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Outlander Triple Feature Recap: Episodes 13, 14 and 15

By Rueben | January 7, 2025

The holiday season kept me behind in writing my recaps of the three most recent episodes of season 7 of Outlander, so I decided to combine what happened in episodes 13, 14 and 15 together below for those of you who would like to join me in reliving all the action that took place in the episodes entitled “Hello, Goodbye” (Episode 13 which aired on December 20), “Ye Dinna Get Used To It” (Episode 14 which aired on December 27) and “Written in My Own Blood” (Episode 15 which aired on January 3).

So let’s take a look at what happened between the various sets of characters in their time line-ups:

Roger and Buck in Scotland 1739

Still on the hunt for his missing son in Scotland 1739, Roger – along with Buck – are also trying to track down the stranger who has been reported in the area, a stranger that Roger is sure is his father who went missing during World War II. After Buck mentions that the mountains have not changed at all, Roger remembers Bree telling him about feeling a portal in the tunnels beneath the dam that would eventually be right where he and Buck were standing. They immediately went on the hunt for the standing stones that would, in Roger’s time, be under water and could be the possible source of Roger’s father being in 1739. Sure enough, they find goggles and a survival kit hidden in the foliage around the standing stones once they find the formations; and then they also find a young boy holding a pilot’s helmet. That boy leads them to Roger’s father who was hiding in the nearby woods because he was being hunted by local farmers. Roger gives Jeremiah (aka Jerry) just enough information about their “shared” futures to convince him they are there to help him. But with the local farmers in hot pursuit of them, the three men rush to the standing stones where Roger gives Jerry his gemstone and tells him to think of his wife Margaret in order to get back to his own time. Jerry quickly races toward the tallest stone and disappears. Later, after Buck and Roger are able to get away from the local farmers, Roger admits to Buck that he thinks he was drawn back to that time because of his father and that Jemmy, his son, just might not be in that time after all.

Eventually Roger reveals to Buck his true lineage, telling him that Geillis Duncan is his birth mother and Dougal MacKenzie is his “sire.” Buck, of course, doesn’t take that truth very well and is quite pissed at Roger for not being honest with him. But, they still have to figure out what to do about Jemmy, and Roger has “one more thing to try.” They return to Lallybroch in order for Roger to leave a hand-written message for Bree in a hidden drawer in the desk – that is being used in his office in Lallybroch in Bree’s time. Roger hopes that the message will reach Bree so she can know what really happened to him. After sharing with Roger how he came to be with his wife, Buck offers to return through the stones so he can make sure that Bree knows what is happening just in case his hand-written message doesn’t get to her.

Bree and the Kids in Scotland 1980’s

Bree has that scoundrel Rob tied up in the cellar where she deservedly beats him up in the hopes of getting details about what Rob did to Jemmy. But the bastard, of course, won’t tell her anything. She quickly realizes that Rob also cut the phone line at Lallybroch so that means she and Mandy need to drive to the police station on their own. While heading to the police station, though, Mandy starts to feel her brother thanks to the unusual mental connection the siblings share, and as was played out in an earlier scene, it’s revealed that Jemmy was actually trapped in a dark room somewhere. That dark room turns out to be the tunnel below the dam which Jemmy discovers he is trapped inside once he works up the courage to try to find a way out. He finds a helmet with a flashlight in the dirt, which leads him to an electrical box that allows him to flip a switch to turn the lights on in a tunnel. It turns out that this is the same tunnel that his mother found herself locked inside because of Rob and the other men at the dam. Thankfully Jemmy is a very smart boy, remembering the story Bree told him about her own trek through that same tunnel. He uses the story she told him to make his way out and as Bree and Mandy are driving around playing a game of “hot or cold” – in order to find Jemmy – Bree realizes just where Rob must have put Jemmy, and soon enough she nearly hits her son with her car as he is standing in the middle of the road after making his escape from the tunnel.

Once back at Lallybroch with the police in tow, it’s discovered that Rob is no longer in the cellar and while Bree believes he is working with other people who obviously helped him get out (combined with the fact that Bree knows Rob somehow has keys to her home), the police have a whole different idea: that while Roger is on a business trip to Boston (the explanation Bree is using as to where Roger is since the truth cannot be shared with anyone), the cops think she is having an affair with Rob (GROSS!). Needless to say, with Rob on the lam, the cops suggest that Bree and the kids go somewhere else to stay. Thankfully, Bree is able to call in “Uncle” Ernie and “Aunt” Fiona (the granddaughter of Mrs. Graham and her husband) to help with the kids and to safeguard the trunk filled with the letters and artifacts from Jamie and Claire.

Then In episode 14, Bree was to meet the locksmith back at Lallybroch, but she missed him. Later in the episode, she is seen at Lallybroch with a gun in hand to make sure if anyone is in the house and just when she thinks she is being ridiculous about the situation, she sees two men walking around inside Lallybroch. And then the unthinkable happens: Ernie and Fiona show up with the kids. As the two men inside the house begin to exit the front door, Bree screams to her children to get back in Ernie’s van and she shoots at the men coming out of her home. Unfortunately, Ernie’s van won’t start and it looks like they might have even more trouble from the masked men, but the van turns over just in time and they race away from Lallybroch just as Rob arrives in his car. Soon enough, Bree learns from Fiona that Rob was waiting at their house so that is why she and Ernie brought the kids back to Lallybroch because they knew they wouldn’t be safe at their own home and they knew they needed to check on Bree’s safety as well.

It became clear that Bree needed to take the kids to Roger, and in episode 15 that is what she was preparing to do, but she needed to leave a note for Roger in case he came back to their time and found Lallybroch empty and trouble – in the form of Rob and the other men – lying in wait. It was then that she found the note that Roger had written for her in the secret drawer of that desk, learning that he had gone to the wrong time.

She was then seen at the standing stones with the kids, all of them dressed for the 1700’s, but Mandy wanted to take her stuffed doll with her, which she cannot do since it would draw too much attention. And while Bree was able to talk her young daughter into leaving the doll behind and tells her to think only about her father so that they end up in the time that Roger traveled to, Mandy begins to run toward the stones before Bree can firmly grab hold of her hand, making it urgent for Jemmy and Bree to race after her, yelling her name. Viewers were, of course, left wondering if Mandy made it through the stones before her mother and brother could reach her.

Rachel and Ian in Philadelphia 1778

Rachel and Ian are preparing to be married in perhaps what is the most unusual wedding yet to be depicted on the show. It was both very sedate and yet filled with heartfelt sentiment and a touching exchange of vows. The couple then had their wedding night and the next morning it was revealed that Ian had been commissioned as a scout for General Washington’s Army. Ian was then seen in episode 14, scouting the British Army’s location and then preparing for battle, explaining to Rachel about the war paint he will wear when the Continental Army goes into the upcoming battle; but before that could happen, Ian is pulled into a rescue mission – with Lord John in tow – because of William.

Once that rescue mission is concluded (more about that below), with Ian allowing the main Hessian soldier to flee, Ian actually hunts him down and ends his life because – much like Archie Bug before him – the Hessian soldier warns Ian that he will regret what he did and Ian was not about to let what happened with Archie Bug trying to do harm to Rachel to ever happen again.

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Lord John in Pennsylvania 1778 and London 1775

Before Ian and Rachel’s wedding took place, her brother Denzell arrived just in time, and shared with Jamie what really happened to Lord John, explaining that he was taken prisoner by soldiers of the Continental Army and was expected to be hanged as a spy. But given Denzell’s Quaker beliefs, he couldn’t allow that to happen to Lord John, telling Jamie that he helped the man escape. Later in episode 13, it was revealed that Lord John was yet again found by a different group of Continental soldiers, but this time he used the guise of Bertram Armstrong and was merely taken into custody.

As episode 14 began, the story was transported back to London in 1775 with Lord John and his older brother Hal discussing the problem with the colonists turning their back on their King and country, and also talking about the commissions (or possible commissions) of their sons. At that point, William had not been commissioned yet, but some of Hal’s sons had been. Hal also wanted to make sure that Lord John would never swear fealty to the United States of America; unfortunately, a few years later, Lord John didn’t have a choice but to pledge that fealty to the United States of America because of being captured by the Continental Army. It was either he pledged that fealty or faced the noose. This time around he was pretending to be someone else, using his other “middle names” – Bertram Armstrong – much like how Jamie referred to himself as Alexander Malcolm at one point in time.

Soon enough, Lord John encounters Claire at the campground for the Continental Army as Jamie meets some of the men in his battalion and Claire was seeing to the medical needs of some of the soldiers. As soon as she sees Lord John, she calls for Jamie to come over, and Lord John surrenders himself directly to Jamie. After his ordeal, he is clearly happy to see some familiar faces although he and Jamie are clearly still angry with each other. A short time later, Claire tends to Lord John’s injured eye, which was caused by his rather one-sided fistfight with Jamie.

Later in episode 14, the soldier Beauchamp [who will be discussed more further down] arrives at Lord John’s home and it turns out that Lord John knows him. After a heated conversation between Beauchamp and Lord John, there are several revelations. Not only is Beauchamp using a fake name – his real name is Wainwright – but he is another prisoner who Lord John helped 20 years ago. And, what’s more, he has details about William to share with Lord John. Beauchamp/Wainwright tells Lord John that Captain Richardson – the spy who identified himself to Claire – has been using William as a pawn to get at Lord John and his brother Hal; in fact, when William was sent on his previous mission that was meant as a way to force Lord John and Hal into doing what the spy network wanted, but that didn’t work so Captain Richardson is at it again; this time sending William to a group of Hessian (aka German) soldiers, who have been ordered to hold him captive and if torture is involved – all the better. More details on where that story proceeds below.

William, Jane and Frances in Pennsylvania 1778

In episode 14, we see William at the British Army’s campgrounds presenting a message for the commanding officer who gives him flack for not only arriving to the camp in a disheveled appearance but also without his gorget – the metal piece of armor worn to protect their throats, which he claimed had been lost, but was what William actually used to “buy” Arabella, the girl at the brothel, away from that British officer in a previous episode.

It wasn’t long after this encounter that William was surprised by another encounter: that of Arabella (aka Jane) and her young sister Frances, both who had run away from Philadelphia, seeking his protection from Captain Harkness, the British officer, who Jane claims had returned to the brothel for her. Since he was a violent man, she grabbed her little sister and they ran. At first WIlliam wasn’t sure what he could do to help her, but then he suggests that Jane could be his laundress, which didn’t go over well with Jane – since she has never known a life outside of the brothel (she’s been “working” there since she was 10 years old, she tells William). She admits that she has no idea how to even use money since all the money she has “earned” at the brothel went to the madam and not her.

Later on in that episode, though, Jane recounted to William the truth of why she and her sister Frances had to run. She told William that when Captain Harkness came back to the brothel, he learned about Frances. He offered up extra money to the madam to take the young girl’s “maidenhead” and Jane was out-of-her-mind with worry. She told the madam that she would go to the room with them to keep Frances calm, but instead she killed the Captain to keep him away from Frances; and then they ran for their lives.

Then, while Lord John is being told by Wainwright about Richardson’s plan for William, the young man is actually heading out to deliver the message to the Hessian soldiers; and later in episode 15, it becomes clear that William was beaten by the Hessians, but Lord John and Ian come to the rescue, taking down the Hessians soldiers – except one – and getting William out of that situation.

Lord John and William then return to the British campground to argue some more over the truth of his parentage but then Frances comes running to him upset with a tale of some man from the brothel tracking them down and taking Jane because the body of Captain Harkness was found.

Jamie and Claire in Pennsylvania in 1778

After learning about what happened to Lord John from Denzell before Ian and Rachel’s wedding, Jamie is naturally concerned about his friend’s fate even if he is still very angry with him about his “carnal knowledge” of Claire when they both thought Jamie had perished in that shipwreck. And, of course, Jamie is also concerned about his son William because the young man learned the truth about his parentage.

Later in episode 13, Jamie walks before Claire dressed this time as a General in the Continental Army, and she tells him, “at least this time it’s the right color” (since he had to wear a British uniform previously much to both of their dismay).

In episode 14, Claire has an unexpected encounter with a French officer in the marketplace only to realize that the man is Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, the French nobleman who went on to command Continental Army troops in the decisive 1781 Siege of Yorktown, the final battle that secured American independence. But in their current time, he is merely serving alongside General Washington and would be attending a special dinner with other Generals (which now included Jamie since Washington gave him a battalion to command) at Lord John’s home – where the Frasers are currently residing.

During that dinner, Claire is introduced to a man by the name of Beauchamp (as mentioned above), which was her maiden name, who worked for Lafayette; and it briefly seemed like perhaps Claire was meeting one of her ancestors; but viewers know the truth about that man now. It is also during this dinner that General Washington presents Claire with a gift, which turns out to be one of the early flags of the country, made by none other than Betsy Ross.

After this dinner, and a private discussion between Jamie and General Lee – who is Jamie’s direct commander – Jamie learns that he will have 300 men in his battalion along with several Lieutenants and other staff members at his beck and call. Jamie confides with Claire that he has never had that many men under his command, and especially so many that he does not know personally. He admits that it is a bit overwhelming to think about being in charge of that many men, but as they prepare for the impending battle – the Battle of Monmouth, in fact – Jamie and Claire share some private time in their tent before he commands his battalion to march into battle with the Redcoats.

As the battle plays out, Claire is dealing with yet another doubtful doctor – this time Dr. Leckie – who is in charge of the battlefield hospital inside the local church. Dr. Leckie cannot seem to comprehend – despite Denzell telling him of his experience working alongside Claire in the past – that she could be able to help with the wounded. Rather than once again having to defend herself, Claire tells Rachel and Denzell that she will work in the medical tents, but when the fighting begins to move too close to the medical tents and the makeshift hospital, inside the church, all the civilians and medical staff – except for Dr. Leckie – are evacuated. But, of course, Claire won’t leave the wounded men in the tents who she has been treating. As the Redcoats edge closer and closer to the medical tents and the church and then begin to retreat past the church and the medical tents, Jamie and some of his remaining battalion begin to race toward the church.

For a brief time, it seems like the Redcoats will continue to retreat and Jamie’s men will just let them retreat, but then a commotion begins to arise and gunfire from both sides ensues, and then a loud shot rings out. Sadly, that shot hit not one of the soldiers or even Jamie, but it hit Claire. She collapses to the ground with Jamie running to her side in shock. He carries her to the church, nee the temporary medical hospital, straight to Dr. Leckie but after a brief review of Claire’s injury, Dr. Leckie claims that he can’t do anything for her. Jamie doesn’t accept that so when one of his young soldiers races into the church, carrying a message from General Lee claiming that Jamie was needed by Lee’s side, Jamie refuses, writing a message on the young man’s back in Claire’s blood stating that he resigns. He then orders one of his Lieutenants to find Denzell, the only other doctor that could possibly help Claire. A short time later, Denzell and Rachel race inside the church and begin the harrowing process of trying to save her life.

With only one episode left in the current season, there is a lot of story to play out in the next episode, which will be the season finale.

Pictures for Episode 13: “Hello, Goodbye”: