Outlander: Ye Dinna Get Used to It

Is this John Grey's season, or what?

It took twenty years, but the situation has reversed. John is now Jamie's prisoner and on the losing side of the war they are both fighting. John had to take a loyalty oath to the enemy on a Bible, like Jamie once did. Jamie has to keep John in shackles. Alexander Malcolm, Bertram Armstrong.

And John's eye was in such bad condition that Jamie had "appalled" written all over his face. Of course Claire was the one to fix John's eye while Jamie had to hold him down. And of course it was gruesome.

Washington Ate Here

Claire was forced to throw a dinner party for Washington and his generals in John's home, and it was a delight. You could almost hear music from Hamilton playing in the background. General Washington gave Claire a flag, and can you imagine how much that would be worth today?

The young Marquis de Lafayette was utterly charming. His jellied eels, not so much. Claire forcing herself to eat that eel was outright hilarious. Gold acting stars, Caitríona Balfe.

Who is this General Lee who thinks he's better than George Washington? (I assume it's this guy.) And just by the by, why are Jamie and Claire still living in John's house?

And who is Percival Beauchamp? He sounds like a total scamp. John helping him escape from prison? Married to a Baron's sister and sleeping with both of them? John's stepbrother but using another name, Perseverance Wainwright? Do we finally have a viable bad boy love interest for Lord John?

Was his last name actually Beauchamp or Wainwright? Is he related to Claire?

William gets a beautiful laundress and a cliffhanger

Jane Pocock and her little sister Fanny showed up in the British encampment and threw themselves on William's mercy. It seemed innocent enough at first, just girls in a war zone in need of help, but Jane had used a kitchen knife to kill Captain Harkness, who spent a bunch of money to debauch Fanny. We're talking about a little girl here.

Honestly, I think the best William moment in the series so far was when Fanny kissed William's hand in gratitude for hiding the two of them.

Jane is a complicated character, and so likeable for a killer. She speaks Latin, and yet she's been in a brothel since she was ten years old, the poor girl. She has never spent her own earnings, and doesn't know how to wash clothes. Was she a rich girl orphaned and sold into prostitution? How did she manage to support Fanny without money?

The slimy Captain Richardson just made a second attempt to take William down by sending him with a coded message to the Hessians in Spotswood near Monmouth. This is because of Hal's position in the House of Lords. Jamie is feeling the weight of 300 lives and cannot leave before battle, so John must rescue William. ("Go. Rescue our son." That made me go awwww.)

John can't go alone to the rescue with shackles on his wrists, so Ian is again coming to William's rescue. William would have already died without Ian. Let's hope this time William doesn't punch him.

Bree in 1980

There wasn't a lot of progression with Bree's story, although there was a gun battle in front of Lallybroch, of all things. Rob Cameron is not only an active threat, he has minions with guns. He actually had the nerve to leave Bree a note on the door, and lie in wait for Fiona and Ernie (and the kids!) at the Reverend's house. This guy must be stopped.

Bree not only fought them off with a rifle (it was a rifle, right?), she fixed Ernie's work van, too. She can do anything.

Again, now what?

Book versus Series

As I mentioned last week, book Hal was in Philadelphia and Claire treated him for gout. I think there was a lot of Percival Beauchamp in the Lord John books; I didn't read them all. (Diana Gabaldon wrote two books and two novellas with Lord John as the main character.)

If I remember correctly, Claire ate jellied eel in book two in Paris when she was pregnant with Faith. I love when they do stuff like that. Why waste a perfectly good character moment just because it's in another book?

Bits:

— The post-credit scene was a woman in yellow placing a star on the flag.

— Book series author Diana Gabaldon wrote this episode. She has only written two others, "Vengeance is Mine" and "Journeycake." This one, maybe not as delightful as the other two, but still a lot of fun.

— There was a flashback to London 1775 with Hal and John, where we learned Bertram Armstrong are two of John's many names, and Hal has two sons, Henry and Ben. Sam Hoare returned to play Hal. He was in the third season episodes "The Battle Joined" and "Of Lost Things."

— Jamie rocks that general uniform. It was a fun comparison with William looking a mess and being told by a superior that he looked like a groom, since Jamie was a groom.

— Jane brought William's gorget back.

— Ian was speaking to his late father. I get that. I've often talked to my late mother.

— Rachel helped Ian paint himself. The first thing Ian did was draw a dove over his heart to carry Rachel with him into battle.

Quotes:

Lafayette: "Oh, indeed, madame, I assure you. I danced with the Queen of France once and trod upon her foot. She called me a turnip and forbade me from the court."
I swear Claire was thinking at that moment about what she did with the King of France.

Washington: "My heartfelt thanks once again, Mrs. Fraser. A meal which sadly may not be recorded in the annals of history, but one to remember."

Ian: (to Rachel) "My uncle says the dead stand at your back when you go into battle. Ye carry yer woman with ye. This is you, my dove."

John: "Why are you helping me?"
Percival: (in French) "For your beautiful eyes."

John: "I'm getting quite used to wearing irons."
Jamie: "Ye dinna get used to it, believe me."

There was a lot to love about this episode. Three out of four laundresses,

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

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