Outlander Recap: “Best Laid Schemes…”

The best laid schemes don’t always work out quite the way they were planned and broken promises can have horrible ramifications.

Both of those statements played out in full on last night’s episode of Outlander, finding Murtagh, Claire and Jamie working to stop the Bonnie Prince and their archenemy the Comte St. Germaine from getting their money that would go toward the Jacobite Rebellion AND attempting to keep a massively difficult promise made between the beloved couple.

As the episode opened, Murtagh told Jamie that Randall was released from the Bastille and the duel for which Jamie challenged Randall would take place in two days. But, given the aforementioned massively difficult promise he made to his wife Claire, Jamie informed Murtagh the duel would not be taking place. However, he didn’t explain to his ever-reliable compatriot the full reason behind it all. (More on that shortly)

We then, once again, saw Claire at the charity hospital, helping one of the “doctors” – whose day job is as the King’s executioner (lovely job, huh?) – who asked for her assistance to prepare a deceased patient for burial. During their conversation she learned he was being called to work but not just for the execution of one poor soul. He was actually being called to kill several practitioners of the dark arts and those associated with them where those people were to be drawn and quartered by order of the King. Ironically, the “doctor” mentioned Master Raymond, which set Claire off to his apothecary to warn him of the impending brutal executions, as he could very well be one of the men round up. At first Master Raymond fluffed off her warnings, but thankfully, she convinced him of the danger the man faced and he assured Claire that he would leave the City.

Then there was another conversation between Jamie and Claire where they discussed the promise he made to her – not killing Black Jack for a year. This time, though, we learned the real reason behind his promise, that he wanted to make sure should anything happen to him – a Culloden Moor – that Claire had a safe place to go – back to Frank through the stones. He asked her to promise (the very promise Claire told Frank about the season premiere episode) that she would go back through the stones to Frank if anything were to happen to him.

“I promise” – two words they have vowed to each other – one we know that was fulfilled while the other (well more on that shortly).

From there we see our merry little band of spies (Jamie, Claire, Murtagh and little Fergus) working on their plan to stop St. Germaine’s wine from coming into Paris to make money for the Prince. Claire used her knowledge of herbs to create tell-tale signs of small pox – which were used on Jamie as if he were their guinea pig – and voila – small pox. Murtagh is none too happy about this plan, as you can imagine, and he stormed out. It became clear to both Claire and Jamie that it was time to tell him the truth. And that was exactly what Jamie did as Claire looked on. Murtagh took it quite well except for the bunch he delivered to Jamie mouth. Honestly, Jamie was lucky that was all the retribution that Murtagh paid upon him.

From there their best laid scheme was underway with Jamie and Fergus riding for La Havre to infect St. Germaine’s men with the fake smallpox; and thankfully their ruse worked. Well…almost.

As to be expected, St. Germaine and the Prince were not willing to give up, as they arranged for Jamie and St. Germaine to deliver the wine themselves to Paris, which required yet another plan to stop that from happening. This new scheme required Murtagh to be dressed in French finery and along with other armed men, they hijacked the wine delivery, holding St. Germaine at gunpoint and Murtagh – with Jamie’s silent approval – knocking him out.

In between those scenes, we got to see a touching moment between Jamie and Claire and their unborn child, who has been kicking a lot lately and Jamie finally got to feel the child move. The couple ribbed each other about whether the child will be a boy or girl and Jamie spoke to “him,” saying “Wee’n. It’s your father. I canna wait to meet ya.”

After their second ruse at stopping the Prince and St. Germaine from getting their money succeeded, Jamie was called to the brothel because the Prince was refusing to pay his mounting bills with the Madame. While there young Fergus – who was in tow once again with him – wondered into one of the rooms where a Red Coat was hung. Thankfully that moment faded to black without seeing what Randall may or may not have done to Fergus let alone the confrontation with Jamie,

And after a trying evening at the charity hospital where Claire was forced by Mother Hildegarde to take rest because she was bleeding – something quite common at this stage in any pregnancy – Claire returned home to learn that Jamie was in the woods west of the city. And what was he doing? He was dueling Randall – the very thing he promised to her he would not do (so much for keeping his promise). Upon hearing that news and see the brief note from her husband, Claire ordered the staff to get her to him as quickly as possible.

The racing carriage ride, her hurried walk to the dueling site combined with her overwhelming concern not only for Jamie but also for Black Jack Randall (mainly, of course, for the fate of Frank’s life) caused Claire to begin to pass out due to massive blood loss (it would seem the baby was in To make matters worse, the King’s police arrived on the scene, preparing to arrest them all right after Jamie rammed his sword into Black Jack’s privates. The fate of Jamie’s life at the hands of the King’s police, the sterility of Black Jack and Claire’s unborn baby all weighed in the balance as the scene faded to black.

The next new episode of Outlander will air on Starz on Saturday, May 21 at 9/8c.