Outlander
“All Debts Paid”
September 24, 2017
BOSTON 1956
Jamie Fraser may have faced down death countless times, but Frank Randall is cooking while wearing white. Tell me who’s the braver man?
Frank is doing a proper fry up. A full English breakfast – black pudding and all! He tells Claire that 8-year-old Brianna came home from school recently and asked for Eggo toaster waffles. Claire asks if his plan is to feed the American-ness out of her. Frank laughs, Claire om-noms over the food, and everything seems light and easy between them.
Claire is inspired by the light easiness to ask Frank on a date. He thinks it’s a lovely idea … but admits that he’s seen both the movies Claire suggests. He gives her a look and can we talk about how good Tobias Menzies is, y’all? So good with these little grace notes. Claire instantly understands. She like, right. Our arrangement. You went to the movies with ONE OF YOUR WOMEN. Frank says he’s being discrete. Claire agrees and thanks him for that.
And then Brianna runs in and they all sit together and eat a meal that tastes like quiet desperation.
BOSTON 1958
Dr. Claire Randall is celebrating her graduation from medical school. The house is full of friends and soon-to-be colleagues. 10-year-old Brianna is acting as the party’s official photographer. Claire is wearing a cowl neck white suit that is giving me LIFE! KNITS? WHAT KNITS?
Frank suggests that she leave soon to make her dinner reservation. Claire checks her watch and says there’s plenty of time yet. The reservation is for 7:00. NO, IT’S FOR 6:00. FRANK IS CERTAIN IT’S FOR 6. YOU GO NOW CLAIRE. NO MISS YOUR DINNER. He tells a pouty Brianna that he can’t join them – he has work to do – before checking the time again with Claire. And then the doorbell dings.
Oh, Frank. Oh honey, no …
Claire girl, you’re going to want to hang on to the martini that Dr. Joe Abernathy just handed you.
Claire opens the door and flashes a beaming smile at the unexpected visitor. NEW NUMBER WHO DIS hasn’t been invented yet, so the younger blonde woman just stands frozen in front of Claire, gawping. Her gaze flicks over Claire’s shoulder to Frank and Claire goes icy.
She brushes past Frank and announces to her guests that Frank’s fancy woman is here now, so they should all go entertain themselves at the restaurant’s bar until they can be seated.
Frank stumbles home sometime later for the Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe portion of the evening. Claire is in the living room smoking and stoking her rage. Frank slurs that he didn’t exactly invite his fancy woman over. Claire was taking the car. Fancy was just picking him up, so.
And I’m Team Frank, but no. No, that is not an acceptable answer, Franklin.
Claire wonders if Frank really dislikes her that much. She spits that he humiliated her in front of her new colleagues! Frank is like, yeah. Sucks don’t it? He says she’s not as good an actress as she thinks she is. Does she honestly think anyone at Harvard believes they’re happily married? Because they do not.
He will also thank Claire not to call his fancy woman a harlot. He angrily says Sandy has a Ph.D fellowship in historical linguistics. He wonders if Claire isn’t jealous and growls that green ain’t her color. She snaps back that Frank did this deliberately. He wanted to hurt her!
Frank cops to it. Maybe he did. “Maybe I wanted to give you a taste of your own medicine, Doctor Randall.”
He pours a drink and weaves over to the couch. Claire demands to know if he’s had the sexy times with Sandy in their bedroom. Frank sinks down on the other end of the sofa.
“I think our bedroom is far too crowded already.”
The anger drains out of Claire. She deflates. She tells him to file for divorce. Have his freedom. Frank becomes emotional. He says their neighbor Jerry gained his freedom when he divorced Millie – but he lost his children for it. The threat of losing Brianna is too great a cost for Frank.
Claire insists that she would never keep his daughter from him. Frank isn’t keen to risk everything on Claire’s promises. He says she hasn’t been very good at keeping them.
BOSTON 1964
Claire, Frank and their massive Newfoundland dog celebrate Brianna’s 16th birthday. Claire tells her not to wish for a car. Frank tells her to wish away and makes a mental note to buy her one immediately and have Sandy pick out the color. And, scene.
BOSTON 1966
Brianna is graduating from high school. Claire and Frank sit together in the audience, beaming proud parents. Claire is again wearing white. Stick a pin in that for later. Sadly, she’s also straightened her hair into a period appropriate bouffant. Whither the curls, Claire? Whither!
Another night and Claire is sitting by the fire deep in thought. Frank and his 60’s hipster turtleneck can tell by looking at her it was a tough surgery. Claire says they all seem tough these days. Frank is the picture of a supportive husband as he tells her she did all she could. And then he asks for a divorce.
Claire is caught flat-footed. She thought they resolved that issue years earlier. Frank says they did – but now that Brianna is 18, he revisiting it. He’s been offered a position at Cambridge. He wants to go back to England, start a new life with Sandy, and take Bree with him. He says he hasn’t told Brianna his plans, but he thinks she’ll go with him. His voice takes on an edge. He says between medical school and the hospital, Claire has barely been there.
Claire spits that Frank has just been biding his time, waiting for the clock to run out. She seems surprised and hurt, but girl. He told you as much. He told you he was only staying in the marriage because he didn’t want to risk losing Brianna.
Claire is kind of the worst. Don’t @ me.
She snarls that Brianna is her daughter and Frank isn’t taking her anywhere unless he wants to enter a world of pain.
Frank reasonables that Brianna is 18. She can make her own decisions. She has her own life. Frank’s voice becomes thick with emotion. He says he would like to live the rest of his life with a wife who truly loves him. Frank wonders, with time and without the constant reminder of Brianna, if Claire might have forgotten Jamie.
“That amount of time doesn’t exist.”
Frank leaves to go die in a car accident.
Claire races to the morgue. She’s still in her green scrubs from surgery. Jamie is going to talk a lot in this episode about what a great healer Claire was, but this is something she can’t fix.
She kisses Frank goodbye. She says she did love him, very much. Just not enough to commit to him and not enough to leave him. He was her first love, but not her greatest love.
Bye, Frank! Bye!
SCOTLAND 1755
Jamie has been in Ardsmuir Prison for three years. The prison’s governor points Jamie out as he gives a tour to his replacement, Lord John Grey. Put a pin in that name for later. Colonel Quarry says the other men treat Jamie as their chief and call him, McDubStep “McDubh.”
When needed, Jamie acts as the prisoners’ spokesman. The guards are all afraid of him. And he’s the only prisoner who is kept in irons
The tour thus concluded, Colonel Quarry is like,
Jamie shares his first impressions of Lord John Grey with his godfather and consigliere Murtagh. The scene is staged to make it seem as though Jamie is having this conversation with himself, and that Murtagh is just a voice in his head. But no, Murtagh lives! Just barely, but he lives!
That evening Lord John Grey has Jamie brought to see him, but opts not to continue Quarry’s practice of dining with McDubh. He does order that each prison cell be provided with a cat to reduce the rat population.
Jamie wryly observes that the gesture isn’t as benevolent as Lord Grey may think. He says the men eat the rats – when they’re lucky enough to catch one. And when the rats aren’t gnawing on the prisoners.
Jamie and John Grey meet again when the Governor asks for Jamie’s translation services. He says a man was found wandering the moors babbling and ranting in a mix of French and Gaelic. The man, Duncan Kerr, may have also made allusions to the lost French gold that was sent to support the Jacobite uprising. John Grey wants Jamie to translate and find out what Kerr may know about the treasure.
Jamie is like, do I look like Google translate? John Grey offers to remove Jamie’s irons if he complies. Jamie agrees, but adds on a condition – he wants the Governor to provide blankets and medicine for all of the men who are ill. When John Grey scoffs, saying it’s not possible, Jamie tells him to put the irons back on. Then he says he’ll do it if Grey provides assistance to one man – Murtagh. The bargain is struck.
Kerr says the gold is cursed. He speaks of the woman who hid it. He says the MacKenzie is dead and that Jamie’s mother Ellen ran away to wed a selkie from the sea. He tells Jamie the white witch will come for him, and then Duncan Kerr dies. Bye, Duncan! Bye!
Jamie comes over all squirrelly. John Grey thinks he’s holding out on the location of the gold, but it’s the mention of the white witch that has him shook. La Dame Blanche, vengeful witch, is the story Jamie concocted in Season 2 to avoid having the sexy times while Bonny Prince Charlie was dragging him through Paris’s finest brothels. As you do.
He discusses it later with Murtagh, who also perks up at the mention of the white witch. Murtagh says he thinks of Claire every now and then – and the child she was carrying. Jamie says thinking of them will only bring pain and suffering.
Jamie is summoned again by Lord John Grey, this time for dinner. Jamie agrees to stay and dine, but only if the Governor will allow the men to supplement their own meager rations by setting snares on the moors while they’re cutting peat.
Afterwards, Jamie describes the meal of pheasant in burgundy sauce bite by bite to the men in his cell. One of them tells him to slow down – he wants to savor every morsel.
Out on the moors, two prisoners dash off to check the snares. While the soldiers are distracted, Jamie darts off in the opposite direction. Two men follow and help hide him in the heather.
Jamie has been gone for three days. John Grey pees and contemplates how much more miserable his existence is going to become after losing such a prize prisoner. And that’s when Jamie jumps him from behind – just as the boy John Grey once tried to surprise Jamie before the Battle of Prestonpans.
Jamie whispers in the Governor’s ear, “That’s how it’s done.”
He tells Lord Grey not to be surprised that he remembered. Jamie says he tends to remember anyone who tries to slit his throat. He was just waiting for the appropriate time to bring it up. He says the governor’s brother, Lord Melton, discharged the family debt after Culloden. But Lord Grey still has a promise to keep. A promise to kill him.
Jamie draws John Grey’s sword and jabs it into the ground. Then he kneels and waits for the blow that doesn’t come. Lord Grey isn’t in the habit of murdering unarmed prisoners, even if taking Jamie’s head will release the power of the quickening.
There can be only one.
Jamie and Lord Grey walk the moors together. Jamie tells him about Claire and admits that he had to see for himself if Duncan Kerr’s white witch was her. But he says that Claire is truly gone. And as for gold, King Louis never sent any. All they found was an empty box, save for one jewel. As proof, Jamie pulls a large sapphire from his pocket. His nest egg, if ever he might be freed.
And y’all, how has that giant honking gem not been discovered by now? Where in the name of Christopher Walken has he been hiding it??
Three months later, Jamie and John Grey are playing chess. Jamie reports that Murtagh is in fine fiddle, thanks to the doctor the Governor sent to tend him. The two men bond over the shared loss of loved ones still keenly felt. John Grey remembers finding the body of his “particular friend” on the field at Culloden. He says some people you grieve over forever.
Jamie says Claire’s name for what may be the first time in years, and tells John Grey that he actually met her. She was the British woman that he thought a prisoner and in imminent danger of ravishment. Jamie says that young John was an admirable and worthy foe. He wouldn’t reveal intelligence to save his own life, but he would speak up to save the honor of a lady.
Jamie says he hasn’t thought of that night since he lost Claire. Quiet settles over the two men. John Grey reaches out and gently places his hand on Jamie’s. He says he’s sorry for Jamie’s loss. It’s when he caresses Jamie’s hand with his thumb and gives him a look fraught with meaning that the mood sours.
Awareness washes over Jamie. The last man who make overtures was sadist and rape enthusiast Black Jack Randall. Jamie gives John Grey a look in return that would burn a hole through steel. He tells the Governor to remove his hand or Jamie will kill him.
Time passes. The prison is being closed. Its prisoners are being paroled and transported to the colonies as indentured servants. They’ll serve a term of 14 years and then be given their freedom. And that’s how the brownies and bogans came to America, but that’s another Starz show for another night. Hey, quick! Ginger off! Who would you rather?
The sentence of a convicted traitor, however, can’t be commuted without royal approval. King George II hasn’t seen fit to grant it. Jamie is pulled out of line and tied to a length of rope. Lord John Grey gives it a tug from atop his horse and they set off through the falling snow. They travel for three days before stopping.
John Grey points down into a valley at a large estate – Helwater. Jamie will serve its lord, Dunsany. John Grey says it was the best he could manage. He seems sincere. He tells Jamie he’ll visit once each quarter to ensure Jamie’s welfare.
Jamie can’t fathom why John Grey would give him the closest thing to freedom he’s likely to ever see – especially after Jamie refused him. John Grey is like, yeah that was awkward. But, he also confided in Jamie about someone he had cared for, and Jamie did the same. Also, Jamie spared John Grey’s life all those years ago.
“Now I give you yours. I hope you use it well.”
COOL COOL BUT WHAT ABOUT THE KNITWEAR?
None! Nary a shawl or caplet to be seen! And no kilts anymore, either! I forgot to mention it in the recap for last week’s episode, but you’ll notice that all of the Highland men are now wearing pants. That’s a result of the Dress Act of 1746 which made it illegal to wear clan tartans. Alas. Bye, kilts! Bye!
Outlander airs Sunday at 8:00 p.m. (Eastern) on Starz.
Whitney also watches Supernatural and Timeless. Follow her on Twitter @Watcher_Whitney.