‘Outlander’ Season 6 Episode 8 Recap: “I Am Not Alone”

If this season of Outlander has reminded us of anything, it’s the heinous amount of cruelty women have been subjected to by men for centuries or perhaps even millennia. No one can say Claire (Caitriona Balfe) hasn’t been through the wringer over the past six seasons, but the most recent episodes have showcased the fact that even the strongest women can only take so much. If she didn’t already have PTSD, she certainly would now!

“I Am Not Alone” picks up where we left off last week. Richard Brown (Chris Larkin) and his Committee of Safety have come to Fraser’s Ridge to arrest Claire for Malva’s (Jessica Reynolds) murder. Of course, Jamie (Sam Heughan) sees straight through this showcase of justice-seeking and names it for what it is: revenge for his brother, Lionel Brown, dying by Marsali’s (Lauren Lyle) hand. That makes no difference to his motley crew nor to the fisherfolk, who are eventually called in as backup when Jamie refuses to give Claire up (and she refuses to go).

While it is eventually agreed that Claire and Jamie will travel to Salisbury for Claire to stand trial, we’re treated to a pretty epic shoot-out between Jamie and Claire and Brown’s men in the meantime that leaves the Frasers’ house in need of some serious repairs. Claire’s not at all shy about pulling the trigger herself, which is more surprising than it should be this time, and the two land some good shots. However, they know they’re no match for both Brown’s men and Tom Christie’s (Mark Lewis Jones) entire group and eventually have no choice but to give in.

Ever the righteous one, Christie volunteers to go along with the Frasers to ensure no harm comes to them. He also extends them the grace of waiting until morning to leave so that Claire and Jamie can sleep in their own beds. It goes without saying, of course, that not much sleeping occurs. Nothing like the threat of being hanged in the own square to get one in the mood, I suppose!

Meanwhile, Roger (Richard Rankin), Brianna (Sophie Skelton), and Jemmy are all on the way to Edenton so Roger can officially become a minister. This means they’re blissfully unaware of what’s happening to Brianna’s parents back home, leaving them free to also get it on with abandon while hunkering down in their tent for the night. It seems for them, talking about cars and traveling more than 50 miles per hour at a time is pretty hot.

The following day, they discover that Jemmy has lice, which isn’t really a big deal except that when they cut his hair off, Brianna notices that Jemmy has a strange indentation on the side of his head that wasn’t there when he was born. As it turns out, this is just a nevus, Roger informs her. He has one himself, which is pretty wonderful news because that means Jemmy is his biological son rather than Stephen Bonnet’s. That’s one bit of good news in this episode, at least!

Meanwhile, Claire and Jamie are having a rough journey towards Salisbury, and it only gets worse when they discover they’re actually going to be traveling another 200 miles, about a 10-day journey, on to Wilmington since the sheriff quit and the town has split, meaning there’s no court there to perform a trial. Brown’s men are none too happy about this since it’s clear they expected to destroy Fraser’s ridge, loot the property, and do away with Claire rather than going on some lengthy, uncomfortable trip hundreds of miles away.

At one point, Jamie gets another bit of good news. Young Ian (John Bell) has heard what was going on from Lizzie and has gathered his own group of fighters. He tells Jamie as much while Jamie is peeing in the bushes, and while Jamie instructs him to stay close, he knows they stand no chance of running away as it would make them look guiltier than ever and the townspeople nearby would just kill them. So much for that plan.

Things get even worse for Jamie when he’s separated from Claire, held back as her wagon drives off, leaving him behind. Claire is terrified that Brown’s men will simply kill him, but Christie refuses to stay behind to ensure he’s kept alive, instead insisting that he won’t take his eyes off of Claire. Well, that’s nice of him.

Incidentally, Jamie’s not dead. He’s actually been tied to a wooden post down on a beach somewhere. One of Brown’s men informs him that he’s about to be loaded onto a ship headed for his native Scotland and he’ll never see his wife again. This seems a bit of a pointless plan, to be fair. Why not just kill him rather than pay a captain to transport him all the way back to Scotland, where presumably Jamie would just get another ship back to America?

Anyway, let’s not bother to think too much about logic because this plan is not to be. Ian shows up just as one of the men is about to knock Jamie unconscious, and he’s got the Cherokee fighting beside him. The group takes care of the enemy pretty quickly and scoops Jamie up so they can head off to find Claire.

As for Claire, she’s now in a holding cell in Wilmington, though Christie has given her a bag of coins for her maintenance while there. He tries to offer her some assurances that Jamie is still alive and that the righteous will prevail. Claire wonders if she counts as righteous in his eyes, but he’s noncommittal in his answer before walking off, leaving her there.

I won’t spoil what’s going to happen here for those who haven’t read the books, but needless to say, Outlander Season 7 is going to be intense. How cruel that we have such a long wait until we see this all play out!