Outlander Tells The Rest Of Faith's Story And Kills A Major Character In The Same Episode — Steel Yerselves, Sassenachs

This week's "Outlander" is a dunbonnet of a doozy, everyone. Wrap your plaids around you tight and take a deep breath, because before the hour is over, a character who has been with the show since Season 2 is no longer among the living. (A huge diversion from Diana Gabaldon's novels, I might add — now we know what series star Lauren Lyle was talking about at the start of the season.)

We also get a definitive answer on whether or not Faith lived, which is... wild. In a minute, I want to hear what you thought about the jam-packed hour. But first, let's recap what went down in "Evidence of Things Not Seen."

At his printshop, Fergus teaches Germain and Henri-Christian how to work the machinery. What cute little muffins they are! Or maybe croissants? Anyway, "The pen is our sword," he tells them proudly, musing about how the shop will be theirs someday. "We can never lay it down."

But various townsfolk still aren't big fans of Fergus' political side-taking, either real or imagined. Someone throws a tomato at Marsali while she and Brianna are shopping. Later, someone leaves the latest in a series of anonymous, threatening messages wedged into the family's front door. Still, the printer and his wife don't seem terribly bothered, especially as they scurry upstairs for some playful, mid-afternoon sex...

... which is a nice, fun interlude before the soul-crushing rest of the episode! That night, the Frasers wake to smoke drifting into their bedroom: The print shop is on fire! Marsali gets the girls out while Fergus climbs to the roof, where his sons had been looking at the stars. Germain and Henri-Christian are safe, but the way back through the house becomes blocked by flames.

As the townsfolk race to help put out the blaze, Roger and Brianna arrive. Fergus ties a rope around Germain's waist and has Henri-Christian hold on to his brother's shoulders, then the boys are lowered over the side of the roof with a pulley system. Henri-Christian cries that he's slipping, then he falls — which is how he dies in the book — but Roger manages to catch the boy, saving him. Yay!

But then, the roof underneath Fergus gives way, and he is plunged into the inferno that was his family's home, killing him. Noooooooo! At that exact moment, Jamie startles awake in bed. "I dinna ken," he tells Claire, "but I have a terrible feeling something's wrong." 

In the aftermath, at Lord John's, Brianna asks Roger if he'd choose to stay in the past if she died. He staunchly asserts that nothing bad is going to happen to her, but then says he'd definitely stay. "Our whole family's here," he points out. "The four of us belong here." She grabs his hand and pulls it down to her belly: "Five," she corrects. (We knew it!)

When Brianna goes upstairs, she finds a hollowed-out Marsali sitting on the ground, watching her children sleep in a bed. She says she's afraid to let them out of her sight, so Bree sits next to her and pulls her head into her lap, volunteering to keep an eye on the bairns. "After all these years, I dinna ken where he ended and I began," Marsali says, absolutely undone. Brianna starts crying hard, too, as she reminds her sister-in-law that Fergus lives on in their sons and daughters. But there's no real comfort to be had there, at least not yet, so the women just weep and cling to each other in the dark.

The next morning, Marsali wonders how she'll go on without Fergus. Brianna raises the possibility of taking Percy's offer, given that Germain is now the legitimate heir. Marsali says she'll consider it, but first, she has to bring Fergus home to bury him.

How about something, not lighter, but fraught in a different way? Wiliam confronts Amaranthus about her complicity in Ben's faked death, but she counters that she couldn't stop her husband from joining the rebellion — though she tried. "He cared for you," William says snottily. "Not enough," she answers angrily, "not nearly enough." She begs William not to tell Lord John or Ben's father, Hal, and she maintains that she and William can still marry and have the life they planned. When they're interrupted by Lord John, William immediately shares the news. John is relieved: Hal is on his way to the colonies, and now John won't have to tell his brother that his kid is dead. Despite his earlier anger, William tries to run interference on Amaranthus' behalf, but she insists on telling Lord John the truth.

William's dad is angry about her deception, but she won't apologize. "Have you ever gone hungry, my Lord?" she counters. "I have, and I would stoop however low to keep my son from that fate." Then she slams her glass into the fireplace and runs off.

That night, Percy swings by Lord John's home with news that Richardson is on a ship bound for Savannah. John is pleased to hear it, but he won't tell Percy what his plans are for the nefarious Redcoat. With that business out of the way, Percy wants to talk about the time the two of them hooked up at their parents' wedding, but Lord John is not game to stroll down amorous memory lane. "There was a time when you loved me, John," Percy says softly, drawing near... and then the two are kissing. AND THEN WILLIAM WALKS IN.

"I thought there was nothing worse than having a traitor for a father," William says, disgusted, as Lord John splutters and Percy skedaddles. William decides that now is the time to bring out the big guns, revealing that he knows John was governor of Ardsmuir Prison when Jamie was a prisoner there. "Was he one of your conquests, or were you one of his?" he spits. "Neither," John says, flustered. But William doesn't believe it, given that his adoptive father is — and I quote — "a liar, a hypocrite, and a sodomite!" Ouch.

Lord John apologizes for what William walked in on, but he wants to make one thing clear: Both he and Jamie have sacrificed mightily in order to protect William, who repays them by routinely acting like a bratty asshat. "And if you dare ever speak to your father that way again—," Lord John starts, but you know exactly what William's going to yell at him, right? "I don't HAVE a father!" William yells back (yep, that's it, though the judges also would have accepted "You're NOT my FATHER!") and storms out.

Fanny realizes that a square of lace that was among her keepsakes has gone missing. As Claire consoles the distraught girl, Fanny tells her that the fabric was made by her grandmother in Paris — the same city where Fanny's mother lived as a child. All of this deeply affects Claire, who immediately thinks of Faith and gently prods Fanny for her maternal grandmother's name. But Fanny doesn't know the woman as anything other than grand-mére.

Claire later relates the story to Jamie, and it jogs his memory: He recalls a lacemaker with a shop across the way from Master Raymond's apothecary, and he also remembers hearing a child inside the shop one day when he was living in Paris. There's no way it could have been their daughter... could it?

Funny you should ask! Not long after, a letter arrives at Fraser's Ridge. It's from Ian, who managed to find the reporter that interviewed Jane while she was being held prisoner before her death. The reporter shared his notes, and in them, Jane tells a story her grandmother told her. Here it is, in full:

"One day, a strange little man from the apothecary came with a baby. He asked her to look after it, and said he'd come back, but if he didn't, she was to find Lady Broch Tuarach. So she waited. But he never returned. So she went to find the lady and was sent to the house of a wine merchant, where the servant told her that this lady had left the country. And our grandmother wondered who could leave such a sweet child. By then, of course, she'd fallen in love with the baby girl. Years later, my mother learned that this lady lived in the mountains of North Carolina. Our family was on our way to find her when our ship was taken by pirates and our parents were killed."

Jane goes on to say that she hopes Fanny knows she would do anything for her, and that she hopes God leads Fanny to this mysterious woman, who might give her a chance to be safe and loved.

"Faith was coming to find us," a gobsmacked Claire says.

So Claire and Jamie share everything with Fanny, including the fact that they're her grandparents. "I'm the lady she was looking for. I'm Lady Broch Tuarach," Claire tells the girl. (In my notes, I write: 'But how did Faith know the song that Claire sang when she was born, given that Faith was hours old at the time?"... and then Fanny asks that exact question. Claire doesn't know the answer... but we'll get one before the end of the hour.)

Later, Fanny still seems overwhelmed; eventually, she confesses that she's worried she's going to lose Jamie and Claire like she's lost everyone else she loves. Jamie understands, and he asks her to have faith in them. Just then, Marsali, Brianna, Roger and the children arrive at the big house. Jamie takes one look at Marsali in her mourning clothes, and he knows. Pretty soon, everyone is hugging and crying.

Jamie makes a coffin for his adopted son — it seems small, no? — and memories of Fergus make him cry while doing so. He's interrupted by Fanny, who leads him to a cairn she's built for Fergus so that Jamie can visit his son anytime, just like he did for her with Jane. Then she calls him "Grandda," hands him the final stone to place in the formation, and takes his hand. Big Red is touched.

In the episode's final moments, we get a flashback to 1744 Paris that definitively solves the Faith mystery. Master Raymond leaves Faith at the lacemaker's, and when the baby starts crying, Raymond says there's a song her mother sang that will help. He quickly runs through "I Do Like to Be By the Seaside," and the lacemaker seems to pick up the tune and lyrics incredibly quickly. So that answers that!

Now it's your turn! What are your thoughts on the big episode? Let us know everything in the comments!