Romance/war period drama Outlander premiered ep.208 last night and Starz has hopped on the streaming bandwagon and is now available online here for a 7 day free trial period.
Outlander focuses on the Jacobite rebellion in Scotland in 1745 and is based on the novels written by Diana Gabaldon.
***SPOILERS AHEAD***
Rottentomatoes : 95%
Metacritic : 73
Clare Fraser
Claire Elizabeth Beauchamp lived a relatively normal life in England from 1918-1945 until she was visiting Inverness, Scotland at the Craigh Na dun stones and is mysteriously whisked away to the same exact spot two centuries earlier.
Claire awakes to find herself in the middle of what appears to be a skirmish between British Redcoats and rebel Scottish Highlanders. Rescued from an attack by her husband Frank’s direct ancestor Captain Jonathan “Black Jack” Randall, she uses her medical training to help the injured Scotsman Jamie Fraser.
Her medical knowledge earns her room and board at Castle Leoch, but she is essentially a prisoner of Clan MacKenzie and cannot travel back to Craigh na Dun to try and return home. Claire and Jamie start to develop a rapport, as she comes to understand that the she is in the midst of the Jacobite rebellion. Knowing from history that their cause is destined to fail and many Highlanders will die, Claire tries to actively stop the rebellion from happening.
Jamie marries Claire to protect her legally from the Redcoat villian “Black Jack” Randall. Claire and Jamie eventually realize they have feelings for each other and begin to foster a romantic relationship.
Jamie is captured by the Redcoats and detained in Wentworth Prison pending execution. Randall arrives and whips Jamie. Claire infiltrates the prison to save Jamie, but when Randall catches her in the attempt, Jamie agrees to submit to sodomy by Randall in exchange for her freedom.
Murtagh rescues Jamie, and the trio flee to Paris to somehow prevent the catastrophic Battle of Culloden, and the entire failed Jacobite rebellion. Before they depart, Claire reveals to Jamie that she is pregnant.
In Paris Claire learns of a charity hospital at the church L’hopital des Anges where she can volunteer. She goes there and volunteers as a nurse/doctor under the matron Mother Hildegard.
She tries to stop a duel between Jamie and Jack Randall and subsequently has a miscarriage at the L’hopital. She falls ill with fever and Jamie is detained by the French police for dueling.
She is forced to approach the King to pardon her husband for dueling, the king forces her to play executioner in which she unwittingly kills a local nobleman Le Comte St. Germain. She is also forced to sleep with the king very briefly.
Her and Jamie reconcile and decide to head back to Lallybroch, Scotland where Jamie’s family resides.
“I wished I were dead. And if id kept my eyes shut, I could have almost touched the edges of oblivion. But I’d made a promise and had to keep it. Even if it meant living a life I no longer wanted.” — Claire Fraser
“My days, in between social engagements, were spent in the hospital where I began to develop an appreciation of Mother Hildegarde’s medical knowledge.” — Claire Fraser
“I’m carrying another mans child, Frank. You need to think about that. And what that means for all of us.” — Claire Fraser
“You are about to become a father you have to think of me and your child.” — Claire Fraser
“It’s fortunate to have friends in high places.” — Claire Fraser
“Every now and then you know it is ok to lie to me. Just to put my mind at ease.” — Claire Fraser
“This is what friends do for one another.” — Claire Fraser
“Come back to me, James Fraser.” — Claire Fraser
“But my husband betrayed me, Mother. Revenge mattered more to him than me…or his child. One year of grace is all I asked, to which he agreed. One year. He may as well have run his sword through me.” — Clare Fraser
“Well then tell me goddammit. Talk to me! Make me understand!” — Clare Fraser
Well, I am an unusual lady.
— Claire Fraser
“I feel since I’ve come to Paris that my life has become more conventional by the day I suppose so have I. But it’s of no concern.” — Claire Fraser
“Doesn’t it distress any of you? How this city treats its poor and underprivileged?” — Claire Fraser
Considerate, gracious, amicable, and inherently nurturing Clare Fraser is an Idealist.
Jamie Fraser
James Alexander Malcolm Mackenzie Fraser is a Scottish soldier and Jacobite rebel. Jamie saves Claire from Black Jack Randall and the two develop a relationship and marry one another.
Jamie Arrives in Paris with Clare and meets his cousin whom is a wine merchant and Jacobite. His cousin takes him in after seeing his scars and implores him to run the wine business while he takes a trip. Jamie happily obliges and him and Claire integrate into Parisian society to begin to infiltrate the Jacobite rebellion to try and stop it.
Jamie and Claire’s attempts to stop the rebellion are thwarted, and ‘Black Jack’ Randall makes an appearance in Paris. Jamie challenges him to a duel and he accepts.
Jamie gets in a scuffle with Jonathan “Black Jack” Randall when his pickpocket adoption is sexually assaulted by him. Jamie wounds Randall in the duel before it’s broken up by Redcoats and he is detained by the French police in the Bastille Saint-Antoine.
Claire sleeps with the king to release Jamie and they decide to return to Scotland.
Jamie learns that Princes Charles Stewart has mobilized his forces and decides he wants to fight in the rebellion. Jamie then meets with his grandfather Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat and is given a small Scottish force to command.
“Even if that price is our souls?” — Jamie Fraser
“I asked your forgiveness once, you said there’s nothing to forgive. Truth is… I already forgave you, long before today. For this and anything else you could ever do.” — Jamie Fraser
“You did it to save my life. Just like I gave myself to Randall to save you.” — Jamie Fraser
“A good soldier must learn to obey his commanding officer. As well as his general.” — Jamie Fraser
“The only way to survive is to fight and win, and we need the weapons and men to do so. Remaining neutral will be seen as treason by whichever side wins. ” — Jamie Fraser
“I remember every moment, every second. I’ll never forget when I came out of the church and saw you for the first time. It was as if I stepped outside on a cloudy day and suddenly the sun came out.” — Jamie Fraser
“I am a chief. God has made me what I am. He has given me the duty—and I must do it, whatever the cost.” — Jamie Fraser
“You gave me a gift clare when you told Randall was alive. when i knew that Id end that bastards life. Now I claim that gift.” — Jamie Fraser
“Promise me that if the time comes. You will go back through the stones. Back to Frank.” — Jamie Fraser
“There was this place inside of me I– a place that I think everyone has that they keep to themselves. A fortress. Where the most private part of you lives. Maybe it’s your soul, the bit that makes you yourself and not anyone else.” — Jamie Fraser
“No peace for the wicked.” — Jamie Fraser
You have my name, my clan, and if need be my body as well. — Jamie Fraser
“I plan to be wed one time Murtaugh. So, I’ll do so in a way that would make my mother proud.” — Jamie Fraser
“Now, I ask you plainly, does any man need further reason to rise up against a king that would allow such horrors to be carried out in his name?” — Jamie Fraser
“The way I see it. We’re doing a bad thing, for a good reason.” — Jamie Fraser
“The weight of what happened here is too much for any one of us to bear alone. The only way we can live with it is to carry it… together.” — Jamie Fraser
“Still I suppose stopping Charles’ rebellion is worth losing a bit of sleep.” — Jamie Fraser
“‘Tis but one more scar sassenach, nothing worth brooding over.” — Jamie Fraser
“Trust I’ve a sound reason.” — Jamie
“No, what would be foolish, Janet, would to let pride stand in the way of doing whatever I can to save Lallybroch, Scotland, and everything that we hold dear.” — Jamie Fraser
“That’s where I’ve been ever since Clare, naked, alone. Trying… to hide under a blade of grass.” — Jamie Fraser
“Think it best I sleep elsewhere tonight.” — Jamie Fraser
“Scotland and our people cannot bear another failed rebellion. We must not invade until we’re certain we have the resources and finances to win.” — Jamie Fraser
“This has plagued me for months thinking Black Jack Randall died and I missed it. Knowing I’d never look in his face and see the blood flow from his body, watch him breathe his last.” — Jamie Fraser
Fortuitous, loyal, attentive, and stalwart Jamie Fraser is a Guardian.
Frank Randall
Frank Randall is an English-born historian in the 20th century. He is married to Claire Beauchamp Randall, and has one adoptive daughter, Brianna Randall.
On their second honeymoon after the war, they stayed in a town called Inverness in the north of Scotland, which was situated near an ancient stone circle.
While in Inverness, after Claire leaves their bed and breakfast to return to the standing stones, she does not return. Unbeknownst to Frank at the time, Claire had fallen through the cleft in the main stone and been transported back in time to 1743, smack into his ancestor, Black Jack Randall.
Claire eventually returns and the two move to Boston, Massachussets where Frank takes a teaching position at Harvard University. They raise Claire and Jamie’s baby girl together as a couple.
“You’re right; they’re not all brave. Most of them—of us—we’re just… there, and we do our best. Most of the time.” — Frank Randall
“And yet you are still wearing our wedding ring.” — Frank Randall
“When Claire told me that she was pregnant, my first feeling was joy and happiness. It was almost hallucinatory in its intensity, because somehow, suddenly, in that moment, I, I thought she meant we were having a child. Then I realized, of course, it couldn’t be mine. Had to be his.” — Frank Randall
“I have no evidence that my ancestor visited this castle but it was within his operational sphere so.. it’s just possible that he walked these very halls.” — Frank Randall
All I meant was that even if you had, it would make no difference to me. I love you, and nothing you could ever do could stop my loving you. — Frank Randall
Calm, logical, academic, and an avid historian Frank Randall is a Rational.
Louise de Rohan
Louise is a french noblewoman and friend of Claire’s. She essentially helps Claire gain entry into French Court so she can try and work her political machinations and stop the rebellion. Claire however, is ultimately unsuccessful.
Louise gets pregnant from her affair with Prince Charles Stewart, and consults Clare who suggests she sleep with her husband and keep the baby.
You mean sleep with my husband? But my lover would be furious! — Louise de Rohan
“Must we talk politics? It’s so dreary. What about the opera?!” — Louise de Rohan
Frivolous, spirited, charismatic, and vehement Louise de Rohan is an Artisan.
