Outlander Recap: “The Hail Mary”

The title of last night’s penultimate episode of Outlander was very apropos: The Hail Mary. This simple little phrase took on all-new meanings for all of the players in the time-travel-heavy series for very different reasons.

Let’s review what a Hail Mary means. In football it means “a very long forward pass made in desperation with only a small chance of success”; in general parlance it is a “a last-ditch attempt to save a desperate situation” and in religious parlance it is a “prayer to the Virgin Mary based on the salutations of the angel Gabriel.”

Each of these descriptions of The Hail Mary played an important role in the current circumstances for Jamie and Claire who have been trying for many, many months to stop the events of Culloden Moor from happening; Jamie attempting to stall or divert the Bonnie Prince Charlie from sending his Scottish forces into that bloody historical battle; Colum and his brother Dougal still verbally sparring about who should be the Chief of the MacKenzie clan and even sickly Alexander Randall arguing with his older (albeit sadistic bastard) brother Jonathan Wolverton “Black Jack” Randall over what to do about his unborn child and his love Mary Hawkins.

To tell the truth, none of these situations really had a happy ending by the time the episode concluded. At the beginning of the episode, Jamie and Claire had three more days until April 16, 1746 – the day of the Culloden Moor battle that saw the British defeat the Scottish brining about the end of the Highlander culture and way of life – and they were grasping at straws to find a way to stop the massacre that was soon to take place. Jamie made one last ditch effort to eventually convince Prince Charles to attack the British forces – who they learned were camped only 12 miles from where the Scottish forces were camped in Inverness – on the eve of the Culloden Moor battle, hitting the British Army while they celebrated the William Augustus, the Duke of Cumberland’s (the commander of the loyalist troops) birthday. That surprise attack fell completely apart because the column of Scottish forces led by Bonnie Prince Charlie and his General got lost in the dark, causing the column of Scottish forces led by the Master General and Jamie to turn back. The dreaded battle of Culloden Moor was a foregone conclusion by the time the screen went black at the end of the episode.

There were more surprises in store throughout the episode that had nothing to do with the approaching battle. Claire ventured into the village of Inverness seeking much needed medical supplies only to find Mary Hawkins at the local apothecary. Mary, of course, was none too pleased to see Claire because she was living at a nearby boarding house with Alexander Randall, the man she met and fell in love with in Paris. As viewers know, Claire did her best to keep Alex and Mary apart in order for history to play out (Mary and Black Jack were to marry and become the descendants of Claire’s 1940’s husband Frank Randall). Mary had learned what Claire said to Alex in Paris – that his health issues would most certainly impede any future happiness for them.

Thankfully, Claire was able to work her own brand of magic, getting not only Mary but also Alex to forgive her poor judgment call (in their eyes) and to help ease the pain from his chronic ill health. But the biggest surprise is that Black Jack Randall appeared at the boarding house where Mary and Alex have been residing directly after Claire stopped by to check on Alex. That was not a happy encounter for Claire at all! And given the circumstances at hand – Alex was not going to get better; in fact, he was slowly dying before their eyes – and Mary was pregnant with his child; Alex came up with a very unusual request of his big brother “Johnny”: Alex wanted him to wed Mary. Despite Black Jack being very adamant about not wanting to marry, their unlikely union took place with Claire and Murtagh being the only witnesses (besides the priest who officiated the “ceremony” and poor, dying Alex).

The other unexpected surprise visit was that of Colum MacKenzie, who showed up at the home where the Scottish forces were camped to meet with his brother Dougal and Jamie – not to provide the MacKenzie clan for the impending battle but for a more personal reason. Colum knew his days were numbered (in fact he asked Claire for help with his death – assisted suicide no less) and he needed to make sure that his young son Hamish (whose biological father is actually Dougal) would be looked after until he became of age to take over the role of Chief of the clan; but rather than put the young boy’s care in the hands of his “Uncle” Dougal OR, for that matter, give the Chief position to his brother, Colum chose Jamie as the boy’s guardian. Well, that was yet another decision that didn’t sit well with Dougal; but in the end, Colum used the “potion” given to him by Claire to end his life (he would simply fall into a deep sleep rather than befall the fate of any other kind of harsh-acting poison) before Dougal had the chance to say all the things he had longed to tell his older brother.

So much happened in the episode and there is so much more to go but first there will be a day-long marathon of all season two episodes of Outlander next Saturday, July 2, starting at 12 Noon, with the 90-minute season finale set to air on Starz on Saturday, July 9 at 9/8c.