Jamie is missing. For a girl who turns in mostly to see Claire and Jamie be in love, I wouldn’t have bet an episode with only one half of this couple would be this entertaining. But on her search for her husband, Claire tries on many different identities, and the show flirts with many different genres, to do whatever it takes to get what she needs.
With Jamie missing, and Ian missing his leg, Claire and Jenny are the only two who can feasibly go look for their missing laird. So the pair sets off on horseback, Jenny with a pistol on her back.
Just as I was wondering what women back then did when they were lactating, and just as I was about to roll my eyes at a new mother going on a trip (on horseback!) without any discomfort with her body, Jenny addressed the issue in the most straightforward way possible.
In an 18th century version of pumping, Jenny squeezed her breastmilk into a cup to relieve herself. And just like that, a normal occurrence for so many women was portrayed matter of factly on TV. Huzzah!
I would SO WATCH a show of just Claire and Jenny being outlaws. (Or maybe a reality show, Survivor: The Scottish Highlands–they aren’t here to make friends.) They are both headstrong and fiery, and they both have deep hearts and survivalist instincts. They push each other, and their skills and personalities complement each other so well that it’s a blast to watch. I pity the person who gets in their way–they both made it very clear they would do whatever it takes to get Jamie home.
After they take a courier at gunpoint and torture him for information, Claire first decides to bandage him up when they are done with him. But Jenny knows that if the soldier returns to his men, he will tell them about Jamie, putting them all at risk. As Claire struggles with the idea of killing this man, Murtagh, sent by Ian, arrives and does the deed for them, before calmly walking off to find them something to cook for dinner. Problem solved, I guess?
One of the standout moments on this episode full of so many is when Murtagh returns to Claire and Jenny after hunting for dinner. Murtagh offers the animal to each of them to prepare it to cook, but he should have known Claire and Jenny cook no man’s dinner they don’t want to. The side eye they give him is UNREAL.
Murtagh is such a delight, which was a lovely surprise since I couldn’t remember his name until this very episode. When Jenny heads back to Lallybroch to care for her newborn daughter, Murtagh comes up with a plan for he and Claire to lure Jamie out of hiding in the countryside.
Which is when we get to the Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman portion of the show. Murtagh and Claire travel from town to town calling as much attention to themselves as possible so word of mouth will spread that an English healer and a Fraser clansman dancer (just go with it) are in the area. When Jamie hears of the beautiful English healer, he will know it’s Claire and he will come to them.
Claire is no stranger to trying on different identities to make herself useful and to keep herself alive. Becoming a healer is what saved her when she first went back in time, and she returns to this tactic now, searching for Jamie.
But they abandon the healing part of the plan pretty quickly when Claire comes up with a catchy song for Murtagh to use in his dancing act. Only Murtagh wants Claire to sing it instead. And they have to change the words, he says, because what Scot in the 1700s would know what a Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy is, anyway.
So Claire changes her identity again and dons a sort of gypsy pantsuit (they’ll get more attention if a lass dresses up like a lad, according to Murtagh), and she sings on every stage she can. The song become so popular, in fact, that a group of gypsies steal the act for themselves. (And here we are all of a sudden in a show about a broadway musical with rival singers trying to upstage each other.)
This reminds me of how my friends and I have often talked about how we would know if someone polyjuice potions us–what’s the one fact that only you and your friend could know?–but now I’m thinking we also need a plan for how to covertly get each other’s attention if we were on enemy grounds. Murtagh uses the lyrics of a song that he knows Jamie will recognize. I can’t think of any situation where I would know my loved ones were calling out to me in code.
But this song works so well that not only Jamie knows it’s a signal, so does Dougal MacKenzie. (I mean really, did the MacKenzies decide on this song being a code in a clan meeting?)
When Claire gets a message to meet at Glenrowan Cross, she rushes off hoping to find Jamie. Imagine her disappointment when she sees it’s Dougal instead.
Dougal is a worm, but his scene with Claire is wonderful because she drops (almost) all her acts in her last-ditch desperate plan to get Jamie back. Dougal tells Claire that Jamie has been captured, and he’s due for hanging any day now. In a super sleazeball move, Dougal then proposes to Claire under the pretense of keeping her safe after Jamie is gone. Claire sees his marriage proposal for what it is, a play to get the Fraser’s land. Her sharp wit and disgust at Dougal’s tactics come through loud and clear, as does her love for Jamie. This is Claire’s true heart. She is not only a healer or a wanderer, she is a tough, smart woman who does what she needs to survive and help those she loves. Claire is not acting or pretending with Dougal; she is her fiercest self.
After she comes up with a plan to help Jamie, Claire plays one more role as the Laird’s Lady begging for the MacKenzies to help her break Jamie out of prison. They agree, and set off, outlaws once more.