Outlander Recap: “Lallybroch”

“Take me home to Lallybroch.”

Those were the last words that Claire spoke to Jamie in last week’s episode of Outlander and in last night’s episode taking Claire to his ancestral home is exactly what Jamie does.

On the final approach to Broch Tuarach, Claire and Jamie are caught in a conversation where she is telling him about airplanes and flying. The look of wonderment on Jamie’s face is abundantly clear, but the look of bittersweet joy on his face as they peer down at the home he has not seen in four years is palpable.

Jamie is obviously pleased to finally be home, being able to see his beloved sister Jenny and bring his wife home; but there is also a great deal of sadness because his father is no longer with them and the memories of his last, fateful day at Lallybroch is still firmly set in his mind.

The starkest memory is that of Black Jack Randall whipping and then knocking out a restrained Jamie and fondling Jenny’s body. Jamie tells Claire that there were rumors that Randall took advantage of Jenny, which resulted in a bastard child; and when Claire approaches a young boy sitting outside Lallybroch, Jamie is convinced the rumors are true.

And when he learns from his extremely surprised sister that the lad is named after him, Jamie is upset that she would give his name to Randall’s bastard; and worse yet, that she is pregnant again. In short order, though, he learns that “wee Jamie” and the baby are actually the children of Ian Murray, Jenny’s husband, and Jamie’s best friend.

The family reunion is, of course, tampered because of the current ill-feelings between the siblings; and to make matters worse, Jamie asks Jenny to tell him what happened with Randall after he was taken to Fort William. Begrudgingly, she recounts that extremely unpleasant encounter “once and only once” to him, Claire and her husband Ian. It would seem that Randall could not get himself “prepared” to take her; and in a nervous reaction to the situation, Jenny kept laughing at him, which made him slap her about eventually knocking her. When she awoke, Randall was gone and she was unharmed. That was the last time she ever saw him.

Later that same day, Jamie told Claire about the last time he saw his father. It was at Fort William a week after his first flogging at the hands of Randall. Brian Fraser was there to attempt to get his son out of the prison, but to no avail. Jamie also explained the truth behind his second flogging: Randall made it abundantly clear that he wanted Jamie’s body, given to him freely; but Jamie refused and he was flogged again. It was during this second flogging that his father Brian took his last breath.

Over the course of the next few days, the rents were collected with all of the villagers arriving at Broch Tuarach, greeting Jamie as the Laird and Claire as his Lady; and the infamous scene of Jamie attempting to repair the mill wheel. It was during this time that Jenny saw, for the first time, the scars on Jamie’s back, leading to the siblings eventually mending fences.

The next to the last scene of the episode found Jamie and Claire sharing a tender moment together with Claire admitting that she is finally starting to feel at home in his time and with Jamie admitting when he first fell in love with her. She then said those three little words for the first time: “I love you.”

Everybody else had goosebumps during that scene, right?

The final scene was the next morning with Claire discovering five heavily armed men inside Lallybroch with Jamie right in the center of it all; and the main man threatening that if Jamie make a move Claire would pay the price.

What did you think of the latest episode of Outlander? Please share your thoughts below.

And remember the next episode of Outlander will air on Starz on Saturday, April 25 at 9/8c.