Outlander Episode 6 Recap – The Garrison Commander

Previously on Outlander… lots of references to Black Jack Randall, just in case you forgot all about him while swooning over Jamie.

Let me take the opportunity to point out, while the opening titles roll, that I won’t be making a lot of jokes about this episode. It was… perfect. But it was also terribly intense. No laughing matter. By the way… amazing music and images as a backdrop to the episode’s title. Totally sets the mood.

We start at last week’s cliffhanger. Claire saves Dougal’s ass by saying she is a guest of clan MacKenzie. Nevertheless, cute Lieutenant Foster wants Claire to go see his commander. Damn! We were so close. So they go. Because where Claire goes, so does Dougal. They must have texted the others about their field trip, right? Claire voices over about how happy she is of being surrounded by her people, the English. I have a slight suspicion that won’t last long.

When they arrive at the village, cute Lieutenant Foster takes Claire and Dougal to a big room where a lot of soldier are having lunch. How rude! General Lord Thomas presiding over the table is way too excited about meeting a “lovely English rose”. It looks like he hasn’t seen a woman in years. And he looks like a total idiot. He invites Claire to sit down and Dougal just stands behind her. All tall and serious. Is Dougal kinda hot or is it just me? The English start making fun of Dougal’s accent and they call him “the creature”. Basically, they are asses in wigs. Claire comes to the rescue and Dougal elaborates. I love those two. As a further insult, General what’s-his-name starts teasing Dougal about his “skirt”. Really, so NOT a good idea. When chaos is about to start, Claire puts them all in their place. “You do know how to order men around”, says the General. “Aye, she does that”, answers Dougal. Is that a proud smirk I see, my dear Dougal? But he is shooed out of the room.

So they eat, they drink, they laugh. Foster looks hot when he smiles, by the way. Claire tells her “story” and it’s decided that cute Lieutenant Foster will accompany Claire back to Inverness. She looks excited. I mean, wouldn’t we all be? But all her happiness and hope comes crumbling down when there’s an interruption in the form of Captain Jonathan Randall, aka Black Jack Randall, aka the sadist from hell. Damn! We were so close!

Let me just say that Tobias Menzies does an amazing job. He looks completely different than when he portrays Frank. His posture, his voice, his mannerism, the way he moves his mouth. It’s a totally different person. After being quite rude and not caring about it, he explains that he barged in to tell them that Dougal is in the building. Yeah… newsflash… we already knew that. On top of all, General Thomas suggests the worst idea ever: that Randall should be the one to take Claire to Inverness, so he can have the opportunity to hear Claire’s tale. Yikes. “Mrs. Beauchamp Among the Savages!”, he says, and don’t tell me it doesn’t sound like the title of a romantic novel. The back and forth between Claire and Randall in this scene is absolutely amazing, and Randall very cleverly manages to make Claire defend the Scots over the English. Dougal would be so proud he would be hugging her. But oops! That ain’t the correct thing to say in front of English soldiers. Claire is saved by the bell. Or rather… by an Red Coat barging into the room (does no one knock?) saying there are wounded men downstairs. Off goes Claire to play doctor.

When Claire comes downstairs he meets a very worried Dougal who asks her if she’s alright. Huge aaaaaawwwww everyone. He truly looks worried. After confirming the attack wasn’t made by Jamie and the others, Claire tells Dougal to hide so he won’t be held responsible. A very crude and horrible amputation takes place and, trust me, it won’t be the worst thing you’ll see in this episode.

When Claire goes back to the dinning hall, she finds Corporal Hawkins shaving Randall. Which brings us to a flashback of Claire shaving Frank with exactly the same blade Randall is using. A family heirloom, you see. Which totally spoils this intimate and sweet moment. By the way… you really shouldn’t have sharp things near Black Jack. You really shouldn’t. So Black Jack apologizes to Claire for their first encounter (say what?) and tells her he’ll reveal his true nature to her. That sounds ominous.

The interrogation scene is so perfect, you must watch it at least twice. It was perfect in the book and it is beyond perfect on screen. The tension is palpable. And not only Tobias Menzies is sublime as Randall, but also Caitriona Balfe as Claire. Her scene telling the story about her lover stationed in Scotland was great. You can totally see her not being able to lie even to save her life. I was worried about how they would be able to portray Claire’s inability to lie, her “glass face”. But Caitriona is outstanding. Everything she is thinking translates into her face.

The moment when everything goes quiet and Randall draws on the napkin is so full of tension!!! And then he heads-on asks her about Dougal’s rebellious activities and his support to the Stuart cause. Claire, stays mum and he threatens her to use methods other than words. Yikes, this is going to get ugly really soon. Claire, who really needs to learn how to keep her mouth shut, mentions the subject of flogging and how he cut the back of a “poor highlander boy” to the bone. Seriously, I would have never described Jamie as a ”poor highlander boy”. Anyways… moving on.

Now that his favorite subject was brought up, Randall takes exquisite pleasure in taking us through a very gruesome flashback, telling us the story of how he flogged Jamie almost to his death. In the midst of this horrible flashback, I take a little comfort in seeing Jamie carefully fold his ruined shirt as if it was made of the purest silk. That’s a little flash of Jamie’s personality. Another one is when he tells Randall to hurry up before he freezes. You have to remember Jamie was only 19 years old when this happened.

The flashback scene where Randall uses the cat-o-nine-tails to flog Jamie are terrible to watch. It was terrible to read in the book and it’s terrible to watch. Even though I have to admit, they did treat the scene very carefully, not just blood and gore everywhere for the sake of shock value. But what’s worse, is seeing and listening to Randall re-tell the story. That made my stomach turn. He was actually enjoying it. I know book purists will say that Dougal is the one who tells this story to Claire, as a character illustration of Jamie. But we will get plenty of scenes where we will see Jamie’s character and true nature. Having Randall tell his side of the story sets his character in stone. I think it was a brilliant choice to have Randall tell the tale. In addition, Tobias Menzies performance is flawless. He adds so many layers to an already complicated character. When he says “I saw the beauty of it. That boy and I were creating a masterpiece. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen”… I swear a chill went down my spine. He is so depraved, he is relishing every moment of it. When Jamie looses consciousness and just hangs there by his arms, I couldn’t help think of his poor father who was there watching (Bonus Points for the one who was able to spot Brian Fraser in the crowd).

Again, the next bit of this scene speaks volumes in favor of Tobias Menzies’ performance. After witnessing what he did to Jamie and hearing him describe the fact that he enjoyed doing it, he then goes on to actually make us feel sorry for Randall. To pity him. Even Claire believes in the redemption of his soul. I know the writing both from the book and the episode’s script is perfect, but only a truly great actor could deliver those lines and make us believe even after seeing what we just saw.

Yeah… No. He has no soul. After building Claire’s hopes up, he goes on to punch her really hard in her stomach leaving her with no breath and totally heartbroken. Not only that, but he has Corporal Hawkins kick her in the stomach as well. Just when we are about to turn off the TV cuz we can’t watch any longer, in comes Dougal looking like Lucifer himself. Dougal, threatening war, gets Claire out of the room. But Randalls tells him he has to hand her over in Fort William the following day.

After all the horrible things we’ve witness, the show rewards us with a beautiful crane shot of a Highland spring. Dougal has stopped to have Claire drink some water. In the meantime, he takes the opportunity to ask her again if she is a spy. Really, again? Claire is really annoyed by now with this question but answers nonetheless. This time, Dougal believes her. Huh? St Ninian’s Spring, he explains. Huh? Apparently if you drink from it and then lie, your innards will burn. Charming. But this little bit of superstition is what saves Claire, so we shouldn’t complain about it.

Ok, Dougal believes her now, but there’s still the wee problem that they have to hand her over to Randall. Dougal has a plan, a looks very proud about it. They’ll be turning her from an Englishwoman to a Scot. How, you may ask? Well… they’ll marry her to a Scot. Claire doesn’t look so thrilled with the idea and even is angry at Dougal thinking she’ll have to marry him. Really, Claire. He is only trying to protect you. And he hasn’t been so bad this far. Can you give the lad a break? Besides, Dougal is nominating someone much more interesting for the position. you should be happy about it.

Cut to Claire reading a marriage contract while playing with her gold wedding ring. One thing, though. On the marriage contract you can plainly read Jamie’s full name. As a long time reader of the book and a fan of Jamie, reading his name for the very first time on screen gave me all the feels. But that split second of ink on paper robbed me of my ultimate favorite Jamie scene: when he reveals his full name to Claire! Now we won’t have Claire saying “but I can’t marry you! I don’t even know your name!” cuz… duh! she just read it. Oh, and another thing. Claire’s full name is Claire Elizabeth Beauchamp. The contract was missing her middle name.

And there comes Jamie, bringing the alcohol. Claire asks him if he is willing to marry her. Oh yes, he is willing. She tries another approach. “A young man like yourself”… Just say it Claire… a hot dude like you must have plenty girls waiting for him. Well, no, he says. There’s the little fact that he has a price on his head, no money, no job. No father would want that for his daughter. Don’t worry, Jamie. We still want you.

Claire has one last go at trying to free herself of this situation: “doesn’t it bother you that I’m not a virgin?”

Wait for it.

Wait for it.

“Well, no. So long as it doesna bother you that I am. I reckon one of us should ken what they are doing”.

Yes, thank you very much. 10 years waiting to hear that line and it delivered. Sam, hat’s off to you, lad.

Episode ends with Claire walking away with a bottle of booze and Murtagh having the best smirk everrrrrrrrrrr!