About:
Kilt Drops: 1 (or 2?)
Previously on Outlander: Laoghaire sets Claire up to be arrested for witchcraft after Dougal’s wife and Geillis’ husband both die mysteriously. Jamie and Dougal are banished until Dougal comes to his senses.
Petition for Claire to have a special episode where she just repeatedly slaps Laoghaire, then makes out with her husband in front of Laoghaire, then slaps her around some more. But let’s backtrack…
Once Claire and Geillis are arrested, they’re dropped into a rat-infested pit to await trial. Claire turns up her nose at Geillis’ mess and love child, conveniently having forgotten that she has a husband 200 years in the future to whom she rarely gives a second thought.
The trial begins, and it’s about what you’d expect: hysterical villagers projecting their fears and anxieties onto women who do not behave according to custom. This includes Geillis’ maid, the woman who left the changeling baby in the woods, the priest who witnessed Claire saving the boy with medicine, Laoghaire, and other bastions of logic and even temper. Luckily for Claire and Geillis, Ned Gowan shows up to help reduce their accusations to the stuff of jealous little girls, grieving mothers, and frustrated former employers.
Claire will not stop screaming and making things worse for herself, despite what Ned tells her (incidentally, this is the #1 pet peeve of criminal defense lawyers everywhere. STOP TALKING OH DEAR GOD JUST STOP TALKING).
The tide turns when the priest proclaims that he will leave the priesthood because his pride got in the way of saving the little boy. It almost appears that his testimony will help, but he clearly got the reaction he was counting on: the villagers can’t believe that a mere woman was able to save the boy when their priest was not, and they cannot allow him to leave the priesthood for her.
Meanwhile, the time in the pit (and a flask) helps Claire and Geillis bond, begrudgingly. Geillis reveals that she had been diverting money from her husband to the Jacobite rebellion. Both of the women are clearly hiding something from each other, especially clear when Claire drops a little Nathan Hale (“I only regret I have but one life to lose for my country”) into the conversation and Geillis looks utterly startled.
It’s not until Ned informs the women that either one, or both of them will burn, that Geillis finally reveals that she is a time-traveler from 1968 – and whereas Claire is not actively trying to change history, Geillis wanted to help the Jacobites win.
Claire refuses to throw Geillis under the bus, which leads the crowd to strip her dress from her back and whip her. Laoghaire spits, “I will dance on your ashes,” right before Jamie shows up to try to save his wife. (TAKE THAT.) Geillis dramatically announces that she is the bride of Satan, responsible for bewitching Claire, ripping open her dress and showing her smallpox vaccination scar to prove she has “the devil’s mark.”
Jamie takes Claire away in the melee as the villagers lead Geillis out to be burned at the stake. In the woods, as he tends to her scars, he asks her to come clean, and Claire finally tells him the truth: she was born in 1918 and somehow traveled through time.
Jamie tells her he will take her home, but instead brings her to the stones at Craigh na Dun and says his goodbyes to her. Claire wrestles with the possibility of going home…but ultimately chooses to stay in 1743.
Kilt Drops: 1 (or 2?)
- Does Geillis’ dramatic tearing-open-of-her-dress-in-honor-of-Satan count?
- The scene between Claire and Jamie was hot, but even hotter when you consider that this is two weeks in a row with Claire receiving pleasure and Jamie merely being happy to provide it. Now if there were more male nudity…
Sasse-WHAT?
- “Looks like I’m going to a fucking barbecue.” If the show doesn’t find some way to deviate from the books and save Geillis, at least this is a hell of a line to go out on.
- We’re supposed to buy that Jamie is a magical expert lover AND he just accepts Claire’s story with barely any hesitation? You wouldn’t need a day or two to think about this?
- Geillis’ hair became increasingly fabulous throughout the pit and trial ordeal. Maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s regressive views on women, religion, and medicine.
- Can Claire please stop sniffing at anything supernatural? She is LITERAL PROOF that there is something more to the universe than linear time and logic. You’d think that she’d be slightly humbled.
- “I suppose getting burned as a witch is better than freezing to death,” Claire grumbles. I’m going to go with “no” on that one. At least you’re supposed to hallucinate warmth when you have hypothermia.
Next episode: Jamie takes Claire to Lallybroch.
