It’s been one week since Claire and Jamie rode away from Beaufort Castle armed with a new found sense of optimism over the impending Jacobite Rebellion, but maintaining that confidence wound up their biggest challenge in Outlander Season 2 Episode 9. “Je Suis Prest” named after the Clan Fraser motto (French for “I am ready”) focused entirely on war preparations. There were no battles to be had just yet, unless you count Jamie’s constant power struggles with the next big season 1 returnee, his uncle, Dougal MacKenzie, or more poignantly, Claire’s recurrent post-traumatic stress disorder. By the end of the episode, everyone involved felt strong enough to move into the next stage of war – with Claire even remarking to Jamie, “Je suis prest” – but most of the hour was devoted to getting all participants ready.
Showcasing the ups and downs of the Frasers’ confidence was a necessary narrative tactic tonight, because as I said last week, we as viewers need to believe that Claire and Jamie really can turn the tide of the uprising. If we don’t get periodic upswings of hope, then “Outlander” might as well abandon the 18-century scenes now and rejoin the Claire, Frank and Brianna story line already in progress 200 years later.
It’s Our Way or the Highway, Dougal
So much for Lord Lovat‘s “gift” of 100 men. The upbeat attitude Claire had exhibited at the conclusion of last week’s episode was long gone by the time her opening narration informed us that their numbers had “dwindled” once they were reunited with Murtagh, Fergus and their assembled army of not only Lallybroch Frasers but two more familiar faces from season 1 – hey there, Rupert MacKenzie and Angus Mhor! Also, as it turns out, Jamie’s regiment is populated almost entirely by a ragtag group of farmers who know nothing of a soldier’s life.
It then falls to Jamie, who has actual military training from his earlier days in France, to spend much of the episode whipping his men into shape. No easy task, especially when he’s got Clan MacKenzie war chieftain Dougal undermining his every move and encouraging the wannabe soldiers to ignore essential skills like discipline in lieu of methods like the “Highland charge.” (A demonstration of the “Highland charge” featured a filthy, shirtless, kilted Dougal and several similarly dressed men emerging from the woods in a surprise attack that concerned itself more with “terror” than anything resembling strategy.)
After everything he’s been through up to this point, Jamie’s got zero patience for his uncle’s braggadocio and basically tells him, “obey my orders or get stuffed.” The arrogant Dougal, still of the narrow-minded belief that Claire is of such weak character that she can be persuaded to change her husband’s attitude, beseeches Lady Broch Tuarach for her help, insisting Jamie needs his expertise.
No wonder this guy is such a staunch Jacobite – he obviously goes to the Prince Charles Stuart School of Conceited Attitudes. But the upbraiding Dougal received from Jamie was a five-star review compared to what Claire had in store for him. Scoffing at Dougal’s threat to tell Jamie that she once agreed to marry him if her husband died at Wentworth (he knows, dude – nice try), Claire offered up a Part 2 to the empowering speech she delivered to Laoghaire last week. This time, she schooled Dougal on his “affliction” of narcissism – a lesson complete with the Greek myth of Narcissus – which she used to prove her theory that his “ego and self-gratification drive [his] desires.” She can see right through his “patriotism,” punctuating her disgust with a giant F-bomb.
“I just closed the door on that night…”
There is no doubt that a reunion with Dougal wasn’t exactly on Claire’s list of Jacobite-rebellion priorities, but there is a much more palpable reason for her emotional fluctuation – and propensity to drop the F-word – tonight. Her return to a wartime setting triggers painful flashbacks to her experiences as a combat nurse during World War II, which build up to a harrowing memory of how she was forced to fall back helplessly as two American soldiers she had befriended were killed.
After Claire spent months helping her husband to recover from his own trauma, now Jamie has the opportunity to reciprocate in kind, as it hasn’t gone over his head that something is up with his wife. Just as Jamie pulled away from Claire initially, she is doing the same with him, insisting that she’s fine – until the incessant noise of gunshot training causes her to have a panic attack, and she finally opens up to him about what happened to her two centuries into the future.
Because she never dealt with the deaths of Corporal Grant and Private Lucas (“I just closed the door on that night,” she tells Jamie), witnessing the soldier training and the encroaching battles became too much for her to bear. Given the blood, sweat and tears she’s put into thwarting this uprising, Claire is not “ready to go back to war again.” But at the same time, this is Claire Fraser we’re talking about here, so Jamie’s idea of sending her to Lallybroch to wait things out while he fights for the both of them isn’t going to fly, either.
In yet another Emmy-worthy speech delivered by Caitriona Balfe this season, Claire explains to Jamie that the only thing worse than witnessing history repeat itself is feeling helpless as it happens. To return to Lallybroch while he engages in battle will be, to her, no different than “lying in that ditch again, helpless and powerless to move – like a dragonfly in amber” (book title alert!), as she heard the voices of her two young American GI friends screaming for help before they were killed by the Germans.
She also refuses to bail on her husband and his regiment now because unlike Corporal Grant and Private Lucas, she’ll know “that the people dying out there will be the people I know, people I love.” She’s made her decision, however dangerous it might be: “I can’t be helpless and alone ever again.”
Jamie gets it, though his reassuring response is a loaded one, given what we know will happen – and the request he made of her a few episodes ago to go back through the stones at Craigh na Dun to Frank if need be: “I promise, no matter what happens, you’ll never be alone again.”
Debt of Honor
It’s a good thing Jamie didn’t end up sending Claire back to Lallybroch, because as we already know, they work best when it’s as a team.
The very next scene introduces a new character by the name of William Grey, a 16-year-old English soldier who, thanks to the Frasers’ ingenuity, is instrumental in reinvigorating the Jacobite army’s confidence for the duration of the episode. Also, without giving too much away to those who haven’t read Diana Gabaldon‘s books, it is hardly a surprise that the news that “Outlander” has been renewed for two more seasons coincided with William’s first appearance on the show. The character figures prominently in Gabaldon’s third novel in the “Outlander” series, “Voyager,” upon which season 3 will be based.
William, recognizing Jamie as the notorious “Red Jamie” (so much for keeping a low profile this time around), attempts to jump him while the conspicuous ginger is relieving himself, but is soon overpowered by the brawny Scot. When Jamie and Murtagh’s torture and interrogation tactics fail to get the boy to dish on his Redcoat unit, Claire – just as she did with Lord Lovat last week – walks in and pours on the helpless Englishwoman charm. Accusing Jamie of being a “Scottish barbarian” who’s been after her virtue ever since she was captured, she appeals to William’s good moral character by offering to “surrender” herself to the horny Highlander if he lets the boy go.
Jamie, playing along once again, starts running his hands all over Claire’s body, pulling up her skirts and threatening to “ravish” her while she faux-squeals in horror. It’s a hilarious scene, particularly when Claire’s playacting goes a little too far and she knees her husband right in the crown jewels, causing Jamie to break character and yelp, “Ooof! Sassenach?!” But something tells me Jamie won’t hold a grudge against his wife for temporarily incapacitating him in the bedroom – because their plan works beautifully. William is revolted by Jamie’s treatment of the English gentlewoman, and he agrees to tell the Scots everything they need to know about his unit – their location, direction of movement, etc.
Once he does, he also makes Jamie a promise, a promise that is more than just a subtle hint of what’s to come in the next season: Since his life was spared, William now carries a “debt of honor,” and he hopes “to discharge that debt in the future.” But, that doesn’t exactly mean these two are cool, because, as William continues, “once it is discharged, I will kill you.”
While Jamie says he hopes they will never meet again, it’s pretty safe to say that all of this dialogue wouldn’t have been thrown in if it wasn’t a form of foreshadowing. “A Grey does not forget an obligation, sir,” William retorts.
Now armed with vital intelligence on the nearby English camp, Jamie and his regiment engage in a sneak attack on the Redcoats – in which they remove all of the cotter pins from the army’s wagons. These pins hold all of the wheels to the wagons in question, which will undoubtedly slow the Redcoats down in their advancement. A triumphant Jamie returns to Claire with his hands full of “trophies of war” (the cotter pins), and aching to ravish his wife for real. He attributes his reassured conviction that the Scots can win to Claire’s “selflessness” (take that, Dougal!) and praises her brilliant performance with William Grey for helping to save lives.
Her own wartime confidence restored, Claire is now able to move on with Jamie to their next destination: A huge Jacobite encampment where Prince Charles awaits them. As Jamie reminds her, “No turning back now, Sassenach,” Claire repeats the Clan Fraser motto back to her husband. She’s made her decision and is prepared to handle whatever comes next.
