Recap: Outlander episode 14 – what Claire is willing to do to find Jamie

Outlander episode 14

Outlander “The Search” Episode 14 (original airdate May 9, 2015) The staff at Lallybroch is in a scurry preparing to search for their missing laird. Jenny is delegating the tasks with her newborn baby in arm. Ian (Steven Cree) is frustrated — recouping in a chair, with his arm in a sling — and demands to know what Claire’s (Caitriona Balfe) plan is.

OUT_114-3“I intend to get my husband back,” she tells.

Clearly, she can’t go alone and Ian knows it. He tries to take a moment to gather his strength, but the man lost his leg (his fake one this time) in the raid and is simply incapable of helping. Jenny tells him he’s not going anywhere with a wounded arm. Ian wants to gather the tenants to assist Claire’s, but the Sassenach will have none of it.

“We have to do something — our laird is in the clutches of the English,” Ian pleads.

Claire thinks that if they engage with the British army to rescue Jamie than Lallybroch could face retribution from the crown. “And your laird would not want that to happen, especially on his account.”

As Claire mounts her horse and prepares to leave, Jenny (Laura Donnelly) comes storming out of the castle — pistols strapped to her bodice.

“Where on Earth do you think you are going? You just gave birth. You can’t leave,” Claire scolds.

But it’s Claire that needs the reality check, as Jenny reminds that she is the one who is not at all familiar with the land nor does she have skills for tracking soldiers. Claire knew she was right, and that she could only survive off the land for a few days. So the ladies set off, with badass Jenny leading the charge.

Claire’s impressed by Jenny’s instinctive hunting skills —  as she does one of those Bear Grylls-like survival/hunting technique touching horse dung to gauge the distance of the soldiers. The ladies find MacQuarrie’s men, crows picking at their bloodied corpses. They follow the tracks until Jenny needs to make a stop.

“I’m bursting,” Jenny calls out. Claire thinks it’s just a potty break, but for Jenny it’s a time to relieve her engorged breasts (remember, she just had the bairn like what – two days ago. This girl is a warrior!). Next we see Jenny hand-pumping her breast milk into a cup. (Oh gawd, please tell me she’s not going to drink that). “I had no idea it flowed like that,” Claire says, observing the healthy flow Jenny’s got going (close up and all — though I’m sure Claire’s not the only one to be educated by this).

“It’s a nuisance. Everything to do with bairns is a nuisance, almost — but still, I’d never choose not to have them,” Jenny says.

“No you wouldn’t choose that,” Claire pains, turning her back to Jenny, and then questioning if Jenny thinks they will ever be able to find Jamie.

“We have to,” Jenny says. If the soldiers get to Fort William before they do Jenny’s afraid Jack Randall might finally finish what he started.

But Claire has a plan on bypassing Randall altogether by bargaining with Lord Thomas, he’s the commander of the British army and Randall’s superior. Claire believes he took a “shining” to her when she met him and from what she observed she thinks he holds an equal hatred to Randall.

“Sounds like a prayer, more than a plan,” Jenny assesses. Then she chucks out her milk, and sets off.

OutlanderThey come upon the British camp where they are able to spy on them from a hill. They can see MacQuarrie (Douglas Henshall) being held captive but there’s no sign of Jamie. Claire fears the headstrong Fraser in Jamie may have gotten him killed. Jenny thinks otherwise. They observe one of the soldiers as he is handed a letter and sets off on horse, ready to take advantage of the opportunity. As the soldier approaches, Jenny throws herself in front of him almost causing him to trample her. He gets off his horse to help the lass but instead meets two pistols to his face — one from Claire and the other from Jenny. Next, it’s Jenny taking the end of a shotgun and ramming into the soldier’s face, hoping it will trigger his memory on seeing the redheaded Scot they are seeking. But that’s not working so Jenny turns to her next torture strategy – a metal rod placed in the fire for some bottom-of-the-foot branding. Claire begs the soldier to talk so this torture can end. When that fails Jenny suggests she brands his bullocks next. “I’m just a courier,” the man begs. But before Jenny can inflict any more pain, Claire stops her as she rummages through the his bag, where she finds a sealed envelope.

The soldier warns: “If you break that seal …[insert the sound of RIPPING] you’ll both hang.”

The letter states that they were taking Jamie to the sheriff when he escaped and now the soldiers are searching for him. This dispatch is asking the Garrison at Fort Williams to help find Jamie, Jenny informs. She rips up the letter so no one will ever know he’s escaped. As the ladies consider where he may have gone they rule out Lallybroch, as that’s the first place the soldiers would look. Jenny suggests they go north, deeper into the highlands. The Garrison won’t dare stray that far from supplies and their men, as it would be too chancy, Jenny says.

Claire starts to get some of her medical supplies to bandage the soldier’s foot, but Jenny stops her. They can’t possibly let him live, as surely he will blabber about Jamie and Lallybroch, she explains. Claire seems horrified at what Jenny is suggesting. Jenny, however, is not about to be judged by Claire and challengers her on it. “I won’t be judged by you, Claire. I can see in your eyes you don’t agree.” Jenny tells her there is no room for sentiment here, but their disagreement is settled at the hands of Murtagh Fitzgibbons (Duncan Lacroix), who puts a knife in his neck.

“Next time hide your tracks better. I followed until I heard the screams, “Murtagh tells them. He instructs them to set up camp as he goes off to fetch them some super.

But Jenny’s not done with their conversation. “Love forces a person to choose. You do things you never imagined you would do before,” Jenny says.

“I wasn’t judging you,” Claire retaliates back to her. “I just know that if Murtagh hadn’t turned up when he did, I would have done it myself.”

That evening over a campfire, Claire and Jenny share with one another how they learned their varied outdoor survival skills. Murtagh says from what he’s seen so far, the two of them are “natural outlaws.” In the morning, Jenny prepares to go back to Lallybroch to take care of her daughter, but before she leaves she passes along a knife she got from Ian and tells Claire to hide it in her stockings.

Feeling like this could be the last time she talks to Jenny, Claire gets prophetic. She tells Jenny to lump potatoes, and a lot of them (despite the vegetable not typically being grown). “There will be a famine — a bad one, in two years. Any land or property you have that’s not productive sell it now for gold. A war is coming — slaughter, men will be hunted throughout the Highlands.”

Jenny said that Jamie had told her that Claire might tell her things that might not make any sense, and if she did she needed to listen to her. They embrace. “God go with you now Claire,” Jenny says. “I can leaving knowing you will do whatever it takes to bring my brother back.”

OutlanderMurtagh has a plan but it doesn’t involve them finding Jamie, but Jamie finding them. Murtagh brought the rest of her medicines so Claire could establish a reputation around the land as a healer so they attract attention. And with that their road show goes live —traveling openly and slowly, stopping at every chance they have to help the sick and injured, while secretly working the villagers (Claire telling fortunes) to get knowledge on Jamie.

“Trust me, Jamie will come to us,” Murtagh tells a losing-the-faith-quickly Claire.

Murtagh is getting frustrated that no one seems to appreciate his performances, so Claire suggests he starts singing a little to spice things up. Something toe-tapping like … the boogie-woogie bugle boy of company B, she tells him. Ah ha! Next thing, Claire’s in stinky, lad-like clothing singing a Scottish song to the tune of it, and the people love it. The lyrics however have meaning to Jamie and is the message they need to get to him. Before long posters start lining villages promoting The Sassenach — only it’s not Claire as the headliner.

The next village they come upon they discover a copycat who has stolen their act. While 1743 lacked in any copyright infringement laws, Claire tries to make an emotional plea to the opportunist gypsy known as Seorise Ward (Martin Brody). But Ward sees through her and calls her out as being a respected English lady who is posing as an entertainer — but most likely for politics or love.

Outlander“It’s not politics,” Claire tells. “I’m searching for my husband. And I have to sing that song. Once I find him, I promise you, I will never set foot on stage again.”

She hands Ward the money Jenny had given her, and asks for his word that he won’t perform the song again.

Murtagh disagrees with what she has done, thinking Claire would have been better off just dropping that money in a ditch. “I have to believe that a man who looks you in the eyes and gives you his word that he will keep it,” Claire tells him. Silly woman, she should know better. But Murtagh thinks the gypsy will keep singing the song and that Jamie won’t know which song to come to, and he suggests she goes home to Lallybroch.

Claire refuses and pulls rank — reminding him that as the Laird’s lady she outranks him and will continue singing that song until she finds him. And she sings and sings and sings and sings …

Finally fed up, Murtagh claims he’s a fool for following her. You are stubborn and will not listen to anyone else but yourself, he lashes out at her. You insisted on carrying on and singing that song and still no sign of Jamie. Claire, too, is frustrated and thinks Murtagh has no understanding of what it really is like to lose someone who you love. But Murtagh has suffered from lost love.

“I lost someone at the MacKenzie gathering many years ago,” he tells. She had another suitor so to prove himself worthy, he tells, “to be the kind of man that she desired, I alone killed a wounded bore using just a dagger.” The MacKenzies were so impressed he was given the tusks, and Murtagh had them made into bracelets, where he gave them to the lass as her wedding gift.

Outlander episode 14“It was you,” Claire realizes, pulling the bracelets from her bag. (Those would be the same bracelets Jenny said her mother had received from an admirer, which she passed down to Claire.)

Murtagh explains that she’s not the only one who loves Jamie, “he’s a son to me.”

Claire’s overcome wih sadness, and she sobs in his arms. The next morning, Claire rids herself of her boyish costume and returns to her normal attire and they begin a new strategy. At another new village Claire is telling fortunes when the gypsy Ward sits down at her table. “I broke my word. We’ve been performing your song and doing quite well at it,” he confesses.

Claire’s outraged and tells that she had heard gypsies weren’t to be trusted. Ward says he is there in the name of love and has received a message that was meant for Claire. He, of course, won’t give the message without some money. Claire says she’ll give him nothing and suggests he leaves before Murtagh really takes care of him.

But the gypsy has a change of heart and relays the message and location where they are told to go to “with all do haste.” Murtagh is familiar with the spot and confirms Jamie would be too. Claire kisses the gypsy and they set off.

Outlander episode 14As they race to the entrance of a secluded cave Claire calls out to Jamie in excitement, but instead she finds Dougal (Graham McTavish) waiting. You can stop your searching, Dougal tells them. Jamie’s alive. He was taken by the Red Coats, drawn by Claire’s song. “He is in Wentworth Prison,” Dougal says. “Stood trial three days ago and is scheduled to hang today, the day after — not long.” Gulp.

Dougal tells Murtagh that he needs to have a word with the lady alone. He grabs Claire’s hands and tells her that he understands that she is grieving, but she has to let Jamie go. [Slow down fella, he’s not dead yet— why the hell would she do that …]

“You said he was still alive,” Claire looks at him with disgust. “There must be something we can do.”

There is, Dougal says, “Come back with me, I can protect you as your husband.”

Repulsed at the thought, Claire says she will do no such thing. “Have you no shame. … What about Geillis? I thought she was your true soul mate? Your star-crossed lover carrying your forbidden child. Both of them burned at the stake and here you are looking for another woman, her friend, to warm your bed …”

But Dougal isn’t about to talk about Geillis. He tries to sell Claire on the idea that once Jamie is dead Randall will come after her and Lallybroch and the only way to keep them all safe is for Claire to come under his protection. But then the epiphany. Dougal wants to control the Fraser land! “That’s why you kept Jamie away for years telling him his sister bore Randall’s child. Because you were hoping for the opportunity to bring them under the MacKenzie banner, before the rightful laird could return.”

While Dougal asks, if marrying me was the only way to keep you out of that bastard’s hands, than Jamie would tell you to do it.

But Claire wants to know how many men are with Dougal. He’s got 10. Dougal laughs at the propsect and tells her there is no way they can get him out of Wentworth Prison. Claire snidely reminds that Jamie rescued her from a prison with just a handful of men.

“What’s the matter, are you scared that you are not as good as him?” Claire challenges.

Dougal’s not going to fall for her ways. “You’re blinded by love, wishing for things that can never be,” Dougal says.

Dougal thinks he will be dead before she gets there. “If there’s a chance that I can save him then I have to try,” she says. If she fails or if he’s already dead, she will agree to marry him.

“I’m not forcing my men to go to their deaths, but I won’t stand in the way of any of the men that choose to go,” Dougal says. They shake on their agreement.

OutlanderWhen Claire approaches the MacKenzie clan to get them to help fight for Jamie, not a one steps forward. “I know Jamie would come for every single one of you,” Claire pleas. Then the younger Willie  (Finn Den Hertog) tells how Jamie has always watched out for him and states that he would be willing to do whatever Mistress Claire needs, and then Angus Mhor (Stephen Walters) and Rupert MacKenzie (Grant O’Rourke) followed. And they set off for Wentworth hoping they aren’t too late.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 Comment

  1. I wanted to know what the words are to the song to the tune of Boogie Woogie Buggle Boy of Company B that Claire sings in episode 14 that is to get Jaime’s attention.

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