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Outlander Recap Season 7 Episode 4 “A Most Uncomfortable Woman”

By Rueben | July 13, 2023

The fourth episode of Outlander bounced between Roger, Brianna and their children in 1980 at Lallybroch, their new home and Jamie, Claire, Ian, William Ransom and two new characters in 1776 in Wilmington.

Let’s take a look at what happened in those two time periods:

Lallybroch

For the past two years, Roger, Brianna and their children have basically been living in a caravan on the grounds of Lallybroch with major improvements being made on the structure all while attempting to keep to the original integrity of the home. They were given an estimate for the necessary upstairs repairs by their contractor, which were astronomical. Perhaps it’s time they look into that secret told to them in that letter from Jamie?

It was then revealed that Roger was working on a journal about time travel and that Brianna was getting ready to go somewhere (more to be revealed on that shortly); but first Brianna discovered that her clock radio had been mysteriously taken apart. According to Jemmy “the pixies did it.” Are there supernatural visitors in their home or something else going on?

We next saw Brianna in an interview (that’s where she was going!), but instead of the secretarial job the interviewer assumed Brianna was applying for, it turned out that she was actually applying for the plant inspector position. The male interviewer kept giving her excuses as to why the position wasn’t meant for a woman, but Brianna easily knocked down those lame excuses with her knowledge and intelligence. In the end, she landed the job and while she was happy about that, Roger seemed a little less excited. He admitted to Brianna that yes, he was old-fashioned, he wanted to be the breadwinner. Brianna asked him about moving forward with becoming a minister – since that was the direction he was headed before they traveled through the stones to save Mandy’s life – but given all they had experienced, he was questioning becoming a minister after all. And, given his promise to both Jamie and Claire that he would take care of them, he felt like he was failing his family. Brianna, of course, told him that wasn’t the case, but this will assuredly be a continuing theme between the couple.

While viewers still have a lot to discover about the soon-to-be careers of both Brianna and Roger, the mystery of the pixies at Lallybroch went unresolved to a certain degree. Jemmy eventually admitted that he took the clock radio apart, but the other items that turned up missing throughout their home were still missing, and Jemmy claimed that the Nuckelavees – a horse-like demon – asked him for the missing items. His parents didn’t believe it was the legendary folk tale creature – but given Jemmy’s experience not only in the 1770’s and the 1970’s as well as traveling through time, he, according to his father, “knows there is magic in the world.” Roger told Brianna that he doesn’t want to stifle Jemmy’s imagination or “maybe he’ll forget where he comes from.”

Wilmington

William was first seen alongside an inebriated fellow soldier, as he ripped down a notice about the Declaration of Independence – which William called “a desecration” – and handed that notice to the other officer to be used to wipe away spittle from his face.

A few moments later, the two men encountered another soldier screaming at and beating up a woman with many other British soldiers gathered around the scene. That soldier accused the prostitute of having the pox and then he poured alcohol all over her body and – GASP! – set her aflame while all the surrounding soldiers stood there, basically egging that man on and doing nothing to help the woman. William was outraged by this behavior and the lack of action by all of the other soldiers who witnessed and cheered on this type of abuse. His friend tried to keep William from doing anything, but as the poor woman’s body became engulfed in flames he tore off his jacket and attempted to distinguish the fire, but she died in the dirty street outside the brothel. William was clearly angered at his fellow soldiers, and made his opinion known to them.

His courage to confront his fellow soldiers, however, didn’t go unntoiced as William was called before his commanding officer and given a mission. He was being recruited to deliver three letters and once those messages were delivered, he could then go to New York to join in the fight, which has been what William has been waiting for since arriving in Wilmington.

Unfortunately, that mission took a wrong turn when William’s horse, Jupiter, was spooked by a snake, causing the horse to rear up, tossing William to the ground and rolling down a hillside. This mishap caused William to sustain a pretty bad injury to his arm. This left William on foot having to travel through the Great Dismal, a large swamp area between North Carolina and Virginia – an area that William knew well because that is where he and his father, Lord John Grey, had lived for quite some time before going back to England.

With his horse MIA, William had no choice but to continue on foot and during a stop to attempt to clean himself up and perhaps catch some food in the water, William encountered Ian and Rollo. How convenient was that?! [More on why Ian was in that area shortly.]

It was during this encounter that Ian told William that he not only knew his father (Lord John) but also that they had met years earlier – naturally William did not remember that previous encounter. And, thanks to spending time with his Auntie, Ian was able to help tend – albeit temporarily – to William’s injury and eventually get him to help in the form of Denzell Hunter, a local Quaker and doctor. Denzell was convinced that he would have to remove William’s arm – as there was no other way to save it – until he pressed the saw against the wound and a gross amount of pus burst from the injury, which cleared out much of the infection.

Some time later, Denzell’s sister Rachel was shaving William’s face since he obviously could not use his arm; and they briefly discussed the color of his beard, which is clearly red just like his biological father Jamie, and she mentioned that she and her brother would be leaving their home soon, heading to Fort Ticondaroga to support the Sons of Liberty. And since William still has a mission to complete – and he learned from Rachel that one of the men that has to receive one of those three messages was expected to be at the Fort – he said he would join them in their journey.

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Jamie, Claire and Ian

Upon arriving in Wilmington, Jamie had an unexpected run-in with Cornelius Hartnett, one of the Sons of Liberty who Jamie had helped in a previous episode escape being arrested by Redcoat soldiers. As it turned out, Hartnett was in Wilmington to gather men to go to Fort Ticondaroga to prepare for the upcoming battle against the British and he pressed Jamie about joining. In fact, he wasn’t just asking Jamie, he was pushing that it would be necessary – at that time men could still be inscripted, aka forced into battle, unless the man found someone else to serve in his stead. Of course, Jamie couldn’t force someone else to go in his place – not even Ian who wanted to go because he “loves this country.” But Jamie told Ian he needed to continue on the journey back to Scotland – which is what he was supposed to be doing when Ian encountered William in the woods. But was Ian heading in the right direction or was he trying to spirit himself to Fort Ticondaroga against his uncle’s wishes?

Back to Jamie and Claire, it turned out that Jamie wanted to fight, but not for freedom or for liberty but rather for his family; and thanks to Claire’s knowledge of history, he already knew they wouldn’t lose the war. He then shared with Claire and Ian that he would be given the title of Colonel of the militia, and that he would be setting out soon to head Fort Ticondaroga. But he wouldn’t be going alone, as Claire would go with him, lending her healing abilities to those at the Fort. She wasn’t about to be separated from him!

Before they left for the Fort, though, Claire had an extremely unexpected encounter with Tom Christie. He was alive! She was alive! Needless to say, they were both taken aback, and Claire even more so when Tom planted a kiss on her mouth that had her staring back at him like a deer in headlights. He revealed that when the Governor learned that he could read and write, the Governor basically pardoned him and then hired him as a temporary secretary until a more permanent man took over the position. Tom also revealed that he had learned about the fire that took place on the Ridge, and he was the one who placed the obituary in the newspaper that Brianna found in the 1970’s, which was the cause for her to travel through the stones to warn her mother and Jamie.

The night before Jamie and Claire left for the Fort, they had a long conversation about Tom Christie and how Claire felt about his very unexpected kiss and Jamie’s “jealousy” over that kiss. All of that culminated in a slow sensual love scene between our favorite couple: the first one in a very long time.

In the final scene of the episode, Jamie and Claire were in the lead of all the other men (and even some women) who had been inscripted to go to the Fort, and as they converged on the Fort it would only be a matter of time before they would eventually encounter William, the Hunter siblings and quite possibly Ian.