Outlander Recap: “The World Turned Upside Down”

Viewers of Outlander knew when the Christie’s were introduced into the overall storyline of the time traveling drama that trouble was imminent. Viewers could clearly see that Jamie and Tom were not fond of each other; and worse yet, as time went on, it was abundantly clear that Malva was a deeply troubled soul. That trouble spilled over in volumes in Sunday night’s episode.

When dysentery began to spread through Fraser’s Ridge – first at the MacNeill family cabin – and then quickly throughout the settlement,including the fisher folk, there was little that could be done because – as Claire explained to her apprentice Malva – the amoeba that was the root cause of the illness – could not be treated by the penicillin that Claire “created.”

As more and more lost their lives to the quickly-spreading illness and more and more graves were dug and more and more funerals were held, Claire became ill herself. While everyone – none more so than devoted husband Jamie – fretted over Claire, as she fretfully slept with sweat dripping from every pore, she had strange dreams of storm clouds, a snake and her own heart in her hand. Later she had strange visions of Jamie drinking by the window of her bedroom with Malva by his side.

A week later, she finally came out of the stupor caused by what was suspected to be dysentery, to find Roger watching over her and, of all things, her flowing locks haphazardly shorn very short. It would seem that Malva and housekeeper Mrs. Bug thought that by cutting her hair it would help with her fever (that could not have been further from the truth, of course). Claire obviously wasn’t happy about this circumstance, but Jamie seemed to be more affected by her new hair. That problem turned out to be the least of their concerns.

As time moved on, so did the sickness. A dead elk was found in the river, and was determined to be the cause of the dysentery; but that didn’t solve Claire’s illness which was, according to the doctor herself, NOT dysentery. It also turned out that she and Tom Christie suffered from the same sickness, but the question was how since neither of them had had any contact to warrant passing whatever sickness it was between them.

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This would have to be a mystery to solve at some other time because there were two bigger problems approaching. As we have already seen, the revolution is coming closer and closer. In fact, Roger and Jamie were getting ready to head off to the city to meet with the Sons of Liberty when the Christies came for an unexpected visit.” It would seem that Malva was “with child” and she refused to admit to her father and brother who the man was until she could speak to Jamie. Once she had an audience with the Frasers, she claimed that Jamie took advantage of her as Claire struggled in her fevered sleep; she used the fact that she knew about all of the scars on Jamie’s body [from when she spied on Jamie and Claire having sex in the barn] as prove. Claire, of course, was in shock, slapping the girl’s face and Jamie sternly defending himself. Malva’s brother Allan pathetically tried to injure Jamie only to be knocked back several times by the towering Jamie; and Malva’s father claimed that a contract would have to be written that Jamie would support Malva and the baby. Of course, Jamie was furious, yelling for them all to leave his home.

What followed was a long conversation between Jamie and Clare. She knew in her heart that Jamie would never do what Malva claimed. She told him that she, Roger, Brianna and Jemmy didn’t believe there, but there they were because she loved him more than the life she had in her own time. For a few previous seconds, as Jamie revealed that he had lain with another woman – and had never told Claire about it – you could see Claire take an the infinitesimal pause of concern – only to learn that Jamie was talking about his brief night all those years earlier with Mary MacNab the night before he turned himself over to the Redcoast at Lallybroch before he was sent off to Ardsmuir Prison. It was clear that Jamie had not lain with Malva and that the young girl was lying.

Soon enough it was revealed that Young Ian admitted he had lain with Malva, and he thought that the baby could be his; but it was also revealed by Claire that Roger told her about his catching Malva with Mr. Henderson, and that there could have been others. Sadly, the damage was done, the entire Ridge believed Malva’s claim (a claim that even made its way to the city where Jamie and Roger were meeting with the Sons of Liberty), and the shunning of Claire was in full force on the Ridge.

Despite all of that, Claire went to Malva out of concern, but was soon rebuffed by both the young girl and Allan. Later when Claire not only heard the haunting voice of Lionel Brown inside her very empty surgery room and then saw Malva approaching their home, she grabbed her ether and put herself under. But her sleep was disturbed by a troubling vision of Malva that had Claire grasping a scalpel in her hand, grabbing Malva by the head and threatening to kill the girl. When Claire woke up, she went out to her garden only to find the very dead body of Malva lying in the high stalks. The young girl’s throat was sliced from one end to the other, and despite her best efforts, after cutting the baby from Malva’s womb, even the child was dead. But who caused Malva’s death? Some unknown assailant, the real father of her child or Claire?

The next episode of Outlander will air in two weeks on Sunday, April 24 at 9/8c on Starz, as the show is taking a break due to Easter.