Stephanie: Hi Catherine! We’re back for another week chatting about Outlander. First, can I say how fitting it felt watching rolling Scottish hills on a rainy spring day? So, “The Watch” kept a slower pace than previous episodes as we seem to be settling at Jamie’s Lallybroch estate, but tension filled every scene. In last week’s cliffhanger, we were left with Jamie held at gunpoint. A band of local men mistake Jamie for a thief at the estate-and naturally want to offer their protection. A deft lie from Jenny convinces the men that Jamie is her cousin, and certainly not her brother with a price on his head. Welcoming these men into the house creates an immediate danger if they discover Jamie’s secret before that pardon they are forever waiting on comes in. Jenny and Ian have clearly been haggled before and choose to put up with the men’s rude intrusion to their home. Jamie seems to restrain himself every moment the men take up space in his home.
Catherine: This gang that shows up, the Watch, is a blow for Jamie. Jenny and Ian are paying the Watch for protection from the British which is galling for Jamie because he believes he should be protecting everyone from the British. Which he can’t do while he’s on the run. And it’s clear Ian can’t defend the lands as he’d like to so it’s up to someone else- paid mercenaries. I read a Sir Walter Scott novel long ago that dealt with this. It was usually clans that were paid by the people for protection against the British and other thieves and marauders. With Jamie on the run, someone has to be the muscle and in this case, the muscle is hired. Jamie mentions that he thought he’d finally be safe at Lallybroch but isn’t that where he’s least safe? Ah, Jamie. For the first time (and likely not the last), Claire orders Jamie to keep his temper around the Watch. She’s counseling him with the same advice he told her not too long ago about her temper. Those two are cut out of the same cloth.
Stephanie: For as lovely and quaint as the exterior shots of the estate are, Outlander frequently de-romanticizes the time period by highlighting the dangerous realities of the times. Paid protection was likely that era’s version of home security. I mean, you’ve got guns sure, but any band of two or three could overtake Jenny and Ian. It makes sense Jamie has such frustration seeing this played out, but given Jamie’s own secret, he has no choice but to play along. When one of the men, Horrocks. recognizes Jamie as Laird and of course wants a bribe, Jamie makes the best move he can to pay him and send him off. It’s a risk even knowing Horrocks is out there, but what more can he do to stay on the straight and narrow?. And what a turn that Ian ends up stabbing Horrocks! That was unexpected. Even Jamie seems surprised at the turn in Ian, even though Ian is a former soldier himself. Ian is visibly shaken when he tries to sheath his sword without bothering to wipe the blood from it.
Catherine: You had to pay for protection during that time otherwise you’d be a sitting duck. The police wouldn’t be invented for the next one hundred years. The Watch reminds me a little bit of the Mafia. You pay them and they kinda screw you (burn your hay for winter, eat your food, etc) but it’s better than having no protection from other lawless groups. It was surprising that Ian advocated for the motley crew, particularly the leader, Taran MacQuarrie. Wanting to hang out with dudes that don’t look at him like a freak would be a natural and great desire. Ian gets two-fold from MacQuarrie, both protection for the lands and people and a few good social hours. From such a gentle person, it was a surprise to see that the knife blade that ran through Horrocks was Ian’s. No doubt he thought his war service in France was the last time he’d need to kill. Jamie is very fortunate to have a brother-in-law guarding his back. Or guards his “weak side” as his sister said when she was reminiscing about Jamie and Ian growing up, playing together, fighting together, and eventually going to war together too. Back then Scotland had very strong ties with France and each country aided each other in war. Jamie and Ian going to war in France wasn’t unexpected. In one scene, MacQuarrie pulls out a silver clock in the shape of skull and says it was from Queen Mary’s household. She was ruler of Scotland for a time (before being beheaded by Queen Elizabeth I) and she had a French accent from growing up in France, despite being the Queen of Scotland. That was about a hundred and fifty years before Outlander but the ties with France were still strong in this time too.
Stephanie: There’s so much historical detail that can’t be fully captured in a TV adaptation, but points to Outlander for working in what they can. I’ve always appreciated watching movie adaptations as supplemental to learning about a time period, and I’m definitely intrigued to learn more about Scottish history after watching this. So, parallel to what’s going with with Jamie and the Watch, Jenny goes into labor. Of course the village midwife is off somewhere, and Claire is it as far as medical anything. Yup, Claire, YOU are the hosptial. Oh, and the baby is breech. Welcome to your new life! I love Jenny’s comment that the baby will come into a the world a true Scot if Mama Jenny can drink to get through the birth. Back then, what else could they do? No wonder so many women died in childbirth. So much can go wrong. I wanted to strangle the man from the Watch for making a crack at Jenny’s childbirth moans heard all the way downstairs. Dude, if only.
Catherine: I have to admit, the former goth in me adored that small historical detail of the skull watch. It also had a fitting and morbid Latin inscription, which Jamie translated as he read it aloud. I’d been wondering if Queen Mary would come up at any point and I’m glad she did, even for one bright crazy moment. I can’t help liking MacQuarrie for having that little timepiece even if he got it by stealing. He’s going to be an interesting character to watch.
Jenny’s pregnancy was a slow affair. It was sorta leisurely and took two days till towards the end when everything picked up. I liked how the episode showed her pregnancy, not a break neck affair but one that took time. It’s way more realistic. How the men ate, re-shoed horses, broke each other’s heads, and other la-di-das was both realistic for them and enraging. Jamie’s busy strutting around like an angry rooster in front of the Watch while his sister could be dying and Ian’s not too far behind Jamie. And then those two kill Horrocks while she’s screaming in the castle. I just don’t know. A theme for this episode could be, “Men Fight While Women Birth.” Jenny herself is quite casual about the whole process even though she does have a few moments of wondering when she’ll make it herself. Finding Jamie’s old wooden snake that his brother carved for him long ago and handing it over to Claire was a sweet touch. Outlander gives a real sense of the characters’ past in little touches like that.
Stephanie: It was surprising that Claire didn’t go on a modern-era tirade about men being out-and-about while Jenny gave birth. Then again, her future time in the 1940s didn’t exactly welcome men into the birthing room. Regardless, it seems like an ideal set up for Claire to again bemoan gender roles. Jenny’s birth brings Claire obvious anguish about her own difficulty at conceiving, which she confesses to Jamie. Another reaction that surprised me-Jamie listens, then says maybe they are better off not being able to have children given how much can go wrong. But when Claire leaves the room, it’s pretty clear this news is a blow to Jamie. Our Romance Hero is going to be supportive yes, but he’s also going to be sad-just not in front of Claire because that would tarnish his hero coat of arms. Right? Jamie is truly constructed as perfect as he can be. I really do like Jamie, but he can’t do much wrong. Even when he’s caught by Redcoats … again!
Catherine: A laird not having children is unthinkable for this time. Look at Colum MacKenzie. He found out his son Hamish is his brother’s Dougal’s son, not his own and he still kept the child. A male heir is beyond value to this culture and for Jamie to be okay with not having one? He may be the perfect Hero but there needed to be one moment to show how the loss of a heir hit him. It was a very small moment but at least there was one. It’ll be interesting to see how the failure to produce an heir will play on these two. The solution for an heir may be Jenny’s son, little Jamie, and adoption wasn’t unknown then neither. As for Jamie falling into a trap? “All too easy,” to quote Darth Vader. Jamie’s barely beyond Lallybroch and he’s caught. I’d rather never see Black Jack again but we better prepare ourselves. Now that Jamie is a redcoat prisoner, there’ll likely be another standoff between the two next Saturday. What horrors will Black Jack come up this time? We’ll find out next week. See you then!
Catherine Eaton is a contributor to The Stake. Catherine is a writer living in a western suburb of Chicago. She blogs over at sparrowpost.com and enjoys foraging around the neighborhood in her spare time.
Stephanie Scott is a Young Adult writer living in the western Chicago suburbs. Library superfan, award-winning TV-binger, and she just might be your cat’s new best friend. She tweets at @StephScottYA.
