Outlander season 1, episode 6 just aired featuring Claire being unprepared for interrogation and its aftermath.
Only two more episodes of Outlander remain before the fall hiatus. This week Claire wasn’t the only one left feeling like an outlander in a much darker episode.
Dougal as odd man out
Claire, realizing the British army can be quite ruthless, does not betray Dougal and the Highlanders by stating that she has been mistreated. Nonetheless, she ends up having to report to the garrison with Dougal as her chaperone/bodyguard of sorts. Dougal is left walking a tightrope of danger so as not to offend the garrison troops. He is the outlander now as much as Claire is.
Charming Claire
Claire is initially able to rise to the occasion and charm the group of British officers who are predisposed to believe her story. They don’t ask probing questions, at least not ones that Claire can’t easily lie her way out of. The tide turns when Black Jack Randall enters the room.
Though it’s clear that there is little love lost between Randall and his fellow officers, he soon has them questioning Claire’s loyalties with his indiscreet questions and insults. His actions result in Claire dropping the facade of the innocent English Rose. She loses the calm demeanor and discretion. She gives her true opinion of the current state of affairs in Scotland, something that is not the wisest thing to do considering her position.
Sadistic Randall
After Claire springs into action to help a grievously wounded man, she finds herself alone with Black Jack Randall. The gentlemanly-like troops are gone. Dougal, at her direction, has also made himself scarce. She is now trapped in a room with Black Jack Randall, who is no one’s fool. Claire gives a stunning performance complete with tears to convince Randall that she is no threat.
Randall, at first, seems to warm up to her. He lets her know what makes him tick, and it is a very dark and depraved tale. Claire again attempts to get through to him, by telling him that he can be redeemed, because he is not the first man changed by war. The fact that he knows he has a cruel streak and is bothered by it is evidence of a good man. Unfortunately for Claire, Randall is a better actor than she is. She underestimates him and he sucker punches her. The beating would have continued had not Dougal arrived in time.
Dougal’s change
Dougal’s seen Claire help the Highlanders on more than one occasion. She’s medically treated many of them. She’s not betrayed them to the British. She even thought of Dougal’s safety in the garrison. Perhaps for all those reasons, and the fact that she was being beaten by Randall, Dougal puts her to the test. He makes her drink from a “magic spring” to see if the water, likely filled with a high sulfur content, would burn her throat and choke her. Fortunately for Claire, she is so parched and dehydrated that nothing happens when she drinks the foul tasting water. Dougal now believes her story and comes up with a means of saving her.
Claire’s rescue
The only way to stop further interrogation by the British is to have Claire become a Scot. The only way for that to happen is by marriage. Though Claire initially thinks Dougal is the one to marry her, it turns out that Jamie is the lucky man. It makes sense in that each of them has no real prospects: Jamie because of the outlaw price on his head and Claire because she is a sassenach.
On the hillside, as a less than happy Claire reads the marriage contract, she discovers that Jamie isn’t unattracted to her, that he has no one else he feels strongly about, and that he’s not bothered by her having been married before and therefore not a virgin. She discovers that even though she’s experienced, he’s not, and by his reckoning, “At least one of us should ken what we are doing.”
If you want to share your reaction to this much darker episode, join us for a live episode of Talking Outlander tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. ET. Use the hashtag #talkingoutlander