Outlander Season Finale Recap: “Never My Love”

The season finale of Outlander opened rather ominously with a montage of scenes from previous episodes that focused on the men of Brownsville riding onto Fraser’s Ridge and the leering veneer of that repulsive Lionel Brown as well as scenes of Jamie and the fiery cross, Jemmy and the opal and the family saying goodbye to Bree and Roger, ending with that horrible scene of Lionel and his ragtag band of men not only attacking Marsali but also kidnapping Claire because of Lionel seeing Dr. Rawlings’ engraved name inside Claire’s medical chest.

Then we are transported, via the strains of “Never My Love” by the group The Association…

“You ask me if there’ll come a time
When I grow tired of you
Never my love
Never my love
You wonder if this heart of mine
Will lose its desire for you
Never my love
Never my love
What makes you think love will end
When you know that my whole life depends
On you (on you)
Never my love
Never my love
You say you fear I’ll change my mind
And I won’t require you
Never my love
Never my love
How can you think love will end
When I’ve asked you to spend your whole life
With me (with me, with me)”

…to a 1960-style home (identical to the home featured on the magazine cover in episode 5) where Claire was sitting on a couch, staring at an abstract painting of the big house on Fraser’s Ridge interspersed with glimpses of an orange – that harkened back to Claire’s encounter with King Louis in season 2 – and that blue vase that she was staring at and talking about in the pilot episode as well as an 18th Century-clad Jamie before seeing her literally hog-tied in the woods, bloody and bruised, remembering the horrific trauma inflicted upon her by Lionel Brown and his men.

It’s quickly revealed that Claire was taken because of that “little newspaper column” that she thought “no one would ever see” – but as we know that column was published without Claire’s knowledge when Fergus inadvertently used one of her printings for the militia call to arms that Jamie needed posted to the men of the territory.

The scenes of Claire and the Brownsville men that followed were extremely difficult to watch, as they chased her down, brutalized her, tied her up and then proceeded to abuse and violate her repeatedly. The visions Claire experienced during this horrible ordeal were of her and her family celebrating Thanksgiving; a way for her mind to allow her to escape what was being done to her. Not only was Jamie there but so were Jocasta (who was not blind) and Murtagh (who was very much alive), but also military-garbed Ian and eventually Fergus (who was not missing his hand), Marsali and all of their children.

Other moments in Claire’s dreamscape were Jamie covering her first with a blanket and then his kilt saying, “you’re shaking so hard it’s making my teeth rattle” – which is what he said to her in the pilot episode when she was forced to ride on his horse with him as well as Germain, Fergus and Marsali’s oldest, playing with a glass dragonfly – just like the gift she was given by Hugh Munro; and that bunny that she imagined in the forest that harkened back to the bunny that Jamie saw on the fields of Culloden as well as Murtagh and Germain fighting with pillows that harkened back to the sword fight between Black Jack and Jamie in France.

It was also revealed that one of the men – Tebbe – was “good to her” because he was afraid of Claire – she was known for being a conjure woman, after all – and one of the other men – Wendigo Donner, who turned out to be one of the men who came through the stones with Otter Tooth (aka Robert Springer) from the 1960’s to help the Mohawk.

Even her dreamscape turned harsh when two cops – in the visage of Lionel Brown and Arvin Hodgepile (the guy in the redcoat jacket) – turned up to report that Roger, Bree and their son were killed in a car accident; and that’s when the story turned back toward our time travelers, who were leaving the 18th Century in order to return to their own time. But, as we saw last week Bree, Roger and Jemmy “awoke” from traveling through the stones only to be surprised by what they saw. That revelation was that they hadn’t traveled in time at all; they were still in 1772 as they found Ian sitting on top of a rock; he was just as shocked and surprised to see them as they were to see him.

Roger and Bree shared they were both thinking about home, and the stones “spit” them back out at home. They had no other choice but to return to the Ridge, and as they planned to stop for the night, Bree saw the fiery cross burning. They raced off to the big house where Jamie was preparing all the men of the Ridge to go searching for Claire and the men who took her. Naturally, everyone was surprised to see Roger, Bree and Jemmy back, and while Brianna wanted to go with them once they were told about what happened, Jamie told her to stay on the Ridge, but Roger and Ian – as well as Josiah – joined them. It was war: Ian painted his face, the men geared up and they rode off.

We next saw Claire in her dreamscape, dancing in the arms of her loving husband only to be awoken by a battle ensuing around her. Jamie and the men of the Ridge had found her, and were exacting revenge on Lionel Brown and his ragtag group of dirtbags. Among them was Roger, who took the life of one of the men – the first time he had ever had to do that – while Ian exhibited skills he obviously learned while living among the Mohawks as well as Fergus, Josiah, John Quincy Myers and Jamie taking men down.

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What transpired after that was Jamie finding Claire battered, beaten and tied to that tree, and Jamie reassuring her she was alive and whole. John Quincy offered her a knife to exact her vengeance on the men left alive; but because of her oath, Jamie said “it is myself that kills for her,” to which Ian and Fergus agreed they would do the same. When asked, “who, how many, ” Claire could not say, so Jamie said, “kill them all.” To which they did, very brutally (Claire had warned them they would be killed if they didn’t release her). Lionel was the only one still somehow alive, and they decided to take him back to the Ridge with the plan to get answers out of him as to what they had planned to do.

During a calm moment on the trek back to the Ridge, Claire told Jamie about the Indian who was like her (Jamie said they hadn’t seen an Indian among the men, though), and Jamie confirmed to her that Roger was really there – her mind wasn’t playing tricks on her: that they were all 3 home. Then they were back safely at the big house, with Brianna wrapping her momma in her arms, and Marsali soon following suit.

What followed next was Brianna helping Claire bathe and telling her mother she had her hand and her ear if she needed it (after all Brianna survived her own trauma at the hands of Stephen Bonnet); and then Jamie coming to his wife still filled with contained rage. Given all she experienced, Claire should have be shattered, but she refused to allow what happened to her to destroy her. After all, she had gone through a world war, lost a child, lost two husbands, had been beaten, bruised and betrayed. This trauma was not going to destroy her.

Then Brianna and Roger had some time together to deal with what had happened; not only Claire’s ordeal but also the battle with Brown’s men. He had so much to tell her, and once he told her, he wanted her to tell him that he had done right. She blew out the candle, and he started with saying, “I killed a man.”

The next morning, Claire went to her surgery were Lionel was tied up and asking for mercy – as if he deserved any of that. “Don’t let him kill me,” he begged to Claire and Marsali, who was asked by Claire to prepare some herbs. As Claire wavered over her medical tools, she glimpsed herself in that dreamscape one last time, walking away from a side table after picking up that orange, eventually telling Lionel she would do him no harm. It was an extremely emotional moment for Claire as she ascended the stairs of their home, crumbling into tears while Marsali wasted no time putting Lionel in his place – even on his deathbed he was a dirty old prig, threatening his brother would come to the big house to burn them down.

Thankfully Marsali was not under the same oath as Claire, and she stabbed Lionel in the neck with a syringe that turned out to be filled with water hemlock – that dangerous herb that kills. That was the end of Lionel Brown, who was found dead on the surgery table by Jamie. He also found Marsali sitting on the floor dazed from what she had done, worrying that Lionel might haunt her or that she might go to hell. He helped her to her feet and comforted her before taking the body of Lionel back to his family in Brownsville. The greeting he received from the Browns was uneventful, but filled with fraught and contained anger, as Lionel’s older brother told Jamie, “Lionel reaped what he sowed, and you did what you must…as will I, when the time comes.”

Jamie’s voice over said it all: “I have lived through war and lost much. I know what is worth a fight and what is not. Honor and courage are matters of the bone; and what a man will kill for, he’ll sometimes die for too. A man’s life springs from his woman’s bones and in her blood is his honor christened for the sake of love alone that I walk through fire again.”

In the final scenes, we saw Roger and Brianna walking arm-in-arm towards the big house talking about the roads they have traveled, and reciting parts of the Robert Frost poem “The Road Not Taken” with Roger admitting that he was not disappointed. They wanted the stones to take them home, and it did. Meanwhile, Claire stood on the porch watching all of their people milling about their daily lives, talking to Jamie about a crooked post in the yard, and enjoying “this ordinary day” while he recited Thucydides, the Greek historian.

With a storm on the horizon, Claire said “I love you,” and Jamie – being the King of all men – took her hand and said, “When the day shall come that we do part, if my last words are not ‘I love you’ you ken it’s because I didn’t have time.” Next, as the storm raged outside, Jamie and Claire were lying naked atop their bed, wrapped in each others arms, just holding onto each other tight:

Jamie: “Christ, you’re a wee brave thing.”
Claire: “Am I?”
Jamie: “Aye”…after a pause “How do you feel?”
Claire: “Safe.”

With that he kissed her forehead, and they lay there in each others arms as the scene faded to black with the storm echoing outside.

[Photo Credit: Starz]

Outlander will be back for a 6th season at some point on Starz; in fact the show was to go back into production this month, but like all other productions was halted because of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Be well, dear Outlander fans, as you deal with Droughtlander yet again. In the meantime, you can watch all five seasons of the show online on Starz, and please share your thoughts about this episode and all of season 5 in our comments section below.