Outlander Episode 2: A Spy in Their Midst?

Sing you a Scottish drinking song, and tie a sheet around your waist like maybe it’s a kilt—it’s about to get real Scottish up in this joint. Things are definitely getting sexier on the highlands this week on Outlander! If by “sexier,” of course, you mean more flashbacks to various floggings and also Jamie gets his nose broken defending the promiscuous antics of a blond-haired random whose dad has some anger issues to work out.

The show is picking up steam in the best possible way. This week, Jamie swore to protect Claire so long as she was in his presence. Then he all hunkily went out to the stables to break a horse by whispering sweet Gaelic nothings in its ear and Claire FOR SOME REASON DID NOT FOLLOW HIM BUT INSTEAD MOPED AROUND CASTLE LEOCH WHILE EVERYONE RESIDING THERE DECIDED THAT SHE WAS DEFINITELY A SPY.

I guess the lack of electricity plus the constant irritation of kilted wool rubbing up against skin has left every single denizen of Colum MacKenzie’s castle a tad bit paranoid. It’s clear that Claire has a secret, but the woman is so obviously not a spy. Before we watched her get accidentally wasted on Rhenish wine and then get conned into being held prisoner indefinitely at Leoch, thankfully, we got an 18th century clothing montage. It wasn’t technically a montage; Mrs. FitzGibbons just got Claire dressed in traditional garb. But dude, that involves easily eight different steps—there might not have been kicky pop music playing, but I’m calling it a montage.

Properly outfitted for the age, Claire wanders around the castle trying to acclimate herself as quickly as possible so that she can get herself back to the hill and, hopefully, back to Frank. I have to say, after tending poor, dreamy Jamie Fraser and hearing about his mistreatment at the hands of the English, I’d be all “FRANK WHO?” This is probably why no one has asked me to marry them. Every guy I date is deeply concerned that if I travel backwards in time I will immediately take up with a dreamy, tortured red-headed Highlander. They are not wrong.

Claire and Jamie bonded this week as he opened up to her about his past while she tended his ten million injuries. It’s clear that they share a connection, but Claire isn’t being quite so open with Jamie about her own story. This is probably smart, because to loudly insist to a stranger that you fell through time would probably get you beaten with “witch-slappers” or something in this day and age. Instead of the truth, she tells Jamie that the husband she’s weeping for isn’t alive…which is, you know, technically true.

Although Colum, lord of the manor, initially tells Claire that he’ll get her back to the stones, he reneges on his offer. He and his brother Dougal suspect that she’s a spy, and decide to keep her on at Leoch. It doesn’t help her case that Claire is an excellent healer, something the castle and its residents need quite badly. The only ally Claire has at the moment is a fellow-healer and self-proclaimed witch, Geillis Duncan, who translates the goings on in the castle hall on Claire’s first visit there. But something about the plucky local who has stepped forward to be Claire’s ally (second only to Jamie) seems slightly…off. What will happen next? I mean, I totally know, but it’s fun watching the series as though I have never read any of the books.

What did you think of episode 2?