Outlander Recap: “Faith”

The ramifications of Claire rushing off to stop Jamie from dueling Captain Black Jack Randall in last night’s new episode of Outlander had dire consequences!

But first we had a surprise opening scene of a young girl looking through books about birds only to discover that it was Claire’s young daughter in Boston 1954. That little girl was pale with long, curly red hair and there was no doubt whatsoever who her father was. When asked by the little girl what kind of bird she was looking at in the book, her mother answered that it was a Heron, which she had seen in Scotland. A slight slip of the tongue by Claire, who was told in no uncertain terms by her husband Frank that she was never to speak of Jamie or her time in Scotland. (I wonder how inquisitive that will make her little girl).

The next few scenes were all centered on Claire as she was being treated at the charity hospital by Mother Hildegarde and Monsieur Forez, the King’s executioner who also worked as one of the doctors at L’Hopital des Anges.

Anyone who has read the book on which the second season of the show is based knows all too well what happened, but for those unfamiliar with the tome, it was made clear that Claire lost her child. In fact, the baby was born dead as revealed by Mother Hildegarde to a devastated Claire.

Claire lay in bed for many days with a high fever – a fever for which Mother Hildegarde worried would take her life – so much so that she had the local priest pay a visit to Claire to administer last rites. But, thankfully Master Raymond (who was being hunted by the King’s guard for practicing the black arts) snuck into the charity hospital and used his skills to heal her (part of the placenta from the birth was festering inside her womb).

For many weeks after that miraculous healing, Claire recuperated at the hospital until young Fergus paid her a visit, begging her to return home. Given that she had not only lost her child but also her husband (Jamie was basically rotting away in the Bastille as a prisoner of the King for his unlawful duel with Black Jack Randall), she had nowhere else to go.

Given all she had been through, Claire was up late at night still reeling from the loss when she heard Fergus yelling out in his sleep; and soon enough, she learned the reason Jamie broke his promise. While at the brothel with Jamie (who was there to get Prince Charles out of his debt), Fergus wandered the halls of the brothel, ending up in the room of Black Jack Randall (Oh God!) and that bastard raped that poor little boy. Jamie heard the scream of Fergus and went running to his aide, finding Randall on top of the boy. That is why Jamie and Randall dueled.

It is then that Claire sought out Mother Hildegarde in the hopes she could set up a private meeting with King Louis so she could plead for Jamie’s release from the Bastille. Mother Hildegarde warned Claire that the King would probably ask her to lie with him as “payment” for her request, but before we get to that unpleasantness (I may have to vomit first!), he revealed that he was aware that she was being called La Dame Blanche (The White Lady), who is known to be able to read men’s souls.

Ironically, the King asked Claire for a favor: to use her “power” to determine the guilt of not only Master Raymond but also the Comte St. Germaine, who had been apprehended for sorcery and practicing the dark arts. To make a long story short, Claire used her “skills” in order to please the King, but in doing so it cost the Comte his life – which was actually taken by the slight-of-hand trickery of Master Raymond. The Comte did admit that he poisoned Claire (remember that bitter cascara that made her violently ill) and while it only seemed fair that he lose his life when he tried to do the same to Claire, it seemed awfully harsh.

Regardless, Master Raymond was freed because of it but told never to return to France again AND Jamie was freed from the Bastille but only after Claire made her “payment” to the King. King Louis forced himself on Claire in the most uncomfortable sex scene of the show (at least in my opinion) that lasted all of about two minutes (less time than her first time with Jamie) and she was brushed out of the room with the wave of the King’s hand as if she was nothing.

Once Jamie was home, looking very bedraggled, Claire shared that their lost child was a girl, that Mother Hildegarde had an odd sense of humor in naming the baby Faith and having her buried next to the convent. She also admitted that while she hated Jamie for the duel; she realized (after Fergus came clean about what happened) why he did it. She further admitted that it was her fault for forcing Jamie to make that unrealistic promise (not to kill Black Jack for one year) and for racing into the woods after Jamie in the hope of stopping the duel.

In the end, they would have to carry their sorrow together and she told him to take her home to Scotland. But before they would leave France, Jamie said he needed to do one thing: visit the grave of their stillborn child in order to say a proper goodbye.

The next new episode of ‘Outlander’ will air on Starz on Saturday, May 28 at 9/8c.