This week’s Outlander installment is a bit of a mixed bag. We’re closing in on the end of the season, and you can see the show working overtime to get everyone into place for some grand finale. At the moment, we’re on track for some major fireworks out on the battlefield, another fiery confrontation between William and at least one of his dads, and some good old-fashioned time travel. Plus, I’m sure, some other surprises you know Outlander loves to throw our way before we go on hiatus. While all of that sounds promising, “Ye Dinna Get Used to It” is mostly set up for bigger drama to come, which, you know, isn’t exactly the most exciting. The episode also highlights that, once again, this show has forgotten the rule by which it has been governed for seven seasons: Its storylines get less and less interesting the less tied they are to Jamie and Claire. Jamie and Claire are the not-at-all-secret sauce here, why is it so hard to remember this?
Outlander is working hard to make William happen in season seven, and at this point, I just do not think it’s going to happen. When he’s navigating his relationships with John, Jamie, and even Claire, it’s complex and compelling. When he’s off on his own helping sex workers avoid murder charges, it’s much less so. You know what I mostly think about during William scenes in which he is not with his parents? Charles Vandervaart’s perfect teeth. I’m sorry, but those chompers are beautiful! And they are not the teeth of a British soldier in 1778, okay? We had a whole thing not that long ago about Claire eating apples to keep her teeth looking right and tight! The dental situation at this time was not, how do you say, good. But here’s the thing — and I swear I have a point aside from personal fixations — a lot of people on this show have great teeth, and I never notice them enough to care about the dental implausibility of it all; A William scene in which he isn’t yelling at one of his daddies is kind of a snoozefest — I have no choice but to be lured in by those pearly whites.
Here, Jane, the sex worker, tracks down William, who is hanging out at a British Army encampment outside of Philadelphia, still on dispatch delivery duty, until he heads up to New York as part of his parole from the Battle of Saratoga. She’s brought her little sister Fanny with her, and she needs William’s protection. Eventually, we learn that Captain Harkness, the rapey soldier William saved Jane from, returned to the brothel willing to pay a ton of money for a night with little Fanny. There was no way in hell Jane was going to let that happen, so she killed him, and she and Fanny fled. William isn’t going to turn her over to the authorities, though. He is going to help her and her sister because William is a good guy who definitely has a touch of Jamie’s hero complex. By the end of the episode, however, it seems pretty clear that William is about to be a bit delayed in his journey to New York — and that isn’t a great development for Jane.
Meanwhile in 1980, William’s sister Bree is still dealing with her Rob Cameron problem. He has two accomplices rifling through Lallybroch while he attempts to track down Bree and the kids at Fiona and Ernie’s place. He’s relentless and Bree feels like she only has one option left: She, Jem, and Mandy need to travel through the stones and reunite with Roger. What we know that Bree doesn’t is that not only is Roger in 1739, a time Bree would never think to travel to, but also that Roger is planning a return trip. If they think about each other hard enough, will the stones bring them together? More importantly, will Bree and Roger’s storyline ever not feel shoehorned into this thing?
How about we talk about the storyline that does work in this episode? That is, of course, Jamie and Claire juggling both the impending doom of the Revolutionary War back on their doorstep and finding some sort of peace within that other war they’ve been waging with Lord John. Yes! Outlander, thankfully, doesn’t draw out getting our favorite would-be throuple back in the same room. While the episode picks up with Lord John taking an oath to uphold the new laws set by the Continental Congress and swear allegiance to the United States of America while with that second group of militiamen who picked him up during his escape from the first, it doesn’t take long for him to find his way to the camp where Jamie is mustering his troops and surrender directly to him. (I guess his Bertram Armstrong cover story didn’t work out so well.) Claire is there at the camp, too, so no need to worry that Jamie will, like, destroy the guy’s other eye or anything. She actually seems pretty horrified when she sees the state John is in. And Jamie still refuses to apologize for any of the violence, which is very annoying.
Lord John officially becomes General Fraser’s prisoner, and they take him back to his house until they can figure out what to do with him. It’s not the worst thing that can happen — although when John gets a look at the American flag George Washington gave Claire hanging over his own fireplace, he does not share that sentiment. It does give Claire a chance to take a closer look at John’s eye. The muscle is trapped in the broken orbital bone, and Claire will have to physically rotate John’s eye a bit in order to fix it. When she has Jamie hold John down for what is definitely going to be a painful procedure, I think to myself, wow, this is not the way I envisioned these three having their hands all over each other. Alas!
The procedure works, and Claire gifts John a fancy new eye patch while he continues healing. Jamie still does not apologize. Still, the two men will have to learn to trust each other again quickly because they get some alarming news about William.
Enter Mr. Beauchamp, a French aide to the Marquis de Lafayette (yes, that one), whose real name is Percy Wainwright. John is downright shocked to see Percy walk through his door. He explains to Claire that Percy is his former step-brother and also a French spy. He does not explain to Claire that he and Percy definitely fucked, nor does he need to — Claire realizes it immediately because our girl knows what’s up. Their relationship seems messy as hell, and I wish we got some flashbacks of this instead of wasting our time cutting to scenes that have the sole purpose of reminding us that Ian and Rachel are still horny as hell for each other. John apparently helped Percy escape a British prison two decades prior, and Percy must have betrayed him in some way because he basically refers to him as the most selfish man who ever lived, loyal to only himself. However, the way Percy is stroking John’s face and talking about his beautiful eyes says that there are some lingering feelings there.
Unfortunately for us, Percy has not arrived just to caress Lord John, who honestly needs it, but rather to pass on some intel: Percy warns John of a plot to kidnap William in order to force John and his brother Hal to cooperate with the Continental Army. Hal, who we met in a brief flashback to 1775, is a duke who is hanging out in England making rousing speeches about how England should never capitulate to the colonies. The leadership of those colonies would like him to stop. This is why Captain Richardson — the turncoat who tried to recruit Claire, you remember him — has entrusted William with a letter he’s meant to deliver to a group of Hessians. Richardson tells William it is of the utmost importance. Little does William know that the very letter he is delivering is ordering those Hessians to take William captive. By the end of the episode, we watch William walk right into that very trap.
Now, normally Jamie “Get Away From Him, You Bitch” Fraser would be all over rescuing his son, but at the moment, Jamie is feeling the pressure of his new army gig. He tells Claire that he’s never led 300 men into battle before, he’s never held 300 souls in his hands, and he is stressed. It probably doesn’t help that while Washington is a huge fan of his — he holds an important dinner with his top guys at the Fraser house, and this show is never more fun than having Claire visibly thrilled to hang out with the Marquis de Lafayette — Jamie is a direct report to General Lee. Now, Claire may not know who Lee is, but anyone who has listened to the Hamilton soundtrack (or, like, just knows American history) will remember General Lee as the one who “shits the bed at the Battle of Monmouth,” which is the exact battle we’re gearing up for (even if that battle is supposed to take place in June and it’s still freezing in Outlander’s Philly). Even though Claire and Jamie aren’t privy to that information, after just an evening with Lee, you can already tell Jamie isn’t sold on the guy as a leader.
When Lord John fills Jamie and Claire in on the plot to kidnap and torture William, Jamie, regrettably, tells John that he can’t do anything about it — he has 300 men in his care right now, and he won’t abandon them, even for William. But there is actually something Jamie can do for William, John reminds him. Jamie can let John go as his prisoner. And that’s what Jamie does. He sends John off with Ian, though he still has John in shackles just to keep up the prisoner ruse should anyone ask questions. “Go save our son,” Jamie tells John as he sends him out the door. I don’t think it’s supposed to be super hot, but I’m sorry, it is. It really is.
