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'Outlander' Season 3 Finale Recap: An Old Frenemy Meets a Grisly End and Claire and Jamie Wind Up in America


This article centers on Season 3, Episode 11 of Outlander, “Uncharted.” If you’re not yet caught up with the show, be warned: Spoilers abound.

It has been quite the season in time travel, wildly implausible adventure, and overly opportune coincidences, but what a time we’ve had. When this season began, Claire was unhappily married in Boston with dreary Frank. Jamie was languishing, injured, on the battlefield of Culloden. We poor viewers had to endure nearly half the season without Claire and Jamie having the hot sex we watch the show for. Claire and Jamie suffered through some things too—but mostly Jamie, because this show loves for him to endure trauma whenever possible. He does bear his burden well: still brawny, brash, and bold where a lesser man would have been broken. Claire raised their daughter Brianna and Jamie went and had a son with a woman who basically coerced him into having sex by manipulating her power and position over him. (We call this rape where I come from.) Lord John Grey fell in love with Jamie and they became besties despite the circumstances of their meeting, and then Grey did Jamie a solid by raising Jamie’s son, Willie, because it was in Willie’s supposed best interests to be raised as nobility. Jamie finally returned to his beloved Scotland and tried to move on with his life, and Claire decided she was tired of being a mother once Frank died and went back through the stones to find Jamie with no trouble at all. There were a few stumbles as Jamie and Claire got reacquainted, as well as an accidental murder and another wife and some booze smuggling and some treason and a kidnapping, but other than that, everything was fine and they were still very good at sex.

Now, here we are at the season finale.

The finale begins with a voiceover and Claire rhapsodizing about death and being at peace while sinking in a body of water. Before we can work out what’s going on there, we are back in Jamaica, with Claire in her carriage racing to Rose Hall to find Young Ian. When she arrives, she just starts wandering around calling for young Ian. Before she can find her nephew, a man grabs her.

Geillis, meanwhile, is interrogating young Ian, wanting to know why he didn’t tell her about Claire and what Claire really wanted with her treasure. Ian is telling her the truth, but for whatever reason, she doesn’t believe him. Ian, for his part, is fed up with Geillis and tells her to either believe him or kill him because he is tired of her “blathering.” We are too, young Ian.

PHOTO: David Bloomer

Claire is brought to Geillis and the two women circle each other warily. Claire explains that Jamie has been arrested and she needs shelter but makes no mention of her nephew. Geillis is happy to accommodate, if only to learn more about why Claire is in Jamaica.

Jamie, the luckiest and unluckiest man alive, is being led to the Porpoise by that baselessly arrogant “Captain” Leonard when the governor’s soldiers intervene. Of course they do. John Grey was not going to let the love of his life be swept away to Scotland to face certain death. Fergus basically saved the day by alerting John Grey of this development.

In the governor’s office, John Grey comes to the rescue once more in one of the strongest scenes of the season—well written, well acted, simply wonderful. John Grey demands that Leonard offer proof of some kind—a warrant, an affidavit—before he takes Jamie into custody but the lieutenant cannot. The most delicious moments are when John Grey insists on calling Leonard a lieutenant and talking shit about how Leonard did not really earn his present title of captain. Leonard protests mightily but he is outranked and outmatched by John Grey and leaves, pouting. Basically, the scene is a dick-measuring contest and we know who is bigger by the end. “Seems I’m indebted to you yet again for saving my life,” Jamie tells Grey once the matter is resolved. The men bid each other goodbye but sadly, they do not kiss passionately and we are all the lesser for it.

Back at Rose Hall, Claire is telling Geillis how she ended up in Jamaica but Geillis is convinced there is some detail Claire is omitting. She has it in her head that Claire has been chasing Geillis and trying to prevent the prophecy foretelling a Scotsman sitting on the Scottish throne from coming true. Claire explains that she actually went back to the future (heh) to raise her child but Geillis is reluctant to believe Claire would ever leave Jamie. Geillis remains unconvinced until Claire shows Geillis pictures of Brianna, whom Geillis instantly recognizes. Of course she does. Claire explains that Geillis met her daughter in 1968 and the two of them also watched Geillis go back through the stones as Claire tried to warn her frenemy about the witch hunts.

Finally satisfied, Geillis surreptitiously swipes one of Brianna’s pictures, apologizes profusely, and offers her home to Claire for as long as she needs. In her room, Claire realizes she is locked in and sees Ian, bound and gagged, being dragged away. She tries, in vain, to get out of her room, when suddenly the door opens. It’s Jamie, of course. So much of course. They head off in the direction of drumming and when they reach it, they find a group of Jamaicans performing some kind of religious ritual and dance. Claire recognizes the dance as similar to the one the women were doing at the stones of Craigh Na Dun in the first season. Willoughby, who just happens to be hanging out with new friends, tells the Jamaicans Claire and Jamie are with him and the Frasers are welcomed without further fuss.

Outlander Season 3 2017

PHOTO: David Bloomer

The Frasers aren’t the only couple in love. Willoughby and Margaret have, indeed, made a love connection. They are headed to Martinique where they can live out their lives in love. “She is the first woman to truly see me, the man that I am, and I see her,” Willoughby says. That’s sweet, but Jamie just wants to know if Willoughby has seen Ian. Willoughby asks Margaret to use her powers so she does. She reads Jamie and Claire and makes them both mighty uncomfortable. “Abandawe,” Margaret says at the end, which Claire remembers from their previous conversation.

Archibald Campbell shows up, interrupting things, demanding that Margaret go with him so he can continue exploiting and mistreating his sister for profit. For some reason, she is not at all interested, preferring to stay with the man she loves. Archibald mentions Mistress Abernathy, a.k.a. Geillis, and Jamie demands to know more. Archibald talks about a prophecy that will only come true upon the death of a 200-year-old baby. As he is talking, Claire realizes he is talking about Brianna. Now, the Frasers need to find Geillis before she kills their daughter conceived in the past but living in the future. Archibald tries to force Margaret to go with him, but Willoughby isn’t having it. He is Yi Tien Cho, and he is going to protect the woman he loves. Archibald tries to strike Margaret with a stick, but Yi Tien Cho comes between them. Before long, Archibald is dead and the Jamaicans are, I guess, using him as ritual sacrifice. It’s all very colonial fever dream, not so vaguely racist, and I honestly forced myself to let it go so I could continue with the episode.

The Frasers run through the jungle to Abandawe cave, which they find with no trouble at all. They are the world’s best navigators. In the cave, young Ian is bound and gagged, to be sacrificed, but Claire and Jamie can’t get to him because Geillis’s manservant Hercules points a gun at them. Geillis is basically raving mad at this point, talking about how Claire owes her Brianna’s life “for the greater good.” Claire realizes the shimmering pool of water in the cave is the portal through time. Geillis continues to rant and rave, and then all hell breaks loose. Jamie fights with Hercules while Claire, using a machete, basically chops Geillis’s head off. Pretty much all’s well that ends well. Jamie lets Hercules go but Claire is hypnotized by the portal and keeps stepping toward it until Jamie pulls her back and they leave the cave.

As I said last week, everything on this show comes full circle. While Jamie and young Ian reunite and Ian crows about how he knew Jamie would come after him, Claire is a bit traumatized. She recalls the 200-year-old body she and her pal Joe examined in future Boston. No matter, though. Jamie gives her a long strong hug, and she’s fine after that. As an aside, Claire has worn only one dress for half of the season, and I cannot stop thinking about it. There’s no way that dress would look as structurally sound as it does given everything it has been through.

Outlander Season 3 2017

PHOTO: David Bloomer

It’s time for the Frasers and friends to return to Scotland, so they get back on the Artemis. Even though Yi Tien Cho isn’t aboard, Jamie, mysteriously, is no longer suffering from seasickness because what is story continuity? Jamie and Claire are alone in their cabin and Jamie is about to shave his beard when Claire asks him not to. It’s always a good time for the Frasers to get down, so Jamie starts sexy talking and Claire is very receptive. It’s a charming scene, with chemistry, warmth and humor—the kind of scene this series would do very well to include more of as a balance to the constant drama trauma. Before long, the Frasers are making love, but we see very little of it for some, incredibly disappointing reason.

As the couple is enjoying the afterglow, a storm is coming. What starts out as a cool breeze and the comforting sound of rain is soon a terrible storm the Artemis cannot withstand. There’s lots of gale-force wind, pouring rain, shouting, and drama as the storm tosses the poor Artemis about the ocean. And then Claire disappears overboard in the storm and we are back where this episode began. Fret not, though. Jamie dives into the water, finds his beloved wife with no trouble at all, and kisses her as they float to the surface where, conveniently, the storm has largely subsided. Claire is unconscious and maybe dead and Jamie is bereft, but they cling to a piece of flotsam. When Jamie comes to, he is on a sandy beach, on a bright sunny day. He sees Claire and crawls to her and kisses her and his kiss brings her back to life! His lips are magic and so is the rest of him. The couple clings to each other and Claire says, “I told you I’d never leave you again.” As they make sense of their surroundings, a family comes upon them. The Frasers inquire as to the Artemis which, conveniently, ran aground just four miles away. The survivors are being cared for, and the Frasers are visibly relieved. Despite having company, they are still gazing at each other passionately. “What island is this?” Claire eventually asks and we learn the Frasers are on the “mainland, the colony of Georgia.” Yup, Outlander is headed to America for its fourth season. In a teaser trailer at the end of the episode, we see Claire talking about the American dream and who knows what will happen for the Frasers now. Hopefully, they will have a lot more sex. In 2018, we will find out.

Outlander Season 3 2017

PHOTO: David Bloomer

Overall, this season has been a mess—a watchable mess, to be fair, but a mess nonetheless. The first half of the season was so slow, then the second half of the season moved at a breakneck pace rushing toward tonight’s ending. Because of that rush, the season, as a whole, felt unbalanced. The production remains beautiful—the costumes, the acting, the scenery, everything is well done. The weakness here is in the story itself. I have no problem with time travel, passionate romance, and global adventure. I am willing to suspend my disbelief for all manner of incredible things. But at times this show demands not just the suspension of disbelief but the complete eradication. I want to be intrigued and surprised by a show, but I don’t want to find myself rolling my eyes more often than not. This season, there was a lot of eye rolling. I really do enjoy this show, and I will certainly be watching the fourth season and probably recapping it too, but my goodness, I hope the writing finds a bit more discipline regardless of the source material. My eyes don’t have much roll left in them.

Roxane Gay is the author of Bad Feminist, Difficult Women, and most recently, Hunger. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel and a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times.

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This Teaser Is Your First Look at 'Outlander' Season 4


Warning: If you’re not fully caught up on Season 3 of Outlander, spoilers abound. Get caught up with our Outlander recaps here!

The third season of Outlander, our favorite steamy time-traveling drama, wrapped up with a bang on Sunday night, and where do we even begin? Young Ian held prisoner, Geillis’s grisly demise, a life-threatening storm, and eventually our heroes—Jamie and Claire—wind up on the new shores of the American colonies.

We’ll have to wait until 2018 to find out what happens to Jamie and Claire in America—cue #Droughtlander—but until then, we have a quick sneak peek at Season 4 to tide us over.

In the teaser, Jamie and Claire sit in the woods under a blanket, while Claire talks about their upcoming adventure to the new land, and “the American dream.”

“Is that the same as our dream?” asks Jamie. “I suppose it is,” Claire answers.

What do we know beyond what’s shown in the video? “The upcoming season continues the romantic adventures of Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan),” according to the press release. We should most certainly hope so—we’re not watching it for the fight scenes, TBH.

And, yes, the new season’s premiere date of “sometime in 2018” means we have a long and very vague amount of time to wait. But there’s good news, too: The fourth season will be based on the fourth book in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series—so if we keep going with the one-book-per-season model, then we have a whole five seasons left of Jamie and Claire.

Here’s what else we know: We’ll have a new villain in Season 4—Stephen Bonnet (played by Ed Speelers)—and we’ll also meet Jamie’s Aunt Jocasta (played by Maria Doyle Kennedy).

Watch the teaser here and try to be patient. 2018 isn’t too far away …

Related Stories:
–‘Outlander’ Season 3 Premiere: New Beginnings With Mixed Results
–An Old Frenemy Made a Jaw-Dropping Return on This Week’s ‘Outlander’
–Caitriona Balfe Says There’s Less Sex on ‘Outlander’ Than You Think—and That’s a Good Thing



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'Outlander' Season 3, Episode 9 Recap: Sometimes Drama Is Just Another Word for Nonsense


This article centers on Season 3, Episode 9 of Outlander. If you’re not yet caught up with the show, be warned: Spoilers abound.

When we last saw the Frasers, Claire was helplessly shouting, “come back!” to the tall ship absconding with young Ian. It was supposed to be a heart-wrenching moment, but it was also kind of funny because Claire, girl, they cannot hear you. They are miles away, and it’s windy. Come on!

This week, Jamie and Claire take to the sea on a ship called The Artemis to find young Ian, who, they deduce, is on his way to Jamaica to be sold for “up to thirty pounds.” Conveniently, Jamie assembles a small crew to go on this new adventure—Willoughby, Fergus, and his kinsmen Lesley and Hayes. But there’s a twist: Fergus has brought along Marsali, Laoghaire’s daughter, to whom he is handfasted and madly in love.

Jamie is none too pleased about his stepdaughter being on board and set to marry Fergus, so he decides he has to protect her virtue. He and Fergus will room together, and Claire and Marsali will room together. Claire is not happy with this arrangement because, as she tells Jamie, they’ve been apart for 20 years. Subtext: We have a lot of missed sex to make up for. Finally, Claire is making sense!

There are some other things going on during all of this—sailors are really superstitious and believe a woman on the ship is bad luck, redheads are bad luck, and not touching the ship’s horseshoe before setting sail is bad luck. When a sailor is injured, the men believe it’s because someone didn’t touch the ship’s horseshoe and a low-level panic begins spreading through the crew. And in the early days of the voyage, Jamie is very seasick.

Claire is the ship’s surgeon, of course, and will be looking after the men as needed. She mends minor wounds and makes tea for Jamie to get over his seasickness, which he does, but not because of the tea. Turns out, Willoughby knows acupuncture and uses it on Jamie, who has been hiding it so as not to wound his Harvard-educated, accomplished surgeon wife’s pride.

During a dinner with the captain, one Jamie is too sick to attend, the captain tries to impart to Claire the importance of gaining the men’s trust by believing their superstitions. This scene’s highlight is when the captain tells Claire that she and Marsali should be walking around with their breasts free to the open air because, as he explains, “A woman’s bare breasts calm an angry sea.” Of course they do.

As they ready for bed, Claire and Marsali have a minor word scuffle that ends with Marsali declaring that she still thinks Claire is a whore. She is about as pleasant as her mother. Fergus and Jamie also have a conversation about honesty, and Jamie refuses to give the young couple his blessing until Fergus comes clean about all the women he’s been with. It’s kind of a strange request because, if, as Fergus claims, he has been faithful to Marsali since they began courting, who cares about his previous assignations? Jamie’s resistance to Marsali and Fergus’s relationship makes absolutely no sense. It becomes even more bewildering later in the episode, when Fergus tells Marsali his romantic history and Jamie still refuses to relent despite Claire’s entreaties. Almost every week there are these grating reminders that Jamie is kind of a misogynist—a sexy misogynist, to be sure, but full of old-fashioned ideas about women that he should be disabused of, given his thoroughly modern wife and, of course, common sense.

In a quiet moment, Claire finds Willoughby writing a poem on the ship’s deck, and he shares that he’s writing his life story. Claire asks if she can hear his story, but he says he cannot until he’s ready to let it go.

As everyone on the ship falls into a routine, things seem to be going well—until the winds disappear and all hell breaks loose. Days turn into weeks of just sitting on the water, with no land in sight. The ship’s fresh water goes bad. The men become convinced that someone didn’t touch the horseshoe at the beginning of the voyage.

Claire and Jamie, though, continue finding their way back to each other, and their interactions are the one thing that hold this episode together. One night, they are blissfully alone on the deck, looking up at the moon, and Claire talks about reading Goodnight Moon to Brianna as a baby. She laments that she misses her daughter, but fortunately her husband is there with his strong arms and rock hard chest to console her. Unfortunately, they don’t take this opportunity to bless us with some hot sex.

Tensions come to a boil when the men decide that someone has to be thrown overboard to balance the scales of superstition. One of Jamie’s men, Hayes, is identified as the man who didn’t touch the horseshoe. When they try to grab him, he climbs up to the ship’s mast, panicked, ready to jump into the ocean to pacify the men. Jamie climbs up after Hayes and says all the right things to get Hayes back down in a wildly drawn-out scene where Hayes almost falls and Jamie holds on tight and blah blah blah.

While all this drama is happening, Willoughby sees a bird flying low. As Hayes makes it back to the ship’s deck, the men still calling for him to be thrown overboard, Willoughby starts ringing the ship’s bell and telling the story of his life. This is probably the best scene in the episode, one I do not want to sully with my own words. In summary, he was going to serve an emperor’s wife in China, but he would have to become a eunuch. He goes on to explain that he fell in love with all women, “the taste of their breasts like apricots, the scent of her navel in the winter,” and other such loveliness. Rather than give up all that, he fled to another country, where basically white people are super racist and terrible. “By not surrendering my manhood, I have lost all else,” Willoughby says.

As sad and beautiful as his story is, the men have calmed down. Willoughby throws the pages of his story into the air and the wind carries them away, forcing the men to see that they have wind and their journey can continue. The day is saved and sure, we could talk about how clichéd it is for the one person of color on board to have the right brand of magical wisdom to save the day, but I suppose the struggle can stand down for this episode.

With the wind comes the rain, so the ship’s water supplies are once again replenished. Now that everyone is in a good mood again, Jamie and Claire finally take the opportunity to have some hot sex below decks. It starts with some kissing in a corridor, then they are in a chamber, kissing and panting and moaning. Claire urges Jamie to hurry up, which he does, and soon their bodies are conjoining and Claire is holding on to a rope (that could have been put to interesting use…) and all is right with the world for about 30 seconds. Afterward, they lie together and Jamie compliments Claire’s gray hair with some pretty lines about how “the way the light hits it like a piece of silver in midnight.” They also agree that whatever else they have going on, they are still awesome at sex.

Nearly every week, at this point in the episode, something ludicrous happens to make the drama even more dramatic—and this week is no exception. The Artemis is followed by a British Man o War that signals for them to drop anchor so they can be boarded. At first, Jamie worries that they are going to press men into service and that he, as a British subject, could be one of them. Before the British arrive, he makes Claire promise to continue on to Jamaica to find young Ian. But the British aren’t looking for men. They have been overtaken by a plague, and they come to The Artemis looking for a surgeon. OF COURSE!

After the acting captain explains the symptoms his men are showing, Claire determines they have a typhoid outbreak. She has already been inoculated, so she offers to go over to the British ship and help them. Jamie objects, chivalry and all that, but Claire ignores him, as she always does, because of her oath that always seems to get her into trouble. Once on the Man o War, Claire descends into the nastiest place imaginable—the men are puking and shitting themselves and covered in gross. Claire can hardly breathe. She examines one guy, confirms her diagnosis, and then, in the captain’s quarters, tells him how to save the rest of his men.

Being the good doctor she is, Claire offers to help him get started on bringing the men to the deck and washing them and so on. The captain thanks her and says he is sending word to The Artemis that she will be just a bit longer, but he’s obviously lying. As Claire goes to the galley for boiled water, the ship starts moving—and fast. Claire runs to the deck, and the captain explains that he needs her to save his men. He has indeed sent word to The Artemis, but telling them that they can all rendezvous in Jamaica. It’s just so maddeningly absurd. I’m all for a show with a lively plot, but it makes no sense that Claire and Jamie are always dealing with the most dramatic nonsense imaginable.

This is one of those episodes where there are several small intrigues that seem designed mostly to kill time, and then there is one big intrigue that kills common sense. There’s so much filler in this show, especially this episode. It’s strange given how dense the Outlander books (still haven’t read them) are. Perhaps this week’s excuse is that the ship is a tightly contained space and only so much can happen. I don’t know. Suffice it to say, this episode’s name, “The Doldrums,” is quite apt.

Related: This New ‘Outlander’ Trailer Teases All the Sex Still to Come This Season



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New 'Outlander' Trailer Teases All the Sex and (Maybe) Deaths Coming This Season


The third season of Outlander has been a lot of things: dramatic, violent, intriguing. And, of course, it’s been sexy. Like, seriously sexy. Outlander is known for its mind-blowing sex scenes, but things between Claire and Jamie are (somehow) even hotter this season.

And the passion continues in the latter half of the season—as this new trailer reveals. It quite literally starts with Jamie passionately kissing Claire and saying, “You belong with me; we’re mated for life” in his signature, sultry cadence. These three seconds are my sexual orientation.

Season three, part two boasts more than just sex, of course. Young Ian’s life is in jeopardy, and Claire and Jamie have no idea where he is. The journey to find him will surely be bloody, thrilling, and (wince) possibly lethal. He could die, you guys! With this show, you can never really predict what happens.

Check out the new trailer for yourself, below:

[embedded content]

How are you feeling? Scared? Aroused? All of the above? Yup, same. Outlander is perhaps the only show on television capable of making you feel horny and shook at the same time.

Interestingly, Caitriona Balfe (who plays Claire) doesn’t really see Outlander as sex-centric as the rest of the world does. “It’s funny, because there’s probably less sex in our show than people think,” she told Glamour. “It’s just when we do it, we try to empower these two characters to represent this meta-physical and all-encompassing love, so we get branded as, ‘It’s so sexy!’ But if you look at the amount of episodes that it features in, it’s not in every single one.”

This is true, but let’s be honest: No one would complain about more sex on Outlander. Just a friendly tip for the writers’ room!

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'Outlander' Season 3, Episode 8 Recap: Claire Meets Jamie's Other Wife and Things Get Bloody


This article centers on Season 3, Episode 8 of Outlander, “First Wife.” If you’re not yet caught up with the show, be warned: Spoilers abound.

I suppose it was all a bit too easy, Claire returning to the 18th century, finding Jamie in like five minutes, and falling into his perfectly sculpted arms on the way to a lifetime of great sex. Alas.

This week, Claire and Jamie learn that second chances don’t come easy. The Frasers return to Lallybroch with young Ian and receive a rather uncomfortable reception from Jenny and Ian Sr. who are, as you might expect, angry Jamie lied about having young Ian with him; angry Jamie had young Ian engaging in criminal pursuits; and bewildered Claire is still alive. There is a lot of anger in this episode. Jenny is particularly frosty toward Claire, referring to her as a “stray.” Jenny is either aggressive or passive aggressive to her sister-in-law for most of the episode, but she’s also pretty much the best part of it. Overall, it works.

We see how the Murray children have grown, some with children of their own, all running around Lallybroch as wildly indistinct scenery because they don’t get much screen time. One thing I’ve noticed about Outlander is that in trying to make each dense, plot-filled book into a thirteen-episode season, the show often feels rushed and unbalanced. There will be a chunk of episodes focusing on a given plot point while other plot points are dealt with in a scene or two. Because I haven’t read the books, I see neither the rhyme nor the reason to some of the show’s narrative choices.

That first night at Lallybroch, Claire and Jamie have a moment alone and Claire implores him to let her tell Jenny the truth of where she has been, but Jamie says Jenny has never left the farm and couldn’t handle the truth. He is wrong, obviously, because Jenny is awesome, but Claire concedes. Then Jamie tells Claire the story of how he escaped prison to go to Silkies Island searching for her on the word of Duncan Kerr, the feverish dying man who came upon the prison while Jamie was incarcerated earlier this season.

PHOTO: Aimee Spinks

In the story, Jamie swims through frigid cold water and though, to his despair, he doesn’t find Claire, he does find a small box of treasure—ancient coins and gems and so on. To be honest, it doesn’t look like much. He leaves the box there and returns to prison because the men there need him. “I wasn’t on an island but I was out there, wishing you’d come and find me,” Claire says. The couple continues saying deeply romantic things to each other and I started getting excited because I thought they were going to have sex. I was very, very wrong. There is no sex in this week’s episode, which means the grand reunion was…something of a letdown. I’m kind of worried there will be no more sex this season.

In the middle of this intimate moment, Jamie realizes he needs to come clean with Claire about his secret. But just as Jamie is about to spill, two girls burst into their room—the younger one, a redhead—both calling Jamie “Daddy.” They are followed by that horrible Laoghaire who accused Claire of witchcraft and almost had her killed during Season 1. Laoghaire is outraged, calling Claire “Sassenach witch,” and tells Claire she is Jamie’s wife.

Claire is just stunned and gasping and who can blame her? It’s one thing for Jamie to have gotten married. It’s another thing entirely for him to have married the one woman who has done such grievous harm. I cannot begin to fathom the why of Jamie’s second marriage and I know the show is going to give us some stupid explanation. This is what this show tends to do whenever something implausible happens. Something implausible happens every episode.

“We don’t have a bond that keeps people together,” Jamie tells his stepdaughter Joan, also explaining that he has such a bond with Claire, his first wife. The kid is like seven years old so I’m not sure why he’s acting like she gets it but okay. He also promises he will always look after Joan and her sister, before sending Joan home.

Up in their room, Claire is gathering her things. Jamie tries to explain himself, and we learn he is not the father of either of the girls (a total ye olde Maury episode). He married Laoghaire less than two years ago. Claire is having none of it and when Jamie says, “You’re the one who told me to be kind to the lass,” I personally ducked, in my apartment, even though this is just a TV show. There’s a reason women snap and it’s because men push them to the limit.

What follows is one hell of a fight. Jamie claims Claire left him twenty years prior. They both make clear they have suffered during their time apart and then Jamie is kissing Claire and she is slapping him and they’re wrestling and it’s kind of dodgy and kind of hot. Things are looking up! Jamie declares his undying love for first wife and they start tearing at each other. Just as they are finally about to do the dirty, Jenny throws water on them. Jenny is a consummate hater, an 18th-century cock blocker. And with that, any hope of carnality fades.

Outlander Season 3 2017

PHOTO: Aimee Spinks/STARZ

The next day, Jamie tries to stop Claire from leaving Lallybroch and vows to make things right. “I’ve only known one love in my life and that was with you,” he says. Someone should do a supercut of all the ways he declares his love. It’s so extra. Unfortunately, Laoghaire happens upon them as they’re talking, only now she has a gun and she’s going on about how Jamie is hers—and then the gun goes off. Jamie is shot in the shoulder, because of course.

Now it’s just like old times, Jamie injured in some way and Claire putting him back together. Claire immediately shifts into Doctor Mode and sets to digging the buckshot pellets out after Jamie self-medicates with whisky. Young Ian looks on and seems rather intrigued by the whole affair. Everything turns out fine.

When Jamie comes to, he finally explains why he married Laoghaire. The explanation is exactly as lame as I expected it to be. Basically, he was sad and lonesome. “I was a ghost,” he says. And then, during a Christmas party at Lallybroch, two young girls ask him to dance, and as he’s twirling about with the girls, he starts to feel something like joy. The girls are Laoghaire’s daughters, Marsali and Joan. One thing leads to another and he marries Laoghaire. It was a simpler time, I guess. Their marriage is kind of lousy but he has his stepdaughters and he gets to be a husband again, which is all he really wanted. Things don’t work out in the marriage bed because Laoghaire is scared of intimacy, probably because one of her previous husbands, of which there are two. “I couldn’t bear the thought of someone being afraid of my touch,” Jamie says, and that’s why he went to Edinburgh. Uh. Okay. Sure. As he’s talking, Claire realizes Jamie has a fever but fret not! She has some 20th-century penicillin.

Ned Gowan, the lawyer from Season 1, stops by Lallybroch. He informs the Frasers that Jamie’s marriage to Laoghaire is invalid because Jamie and Claire were married first. Take that, Laoghaire! Long story short, Laoghaire pitches a fit and wants alimony—twenty pounds and then ten pounds a year so she and her daughters can continue living in the style to which they have become accustomed. (Marital dissolution is the same in any century.) Claire, Jamie, Jenny, and Ian Sr. are trying to figure out how to pay such a vast sum but of course, there is a solution—the treasure Jamie found on Silkies Island. Of course! Young Ian will swim out to the island to fetch the small treasure chest and then he, Claire, and Jamie will go to France to sell the treasure for sterling and come back to Scotland with the money they need to get Laoghaire off their backs. The funniest part of this convolution is everyone acting like this is a. a reasonable plan and b. that it will work out fine.

Outlander Season 3 2017

PHOTO: Aimee Spinks

Now, at this point you might be thinking that for an episode of Outlander, this week’s goings-on mostly make sense. Don’t worry. There are still a few minutes left. As young Ian swims out to the island, Claire tells Jamie she’s not sure they should stay together anymore. She gets all emotional about how hard things have been since she came back to the 18th century. Blah, blah, blah. I honestly rolled my eyes. Like, could they not figure out what to have Claire and Jamie do while they waited for Ian to play fetch? This would have been a great moment for a sex scene, but no, the Frasers have to rehash their feelings for the umpteenth time. Jamie says pretty things again about how he and Claire are bonded for life. It’s a little predictable at this point. We’ve seen this scene about ten times over the past three episodes.

Before they can continue this dull conversation, a tall ship suddenly appears. Yes, the show introduces the bizarre curveball at the very end. Claire and Jamie start shouting to Ian who cannot hear them because he’s like a mile away. And it’s windy. Men from the tall ship row to the island and grab young Ian. Why? Who knows? Why are they even in the vicinity? Who knows? Come on. What are the chances? This is so improbable. I just cannot. What I can tell you is that the episode ends with young Ian being kidnapped and Claire and Jamie looking on from shore, helplessly, as the tall ship sails away. I’m pretty sure we’re not going to be in Scotland for much longer. In other words, there is no sex on the Outlander horizon. Je suis désolée.

Roxane Gay is the author of Bad Feminist, Difficult Women, and most recently, Hunger. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel and a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times.

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'Outlander' Season 3, Episode 7 Recap: A Fight, a Fire, and a Bombshell Revelation About Jamie


This article centers on Season 3, Episode 7 of Outlander, “Crème the Menthe.” If you’re not yet caught up with the show, be warned: Spoilers abound.

Now that Claire and Jamie have reunited, all I need from this show is for them to have hot sex from the beginning of each remaining episode until the end. Alas, this is Outlander, so instead, there will be melodrama. And tonight’s episode, “Crème the Menthe,” felt more like an average one, filler to end the first arc of the season and transition into the next.

As the episode opens, Claire is fighting off the man she found in her room because, again, this show loves nothing more than to imperil women to create plot points. We must never forget that to be a woman is to live in a perpetual state of vulnerability. Got it? Good. Claire manages to fight off her attacker, wielding a knife. (See, women are vulnerable but they are also empowered!) The attacker falls, hits his head and is seemingly dead when Jamie enters the room and sees his wife over an unconscious man, panting heavily, knife still in hand. That’s when I knew there probably wasn’t going to be any sex in this episode. I was mostly right. Despite being apart for twenty years, Claire and Jamie don’t spend this entire episode in bed. They don’t spend any time in bed. It makes no sense.

When Claire realizes her attacker is still breathing, she immediately shifts into surgeon mode and insists on saving his life. (“Because I’m a doctor,” she explains when Jamie understandably asks why she wants to save her attacker’s life.) As usual, Claire is instantly able to translate 20th-century knowledge into whatever might be available in the 18th century and makes various people get her various things, including hot water. No matter the time period, whether in television or film, anytime something vaguely makeshift medical is going to happen, there must be hot water.

It turns out the attacker was looking for Jamie’s ledgers at the behest of Sir Percival Turner, who suspects Jamie is selling more than he claims and not paying Percival enough of a bribe. (Corrupt government agents are so greedy and suspicious.) Jamie realizes he’s going to have to move the booze he has hidden in Madame Jeanne’s basement and dispatches Fergus and young Ian Fraser to make a quick sale of the hooch, which they do at handsome profit.

Meanwhile, Claire goes to the apothecary to get some laudanum and who knows what else so she can perform surgery. In a hurry, she bargains with a man in front of her—who was looking for something to calm his sister—to go ahead of him in return for looking in on his ailing sister. As she places her order, Claire informs the chemist that a man’s life is at stake…which is so weird. Why is she broadcasting her business, particularly when so much is at stake? It makes no sense!

Back at the brothel, Jamie and Mr. Willoughby are wrestling with the attacker, who has awakened and is loudly trying to break free of their grip. Claire chastises them for being rough with her patient (LOL wut?), but before she can lecture them further, Madame Jeanne alerts Jamie that Sir Percival has paid him a visit. While Claire tries to reduce a brain bleed ye olden way, Sir Percival and his men search the brothel for the contraband booze Fergus and Ian have already sold off.

The surgery stuff that follows is incredibly graphic and unpleasant. The sound effects—of skin splitting open and a hand drill breaking skull bone—are doing the absolute most. At last, Claire successfully releases the clot while Sir Percival finds nothing of note in the brothel and makes like a dastardly villain, warning Jamie, “I’ll be watching you,” before he flounces off. Sure thing, buddy.

When Jamie returns to his chambers, he tells Claire, “This ends now’; but the attacker has died during surgery and Claire is sad. Ever the voice of reason, Jamie says, “I won’t grieve for the man that tried to kill my wife.” Right on, Jamie! Keep it real. Claire stays deep in her feelings, muttering that this wouldn’t have happened if she was in Boston, which, GIRL! You are not in Boston, anymore. You chose to go back in time for the best sex of your life. There’s a price to pay—no modern hospital facilities, not a lot of bathing, no television. The struggle is real in any century. She laments that she’s caused Jamie so much trouble in the brief time she’s been back, but Jamie, true to form, says some incredibly romantic, sexy shit and that’s that.

PHOTO: Aimee Spinks/STARZ

A doctor’s work is never done, so Claire heads off to see about that apothecary customer, Archibald Campbell, and his sister Margaret. He claims his sister is a seer and he “translates” her visions and it all seems kind of sketchy. Claire tells Archibald that Margaret is not a seer; she’s just mentally ill. She cautions him to stop medicating his sister with laudanum and offers him an herbal tea recipe to calm her when she gets agitated. Archibald isn’t so interested in tea…he basically wants to keep his sister sedated because they are heading to the West Indies the next day. As she leaves, Claire suggests Margaret eat a lot of fresh fruit when she gets to the islands. I have no idea what’s going on with that.

To celebrate their profitable sales, Fergus and Ian have a drink at the local tavern. As young men are wont to do, they start talking about sex. Turns out, Ian is a virgin and one of the young barmaids, Brighid, has caught his eye. Fergus makes like an expert wingman and hooks Ian and Brighid up but first Fergus discloses that his first time was a menage a trois. (Of course it was. He’s French, after all.)

Ian gets really lucky and Brighid seems more than amenable to having a drink with the young man. A love connection is made! Ian brings Brighid back to the print shop because nothing says romance like a print shop. He is drunk and singing loudly and then he and Brighid are making out and then they start to make love after a bit of an awkward start. So, I guess there is some sex in this episode, but it is not at all the sexy kind and we don’t see much of it, which is fine by me because Ian is like, a child, and he is very pale and no thanks. I’m not even sure why this episode featured this storyline other than to give a plausible reason for what happens next to Ian. I suspect this is the first and the last we will see of sex between anyone but Claire and Jamie and thank goodness for that.

Outlander Fergus Drinking Episode 307

PHOTO: Aimee Spinks/STARZ

Upon returning to the brothel, Claire suggests that maybe she and Jamie can get a place of their own and Jamie’s like, “Leave the brothel?” as if it is the wildest thing in the world for Claire to want to live somewhere other than a brothel. She also broaches opening her own practice, but they are interrupted when Ian Sr. shows up looking for Ian Jr. Apparently young Ian keeps running away from home, and Jamie is keeping watch over his nephew (while also pretending he doesn’t know where the boy is). Ian Sr. is shocked to see Claire alive and well, but is also distraught over his missing son. Jamie lies about the boy’s whereabouts and Claire seethes quietly because she disapproves. Jamie walks Ian out and the men allude to some secret Jamie is keeping that could cause trouble. (I am pretty sure I know what the secret is because I consulted Wikipedia about Book 3’s plot and I am very angry about the plot twist because it is so irritating and senseless and Claire is going to flip her lid when she finds out.)

Before any of that unfolds in some future episode, Ian and Brighid are basking in the afterglow of young love when another of Sir Percival’s minions shows up at the print shop, looking for the contraband casks. Corrupt and greedy government agents are also persistent. Ian confronts the man to little avail. As the minion searches, he finds Jamie’s seditious pamphlets. Oh no! There is a scuffle and soon the building is on fire. Of course it is. Ian sends Brighid to safety while he tries to put out the fire. The minion gets away with the seditious pamphlets; poor Ian is alone in the burning building; and Jamie just lied to his brother-in-law about his son’s safety. Every melodramatic possibility is happening all at once.

Jamie and Claire are having a tight-lipped argument about his lying to Ian Sr. that turns into an argument about parenting choices. Jamie gets real passive aggressive, saying he didn’t get a chance to parent Brianna, and he makes a shitty comment about Brianna wearing a bikini. His jealousy over her marriage to Frank comes out, but before anything can be resolved, Jamie is told there’s a fire at the print shop.

Ian is trapped and Jamie knows it, so he rushes, gallantly, straight into the fire and there’s lots of close calls—the score, never subtle on this show, makes it seem like death is imminent—but fret not, all is well. Jamie saves Ian and grabs the portrait of his son, Willie, and though the print shop is destroyed, everyone lives. There is, of course, the small problem of the seditious pamphlets but Jamie is in Edinburgh under a false name so he can just go back to being himself in the Highlands. Yes, this is all an elaborate plot device to get the Frasers and Ian back to Lallybroch. Jamie ties up some loose ends with Mr. Willoughby and Fergus lets it drop that Jamie has another wife which is so messy. Claire is, all the while, completely unsuspecting and probably about to walk into a fire of her own. Of course, the episode ends on this revelation, so sadly, we will not know more about this mess until next week. Until then!

Roxane Gay is the author of Bad Feminist, Difficult Women, and most recently, Hunger. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel and a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times.

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