Outlander 4.02: “Do No Harm”

In which things get pretty fucking terrible. Content notes for slavery, racial violence, and torture.

The title card is a Black woman winding a clock.

On the barge, Jamie is feeling all sorts of guilt at not being able to stop Bonnet. Claire tells him that he shouldn’t blame himself, and Jamie’s like, I helped him escape the noose and I couldn’t stop them. I don’t know, maybe the blame lays with Stephen Bonnet? Anyway, Bonnet is out there, able to murder other people “And that’s my cross to bear.”

This self-flagellation is interrupted with the barge captain saying that they’ve arrived at River Run, and yup, it’s a big Colonial style plantation house. Ian is impressed. “Ye didn’t tell me Great Auntie Jocasta lived in a house for a king!” Kiddo, you never did see Versailles.

Jamie also feels terrible for no longer having any money. Claire: “Wouldn’t be the first time.” Besides, Jocasta is family, and family helps! A bit later, Jocasta comes down to the dock, holding the arm of her Black butler. She’s played by Maria Kennedy Doyle, who you might remember as Catherine of Aragon on The Tudors or Mrs. S on Orphan Black. She is another example of perfect casting.

Jamie embraces her, and introduces her to Claire. Jocasta tells Jamie that he’s grown since she last met. “I was no more than a bairn…I had nowhere to go but up.” Jamie is full of emotion- the man does love his family. Jamie also introduces Ian, who holds out a posy of flowers, but Jocasta doesn’t take them, until her butler (Ulysses) tells her that he’s brought her one. Jocasta lost her vision some time ago, but she manages quite well: “I am now gifted with hearing that’s the envy of many a gossip.”

Jocasta leads them inside, and Jamie fills her in on what’s happened. Jocasta: you’ll stay here as long as you need. Jamie and Claire don’t want to be a burden, and Jocasta’s like, ffffffffthththththt. She’s happy to have someone as smart and business-minded as Jamie around (she’s kept tabs on him over the years). Ian comes in with Rollo, and everyone claps hands over their noses- Rollo encountered a great fearsome beast with black fur and white stripes and it shot stinky venom from it’s BUTT.

Jocasta and Claire send Ian away to find Jocasta’s friend John Quincy Myers who knows how to deal with skunk stench while Jamie is like whhhhhhaaaaat even is this country. Jocasta sends Claire and Jamie to their chamber. Jamie is extremely cheered to be around his mother’s sister: same smile, same laugh, and it’s almost like having Ellen again. In Claire and Jamie’s room, two slave women are just finishing getting it ready for them, and when Ulysses tells Claire and Jamie they can call on him for anything. Claire tells the women to call her Claire. The women and Ulysses exchange a look of alarm and confusion (They look at Ulysses like “DID SHE JUST” and he responds with a silent “BUT DON’T DO THAT”), and they introduce themselves as Phaedre and Mary.

Once alone, Claire looks out the window to the field hands, with a whole lot of white guilt on her face. Jamie: “As you say, one day it will all be different.” That’s not terribly comforting for the people who are enslaved NOW, Jamie.

Ian meets John Quincy Myers, a mountain man who hangs out at River Run sometimes. He tells Ian the best way to get rid skunk odor is to bathe in vinegar, and Ian’s like cool. I see Mountain Men have big beards. I, too, have been working on growing mine out. He has no beard. JQM holds forth on the virtues of hairy men and tells Ian that the Indian lasses like his hairiness. Ian: TELL ME EVERYTHING ABOUT INDIANS PLEASE. EVERYTHING. JQM: depends on the tribe, to be honest. Some will scalp outsiders. Ian: Eh, doesn’t sound that different from Highlanders, TBH. During this conversation, a small Black boy has been filling a tub to bathe Rollo in.

Back at the house, Jamie asks what all River Run produces. Cotton, indigo, tobacco, pine for turpentine and lumber. She and her late husband Hector were partners in making River Run a prosperous place. Jamie asks how many slaves work there? 152, which she purchased in lots, to keep families together. “I’ve found them to be more productive when treated with benevolence.” Jamie’s like, better than treated them like livestock. Jocasta: Livestock is way cheaper, and besides, I consider them to be friends! Claire: Really now, would they consider you a friend? Jocasta: we’ve had VERY few runaways! Of course they would. “You have a very curious mind, dear.” Claire excuses herself to go replenish her herb supply.

Jamie and Jocasta are joined by a Lieutenant Wolfe, who procures stuff for the Navy. Wolfe tells Jocasta that growing wheat would be a good thing for her to do, but Jamie thinks rice would be better for the land. Wolfe leaves in a snit. Jocasta is delighted that someone is there to put Wolfe in his place, since he really won’t listen to a mere woman.

Jocasta has found Claire a pretty white gown for a “welcome to the neighborhood” party she’s throwing, and Phaedre is finishing up some alterations. Jocasta asks what coloring Claire has. “You sound fair, somehow?” Phaedre describes Claire with this delightful accent that’s a touch Carribean but heavily influenced by Jocasta’s own Scottish accent: Milky White skin that isn’t washed out and great boobs. Jocasta asks how Claire likes River Run, sure that Claire is relieved to have such fine accommodations and River Run is the BEST, right? Claire is non-commital, and tries to be polite, but Jocasta can tell she’s not saying something VERY LOUDLY. Claire: yeah, I don’t agree with keeping people as property (Phaedre pauses to listen), and Jocasta is like, oh, you’re a Quaker. Claire: ….I met one once, I guess? Jocasta: Jenny said you were headstrong. Claire: So’s Jenny. Jocasta: ha, you have the fire of a Mackenzie.

At the party, everyone who is anyone is there, and Claire finds herself talking politics with Wolfe and Jocasta’s “advisor” Farquad Campbell (hereafter known as Farq, because I am 12.) blah blah blah, Indians and Regulators are being noisy and stuff. Claire: makes point. Everyone else: Oh how cute. Ian: Indians were here first? Everyone else: ADORABLE. Wolfe says the Indians should be thankful the White people are there to civilize them, like the Romans civilized the barbarians of Britain. Ummmmmmmmmmmmm.

Jocasta calls everyone to attention, and announces that she’s been worrying about who she would leave River Run to when she dies, and that she now knows- it’ll be Jamie, and he’s to start acting as River Run’s master immediately. Everyone claps and Claire give him a side-eye full of, “well fuck.”

In their room, Jamie marvels at the Mackenzie-ness of it all:  she announced it without telling him, and Claire’s like whatever about the slyness, I DO NOT WANT TO OWN SLAVES. Jamie: I don’t either, buuuuuuut if I am master here, then I can help them, right? Figure out how to set them free? Make a small difference in this part of the world? “A spark…that might light a fuse?” But he needs Claire at his side for this. “Fuses often lead to explosions.” Jamie, yeah but they could blow up the problem! Very Jason Mendoza of you, Jamie.

The next day, Jamie is looking over the ledgers and papers and talking with Jocasta and Farq. Jocasta is unrepentant, and Farq tosses Jamie a pouch of money as “Ready money to run the estate.” Jamie: It’s not even formalized yet, I haven’t said yes, and also I want to free the slaves. Farq: WHAT. Jocasta: fine, let us discuss this. Farq, please tell Jamie what this means.

Farq: in order to free them, you have to prove to the court that each one you want freed has performed a meritorious service, like saving your life, plus you have to provide surety for their good conduct and also you’ll have to pay 100 pounds for each slave you free. You literally don’t have that money. “You cannot put a price on freedom!” “But the Assembly can, and does!” And also the other plantation owners would be a Problem. “You’ll put lives at risk, not the least your own.” Other people who have said the same things in the area have disappeared. Jamie: other people have tried to disappear me before. I’m still here.

Jamie finds Claire and fills her in, and revisits the offer from the Governor: they could have their own land and not need slaves, but the issues of the future war still apply. Before they can get into it more, Ulysses and Jocasta find them. There’s been a problem at the sawmill. One of the slaves attacked the overseer. Phaedre brings Jamie Hector’s old pistols.

Apparently, the slave, Rufus, took a swipe at the overseer with his axe after the overseer whipped him, and cut off the overseer’s ear. Farq asks if Rufus has been accounted for- since he’s going to be executed. Jamie and Claire: WHAT. Well, any slave that assaulted a White person gets summarily executed in front of the other slaves to make sure they know the consequences.

It is more horrible as you think.

Claire and Jamie have Rufus cut down, at pistol point. The overseer is pissed that anyone would interrupt him, but Jamie and Farq hold him off. Claire has Rufus brought to the house, where he’s placed on the dining room table. Claire calls for supplies and tells Mary and Phaedre what they need to do so she can get the hook out of his abdomen and hopefully save his life. Ian makes for a GREAT scrub nurse. Jocasta and Ulysses come in and Ulysses is almost at a loss for words trying to describe what Claire is doing.

Jocasta: what the FUCK are you doing? Maybe the overseer overstepped his bounds, but Rufus is going to be hanged. That’s just facts. That’s the law. Phaedre tells the company that Wolfe and Farq are there to see Jo and Jamie.

Farq: Your nephew is an idiot who fucked all this up, and he doesn’t understand how the law works here. The overseer is running around telling everyone he can find that James Fraser is here to fuck up the status quo. Wolfe is like, the Quo Must Be Statused. You’ve really made a huge mess here. There’s gonna be riots. This is Very Bad For You. Jocasta has a plan.

In the dining room, Rufus wakes up from his surgery. Rufus is confused about why Claire would have healed him. Claire: because it was the right thing to do, and also you had your reasons for what you did. And the overseer is a son of a bitch. Rufus: I’ve never heard a lady speak like you before. (Ian: My auntie is amazing and swears all the time) Claire asks if there’s any family she can find for him, but his family is in Africa. He and his sister were taken when they were children. (Ian is shocked that Rufus was taken, much like he was, but there was no rescue for Rufus.) Claire sends Ian to bed, and finds Ulysses in the hall.

Ulysses asks how Rufus is doing, and Claire says that he’s doing well, all considered. Ulysses is… concerned…with her choices for Rufus. “Saving that boy’s soul is all that can be done for him now.” Because he’s going to get killed, and at this point the mob that the overseer has riled up is going to make his death extremely terrible, and leave his body for the rest of the slaves as a warning. “It would have been better for us all if he had died on that hook.”

Jocasta’s plan was to hold everyone off until midnight, then turn Rufus over to the overseers. Jamie doesn’t like it. I don’t like it. Claire doesn’t like it. Claire refuses but Jamie doesn’t have another option. Claire: what if we say he escaped? Jamie: they would punish the other slaves that were working alongside him.

At that point, the mob reaches the house, and Jocasta tells them that’s it’s nearly midnight, and law or no, they’ll burn the place to the ground if they don’t get what they want. Wolfe is there, and then someone breaks a window. Jocasta goes to talk to the mob, and Jamie asks Claire to help Rufus the way she helped Column. “I know you swore an oath to do no harm…. But wouldn’t it be better to save his soul than to let them tear it from his body?”

Rufus wakes up, and he doesn’t say anything. Claire wrestles with the choices, then tells Rufus that she’s going to make him a tea to help him sleep.

Jocasta tells the crowd, firmly, that Jamie is an honorable man, and will bring Rufus at midnight, but no sooner. “I intend to serve justice, as the law demands.” She is holding them off by sheer force of will.

Claire brings Rufus a cup, and asks Rufus to tell her about his sister. They liked to fish the river at night, and he still does. He watches the moonlight, and thinks that somewhere his sister is under the same moon. Claire holds his hand and tells him that he will. And then he’s gone. The clock strikes midnight, and Jamie prays at Rufus’ side, then he takes Rufus’ body out. He lays Rufus’ body down on the steps, and the mob surges forward.

The overseers put the rope around Rufus’ neck and hang him while the River Run crew watches, and the camera is not shy about showing us Ulysses, Mary, and Phaedre as they watch: this is a message to them a much as anyone else.

RHG:

There’s a lot to unpack here. A lot. I think that not sugarcoating anything about the realities of slavery is important. It doesn’t serve anyone to think that there was anything warm and fuzzy about the reality. There’s a line between showing a reality and reveling in torture porn, and I think the show landed where it needed to. Especially given how this 250 year old history echoes down into current events, we need to confront the reality of what was done to the enslaved African population.

I also think the show mostly did a good job of showing how the events of the story wasn’t just about the White people. Yes, they are the main characters, but there was a lot of showing the ever-present Black people in the background, and taking the time to give us reactions and beats to Ulysses and Phaedre.

I have seen some discussion on the interwebs that Claire should have given Rufus the choice of how he wanted to die, and that giving him the tea without consent was a wrong story choice. I know that the showrunners wanted to make Claire have to make the choice, to be the one to wrestle with how the Hippocratic oath works in this situation. But she did take agency away from Rufus, and even asking the question is a moral quandary all in its own. There were other ways to handle this.

(I am also pretty annoyed that my usual sources for gifs didn’t have any of Ulysses, Mary, or Phaedre by themselves, or Rufus while alive. I have some questions about that.)

I find Jocasta to be a fascinating character. Think of what would have been had she been born a boy and could have lead the Mackenzie clan. But while she has all of the cunning and scheming of her family, she’s still a woman who is constantly underestimated. But also, she is a slaveowner, and that can’t be ignored. Maybe she’s not as violent as others, maybe she thinks that she’s a benevolent mistress, but she still owns people.

How about you? What was your reaction? What are your thoughts on the season so far?