Outlander season 2 episode 5 brought back Jamie and Claire’s old nemesis, Black Jack Randall.

Other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?

The after effects of Jamie and Claire’s disastrous dinner party from last week are troubling to say the least. The combatants were taken to the Bastille. Although Jamie and Murtagh were freed because they have friends in high places, Alex Randall remains imprisoned on a charge of raping Mary Hawkins. He can only be freed upon her swearing his innocence. Regardless of the veracity of the charges, the Duke of Sandringham has dismissed Alex as his personal secretary due to the scandal, innocent or not.

More troubling is the fact the Prince Charles and the Comte St. Germain left the party together. As Jamie puts it, “No good can come from that pairing.” Murtagh is then given the task of shadowing them to see what they are up to.

Jamie is suspicious that it is actually the Comte St. Germain who attacked Claire, Mary, and Murtagh in the street. Murtagh thinks instead that it may be a gang of aristocrats know as Les Disciples. Admittance to the gang requires “stealing a maidenhead,” in other words raping a virgin. Given this information, Jamie wonders if it is not St. Germain who is the puppet-master pulling the gang’s strings.

The fate of women

Claire visits Mary, who in the custom of the time is seen as being a disgrace to her family because she was raped. She is now damaged goods, and not worthy of the political marriage they had aspired to for her. Though Mary didn’t want the “marriage to a Frenchman,” being sexually assaulted was not how she bargained to get out of it. Claire does her best to let Mary know that she is still a person of worth, but given Mary’s circumstances, the words have a limited effect.

Mary still dreams of a marriage with Alex where he will sweep her way. She asks Claire to deliver a letter she has written that clears Alex to the Bastille authorities. Claire realizes that according to the family history that she knows, Mary must go back to Sussex, meet and marry Jack Randall. Their several times great grandson will eventually be Frank Randall her husband.

Claire isn’t quite heartless enough to never deliver Mary’s letter, and let Alex waste away in the Bastille. Nonetheless, she does everything in her power to dissuade Alex upon his release from pursuing Mary by citing his ill health, and lack of stable financial position.

Strange bedfellows

Prince Charles comes to Jamie to tell him the news that his French investors have fled. Despite the brawl at dinner, they all saw him for the fool he was before the fight broke out. They have no desire to risk their money.

Prince Charles, however, has found a new business partner in the Comte St. Germain. Charles intends to take out a loan to finance a wine deal with St. Germain. When the wine is delivered, Charles plans to recoup his money as well as make a profit. He hopes it will be enough to buy ships and to re-interest the French backers. He tells Jamie, “Now I stand poised to lay at his feet [his father’s] the most treasured gift — the throne of Britain… to gates of London and then to glory.”

When Jamie tries to talk Charles out of this deal due to St. Germain’s shady reputation, Charles does not care. He tells Jamie that he is no more concerned with St. Germain’s supposed occult dealings than he is with Claire being La Dame Blanche. In another stunning bit of news, Charles isn’t as big of a fool as we first thought. He wants Jamie to keep his eyes on St. Germain, and to be their partner in the deal making sure the wine fetches an excellent price.

At their business meeting Jamie and St. Germain lay their cards on the table. St. Germain holds Claire and Jamie responsible for his shipment that was destroyed. Jamie, in turn, suspects St. Germain is the one who poisoned Claire and who attacked her party in the street. When Jamie has proof, it will cost St. Germain his life. In the meantime, they are unwilling partners in the deal with Prince Charles.

Doubts and jitters

Jamie gives Claire a set of silver apostles’ spoons that are a Fraser family heirloom that Jenny sent over at Jamie’s request. They are an early christening gift. Upon seeing them, Claire reveals to Jamie her many doubts about being a mother. Her own mother died young, and Claire had no motherly role model in her life. Jamie assures her that, “What you don’t ken, you’ll learn. We’ll learn together.”

In the garden of good and evil

Cue one garden party where Jamie is to help the Duke of Sandringham buy a horse. Their conversation isn’t so much about animals as it is politics. Sandringham tries to ascertain how much of a devout Jacobite Jamie is. It becomes clear that Sandringham’s politics amount to opportunism. Sandringham is for whomever will allow him to stay on top. As he says to Jamie, “I am a man who cherishes options, don’t you?”

Meanwhile, in another corner of the garden, Claire runs into Black Jack Randall. He is there to ask the Duke to give Alex his job back. In an ironic twist, Claire’s meddling in Alex and Mary’s affairs has brought Black Jack Randall right to her doorstep.

After a verbal sparing match that reminds us of just how loathsome Jack is, the king arrives and quickly sizes Randall up as someone he dislikes. He and his court are amused by Jack’s poor French and they manage to get him to beg on his knees. Jack seethes at being thwarted and humiliated.

The duel and deception

Upon seeing Jack, Jamie has cool words, and then later challenges him to a duel. Claire goes to the authorities and swears out a false accusation to prevent it. She wants to save Jamie’s life as dueling is illegal, and he will be jailed in the Bastille if caught. She also wants to save Frank’s life. Should Jack die, Frank will never be born. Claire claims the life debt that Jamie owes her. As a man of honor, Jamie grants her wish, but it comes at the cost of their relationship. Jamie leaves the room with an icy, “Don’t touch me.” Claire has denied him the gift of slaying “a man that lived in my nightmares in and in our bed… that almost drove me to take my own life.”