Outlander Episode 8 Recap: The Fox’s Lair
After seven weeks of misery, treachery, and yet more misery in France, Outlander has returned to the welcoming arms of Scotland. Now that Jamie and Claire have retreated to Lallybroch, the Fraser homestead, surely they’ll get some to recuperate from the unending assaults visited upon them in and around the French court. Right? In a completely expected turn of events, not so much. We are about to have a family reunion, and, as is custom, it will be a trying time.
Upon their return, Claire and Jamie have just enough time to celebrate Jenny and Ian’s latest baby—and a bumper crop of potatoes—when the mail arrives. Amid the bills and family newsletters is a missive for Jamie from one Charles Stuart, who has stated his divine right to rule and has gone to the trouble of forging Jamie’s name among the list of his supporters. This is problematic for two reasons: (1) Jamie has now been branded publicly as a traitor to the British crown, and (2) The entire trip to France, and all the violence, imprisonment, and brothel patronage that came with it, was a total failure.
Jamie and Claire did not manage to kill the Jacobite rebellion. If anything, they may have expedited it. Now that the laird of Lallybroch has been publicly outed as a Stuart supporter, the pair has little choice but to join the cause and help Charles’s merry band of nincompoops actually prevail. After the last few months she’s had, Claire’s trepidation is reasonably defeatist, even if it ignores the reality of her existence. She tells Jamie the outcome of the uprising is a done deal; they can’t win. In response, her husband pulls out the laundry list of historical “facts” Claire has managed to change—isn’t time to send a shower gift to Louise de Rohan and Charles?
Outlander: Season One, Volume One
DVD $26.99
Outlander: Season One, Volume One
DVD $26.99
So with that, the focus of this season pivots from stopping the Battle of Culloden to winning it. What complicates this for us, of course, is that we know Claire winds up in the future, painfully aware of a British victory and painfully unaware of the fates of her husband and his kinsmen. Now that Jamie’s hand has been forced out of potato farming and into soldiering, we’re starting to learn how the clans wound up on the battlefield after all.
With that in mind, Jamie sets out on a mission of diplomacy. Before he can meet Charles and woo him for a high command, Jamie must rally the troops, and that involves a visit to his cantankerous and estranged grandfather: Lord Simon Fraser of Lovat. By all accounts, Lord Lovat is the Walder Frey of the Highlands, having born many a child out of wedlock and procured many a bride against her will. Before they set off for their mission of political intrigue, Jamie admits to Claire that his own father was a bastard and that Lord Lovat tried to have his Mackenzie mother kidnapped. Yay.
In even worse familial news, upon arriving at grandfather’s house, Jamie and Claire run smack dab into Colum Mackenzie, presumably fresh off feeding a witch to a fire. Colum is here because he wants no part of the rebellion, and he’s hoping to lobby Lovat to sign a neutrality pact alongside him. (RIP Dougal’s ambitions and, once again, Geillis Duncan.) Politics make for strange bedfellows, especially since Jamie is at Beautfort Castle to lobby for joining the uprising, despite knowing it is all but certainly doomed.
What follows are eons of political maneuvering, which I will attempt to summarize in a paragraph. The action is difficult to follow because everyone is talking about the Jacobite rebellion, but nobody really cares at all about Charles Stuart. As stated, Jamie wants Lovat’s men to join him in trying to prop up a cause he knows to be dead on arrival but is his only avenue. Colum just wants the Mackenzies to be left alone and hopes that having two major clans declare neutrality will preserve this quaint, rainy life for generations of kilted men to come. Lovat wants Jamie to sign over control of Lallybroch because, well, just because he wants it.
So with that, the focus of this season pivots from stopping the Battle of Culloden to winning it. What complicates this for us, of course, is that we know Claire winds up in the future, painfully aware of a British victory and painfully unaware of the fates of her husband and his kinsmen. Now that Jamie’s hand has been forced out of potato farming and into soldiering, we’re starting to learn how the clans wound up on the battlefield after all.
With that in mind, Jamie sets out on a mission of diplomacy. Before he can meet Charles and woo him for a high command, Jamie must rally the troops, and that involves a visit to his cantankerous and estranged grandfather: Lord Simon Fraser of Lovat. By all accounts, Lord Lovat is the Walder Frey of the Highlands, having born many a child out of wedlock and procured many a bride against her will. Before they set off for their mission of political intrigue, Jamie admits to Claire that his own father was a bastard and that Lord Lovat tried to have his Mackenzie mother kidnapped. Yay.
In even worse familial news, upon arriving at grandfather’s house, Jamie and Claire run smack dab into Colum Mackenzie, presumably fresh off feeding a witch to a fire. Colum is here because he wants no part of the rebellion, and he’s hoping to lobby Lovat to sign a neutrality pact alongside him. (RIP Dougal’s ambitions and, once again, Geillis Duncan.) Politics make for strange bedfellows, especially since Jamie is at Beautfort Castle to lobby for joining the uprising, despite knowing it is all but certainly doomed.
What follows are eons of political maneuvering, which I will attempt to summarize in a paragraph. The action is difficult to follow because everyone is talking about the Jacobite rebellion, but nobody really cares at all about Charles Stuart. As stated, Jamie wants Lovat’s men to join him in trying to prop up a cause he knows to be dead on arrival but is his only avenue. Colum just wants the Mackenzies to be left alone and hopes that having two major clans declare neutrality will preserve this quaint, rainy life for generations of kilted men to come. Lovat wants Jamie to sign over control of Lallybroch because, well, just because he wants it.
Outlander (Outlander Series #1)
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Outlander (Outlander Series #1)
In Stock Online
Paperback $9.99
With the men busy politicking, Claire has plenty of time to plot her own schemes. While pacing through the castle, she bumps into Laoghaire Mackenzie, who gets down on her knees and begs for Claire’s forgiveness for that whole witch trial thing. Claire spitfires some insults at her until she realizes this girl might be valuable. Lovat has a weakling son, Simon, who wants to join the Jacobite cause but is too frightened of his father. Claire’s seen him make eyes at Laoghaire and hatches a plan to have Laoghaire seduce the young man and, thus, instill in him the confidence necessary to defy his father. (Considering Jamie’s Plan B-Z seems to be telling people his wife is the super-powered La Dame Blanche, which he does to the superstitious Lord Lovat here, Claire’s scheming doesn’t seem so far out of left field.)
In the end, Claire and Jamie’s hodgepodge of efforts works…kind of. Lovat signs a neutrality agreement with Colum, but newly emboldened Simon does stand up to his father. As the Lallybroch contingent—having evaded signing over their souls to Lovat—ride off with the lord’s son in tow, the old man himself intercedes to reveal his final card. The crotchety old coot has hedged his bets. Sure, he officially joined with the Mackenzies’s neutral stance, so he can’t himself declare for Charles. But his son, noted wildcard and lover of poetry, could certainly have persuaded others among Lovat’s men to join with him on the side of the rebellion. And, by gosh, look at this, all of those pledged soldiers are right here, right now.
Whoever wins the war, Lord Lovat is covered. Were that we were all so lucky.
With the men busy politicking, Claire has plenty of time to plot her own schemes. While pacing through the castle, she bumps into Laoghaire Mackenzie, who gets down on her knees and begs for Claire’s forgiveness for that whole witch trial thing. Claire spitfires some insults at her until she realizes this girl might be valuable. Lovat has a weakling son, Simon, who wants to join the Jacobite cause but is too frightened of his father. Claire’s seen him make eyes at Laoghaire and hatches a plan to have Laoghaire seduce the young man and, thus, instill in him the confidence necessary to defy his father. (Considering Jamie’s Plan B-Z seems to be telling people his wife is the super-powered La Dame Blanche, which he does to the superstitious Lord Lovat here, Claire’s scheming doesn’t seem so far out of left field.)
In the end, Claire and Jamie’s hodgepodge of efforts works…kind of. Lovat signs a neutrality agreement with Colum, but newly emboldened Simon does stand up to his father. As the Lallybroch contingent—having evaded signing over their souls to Lovat—ride off with the lord’s son in tow, the old man himself intercedes to reveal his final card. The crotchety old coot has hedged his bets. Sure, he officially joined with the Mackenzies’s neutral stance, so he can’t himself declare for Charles. But his son, noted wildcard and lover of poetry, could certainly have persuaded others among Lovat’s men to join with him on the side of the rebellion. And, by gosh, look at this, all of those pledged soldiers are right here, right now.
Whoever wins the war, Lord Lovat is covered. Were that we were all so lucky.