Outlander Episode 12: Lallybroch

Recap: family, amirite?

The title card is over a pleasant sitting area in front of a fireplace, with two sleepy doggies.  I’d like to curl up there with a book and a blankie and a whisky.

Claire and Jamie ride through gorgeous scenery that basically has “courtesy of the Scottish Tourism Ministry” stamped on it.  Claire is explaining how airplanes work and Jamie is DELIGHTED. He finally asks how old she is, and she’s 27- and he’s a bit surprised- he thought she was his age, but it doesn’t matter- when he’s 40, she’ll be around 245.  Which…well, no, she’ll be negative something something and math with time travel is complicated.

They see the house and tower of Lallybroch in the distance, and dismount.  “It’s like you always said it was.”  Jamie has a flashback to getting whipped in the gatehouse.  Claire tells him to let the past be in the past, but Jamie says that Dougal told him there were rumors that Randall got Jenny pregnant with a bastard.  Claire’s like, rumors, yo.  Jamie is not comforted.

In the yard of the house, Jamie again flashes back, including Randall offering Jenny the choice for him to go on or to go in the house and offer “better entertainment.”  Before the memory can go on, Claire sees a small boy playing and goes to introduce herself.  Jamie side-eyes a bit, and Jenny, super pregnant, comes around the corner and says, “Jamie?” looking at the boy, and Adult Jamie comes around the horse.  Jenny sees him, and runs over to fling her arms around him.  “Four years and no word?” She calls the boy over, “This is your uncle, the one you’re named after.”  Jamie is not as thrilled as one might expect.

“Why would you name him after me?”  Jenny’s face goes from happy to see her brother to confused to pissed as Jamie expresses his displeasure at having Jack Randall’s bastard named after him.  Jenny, being a Fraser, gets more and more angry, sends the kid inside, and asks for clarification.  “I am under the impression that you’re saying I’ve played the whore for Jack Randall.”  Jamie goes on tirade, demanding to know who is the father of the unborn baby, and Jenny’s like, oh no you did not.

Claire tries to calm things down, and Jenny tells Jamie “Tell that trollop to keep her nose out of our business.”  “THAT TROLLOP IS MY WIFE AND WE SHOULD NOT HAVE COME.”

As Jenny snaps that she was left with no word or anything, a man with a peg leg comes in, and announces that Wee Jamie and the unborn baby are his, you know, Jenny’s husband.  He’s Ian Murray, and Jamie clearly knows him quite well.  Claire introduces herself as the trollop, or Claire Frasier, take your pick, while Jenny glowers at Jamie. Jenny snaps that he’s not a day wiser and grumps into the house.  Jamie looks after her and flashes back to her getting pulled out by Randall by her hair.

Inside, Ian offers whisky, where Claire “has been known to drink a glass or two.” (CLAIRE AND BOOZE OTP REUNITED).  Jamie and Jenny are at a détente, until Jamie demands to know exactly what happened with Randall.  Jenny says she’ll tell him once and never speak of it again.  Ian pulls off his leg and looks concerned/supportive.

This scene alternates between Jenny telling the story and flashbacks- Randall knocked out Jamie, led Jenny into the bedroom, while she was trying to keep her wits about her.  (The color in the flashback in incredible- washed out grey, except for hints of red- blood on Randall’s fingers, pink in Jenny’s cheeks, the color of his coat.)  He puts his finger in her mouth, and while he’s licking her neck, she grabs a candlestick and hits him.  He hits her a few times, throws her on the bed, and undoes his pants.  We get a shot of flaccid penis, and he starts rubbing himself.  Jenny says that she knows now that he was trying to make himself ready, but at the time she just started laughing at him.  He didn’t like it, and slams her head against the bedpost, and when she woke up, he was gone and she hasn’t seen him since.

Jenny waits for her apology from Jamie and he’s like “Haven’t I said?” like thinking “This is not the most right I’ve ever been” counts or something, and Claire jumps in with “No, no you have not.” Jenny tells her to shut up, this is between my brother and me.  Jamie pulls Claire into the dining room.

It’s time to negotiate how this will work.  He doesn’t want her embarrassing him in front his family, and this is his home and is time, so he gets the lead on this on this.  Claire says that she will not be the meek little wife, and he points out that Letitia MacKenzie is the strongest woman he knows.  She never crosses Colum in public, but certainly Colum dodged crockery in his time.  “Careful, my laird.  I have a much better throwing arm than Letitia.”

They go back in the drawing room, and Ian tries for neutral conversation- where is Claire from?  “Oxfordshire, but I suppose this is my home now.” Neutral ground avoided!  “Oh, you’re staying, then?  What about the price on your head?”  Jamie says he’s expecting a pardon with the help of the Duke of Sandringham.  “Never thought you’d be so trusting of the English.”

Claire sighs and asks for hot water?  Also you said a chest has arrive from Castle Leoch?  Jenny says she supposes Jamie should have the Laird’s room- where she and Ian have been.  Claire’s like, no, that is totally unnecessary, but Jenny passive-aggressively insists, so the servant quickly swap things out.

In the main bedroom, draped in blue tapestries, Jamie brings in the trunk, and starts reminiscing.  He finds his father’s blade under the bed- it’s a 10th century Norse sword.  He drempt of the day it would be his, and now it is.  “Ours,” he says.  His father built the manor, and his blood and sweat as in the stones “and now his bones are, as well.”  “When was the last time your saw your father?”

Flashback to Fort William and his father, Brian, finding Jamie being taken to see Randall, and Brian tells him that he’ll stand by Jamie, no matter what happens.  Brian gives Jamie a kiss on the cheek and says, “You’re a braw lad, son!”  In Randall’s office, Randall explains, very reasonably, that given how serious the charges against Jamie are, he can’t give him clemency without a written approval from the Duke Argyll, and given the distance between Fort William and the Ducal Seat, there’s no way word could go to Argyll and back before it’s time for flogging Number 2.  But Randall is a reasonable man! (“He likes to play with his toys.” Jamie says.)  If Jamie would allow Randall to fuck him, then there would be no second flogging. If not, and Randall lightly pushes on Jamie’s back.

Jamie considers it- his back was still raw, and he knew what he was in for.  Being buggared sounded less painful and over quicker.  But he could still feel his father’s kiss, and didn’t want to be broken.  At the flogging, Brian is there, and when Jamie passes out, Brian thinks Jamie is dead, and he has a heart attack or a stroke and falls.  Jamie didn’t see any of it, and he hasn’t seen his father’s grave, either.

Claire asks, not unreasonably, that even if Jamie had given into Randall, would it have changed anything? “I’ll never know.”  This moment is interrupted Jenny, asking how long it takes a person to dress.  Dinner won’t keep, ingrates.

In the dining room, Claire and Jenny sit, waiting for the men, and Jenny asks if Claire knows anything about running a house of this size.  No, Caire doesn’t but she’s a quick study.  Ian comes in and says that tomorrow is Quarter Day- when the tenants come and pay their rents-  so she’ll get a crash course.  Jenny says they’ve had poor harvests for two years and debt is piling upon debt.  Claire frets that being so public might be a bit risky, given Jamie’s whole “Wanted for murrrderrrr” thing.  Jenny says that the tenants are like family and would never dream of betraying Jamie, no sir.  Ian offers to go through the books with Jamie after dinner, and Jenny’s like maybe you should visit Father’s grave?  He’d expect it, if he were alive.  Jamie’s all no, he’d want me to go through the books before Quarter Day like a RESPONSIBLE ADULT AND I AM A RESPONSIBLE ADULT JENNY.

Ian tries to break the tension with stuffed cabbage.  It does not work.

In the morning, the tenants are greeting Jenny and bringing small gifts for Claire, including a vase with flowers.  Claire is honestly touched.  Inside, Jamie and Ian are collecting the rents as people gossip and chat and feel Jenny’s belly.  One man only brings half his rent, because one of his cows died.  Jamie generously says he can settle up next quarter, and Ian’s like “….” And then Jamie stupidly says that he’ll not squeeze the last penny from his tenants when times are hard.  That was his father’s way, and that’ll be his.  Jenny overhears this and is Not Amused.

Outside, Claire is chatting with women, when a small grubby child (who has been eyeing the table laden with food) makes a move on the bannocks.  The kid’s equally grubby father sees him and SMACKS him.  Hard.  Claire jumps up to run interference, introduces herself,  while the man takes the bannock from the kid and says that he just needs to learn to do what he’s told.  Claire offers to take the kid of his hands for a bit, so he can enjoy himself without having to watch his son.  Fine, “but don’t go filling his head with all sorts of English claptrap.”  Claire brings the kid to the kitchen, saying they’ve got more delicious things than just bannocks.

Inside, Jenny sees Claire and Claire brings them to a corner, telling Jenny that she saw his father beating him.  The kid rubs his hand on his back, and they women pull up his shirt to find some nasty bruises.  Jamie asks who did that, and Jenny tells him it’s not his concern, and takes the boy into the kitchen, while Claire tells him it was the kid’s father.  Jamie is pulled away to have a drink.

That evening, Claire is asleep in bed, when Jamie comes stumbling in.  He’s drunk.  No, no drunk.  Completely pissed.  No, more than that, he’s totally shitfaced.  He’s trying to be quiet, but he’s basically incapable of, well, anything.  “I’ve seen elephants sit down with less impact.” He mutters in Gaelic, and Claire begs him to speak English.  “Where have you been?”  He’s been out drinking with the boy’s father, and teaching him the difference between abuse and discipline.  “With these!” he affectionately smacks Claire’s butt.  “Then I said to him, ‘Ronald, if I ever see you abusing the lad again, you’ll have to answer to Laird Broch. Turrach.’  (that’s me!)”  Drunk!Jamie is Hilarious!Jamie.

Jamie manages to rewind back to the most important part of the discussion.  “You’ve actually seen an elephant?” He passes out.

In the morning, Jamie is sad.  Very very very sad.  Shhhhhhh I should type quieter.  Food holds no appeal, and Claire brings him some whisky.  “Hair of the dog.”  “I think I might need the whole hound.”  Jenny comes in, angry angry angry: Jamie didn’t collect ANY rents.  At all.  “Well, it’s been a hard year…” “How hard will it be when the whole estate goes under?  AND you saddled us with another mouth to feed.”  The boy, Rabbie, has been abandoned by his father, since Jamie claims knows more about parenting.

Claire says that clean clothes and bannocks aren’t going to solve the boy’s problems, so better to have the kid there and so he isn’t being beaten.  “Do you think life just started when the two of you walked in?  Rabbie’s granny and I were working on his auntie to take him in.  Did you even think about talking to me?” Jamie snaps that he doesn’t need to check with his sister when it comes to running the estate.  You know, the sister who’s been running the house since their mother died, and the one that’s been running the estate since their father died?  That sister?  Okay.

In frustration he take a bite of bannock, and spits it out.  It tastes like it has stones in it!  He calls the cook, Mrs. Crook, and demands to know wtf.  Well, the mill is broken, so they have to grind the wheat by hand in the kitchen.  Jenny had Mrs. Crook send for Davey McAndrews to fix the mill, but that’s not good enough for Jamie.  He stomps out saying he’ll fix it himself.

At the mill, Jamie determines that he’ll need to go under the water to see what’s mucking up the wheel.  He strips down to his shirt (with tantalizing glimpses of a very fine arse) while Claire’s like, you will fucking freeze to death.  He gets into the water, and gasps “CACK” which is somehow the most endearing thing.

Jenny comes swooping up, and Claire’s like “you shouldn’t be running around when you’re about to drop a kid and we’re fine, really” but Jenny turns her around to see a troop of red coats approaching.  Shit.

The ladies plunk themselves down on Jamie’s stuff, so their skirts hide it all, and Jamie hides under the water.  Jenny puts on a pleasant face, and tells the red coats that the mill is not working.  The ranking officer jumps down to fix it, and Jenny’s like dude, I didn’t ask for a solution. “Oh don’t worry” says another soldier.  “His father has a mill he knows how to fix them”

Claire and Jenny try to not puke while the officer surmises that something is stuck in the wheel, and he’ll just have to dive in to fix it.  Just in time, the wheel starts moving, and Jamie’s shirt comes riding up.  “A perfectly good shirt.  How on earth did THAT get stuck in the wheel?” “Well, it’s Scotland, sir.” Like that explains everything.  The red coats ride off, and Claire and Jenny rush to the bank to see Jamie coming out of the water swearing in Gaelic.

“What the hell were you doing, you mucklebrain!” Jenny is prepared to go one for a while as Jamie has got his hand in front of his parts, and he turns to protect his modesty from his sister.  “Jenny will you please turn around so I can get out before my cock snaps off!” She sees his scars for the first time, and runs.  “What the hell was she doing here?”  “She heard about the redcoat patrol.” Claire snaps.  “She was just trying to warn you.”

In the house, Claire is looking at paintings by candlelight, and Ian finds her.  One paiting is of a small girl with a bird- when they were children, the boys would find injured birds and bring them to Jenny to be nursed back to health.  “Surprised she has a gentle side?” “No! ..perhaps a little.”  Ian provides the key to living with a Frasier- their hearts are as big and soft as their heads are thick and stubborn.  Jamie brought Ian back to Scotland after he lost his leg and “Jenny made me whole again.”

“Is that why you married her?”

“Like it was my choice. She came up to me out in the field one day, while I was tryin’ to mend a wagon that sprang its wheel. I crawled out, all covered wi’ muck, and found her standin’ there looking like a bush covered wi’ butterflies. She looks me up and down and she says— I don’t know exactly what she said, but it ended with her kissing me,and saying, ‘Fine, then, we’ll be married on St. Martin’s Day.’ I was still explaining why we couldna do any such thing, when I found myself in front of a priest, saying, ‘I take thee, Janet…’”

Frasers: once their heels are dug in, you can’t move ‘em.  You can kick them, and they might move, or you might get bit.  “Than what?”  Ian grins. “You kick ‘em harder.”

Having gotten advice from the Frasier Whisperer, Claire stalks back to her room where Jamie is asleep.  She pulls him out of bed.  “I did not marry the laird of Lallybroch, I married Jamie, and I’ve seen precious little of him since we walked through the gates.” She’s in his face and he opens his mouth to defend himself. “I AM SPEAKING and you may talk when I am finished.  You’re trying to be someone you’re not, and in the process you’re alienating everyone.  Get your shit together boyo or you won’t have any family left.”

In the morning, Jenny comes to the churchyard, where Jamie is by their father’s grave.  They both start to speak, then Jamie asks to go first. He hands her a bag of coins- he’s collected the rent.  He also offers to speak to Rabbie’s auntie, but Jenny shakes her head- the auntie already has a bunch of bairns, anyway.  “This is a better place for him.  Father would have thought so, too.”

“I was wrong not to consult you, and I am sorry.”  Jenny cries that she was the one that was also wrong- a small dark part of her blamed Jamie for it.  That he’d done something to provoke everything.  But once she saw the scars, she thought it was her fault, that Randall punished Jamie for what SHE did.  Both of them have been blaming the wrong people, when it was Randall who did everything.

Jamie says that he would have gladly died to prevent harm from coming to Jenny, and then Jenny says one of my favorite lines of hers- “If your life is a suitable exchange for my honor, tell me why my honor is not a suitable exchange for your life?  If you’re telling me that I may not love you as much as you love me, I can tell you that’s not true.”  Sniff.  “Welcome home, laird Broch Tuarach.”  Someone is cutting onion in here.

That evening, Claire is contemplating the tower.  Broch Tuarach means “north facing tower” and it’s north facing because the door is north.  Claire is starting to feel like she belongs, and Jamie tells her that he always knew she did, and that’s one reason he married her.  “But not the only reason.”  “What was the main one?”  “I wanted you more than I wanted anything.”  He sings praises to her lovely round arse, and that he’s loved her since she cried that first night when she cried in his arms.  She says it for the first time- I love you.

In the morning, Claire wakes to an empty bed, and goes to find Jamie- he’s in the hall, being held at pistol-point by three men, and we wait for a week to see what happens.

 

Reviews

RHG:  Oh, siblings.  Jenny is one of my favorite characters, ever.  No one loves as hard as Janet Fraser Murray, and no one will yell louder if they fuck up more than Janet Fraser Murray.  And no one- NO ONE will work harder than Jenny to keep her charges hale and healthy  God help anyone who gets in her way.

I’m not totally thrilled with the changes to Jenny’s arc- in the book she already knew about Claire, and she and Claire negotiated their own relationship.  But given Jamie’s arc of trying to figure out how to adult with responsibilities, it works. Ian as the Frasier Whisperer and Sam being the little brother who just doesn’t want his older sister to see his junk is hilarious- Jamie forgot about his back because not being naked in front of his sister is more important.

Jenny!  Ian!  Lallybroch!  Yay!

Elyse:

Are those Ron Moore’s dogs?

Holy crap we got to see Menzie’s penis! WE GOT PENIS PEOPLE! I feel better about how much screen time Claire’s boobs have gotten. I also applaud Menzie’s for doing that scene. Not only did he bare his weenus, he had to diddle hisself too.

Jenny was one of my favorite characters in the books and she was cast perfectly. I love her sassiness and the fact that she doesn’t immediately fall in love with Claire. You mean you haven’t run a household? Well that’s just going to be peachy isn’t it? Also she’s clearly not impressed by Jamie rolling in after 4 years and I don’t blame her.

So then we get the Fort William flashback. My hubs hasn’t read the books and was super confused when Randall propositioned Jamie, which I think was fair. In the book I think Randall’s sadism is made more apparent. Randall only gets off when his partner is not complicit or in pain. I’m not sure the setup in the TV show made that as clear.

The scene with Jenny and Claire and the little boys melted my heart. It also underscored that Jamie is a shitty Laird.

I loved the scene in the graveyard where Jenny and Jamie talk and finally clear the air. They both have so much pain and guilt, and the actors really nailed the scene.

Carrie: 

I felt like I should maybe pop in and say that I’m on an Outlander break, because the whole “Whipping of Claire” thing last week just undid me.  I’m not sure why the violence in this show is so upsetting to me.  I love Orphan Black, which is a violent show, although I have to admit that I get so nervous during Orphan Black that I read recaps first so I can watch the episode prepared.

I watched the first season of Penny Dreadful, a show so gory that the subtitles at one point say, “footsteps squishing through entrails.”  Although I watch a lot of Penny Dreadful from under a blanket.  But the violence in Outlander upsets me in a unique way. So I read the recaps here and look at all the nicely edited gifs.

 

And we wait another week! Are you still watching? What did you think?