Previously on Outlander: The Artemis crashlanded on the continent, leaving Jamie and Claire in 1767 North Carolina, where they wasted no time in helping a criminal named Stephen Bonnet escape the gallows. They decided to stick around and make a life for themselves here in America, but on their way to find Jamie’s Aunt Jocasta, that asshole Bonnet shows up with a gang of heavily armed thieves, kills their friend Lesley, and takes *literally* everything from them.
If you’re feeling frisky, here’s the updated Outlander Drinking Game.
Everyone is sufficiently bummed out about the death of Lesley and the fact that the man they helped escape the gallows played them like a pack of fools. But dinna fash, friends! That pain is eased when their boat pulls up to River Run, the plantation owned by Jamie’s Aunt Jocasta. Jocasta meets them on the dock with her servant Ulysses, who leads her out because she’s mostly blind. She seems cool, and super glad to see Jamie, but who knows, you guys! She could be a lecherous witch–track records are not great with people who initially seem cool on this show.
Ian and super pupper Rollo waste exactly zero time before they get sprayed by a skunk, and Jocasta sends them both out to find John Quincey Meyers, a “mountain man” who knows how to get out skunk smell and also that Indian women like hairy men.
Meanwhile, Jocasta tells Jamie and Claire about River Run. This place has EVERYTHING: tobacco, turpentine, a sawmill for timber, indigo. Oh, and also 152 (!) slaves, which she brags about how she treats “with benevolence” and “buys in lots to keep the families together.” She’s like, “Some of these slaves are practically my friends.” And Claire, like us, is like “Nah girl, these ain’t your friends.” Jocasta prides herself on picking up on certain ~tones~ better than others, and can immediately tell that Claire is not your usual colonial wife. She has one of her dresses altered to fit Claire, and while they chat, Claire admits that she’s anti-slavery, which intrigues Jocasta. Jennie had warned Jocasta that Claire was, um, “spirited.” Jocasta politely tells Claire, “Ye’ve got the fire of Mackenzie in ye.”
Jocasta hosts a party later that night, where she announces that SURPRISE! She’s leaving River Run to Jamie, starting immediately. Claire CANNOT own slaves, and Jamie agrees, but thinks if he’s master of River Run they could work to set the slaves free? Maybe? So Jamie tells Jocasta he’ll become master of River Run but he’ll pay the slaves fair wages. A local landowner named Farquard Campbell is there, and tells Jamie that it’d cost about 15,000 pounds to free every slave at River Run, and others who have shared Jamie and Claire’s progressive (and by “progressive” I mean bare minimum of human decency) views on slavery disappeared, never to be heard from again.
Claire and Jamie still have the option to take Tryon up on his offer of land, but as they discuss this, they get word that one of Jocasta’s slaves has attacked a white man at the timber camp. When they arrive, the slave, Rufus, has been speared with a hook and is being lifted into a tree, so Jamie and Claire stop the men and take Rufus back to River Run and lay him out on the dining room table. Claire goes into full on bad ass surgeon mode and has the whole house assisting her as she successfully removes the hook from Rufus’ stomach and saves his life.
While she’s working, Campbell and Lt. Wolfe show up to meet with Jamie and Jocasta. They think Jamie should be arrested but Jocasta convinces them to wait until midnight. Jamie sees no way around it–if they don’t turn Rufus over to the angry mob that has assembled outside, it will only make things worse for the other slaves. And thanks to a frantic word from Ulysses, Claire knows it’s true. So Claire brews up a cup of her special death tea, and feeds it to Rufus, holding his hand while he tells her about his sister Abena back in Africa as he dies. Jamie carries him out to the mob, who throw a noose on him and drag him by the neck to the nearest tree. I knew slavery-era America would make for some tough TV this season but Jesus guys, this one was hard to watch.
Kilt Drops: 0
There was literally nothing sexy about this episode.
Wit and Wordplay:
John Quincy Myers: “You take one look at my buttocks and you’d think my daddy was a buffalo.”
Jamie: “We could create a spark that might light a fuse.”
Claire: “Fuses often lead to explosions.”
Jamie: “Aye, but when the dust settles often times the devil yer fighting is gone.”
Sasse-WHAT?
- What did y’all think of Jocasta? Can she be trusted?
- We certainly haven’t seen the last of Stephen Bonnet yet. What say ye? Will he be a worse villain than Black Jack Randall?
- How did Claire perform that insane surgery on the dining room table without leaving even a drop of blood behind?
- Inquiring minds want to know what was in the anti-skunk bath.
Next Week: Claire and Jamie head west and come face-to-face with a native who looks PISSED AS HELL. Oh, and ugHhhHHgghHhHggGGhhhh, Brianna is back.
