FINALLY! The Frasers have come back…to Scot-land! I had to give y’all some Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson realness in there. That’s right y’all, “Outlander” has gone back to its roots! Even the theme song is completely in English again! Jamie started wearing his kilts like he used to! The old show is back…sort of.
Jamie and Claire have gone back to Lallybroch, and they’re a lot happier than they were in Paris. Murtagh is back with them, along with Jenny, Ian, Fergus and all the other kids. Claire’s advice to plant potatoes is working out for Jenny and Ian, just as she said it would. However, everyone’s happiness is short lived when Jamie gets a letter from his cousin publicly declaring him an ally of King James and Prince Charles. Jamie’s cousin even took the liberty of forging his name on the letter! Ah, the joys of family! Now Jamie is an official traitor of King George (the current king) and a card carrying member of the Jacobites! Thanks, Jamie’s dumb cousin!
Claire suggests she and Jamie take the whole family and go to Ireland, but Jamie knows that’s not logical. It’s inevitable that the Jacobite Rebellion is going to go on as planned, so Jamie runs this idea by Claire: instead of trying to stop the rebellion, why don’t they try to win the rebellion and change history that way? It takes some convincing, but Claire agrees.
So let me get this straight…Claire and Jamie spend the last seven episodes trying to stop the rebellion, and now they up and decide the rebellion should go on as planned so they can win it??
Alright, so we’re all for the Jacobite Rebellion going on now. Yay… First order of business is gathering up enough men to fight the British. Jamie has some support from a few families, but he decides to get a few more good men from Lord Lovat aka Simon Fraser…his grandpa. Jenny makes it known that Lord Lovat is a despicable man that is so hateful, he tried to have their mother kidnapped before her wedding day because he had some bad blood with the MacKenzie clan. Jamie sees no other alternative and arranges to see the nasty old man anyway. Later that night, Jamie admits that his father was actually a bastard and was the product of Lord Lovat gettin’ his freak on with the kitchenmaid. Lovat decided to officially declare Jamie’s dad as his son, even though he never treated him with love or kindness. Hey, Ned Stark didn’t even do that (giving his son his name, I mean). Claire lets Jamie know that his dad’s parentage doesn’t matter to her, and then she and Jamie make lurrrve…and the screen fades to black. Boooo! Claire wakes up in the middle of the night to find Jamie cradling his infant niece/nephew and speaking to her/him in Gaelic (Jenny had another baby since they went to Paris, but it was never specified if it was a boy or a girl). Jenny sees Claire watching them, and tells her about how people tell their infant children all the things that’s on their mind to comfort themselves. Claire agrees, but appears a bit heartbroken to see Jamie’s heart to heart with the baby.
The next day, Claire and Jamie say their goodbyes to everyone and head out to Beaufort Castle. On the ride up there, Jamie lets Claire know that Lord Lovat kept an alliance with both King James and King George, and he’s had three wives, two of which were joined in marriage thanks to Lovat’s evil deeds. What a guy. When they get to the castle, the first person they meet is Colum MacKenzie! Colum tries to tell Claire that he’s happy to see her, but Claire tells him to save the bullshit and reminds him of the witch trial (see season one for that!). Colum is all like, “That wasn’t me! That was Lagohaire (pronounced lee-ry. A fitting name for that heffa)!” Then, Jamie’s grandpa shows up and proves to be everything Jamie and Claire said he was. He rudely scorns Jamie for marrying a Sassenach (a British woman, for those that don’t know), and tells her to leave so the men can talk politics. Claire leaves, but not before giving one of her death glares.
As Claire waits for Jamie to come back out, Lagohaire’s slutty ass makes a comeback! “Mistress Claire! I’ve changed! I’ve gotten right with Jesus! I’ve seen the light! I’m saved and sanctified! Please forgive me for trying to have you burned alive!” And Claire basically responds with:
Claire doesn’t care if white-as-a-damn-ghost Lagohaire has gotten right with God or not. She’s not trying to give her any forgiveness. Lagohaire starts crying. Good for her ass. Claire tells Jamie she feels better after telling her off, and Jamie lets it be known that she’s better than him. He’s not even trying to give Lagohaire the time of day. Ha, ha! Claire joins Jamie for dinner (but has to remain silent), and watches Jamie try to convince everyone to fight for King James and Prince Charles. Colum and Lovat aren’t bitin’, and when Lovat’s son tries to agree with Jamie (in a weak attempt to impress Lagohaire), Lovat quickly puts him down and humiliates him. He even flirts with Lagohaire to rub salt in the wound. This dude is a real bastard.
Jamie decides to speak to Lovat on his own to try to convince him to fight with the rebellion. Later that night, Claire is walking down the hallway when she sees Lovat beat up an old woman. Claire helps the woman to her feet, and learns that she’s Lovat’s psychic friend. The lady then runs from Claire like she’s a ghost. The next day, Jamie meets with his grandpa, and has to endure (to an extent) listening to this man call his mother a whore and his dad a bastard. Takes a bastard to know a bastard, if you ask me. Lovat makes a deal with Jamie: he’ll back up the Jacobite Rebellion if Jamie gives him Lallybroch. Jamie’s not tryin’ to give up Lallybroch that easily, of course. This fool actually tells Jamie if he doesn’t wanna give up Lallybroch, he can give up Claire! He even warns Jamie that Claire can’t be guarded all day, and there’s plenty of men at the castle that would violate her. Wow. What a guy. Jamie warns him in return that Claire is La Dame Blanche, and if a man rapes her, his dick will explode and his soul will burn in hell. That scared the shit out of Lovat’s old ass. Despite that, Jamie is seriously considering handing Lallybroch over to that old bastard. That night, Claire and Jamie decide to have Lovat’s son on their side, that way, Lovat’s hand will be forced into joining the rebellion. However, considering that Lovat’s son is weak willed, he’ll need some convincing…and who better than Scotland’s favorite ho!
Claire asks Lagohaire to speak to Lovat’s son and boost his confidence to convince him and his dad to join the Jacobites. Lagohaire, whose mind basically stays in the gutter, goes on her newfound spiritual diatribe: “I’m saved and sanctified! I’m not gonna spread my legs just to help you out!” Claire tells the stupid girl that it’s not about sex, it just involves her being friendly to him to build his self esteem up. To sweeten the deal, Claire tells Lagohaire if she does it, she’ll find a way for Jamie to forgive her for what she did (oh, yeah…she’s all upset because Jamie didn’t give her the time of day, just like he said wouldn’t. Wah, wah.). Of course, that heffa agrees.
In the castle, it appears that Jamie has fessed up and told Colum that the British will win the rebellion and the Highlander culture will be destroyed. He goes on to say the only way to prevent that from happening is to win the war. Colum, hardheaded as ever, is still against the war and showing any sort of loyalty to Charles. He figures that since the rebellion has no outside support, it’ll be over before it starts, just like all the other rebellions, and their culture will go on. Colum makes Jamie promise not to trade in his home for a war he can’t win. Jamie promises he’ll do whatever it takes to keep his family and the fate of Scotland safe.
Claire puts her plan of (platonically) hookin’ up Laoghaire and Lovat’s son into action. She sets them up together near the chapel and leaves them alone to talk. It’s clear Lagohaire would rather be with someone else…perhaps a tall, sexy redhead with a nice set of pecs and a tight butt? When Claire goes into the chapel, she finds Lovat’s psychic friend, who reveals that the reason Lovat was beating her was due to one of her visions. Claire presses her about the vision and she tells her that she saw a man chop the hell out of Lovat with an ax. Okay, she saw the shadow of an ax, but my first description was a lot better. The psychic friend admits that sometimes the future can change, and Claire tells her that she could convince Lovat to change his behavior to prevent the outcome. She tells Claire that Lovat would simply kill the messenger. Then Laoghaire’s useless ass comes runnin’ up, saying that Lovat’s son ran off after she let him look down her dress at her boobs. Dumbass.
Jamie decides to give Lovat Lallybroch. At a house meeting, Lovat tells Jamie and Collum that if Jamie signs the contract to give him Lallybroch, he’ll back the rebellion, but if he doesn’t sign, he’ll sign a neutrality agreement with Colum, showing that he’s against the rebellion. Just then, Claire has a “vision” of Lovat being threatened by an ax, with the floor covered in white roses. The white rose is the Jacobite symbol. Just when Lovat threatens to cut out Claire’s tongue, his son stops him and makes his stand with the Jacobites. Lovat signs the neutrality agreement.
Before they leave Castle Hell, Colum tries to convince Jamie to give up the rebellion and go back home to his family, but to no avail. Claire also tells Jamie to thank Lagohaire for what she did. Jamie thanks her, and she tells him, “I hope to one day have your forgiveness.” Jamie walks off (ha, ha!). Then she says under her breath, “And your love.” That child hasn’t changed a damn bit. Lovat’s son joins their party, and they ride off. Down the road, Lovat’s men cut them off, and Lovat himself shows up. It turns out that Lovat signed the agreement with Collum to save his skin if King George wins the war. But, if King James and Prince Charles win the war, it’ll be documented that Lovat’s son was with the Jacobites, and he’s still in the clear. Even if George’s men say something about Lovat’s son joining the Jacobites, he can always say that his son is his own man. Either way, he won’t be hanged for treason. Jamie begs Claire to tell him that he’s nothing like his grandfather. Claire jokingly tells him that he actually has a teensy bit of shadiness in him, and they all ride off with their new army.
Well, ladies and gents, no one wanted the Frasers to return to Scotland more than I did, and once they did, I found the episode to be just…meh. It wasn’t absolutely horrid, but it wasn’t great, either. The sudden 180º shift with the rebellion threw me off, too. I kid you not, I had to watch this damn episode twice to understand what the hell was going on. I couldn’t believe they decided to go ahead with the rebellion after all the plotting and scheming they did in France! Also, I’m starting to feel like the rest of the ladies out there…what’s up with the sex scenes? Granted, I expected the sex scenes to be few and far between while Jamie was healing from his traumatic rape. But now that Jamie’s slowly getting past it, I also expected the love scenes to pick up! Whenever Claire and Jamie have a hot scene now, the picture fades to black! Man, bye. That love scene today had some serious potential and they ended right when it was about to get good! Bring the lovin’ back!
My favorite parts were the times we saw the Frasers at Lallybroch, and when Claire blessed Lagohaire out. Other than that, this episode didn’t do much for me. However, I learned something tonight. Deep down, I thought the location was effecting the show. I thought that France was just too boring and that a move back to Scotland would liven things up. I mean, whenever they discussed politics in Scotland last season, I was actually interested! Tonight though, I learned that the problem isn’t the location. The problem is the storyline. This storyline is dull and lifeless, and no matter where Claire and Jamie go, as long as they droll on endlessly about the Jacobite Rebellion, the show will never pick up. It hit me that my favorite episodes so far this season were “Faith” and “La Dame Blanche” (in that order). They took a page from the first season and kept us entertained and full of emotion. They also strayed away from hardly any talk of the rebellion, which made for a much more interesting hour. The Lallybroch and Lagohaire scenes also were also devoid of a lot of talk about the rebellion, and as a result, they were a lot more entertaining than everything else. So yeah, we no longer have boring ass games of chess to endure or drawn out conversations that could put Christian Bale to sleep (if you don’t get that joke, you don’t watch a lot of movies), but the trade off doesn’t help as long as we still have to deal with Jamie and Claire’s countless plotting that hardly goes anywhere.
Man, I miss the old “Outlander.”
—Written by Nadiya
So what did y’all think about “The Fox’s Lair”? Was it boring, or did you enjoy it? What do you think about Claire and Jamie pulling a 180º and actually supporting the rebellion now? Also, what did you think about Colum and Lagohaire making a comeback? Is Simon Fraser aka Lord Lovat a good addition to the show in your opinion? Do you think “Outlander” has hit the sophomoric slump? Which location did you prefer, France or Scotland? Give me your thoughts!
Insights from a Southern Girl 