Outlander Season 6 Premiere Recap: “Echoes”

It’s been nearly two years since fans of the long-running, time-travel drama Outlander have seen a new episode of the series based on the acclaimed novels by author Diana Gabaldon.

Droughtlander, as it’s become known, ended last night when the 80-minutes-long season premiere of season 6 aired on Starz.

The opening of the episode was slightly different than in previous seasons. Rather than just clips of what happened in season 5, we got a brief voiceover from Claire along with an extended look back at events that have happened to the Fraser family followed by a new version of the show’s theme song.

Rather than picking up directly after the storm that was fast approaching Fraser’s Ridge shortly after Claire was attacked by Lionel Brown and his demented minions, fans were surprised by a flashback to Ardsmuir Prison in 1753, giving us a new glimpse at Jamie’s life while serving time after the Battle of Culloden and his years in hiding near his ancestral home of Lallybroch.

The reason for this flashback was to explain the relationship between Jamie and new character Tom Christie, this year’s nemesis (we can’t really call him the villain of season 6 as he is no comparison to Black Jack Randall or even Stephen Bonnet). As the flashback played out for a good portion of the first half of the season premiere, we learned that Tom Christie was not only a bit of a religious zealot but also at odds with Jamie because, quite frankly, the men in the prison respected Jamie more than they did Tom.

Jump 20 years later to North Carolina, and there is Tom Christie walking up to the big house on Fraser’s Ridge looking for Jamie with the broadsheet issued by Jamie to all men from Ardsmuir, inviting them to join him on “the Ridge” to settle the land. As Jamie commented to Claire later in the episode, he couldn’t invite all the men of Ardsmuir “except one” so it was apparent they would have to deal with the situation as best they could.

Instead of meeting with Jamie upon his arrival, Tom met Roger and then Brianna before Jamie and Claire returned home from a visit with Marsali and their grandchildren. To say that Jamie was very surprised to find Tom Christie standing inside his home would be an understatement. He held back his obvious disdain for the man, introducing him to Claire and learning from his son-in-law that Tom, his children and a small group of fisher-folk settlers had just recently arrived on the Ridge, and were seemingly welcomed with open arms by Roger and, by extension, Brianna.

Given what played out in the flashback, it was clear that Tom and Jamie were never friends and his arrival on the Ridge was not as welcome as Roger made it out to be. In Roger’s defense, he had absolutely no idea of the animosity between the two men.

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The rest of the episode where Tom and his children were concerned clearly showed that his son Allan has a good bit of disdain for his father and his daughter Malva seems to not only revere but also fear her father. Allan also got himself into some danger with Richard Brown (the older brother of Lionel Brown who committed those heinous crimes against Claire) and his Committee of Safety over the theft of a hand-carved powder horn that ended up causing Jamie to have to flog the young man outside the big house on Fraser’s Ridge in front of many of the tenants and new settlers.

This unexpected and unwelcomed visit by Brown and his committee also seemed to drive home the fact that Claire – despite her assurances to daughter Brianna that she’s “fine” – is still reeling – albeit quietly – from her ordeal at the hands of Lionel and his minions. Waking up very startled from a foggy dream that showed blurred images of Lionel, Geillis, Black Jack and others with haunting voices from the same, Claire went downstairs to supposedly get a cup of tea.

Instead she made a bottle full of the ether – yet another modern invention that she is now introducing into a time where it didn’t exist (just like the penicillin she developed last season) – using it on herself – just like when she tested it on herself earlier in the episode, making her stunned husband think that she had unexpectedly died. This time around, however, it was clear that she was using the ether as a way to sleep without the unsettling dreams rather than simply testing the invention.

The B-story to this episode was the ongoing issues between Marsali, who is now VERY pregnant with her fourth baby, and her ever-increasingly-drunk husband Fergus. They are clearly having marital problems. He has been spending far too much time at Jamie’s whiskey still, spending more time drinking there than spending time with his ever-growing family; and he has started hurting Marsali if the black and blue marks on her wrists – as discovered by Claire during an examination in preparation for the birth of the baby – are any indication.

The one shining moment in the episode happened midway through the extended-length season premiere. Fans got to see a moment of passion between Jamie and Claire, as Jamie told her he saw visions of her during his years at Ardsmuir, admitting that he thought she was an angel. Her response was to say “would an angel do this” as she kissed him seductively and they made love in the master bedroom in the big house on Fraser’s Ridge.

What did you think of the season premiere of season 6 of Outlander? Share your thoughts with us below, and make sure to watch the next new episode of Outlander next Sunday, March 13 at 9/8c on Starz.

[Photo Credit: Starz]