Outlander Episode 16: To Ransom a Man’s Soul

All the trigger warnings. All of them. 

Previously: I’ve avoided writing this recap for four days.

The title card is over an altar with three items on it- a rosary, a vial of lavender oil, and what we find out is a seal.  Not like a harbor seal that is adorable and plays in the harbor, but a thing you push into sealing wax.  (Look, this is like the one moment of levity I get, work with me here.)

Morning over Wentworth prison, and drums drum and pipes pipe as the colors are raised and it seems so normal. In the cell, Jamie is naked, staring into nothing, his hand bloody and hanging.  The camera pans up, and the music turns twisty and we see that Randall is lying next to him, equally naked. Randall gets up and puts on pants (he’s a grower, not a show-er).

Jamie whispers that Randall owes him a debt.  Randall looks at him, pulls out his knife, and is about to pay that debt, when he hears weird clanking sounds.  He goes to investigate, and Jamie beings to shake. “Please.”

Randall ties his hair back, and hears hoofbeats, and goes to a door to see what the fuck is happening. Highland cattle run through the door and squash Randall underneath the door as they stampede into the bowels of the prison. Murtagh looks at Randall under the door, scowls, and moves on to find Jamie.

Thing One, Thing Two, and Murtagh do find him, pick him up, and hustle him out while the soldiers deal with this random scourge of cattle in their courtyard. The chaos is enough to keep them from being found while they get away with Jamie in a cart.  Claire waits anxiously in her boy-clothes (seriously, she looks adorable in her boy-clothes), and they pull up to let her on the cart. Jamie is alive, but only just. Claire wants to  take time to treat him right away, but they really don’t have time.

She pulls up the blanket to see what the extent of the damage is, and is sickened. Jamie smells of oil of lavender, which is used to relieve pain. While Claire is bent over Jamie to tell him that she’s there, he wakes up enough to hallucinate that it’s Randall leaning over him. Jamie grabs for Claire/Randall’s throat and growls something in Gaelic. Murtagh says he has no idea what Jamie is saying, and they set off.

They all arrive at an Abbey, where Willie introduces Claire to Father Anslem (who has the most interesting face) who has agreed to give them shelter until they can find a better solution. Claire thanks him, and the Father is like “We have everything you need, we can deal with pleasantries later.” Excellent.

Jamie is in bed, and won’t eat. Another monk, Father Paul, opines that Jamie’s soul is wounded, and will take time to heal. Claire agrees, but needs to set Jamie’s hand right away, so as not to cripple him completely. She’s already moving into no-nonsense mode as she tells Jamie that he does need to eat. She mops his brows, and he tells her not to touch him. “Talk to me. What did Randall do to you?” “Too much, and not enough.”

Disturbing flashback one of far too many: Morley is still dead in the corner, covered in rats, while Jamie asks Randall if he saw Claire leave those walls. “We are both men of our word,” says Randall, and offers Jamie a flask. After Jamie takes a few healthy gulps, Randall pulls out the nail that held Jamie’s smashed hand to the table, and then holds Jamie as he pukes. Randall then cuddles Jamie and calls him a magnificent specimen and I throw up a little. And then he kisses Jamie and manipulates Jamie into kissing back. Jamie intends to dead-weight submit, but Randall wants active surrender and to make Jamie feel pleasure from the ordeal. “I just want this to be a pleasant experience for us both.”

Christ, this is awful to recap.

Jamie tells Randall to take his pleasure and be done with it (and spits in Randall’s face) and Randall bends Jamie over the table and violently rapes him.

Back at the Abbey, Jamie drinks whiskey, and thinks that’ll do him for the setting of nine bones in his hand. Claire thinks he ought to have laudanum, as does Father Paul. “Randall made me crawl, made me beg. Before he was done he made me want very badly to be dead.” Claire says that he isn’t dead, and she won’t let him. “Do as you wish, it matters not to me.” Jamie takes a healthy slug of laudanum, and hears Randall’s voice telling him to scream.

Claire sets the bones, and the practical effects are amazing. Pulling bones through the skin, stiching, splinting, bandaging…  it’s really well done. “Jamie said to me once, “I could bear my pain, but I don’t think I could bear yours.’” After she finishes, Fahter Paul says that he’ll stay, but that Claire should go find food and rest. She makes it out the door before throwing up.

In the pre-dawn light, monks go to chapel, and Father Anselm walks into a small chapel to find Claire, sitting. She gets up to leave, and he apologizes for disturbing her prayers. She says she wasn’t praying, she was just sitting alone trying to clear her head. “Were you indeed alone?” She thinks about that for a second.

He offers to hear her confession, and she tells him that she doubts it’ll make much sense. “Perhaps not, but He’ll understand.” (Which is the important part.) “My name is Claire Beauchamp Randall Fraser. Through my selfishness, I’ve brought great suffering to both my husbands.” “Go on.” She tells him that she was on holiday with her husband in the year nineteen hundred and forty five.  She watches him as he absorbs this, and he merely shifts position to continue to listen. She tells him everything, from being attacked, from marrying Jamie even though she was already married, to being accused of witchcraft, and how she thinks that everything that’s happened to Jamie is her fault.

Anselm finds this to be marvelous and extraordinary (seeing it written like this makes it looks like he’s being callous about the reality, but really he’s just amazed and grateful that he gets to know that such things are possible). “A miracle perhaps.” Claire worries that canon law wasn’t constructed with her situation in mind. Maybe not, but God isn’t worried about canon law. “Whatever your sins, have faith that they will be forgiven.” He absolves her Latin, and she clearly takes comfort in it.

Claire goes to Jamie’s room and finds that he’s refusing food, but has a fever. The hand is healing nicely, and once it’s healed up, she’ll start him on a regime of massage and exercises to get the strength back. Jamie looks at her darkly and after she sends Father Paul off to get cold water to bring the fever down, he tells her that she can’t save a man who doesn’t want saving.

Outside, the boys try to give Murtagh some whiskey. Murtagh is fretting about Jamie, and Willie tells them about his uncle who lost an arm and refused food. Murtagh stomps off, and we find him talking to Jamie in unsubtitled Gaelic. Jamie responds, and Murtagh yells at him something about Claire, and Jamie answers into another horrible flashback. (Here’s a gif set that translates the Gaelic, if you’re interested.)

Jamie is naked and puking, while Randall watches him from across the cell.  “Are we close? Have we reached your limit yet?” Claire face morphs on to Randalls and her voice says “what shall we do with you?” Jamie gasps her name, and Randall frowns. “What is her power over you?” Her face fades, and Jamie cries that there’s no more Claire. “Then are you mine?” Claire’s face appears again, and Jamie says “There’s only you.”

Randall steps back, considering, before going to his bag and getting something out of it. He blows on the brazier to get the fire going more, and puts his seal in it, and gets it red hot.  Randall brings the red hot seal over to Jamie and tells him to “prove that you’re mine.” And makes Jamie brand himself on the chest. Jamie back at the Abbey wakes up and feels the spot.

Willie rides up to announce that he’s seen two redcoat patrols, but none coming to the Abbey yet. Murtagh opines that it’s only a matter of time- they will come here, and here is no place for a fight. Besides, Jamie isn’t thriving here, and there’s no place in Scotland that’s safe. Thing One and Murtagh point out that the Mackenzie’s and the Frasers have kin in France. Willie asks if perhaps Claire’s people could help? She neatly covers up their total non-existance with them not being thrilled with her arriving with a Scottish husband in tow. Hanging with the Frasers would probably be better, “No offense.” “None taken” says Thing One, who 100% understands that Claire’s right on that score. Murtagh hies off to find a boat.

Willie comes into Jamie’s room to give him an update on the plan. Jamie is curled up, and Willie tries to encourage him to eat. “Mistress Claire loves you fiercely and she’s worried sick.  Tell me what I can do?” Jamie asks for Willie’s blade “to put me out of this black misery.” Willie refuses, and runs out of the room.

Murtagh finds Claire to tell her that he’s got them passage on a ship, it’s a bit expensive but…. “Willie said that Jamie wants to kill himself.”  Murtagh looks so sad, because he knew that was the case but he was hoping Claire could talk sense into him before he could do it. “He’s been tortured. Raped. Isn’t that reason enough?” “No” Claire says, with conviction. Murtagh wonders if there’s more going on that they know. He’s sorry, but he will not let Jamie wither away. “If it comes to the time where the lad is past the point of healing….” Claire ends the conversation by fainting into his arms.

She wakes up with Father Paul bathing her neck in cold water. She gets up and Murtagh snaps that she is not to get up so fast “you scared the piss right out of me!” and then he looks guiltily at Father Paul, and who looks back like dude, I’ve heard these words before. Claire is ready to find a plan. Father Paul says that the physical wounds are healing nicely, but Jamie’s soul is not, and he too is worried the Jamie is looking to make an end of himself. But he feels that Jamie could be led back into the light.

Murtagh says that Jamie will not be led back anywhere he doesn’t want to go, and that the only way to save Jamie is for someone to step into the darkness with him.

Claire gathers lavender, infuses it in oil, and walks into Jamie’s room in her shift. She waves the vial of oil of lavendar under his nose and he flashes back to Randall’s face as he wakes up. “LEAVE ME BE!” Jamie yells and she snaps back, “No, I’ve left you be for far too long. I’ve treated you too gently and you only respond to strength.” “Why are you doing this!” “To find out what happened in that room!” He says that she already knows what Randall did him. “The obvious, yes, but WHAT ELSE. Why won’t you look at me!” Randall’s voice and face flashover “look at me” and Jamie attacks.

They fight across the room, and he pins her, saying that he doesn’t want to hurt her. She yells that he already has, and she rips his shirt and sees the brand for the first time. “What he did to you doesn’t mean…” Jamie says no, he did this to himself. “We can remove it.” Jamie finally admits that Randall didn’t just use force- “he made love to me, Claire.”

Flashback again- Jamie is waking up on the cot, while Randall washes himself. Jamie passes out, and Randall wakes him up with the oil of lavendar. Randall massages the oil into the brand, and Jamie’s chest. “These are Claire’s hands.  Think of Claire, think of your wife.” Jamie does, because it’s easier, and Randall kisses him and seriously y’all, this rape is worse to type out than the violent rape. Randall essentially gets Jamie to put Claire in his mind and poisons the memory and existence of her while raping Jamie and forcing him to get sexual pleasure out of it.

And that breaks Jamie the way nothing else Randall did could.

“I couldn’t help myself, Claire. It felt so good to not be in pain.” Claire tries to tell him that there is nothing to forgive. Nothing about this was his fault. “I cannot be your husband any longer, Claire. And I will not be anything less. He broke me.” Claire’s like no, you’re not anyone’s but mine, and I am yours, so you can stop this line of nonsense right now. Jamie says those were just words. “I lie here thinking I will die without your touch, but when you touch me I want to vomit with shame.”

Claire refuses to accept that this will be forever, and grabs his face. “You promised me the protection of your body, James Fraser. Randall may have had your body, but I will be damned if he has your soul as well.” They’re meant to be together, and that’s the only thing that makes the past months make sense to her. “And if you take away the one last thing that makes sense to me, then I will die with you, right here, right now.” He face cracks, and he reaches from her, but can’t bring himself to touch her, not yet.

“Oh mo nighean don, how can you have me like this?” “I will have you anyway I can. Always.” She throws her arms around his neck, and he slowly takes his good hand and caresses her back.

Claire asks for laudanum, and Jamie says no, he wants to be awake when “you cut him out of me.” He puts a leather strap in his mouth, and Murtagh cuts the brand out of Jamie’s chest, while Father Paul, who’s stomach has some limits, looks a bit sick. Jamie takes the bit of branded skin and throws it into the fire, spitting on it for good measure.

One a beach, with a ship anchored out in the water, the boys say goodbye to Claire. “We’ll miss you, Mistress Claire!” Willie says they won’t find another healer like her, and holds out his hand for a shake, but Claire hugs him. Thing One and Thing Two say that’s it’s nothing personal, but keeping her and Jamie out of trouble is a full time job. Thing One asks if he may kiss her farewell, and and she goes “NO” glaring at him like he’s a dumbass. Thing one looks abashed, and Claire clarifies- “that’s far too final. You may kiss me au revioir.” Thing One then MACKS on her, because we couldn’t see that coming, and Thing Two shows him up by gallantly kissing her hand. Murtagh dismissed them: “Piss off, the lot of you.”

“If you happen to see the rightful King Across the Water, tell him Angus Mohr sends his regards!” “King James is in Italy, you goof, not France.” “I meant if they go to Italy…?” I’ll miss you two idiots.

On the ship, Claire is looking green and sad over the side of the boat, and Jamie says that he thought he’d be the one to be puking his guts up, ‘but here you are, green as rotten fish.” “Fish is the last thing I want to think about right now.” He offers to get her a bucket, and she grumbles that she’s glad to see he’s getting his sense of humor back. He says he’s trying. “We’ll be all right?” she asks. “I’ll see to it.”

They both are a bit worried about what they’ll do in France, and Jamie says that he’ll see to it that they’ll be able to return to Scotland. Somehow. She’s reminds him what she told him about the Rising, and Culloden and the end of the Highland Culture. “We’ll play our part.”  Claire remembers what Geillis said about changing things, and says that maybe they can change the furture.  Bonnie Prince Charles is in France, so…  “it’ll take some thought” Jamie says, with a flash of his old self.

Claire turns away. “There’s something else.” “Something other than changing the future?” Claire ovaries up and tells him that she’s pregnant. Jamie needs a couple seconds to process. “I thought you said you couldn’t…?” “I was wrong.” She asks, worriedly, if he’s happy.  “I never thought I’d be able to say such a thing again, but… yes.  I’m very happy!” She runs into his arms, and he smiles into her hair, but then his face slips a bit back into the guarded look- he’s not perfectly okay, not now, and maybe not ever, but there’s hope.

The ship sails off to France, with Claire and Jamie embracing on the deck, towards season 2.

Elyse:

Both Sam and Tobias deserve an Emmy for this.

I’ve dreaded this episode since the series began, and I have to say I kind of respect that they chose to show everything graphically. It was hard to watch, but it also did justice to the severity of what was happening. Outlander had the first male-rape scene I’d ever read. It was subversive in the way it reversed the gender roles between Claire and Jamie sometimes, and I’m happy the producers didn’t choose to skim over this part even if I did want to watch it.

One thing that I thought was so interesting was how they filmed the attempted rape of Claire by the solider vs. the rape of Jamie by Randall. The attempted rape scene with Claire was totally told through the female gaze. It was not sexualized. As the viewer we were inside Claire’s head as the camera jumped around and the POV as blurry and frantic.

The rape scene in the dungeon was totally different. First of all nothing was held back. We see dried blood smeared between Jamie’s thighs and we understand that this was an act of violence, not sex, and he’s been injured and traumatized. The second time Randall rapes him, he takes advantage of the blood loss, the pain, the horror of the whole ordeal to fuck up Jamie’s perception of what’s happening and make him feel complicit in his own assault. Like RHG said, it’s harder to watch than the first one which was brutal but not a mind-fuck. I kept having to turn my head to the side.

The weird thing is that I found this scene harder to watch than I have other rape scenes where women are the victims. For example, I’ve been watching Game of Thrones and that show is rape-tastic. I think there are a few reasons the Jamie scene was so much more awful to watch. The first is that Tobias and Sam killed it (the shot where a tear runs out of Jamie’s unblinking eye–OMG). The second is that it was really graphic and grisly–DUDE THE DEAD GUY IS STILL IN THE CELL! But I think the biggest reason is that I’ve become used to seeing female characters get raped on film. I’ve become desensitized to it in some respect, but I’ve never seen a male character graphically raped on film. The closest I’ve come is The Shawshank Redemption and they pulled back before we saw anything and it still really bothered me.

I’ve become desensitized because we live in a culture where the rape of female characters on tv and in film has been sexualized and commodified. The rape of Jamie was upsetting because it was shocking. I think in some respects RDM was trying to get us to say “Think about why this bothers you so much.”

RHG:

That was horrible, and I had to watch it twice for the recap, but it was well done- unflinching and empathetic and horrific and I’m relieved that this was put in the hands of a showrunner and director and actors that understood what they were doing.

I’m listening to the podcast with Ronald D. Moore and Ira Steven Behr, who co-wrote the episode, and they both talked frankly about how uncomfortable it made them, and how they felt they had a responsibility to not fuck it up.

That didn’t make it easier to watch.

I think Elyse covered most of my thoughts on the rape question. I liked that Murtagh called it out for what it was- Jamie is a rape victim. And I liked that it’s clear that Jamie is not magically 100% cured by talking it out. It made it better, and he’s made steps towards recovery, but this will have an effect on him.

I was, on first viewing, a little dismayed on the changes made to the timeline of the escape and Jamie’s recovery. I liked this sequence in the book, and I was too busy being pissy at the changes to enjoy the variations as they existed. Second viewing, I liked it at a lot more. Father Anslem was exactly like I pictured him, and I loved (LOVED) the unsubtitled discussion between Jamie and Murtagh. I loved it when creators can pull that off.

So that’s Outlander Season 1. We don’t have an air date for season 2, though rumors are indicating Spring 2016, and also that we won’t have a mid-season break. They are in the process of filming now. Emmy Nominations will be announced on July 10th, so get your rage-ahol ready. (I’ve been burned by the the Emmys before. My rage-ahol is vintage.)

We hope you’ve enjoyed our Outlander Coverage, and we’ll see you back here whenever we get Outlander back!