pulls him outside and learns that Tom plans to confess to Malva’s murder himself, thus freeing Claire. Jamie forbids it, saying he’ll honor his promise to protect Claire himself, but Tom is firm. “Allow me to do this,” he says, and Jamie realizes he can’t stop his fellow Ardsmuir man. “Send Claire back to me,” Jamie whispers, a little overcome. Tom is openly crying by this point, and he asks Jamie to give him a eulogy, though Jamie hesitates. COME ON, DUDE, HE’S TAKING ONE FOR YER TEAM. Eventually, Jamie relents, giving a lovely speech that ends with how, despite their differences, Tom was “a man I respected and whose respect I hope I had in return.” The tribute seems to make Tom happy.
‘ARE YOU INSANE?!’ | When Tom arrives at the ship and announces his intentions, Claire canna believe what she’s hearing: “Are you insane?!” she cries. He talks about how Malva and her mother were both “witches,” and how the girl was really his brother’s child, conceived while Tom went to fight for the Stuarts during The Rising. Malva’s mother was hanged for killing his brother, and he’s sure that Malva was behind both Claire and his own near-fatal illnesses in Season 6.
Anywhoo, he’s ready to sacrifice himself for Claire, whom he has decided is more than worthy. “I have waited all my life in search of, no, in hope of a thing I could not name but I knew must exist,” he tells her. “I was convinced it was God I sought, but the love of God alone could not sustain me. No, now I know that I love you.” I will say, he looks pretty damn peaceful now that he’s come to this conclusion. He adds that he’s left a written copy of his confession with the Wilmington newspaper. When he leaves her room, she’s nearly crying.
ONE LAST THING | And, uh, that’s that. Jamie is waiting by the docks when Claire returns via rowboat. That night, as they lie on the bed, a little shellshocked, she wonders if Jamie made Tom confess but he quickly disavows her of that idea. “He loves you. It’s plain to see, Sassenach,” he tells her gently. “I’d have done the same, and counted my life well lost.” Once she’s resting, he slips out and finds Richard Brown in his room at an inn; he’d clocked Brown’s horse in town earlier.
Brown scoffs that Jamie won’t hurt him, because the zillion other Browns will hunt him down. But Fraser has news for him: Ian and the Cherokee “are paying your men a wee visit” at that very moment. And when Brown starts to realize that his time is up, he makes a plea to the better angels of Jamie’s nature. “You’re a good man. A moral man,” he says, freaked. “I’m also a violent man,” Jamie replies calmly. “The goodness that prevails in me is because of my wife. You tried to take her from me.” Then he quietly instructs Brown to make peace with God, steps toward him menacingly, and the episode cuts to black.
HOLY ROLLING | What about Roger and Bree, you might ask? They’re attending to some business related to his becoming a pastor when they run into Wendigo Donner, the guy who got away the night that Claire was gang-raped. He maintains that he didn’t hurt her, and — after recognizing Roger as a fellow time-traveler — asks for help getting home, or at least help getting free from his prisoner-of-war status and shackles.
Roger is going to help him… until Brianna finds out his plan and shames him into helping someone who stood by while her mother was violated. Roger admits that he did nothing to intervene when Bonnet’s crew threw a baby overboard, and says that sometimes there’s nothing you can do in the face of terrible violence, but she’s not hearing it. So in the grand history of men being dominated by Beauchamp women, he decides he’ll help Wendigo by praying for him — and nothing else — and Bree happily tells him he’ll make a great minister.
Now it’s your turn. What did you think of the premiere? Grade it via the poll below, then hit the comments with the rest of your thoughts!
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