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Outlander

So, a lot happened last week on Outlander: Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and Geillis (Lotte Verbeek) were tried and found guilty of being witches. Geillis revealed that she was from 1968 and then she “confessed” to having lain with the Devil and to the murder of her husband. Needless to say, the townsfolk were not happy. They dragged Geillis to be burned at the stake while Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire escaped town. Claire then told Jamie she was from the future and then she decided to stay in 1743 Scotland with her hot lover. At the end of the episode, they decided to go to Jamie’s home, Lallybroch.

What happened next?

Well, after Claire violated the prime directive and told Jamie all about airplanes, they returned to Lallybroch where Jamie was confronted with memories of the last time he was there. You know, that time that Captain Jack Randall (Tobias Menzies) whipped him and then took his sister inside the house to sexually assault her. Don’t remember? Well, there’s a convenient sepia-toned flashback.

As Jamie and Claire arrive, they meet his now pregnant sister, Jenny (Laura Donnelly), and toddler nephew. Jamie jumps to conclusions and assumes that the kid is Captain Jack Randall’s (Tobias Menzies), and therefore a product of rape. Jenny is understandably pissed off about this. They argue and it’s fun because finally there’s a woman on this show who seems even more excited to get in Jamie’s face than even Claire.

It turns out neither kid is Black Jack Randall’s. Jenny has married Jamie’s one-legged best friend, Ian. That’s a relief for Jamie. What’s not a relief is the fact that Jenny has to relive her side of the family’s horrible first encounter with Black Jack Randall. First, Jenny explains that, yes, she was manhandled and brought into the house to be raped. In fact, Black Jack did a really creepy thing where he sniffed her…

…and then he proceeded to be even creepier.

In a strange twist, Black Jack did not rape Jenny! It turns out that Black Jack has an impotence problem. Or, at least, he’s not very into the ladies — we’ll get to that in a moment. Hyped up on fear, and spurred on by spite, Jenny laughs at his inability to get it up. This results in him slapping her repeatedly until she is knocked out, but her maidenhead stays intact. Hooray! (I think.)

After some a tense discussion loaded with sibling rivalry, Jenny and Ian decide to give up the laird’s rooms in the house to Jamie and Claire. Claire says that she doesn’t want to put them out, and then Jamie explains — look, there are a lot of conversations in this episode about etiquette and family and being a laird. There are also a lot of flashbacks.

Jamie shows Claire a viking sword that belonged to his dad and then reminisces about the last time he saw his father alive. No, they weren’t fishing or shopping for new kilts. He ran into his father at Fort William right before being brought in to see Black Jack for his “crimes.”

Jamie’s dad gives him some kind of cryptically emotional message about being strong and Jamie doesn’t really know what to make of this. Then, once he’s alone with Black Jack, it kind of falls into place. Black Jack offers Jamie a deal: either Jamie can be flogged again — with the understanding that another whipping might kill him — or Jamie can offer himself up to Black Jack — with the understanding that Jamie will be a bottom. During all this, Black Jack remains creepy.

As we already know, Jamie chooses the whipping. Jamie’s dad dies while watching his son get beaten in the public square. Jamie goes undercover for a few years, meets a weird lady in the woods, falls in love, marries her, finds out she’s a time traveler, they go back to Lallybroch, and now we’re all caught up.

Speaking of Lallybroch, Jamie has to man up and be the laird of the clan. There’s a big day where all the men in his fealty come to pay their taxes (or rent — I’m not an 18th Century Scotland expert), and Claire notices an alcoholic Scotsman beating his son for eating something.

So, Claire, like always, intervenes. She offers to take the boy off the guy’s hands. This upsets Jenny because she had a long-term plan to get the kid into safety and now Claire messed it up and gave the household another mouth to feed. Jenny is pissed off at Claire and Jamie throughout this episode, and with good reason. Basically, Jenny has been left alone to run the family’s estate and affairs for years now, and she’s done a good job. Now, she has to turn things over to her little brother and his foreign (time-traveling) wife. Both them are consistently getting stuff wrong.

Jamie, for instance, is trying to be a “cool laird.” He’s letting people shortchange him on rent and taxes, and getting drunk to look awesome. How drunk is he getting? So drunk he can’t have sex with Claire.

But fear not, my friends. We still got to see Jamie stripped down in this episode.

Jamie has to jump in a river to evade the notice of a group of redcoats. This involves getting naked. Why? Because this is Outlander and Outlander loves objectifying Jamie Frasier. Thank you, Outlander. Thank you.

Of course, this also gives Jenny a chance to see the damage that Black Jack did on her brother. The siblings confront each other and they both lament that they think they’re responsible for their father’s death. Jamie tells Jenny resolutely that neither of them are to blame. Good! Because you know, their dad probably just had a heart attack or a stroke or — oh! Black Jack is to blame. Okay. Well, I mean, Black Jack is a horrible human being who did terrible things to their family, so seek vengeance, young Frasiers!

Later, while Jamie and Claire are settling in, Claire admits that she feels at home and Jamie finally reveals that he didn’t just marry her to save her from Black Jack. He married her because he fell in lust with her at first sight. Well, he says it in nicer words than that.

Claire and Jamie are in love. They have hope for the future. They are in a bedroom whose walls are covered in tapestries. There’s a warm fire and a four-post bed. Naturally, they are going to make out.

Ah! But their bliss is short-lived. Claire wakes up to find Jamie gone and she hears voices in the house. A group of Scottish thugs has entered Lallybroch and they are holding Jamie at gunpoint.

Next week: The Frasers have to deal with mercenaries, redcoats, and a baby being born. [Where to Stream Outlander]

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