Outlander's Shocking Betrayal Leaves [Spoiler] In Peril — Read Recap
By the end of this week's Outlander, two Fraser men are in very bad straits, with no clear rescue in sight.
"Well, actually, Jem is a MacKenzie," you just thought. OK, OK — two men with Fraser blood coursing through their adventurous, often-in-peril bodies are left in seriously worrisome ways as we head into next week's midseason finale. The aforementioned Jeremiah has been kidnapped by Rob Cameron (whom we all kinda knew was a tartan trash bag, right?), and Jamie closes the episode face-down on a field following the first Battle of Saratoga.
How did we get here? And how, exactly, does one gain access to The Tufty Club? Read on for the highlights of "A Practical Guide for Time-Travelers."
BUCK-LE UP | Brianna is reading a letter from her mom when Roger interrupts, hauling the Nuckelavee into the house and introducing him as William "Buck" Buccleigh MacKenzie. While Rog and Bree give him some serious side-eye, he explains that he and his family got near Craigh na Dun and heard the stones buzzing. When he went to investigate, he inadvertently got sucked through time. When he recognized Roger shopping in Inverness, he followed him home.
Roger questions him about Alamance, and why he had him strung up. Buck is kind of a jerk as he explains that Roger was too cozy with his woman, and what else was he to do? As Roger explains that he was helping Morag because she's actually his five- or six-times great-grandmother, he follows it with the inevitable: "That makes you my grandda." Buck is stymied. "You wouldn't have anything stronger than coffee, would ye?" he asks.
Though Roger certainly isn't enamored of his newly arrived relative, he stops short of telling him that on the family tree, his death is listed as 1778 — the year Buck went missing. And before Rog and Bree can discuss it further, Rob Cameron shows up, unannounced, for the dinner that he forced Roger into inviting him to in the previous episode. Bree and Roger quickly hustle Buck into the priest's hole — that little room off the kitchen — and tell him not to come out until they let him out.
IN THE AIR TONIGHT | Rob's visit is wildly awkward. Brianna and Roger are worried Buck will make an appearance. Rob is way too eager to look at Rev. Wakefield's hymnals. And when it's a bit past the time that any adult who is able to read social signals would've already left... Rob asks to stay longer, playing the "I'm a sad and lonely divorcé" card. Bree takes pity on him. When he finally does go, he wonders if Jem would want to come over and play sometime with Rob's nephew Bobby, one of his classmates. Happy that their guest is finally taking off, Roger and Bree readily agree.
No sooner has the door closed behind Rob than Brianna and Roger rush to the priest's hole... only to find it empty. Yep, Buck has made his way to the camper outside, and he's happily watching TV with Jemmy and Mandy, who call him "Cousin Buck." And that pretty much seals it: Roger realizes he's not mad at Buck for the whole hanging thing anymore, and he and Bree agree that she'll keep an eye on the time-traveler the following day, then they'll bring him back to the stones on Saturday.
Bree's Bring Buck to Work Day goes about as smoothly as you can expect: He's weird to Rob ("Smiling a bit too much in your direction, methinks"), and shares his suspicions with Roger when they return home. Roger, in turn, comes clean about the year of Buck's demise on the family tree. And much later, when Rog and Bree are alone, he parlays the perhaps? spark of jealousy he feels about Rob into some primally charged sex on the camper's fold-out couch while Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight" plays on the soundtrack. My thoughts during this scene: 1) They're really showing this to us in real-time, huh? 2) So. Many. '70s. Florals.
JEM'S GONE! | Roger wakes up in the middle of the night, goes to the study and realizes that someone's been in the box of letters. Just then, Mandy screams, and as her parents run to comfort her, she says that Jem isn't there. They reassure her that he's only at Rob's nephew's house for a sleepover, but she indicates that she's no longer sensing the mental connection they share, because "That bad man took him." A call to Bobby's mother reveals that there was no sleepover, and Rob's car is gone.
"He knew," Roger rants in the car with Buck as they drive toward Craigh na Dun, surmising that Rob read the letters and figured out that the family was able to travel in time. When Buck asks if there are others who can do so, Roger's offhand tally includes Geilis Duncan, which makes him think of her blood-sacrifice theory, which makes him even more scared for his son. They arrive at the stones, which are buzzing, but no one is there. Someone was, though: Roger is bereft as they find Jem's scarf, still bearing the Tufty Club safety-education button the boy earned at school.
'A DIFFERENT MAN NOW' | Back in 1777, William is mad that he's been assigned letter-carrying duty, which likely will mean he'll miss an upcoming battle. He petitions Gen. Fraser for a change in orders, saying, "I am no errand boy. I am a true soldier" which, to me, smacks of a toddler yelling, "I am a big kid!" Fraser knows it's not a good idea, but resignedly says William can stay, "if that's what you really want." Over in the Continental camp, Ian catches a British deserter who shares that the Redcoats will attack soon. So Jamie gets himself together quickly and tears up a little as he tells Claire to kiss him before he leaves. She does, a little verklempt herself, and he marches off with the snipers.
And then the first Battle of Saratoga is on! William and his pal, Hammond, stand in formation and chat about whom they fancy while they wait for things to begin. William has just admitted that he likes Rachel when a musketball outta nowhere lodges itself in Hammond's head. He collapses, with a confused William attending to him, as the Continental Army emerges from its spot across the field. The British cannons fire. Men on both sides go down like puppets with their strings cut. Gen. Fraser yells at William to do what he's supposed to, and that gives him a bit of focus: He runs into battle with his saber aloft, screaming and crying.
There's a lot of slashing, a lot of bleeding, a lot of dying. Then it's over, and William is gutted as he oversees the soldiers digging graves for the dead, which includes his friend. When the men complain that the holes are deep enough, he admonishes them for doing a lazy job, then ditches his coat and picks up a shovel — a move his superiors note with interest. Later, Lord Ellsemere watches with scorn as the generals celebrate their "victory" with a toast. Fraser comes over, however, and notes that William is "a different man now" than he was before the fight.
Elsewhere on the battlefield, the final shot of the episode finds James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser looking pretty close to — if not already — dead*, his face in the grass.
*But c'mon, who are we kidding?
Now it's your turn. What did you think of the episode? Sound off in the comments!