After six months of waiting, Outlander is finally back with its ninth episode called “The Reckoning.” The first half of the season is filled with drama and romance for Claire Beauchamp who travelled back in time to 1743 Scotland and encountered another love. After leaving us with a huge cliff-hanger last year, the show has been greatly missed and its return is much highly-anticipated. Well, here are some of the highlights in the latest episode of Outlander:
The rescue. The eight
episode left off with a scene of Black Jack Randall almost raping Claire, but
was interrupted by Jamie’s sudden arrival. In “The Reckoning,” there is a flash
back as to how Jamie and the crew came to save her. In accomplishing her wish
to touch the standing stones of Craigh na Dun, Claire is instead kidnapped by
the Redcoats, led by Randall of course, and taken to Fort Williams. Jamie
learns about the abduction from a Mr. Horrocks. In order to prevent killing
anyone and raising conflict with the Redcoats, Jamie and his men raid the Fort
with unloaded guns. This action turns out to be a good bluff for Randall. In the
end, the crew rescues Claire with a huge explosion in the Fort.
First fight. As Jamie
puts it, Claire’s action has put all men in jeopardy. Opposed to the order of
remaining with her guard, Claire evades and is consequently caught by the Redcoats.
Though the operation is successful, Jamie is pissed off that Claire did not
obey her order. Claire, being the outspoken and hard-headed woman from another
place and time, justifies herself and the arguments turn bitter and heated. Though
they have insulted each other more than they meant, they reconcile. But nah,
the fight does not end there. Later, in order to assure that Claire will not
really disobey him again, Jamie beats her with his belt in accordance to their custom.
Claire is not happy with this sadistic and Fifty-Shades-of-Grey-like method and
this led to conflict between them.
Return to Castle
Leoch. After the incident, the team returns to Castle Leoch. As the people
already heard about the wedding in advance, Jamie and his men are greeted with
a huge party. But Colum McKenzie, laird of the castle, is not too pleased with
the idea that his successor has married a Sassenach or outlander.
Warring brothers.
The McKenzie brothers, always at odds with each other, have openly expressed
their feud against each other. Colum learns about the effort to raise fund for
the Jacobite army behind his back and he takes the collected gold coins away. Angry,
Dougal lashes out at him and even reveals to Jamie and Ned Gowan that Colum’s
son Hamish is his child. But at the end, through Jamie’s advise, the brothers
reach a certain compromise.
Renewed vow. Desperate
to make amends with Claire, Jamie swears another vow to her, this time with his
knife as the witness. Though Claire is quite unsure about what to do, her
feelings toward him gets the better of her. And yes, the two ends up with some
hot steamy roll on the floor (beware Game of Thrones!). Later, Jamie asks her
about what she meant with “fucking bastard” and “sadist,” words which are not
spoken in his time. Claire answers him, but still keeps secret about her true
story.
The ill wish. Before
the show ended, Claire finds a strange bundle of branches and leaves under
their bed. According to Jamie, it is an ill wish and it can even mean death. Jamie
can think of only one person to do it – Laoghaire, the distraught virgin who he
cannot never love.
FINAL THOUGHTS. The ninth episode of Outlander is truly a great come back. It is full of actions, story
lines and nudities. It is very exciting and contrary to most previous episodes,
it is fast-paced. I hope the incoming episodes will be as thrilling as this and
not take on a sluggish turn. There are several things I really look forward to,
such as Black Jack Randall’s counteraction against Jamie and Claire. He is a
cunning and vengeful man so I am really curious as to how he will respond to
the raid’s success. Also, up to what extend will Laoghaire do to destroy Jamie’s
and Claire’s romance? A bitter person can only do so much. Lastly, what happen
to Frank, Claire’s future husband? Has he totally forgotten about her? I have
not read Gabaldon’s books so I am very clueless as to what events to expect. Hopefully,
some of these questions will be addressed in the upcoming tenth episode.
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