The article centers on Season 3, Episode 3 of Outlander: “All Debts Paid.” If you’re not yet caught up with the show, be warned: spoilers abound.
The title of this week’s episode, “All Debts Paid,” ends up being quite prescient for Jamie, Claire, and Frank, as loose threads are tied and we end up well positioned for a Jamie-Claire reunion in the hopefully near future. Though many questions are answered in this week’s episode, the grand tease continues, which is to say there is no sex in this episode. None. The struggle is ever so real. The action in this episode alternates between the 18th century and the 20th century, moving years forward at a time, and we finally see much of what happened to our three musketeers during the twenty years Jamie and Claire are apart.
Jamie isn’t faring so well back in the 18th century, but it could be and has been worse. (Outlander has never been afraid of subjecting the show’s characters to all manner of trauma as a means of advancing the plot.) At the top of the episode, Jamie is in an English prison and there is a new governor—Lord John William Grey—whom Jamie, somehow, doesn’t recognize. Yes, this is the same Grey who owed Jamie a debt of honor. (He turns up at the most narratively convenient times, doesn’t he?) In prison, Jamie is the clear leader of the Scottish Highlanders, but the English still see him as the notorious “Red Jamie.” Murtagh is revealed to be still alive and among the other Scottish prisoners. Though he’s sickly, he still has the sharp wit we’ve come to know and love.
In a feeble attempt to create a bit more plot during this episode, there is a rumor of a cache of gold King Louis supposedly sent to the Jacobites, which is hidden somewhere in the Highlands. A raving old man, Ducan Kerr, was found wandering the moor, talking about the “cursed” gold, which intrigues the new governor. Grey knows that if he finds the gold, he can improve his standing with the crown. He summons Jamie, who speaks Gallic and French, to translate what the old man is saying. At first, Jamie declines, what with being honorable and uninterested in helping the English. Then Grey offers to have his irons removed, and to provide the sickly Murtagh with a blanket, and I guess when you’re in prison, it’s the little things, so Jamie agrees.
Kerr doesn’t say much that makes sense but he does mention a “white witch” who “seeks a brave man,” and “will come for you.” Jamie, of course, knows Kerr is talking about Claire. When Grey demands to know what Kerr has said, Jamie says the old man was speaking of white witches and superstitious nonsense. That answer doesn’t satisfy Grey, who threatens to make Jamie talk, but considering all that Jamie has been through, he is not impressed. Basically, he stares Grey down and is all, “Do your worst,” and that’s that.
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Grey invites Jamie to dine with him, as the previous governor did, and they enjoy a meal of pheasant, carrots, and dinner rolls. Jamie also asks for permission for the prisoners to hunt by setting snares when they’re cutting peat, and to gather watercress. Grey agrees to these conditions and it seems the men are becoming tentative friends. Later, in the cell, Jamie shares the details of the meal with the other prisoners and one asks him to go slow so he can “savor every morsel.” It’s all very grim.
On an outing to cut peat, the prisoners create a distraction and we realize Jamie’s request for the prisoners to hunt was, in part, a ruse for him to escape, which he does. Grey is incensed and tries to hunt Jamie down, to no avail. A few days later, Jamie sneaks up on Grey as he is relieving himself, and Jamie makes clear that he finally remembers who Grey is. He tells Grey that he didn’t really want to escape, he just wanted to see if Claire might have found her way back to him. In not finding Claire, he had no motivation to do anything but return to prison. Jamie gives Grey the opportunity to follow through on his promise to kill Jamie, kneeling in front of him. Grey picks up his sword but refuses, saying, “I am not a murderer of unarmed prisoners.” As with this season’s premiere, Jamie’s death wish is denied and thank goodness for that. There is still amazing sex to be had between he and Claire.
During another cozy evening together, Grey and Jamie play chess before a roaring fire. Grey admits he lost a very close friend during the Battle of Culloden, and it’s obvious he means he lost a lover, when he laments, “Some people you grieve over forever.” It’s certainly interesting to see the show introducing a queer character in the 18th century and the only shame of this storyline is that it is, as queer storylines often tend to be in popular culture, grounded in loss, sorrow, and unrequited feelings. Certainly, queerness in the 18th century was not accepted by society and the show is being accurate, but the point still stands. True progress for us in this time will be marked by more queer storylines that don’t doom queer characters to lonely misery.
As they chat, Jamie admits Claire was his wife and was never truly in danger when he and Grey first met (in Season 2, when Jamie pretended to threaten Claire’s life to make Grey talk). During a quiet moment, Grey gently places his hand over Jamie’s and Jamie stills. The effects of the trauma he suffered at the hands of Black Jack Randall clearly still linger. In a hoarse whisper Jamie says, “Take your hand off me or I will kill you.” Just like that, any friendship these two might have shared disappears. Jamie excuses himself and Grey is left alone, crying. Of course.
Shortly after that, the prison is shuttered and the Highlanders, including Murtagh, are shipped to the colonies to work as indentured servants, where after 14 years they can earn their freedom. Grey takes Jamie, however, to a different location—Hellwater, where Grey will check on Jamie every quarter to be sure he’s well looked after. It’s all an elaborate way of discharging the debt he owes Jamie, though he cautions Jamie to go by another name as he starts his new life. That’s how things are left in the 18th century.
In Boston, things are increasingly tense between Claire and Frank, as they try to make their marriage of inconvenience work. Frank prepares a traditional English breakfast for the family to remind daughter Brianna of her roots and Claire, feeling warm toward Frank, asks if he wants to see a movie. Frank admits he’s already seen both movies Claire suggests and we learn that Frank and Claire have come to an agreement. They are married but living separate lives, free to see other people. “I’m being discreet, Claire,” Frank says and that’s that. Claire is quite surprised and it’s interesting to see her grappling with this new reality where Frank isn’t just sitting around pining for her. For once, Frank has done something unexpected; he has a bit of tooth to him. Unfortunately, that tooth gets longer and sharper as the episode goes on. Hell hath no fury like a man scorned.
PHOTO: Aimee Spinks/STARZ
On her medical school graduation day, Claire and Frank have a small gathering at home. The party is meant to move to a restaurant but Frank can’t go because of “work.” Frank, unfortunately, is a terrible liar and claims he had the reservation time wrong. Lo and behold, his side piece, Sandy, shows up during the party. Claire tries to smile it off and ushers everyone off to the restaurant but later that night, both she and Frank are drunk and angry and they have what is clearly a long-simmering argument but in the well-mannered way that English people fight. Claire says she was humiliated; Frank tells Claire that this turnabout is fair play because she has convinced no one that they are a happy couple. Claire asks Frank if he has fucked his “harlot” in their bedroom and Frank says, “I think our bedroom is far too crowded already, wouldn’t you agree?” With that question, we see that it was never going to be possible for Claire and Frank to work out. They had good intentions about staying together, but good intentions are never enough to make a marriage work. Jamie was and always would be standing between them. Claire suggests they divorce but Frank refuses because he will not lose Brianna. Onward, the marriage of inconvenience goes, but it is clearly a much darker, colder relationship.
Claire and Frank celebrate Brianna’s 16th birthday, and then, it is 1966, and Brianna is graduating from high school. Claire is home after a difficult surgery when Frank has some news—he wants to take Brianna to England. Frank admits he has been offered a position at Cambridge. Claire is immediately stressed, saying she can’t up and leave her job, her patients, etc., and Frank drops the bomb—he’s not asking Claire to join him. Frank asks for a divorce, and admits he is going to marry his side piece, Sandy. As you might expect, there is cruelty left in him yet. He tells Claire that between medical school and her job, she hasn’t really been there for Brianna—as if that is a justification for taking her child from her. They have another terrible fight and Claire says Frank is free to divorce her, but he cannot claim adultery.
More bitter words are exchanged and finally, Frank says, “You couldn’t look at Brianna without seeing him, could you? Without that constant reminder, might you have forgotten him, with time?” Claire admits, “That amount of time doesn’t exist.” It is a chilling moment, at once true, and the most precise and cruel thing Claire could say to Frank. Frank grabs the keys and angrily leaves the house. With Brianna entering adulthood, there is nothing tethering Claire and Frank together and it’s painfully clear, as Claire points out, that Frank was just biding his time, waiting until he could be free of a marriage that was a pale shadow what he’d wanted with Claire. In the end, it seems like Frank stayed in the marriage more to punish Claire for not loving him the way she loved Jamie, rather than to be a father to Brianna.
Later that night, Claire is called into surgery. When she comes out of the operating room, her colleague Joe Abernathy is the bearer of bad news—Frank has died in a car accident. Claire runs to his side, and alas, it is the gesture Frank waited their entire marriage for, too little, too late. Claire tells him she did love him, very much. “You were my first love,” she whispers, before kissing his lips.
PHOTO: Jason Bell/STARZ
And just like that, the episode is over. In some ways, it is a relief that Frank is out of the picture, but as with the show’s portrait of Lord Grey as the tragic gay man, killing Frank off is the simplest way to advance the plot toward an inevitable Claire-Jamie reunion. I cannot help but wonder how much more nuanced and textured this show’s storytelling would be if the writers didn’t always take the easy way out.
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.
