Outlander: Singapore

Another busy episode full of plot advancement. And interestingly, a huge helping of sexism.

Leaving Fraser's Ridge should be heartbreaking, but I have to say I am loving all these new sets and locations. Jamie and Claire are moving with an army again, much like season two, my favorite season of Outlander.

And once again, Jamie is the voice of reason and higher ups aren't listening to him. Here, he actually sent his Fraser's Irregulars to the top of Sugar Loaf Hill with a cannon to make an extremely important point about the British and higher ground, and General Fermoy still wouldn't look the facts in the face and had the nerve to compare Highlanders to goats.

(Apparently, the historical General Fermoy really was awful, and disappeared from history soon after he blew this particular assignment.)

Evacuation by water. Are we done with Fort Ticonderoga, already? At least the Frasers were there long enough to meet and bond with the Hunters, who probably would have died on the road if it weren't for William Ransom.

In an absolutely gagworthy sequence, William and the Hunters (a great name for a rock group) were jaunting along, debating Quaker beliefs about nonviolence, when the argument was immediately put to the test after they accepted the hospitality of an extremely Bad Samaritan slash serial killer. The rats in the stew should have given them a clue.

And now, William has taken a life for the first time. I honestly don't think he should have had any compunctions about this one. I'm mostly worried that the wife might decide to continue in her husband's footsteps. Let's hope she just pawns all that jewelry and finds a way to live off those ill-gotten gains, instead.

The Claire and Brianna storylines were both about male co-workers making their lives miserable. Claire and Denzell Hunter had a meeting of the minds while treating the unfortunate Walter with the gangrenous foot, while Lieutenant Stactoe treated Claire like a moron with dangerous ideas. Denzell hadn't ever heard of sterilization, but he was immediately willing to try it. Points for Denzell's superior medical knowledge and open mind.

Meanwhile in 1980, Brianna's first day on the job could have been her last. If she hadn't done her homework and studied the schematics, she could have been trapped in a dark, dangerous tunnel for days. That was a long, long way from good-natured hazing. I get why Brianna decided to confront and befriend her nasty subordinates at the local pub, but I absolutely despised Rob Cameron and I don't think she should have given him the benefit of the doubt. And not just because he called her "hen."

The really interesting thing about Bree's underground adventure was possibly discovering another active time portal. She got through it safely without touching anything, which is why I assume she didn't end up in another century or something. How close is that dam to Craigh na Dun?

Roger, who gets this week's award for most supportive husband ever, compared Bree's difficult experience to Claire's in medical school. Roger got the good dad award too, after Jemmy was abused in school by his teacher for speaking Gaelic. The wrappers outside the "north-facing tower" suggest that someone is living there, don't they?

This episode was bookended by Bree's avoidance of the graveyard, and who can blame her? It's like not reading the letters, not looking in the history books. If she doesn't find evidence of her parents in the past, they can still be alive in her mind, just displaced.

All this plot, and there was also a major development for Ian. On an errand for the Continental Army, Ian reluctantly returned to Shadow Lake and son of a gun, Emily looked guilty when Ian asked if he could meet her boy. It was immediately obvious that Swiftest of Lizards (best name ever) was Ian's son. And it was lovely that Emily tried to make up for the whole thing by letting Ian give Swiftest his English name: Ian James.

I also liked the sweet but weird scene where Auntie Claire told Ian that many things could have caused Emily's miscarriage. It just got a bit strange when Ian asked her to examine his sperm. Gee. I wonder why Ian is thinking of procreation these days? Could it possibly have anything to do with Rachel Hunter?

Bits:

— Points for a confusing but terrific episode title. My first thought was, they're not making another drastic geographic move, are they? (Here's the wiki page for the Battle of Singapore in World War II. And sorry for all the wiki links, but they're a safe source for all these Revolutionary War references.)

— Speaking of wikipedia pages, here's one for the second cousin that Jamie mentioned, Simon Fraser of Balnain.

— The post-credit scene was of goats on a hillside.

— When the season began, I wasn't sure I liked Sinead's new version of "The Skye Boat Song." Now it gives me chills.

— I loved that Ian picked up plants and herbs along the way for his Auntie Claire.

— Claire left the adorable Walter, who couldn't yet be moved, a bottle of laudanum. That wasn't for suicide, was it? I loved that Walter called Jamie "Big Red."

— There was an almost sexy scene in the caravan, or RV, in front of Lallybroch. Is the caravan permanent? I thought they were living full time in the house now?

— I'm definitely warming to the kid actors playing Jemmy and Mandy (Blake Johnston-Miller and Rosa Morris). They're good.

— William mentioned his uncle Hal's name to the Hunters in case they're captured by the British. That's the second mention of Hal. Bet we're going to be seeing him this season.

— Jamie, Claire and Ian don't appear to be leaving for Scotland soon. I still want them to return to Lallybroch, and not the renovated one, but the real thing back in the day.

A lot of movement, a lot of cool moments. Three out of four bowls of truly disgusting stew,

Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

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