This week’s episode was interesting but compared to last week’s episode I found it more dull than usual. (I think it’s a little unfair to compare the two, though, don’t you think?)
Claire fights off the man in her room and he hits his head on the stone in front of the fireplace, knocking himself out. Jamie enters the room discovering the scene and when Claire says that she feels an obligation to do surgery, to save her attacker, he disagrees with her saying, “Stubborn as always.” Even so, he does what she asks and watches over the man while Claire heads off for medication.
When Claire is in the apothecary, she bargains with Archibald Campbell, in order to go in front of him for her remedies. In exchange, she offers to care for Archibald’s sister, Margaret. She has a mental disability that Archibald is unsure about.
Jamie and his friend, Mr. Willoughby, hold down the strange man in bed when Claire returns to the brothel. Claire gives him a medication that calms the man once more so that she can begin surgery on him. Unfortunately for Claire the surgery failed and she realizes that misses being a doctor. She feels such remorse for losing her patient despite the fact this patient tried to kill her. I think this shows great compassion and such dedication from Claire. She doesn’t judge anyone for what they have done. She only sees a life that needs to be saved. Jamie has trouble understanding her commitment to being a doctor but at the same time tries to show her love by telling her that the day she came back into his life, even though to Claire it may have caused him some trouble, was “as if the sun returned and cast out the darkness.” This is what true love really is. There may be moments of stress, in which, two people come to a point of “agreeing to disagree” but the respect remains.
Meanwhile, Fergus and Ian meet up discussing the intimacies of their lives. Ian has his eye on the Brighid, the girl working at the tavern, but confesses to his friend that he has never been with a woman before. Fergus, on the other hand, has confessed that he is quite experienced and gives Ian some advice on how to seduce a lady. I rolled my eyes watching this scene. All I could do was sigh. This has probably been one of my least favorite scenes in the season but that probably has a lot to do with the fact that I disagree on the way these two are trying to get women into their beds. I also felt that it didn’t serve much of a purpose other than to show us how young and immature Fergus and Ian still are. (We later see that Ian ends up at the right place at the right time but we’ll get to that in a minute!)
Claire finds herself in the Campbell home and Archibald explains to her that he has given his sister, Margaret, medication to help soothe her. When Margaret opens her eyes and sees Claire sitting there with her, she begins to spout off ramblings that make no sense. Her brother claims, for a fee, that he can translate what his sister is saying. He believes Margaret is a fortune teller. Claire asks a few questions and comes to the conclusion that she isn’t a fortune teller but someone who is simply mentally ill and would like to come back the next day to see Margaret but Archibald explains that they are leaving for the West Indies. Even though Claire disagrees with the decision to travel, she gives what medical advice she can and wishes them save travels. I think the reason we needed this scene is because of what Margaret spouts off to Claire. I feel we will see a deeper meaning behind this later.
Ian brings Brighid back to the print shop and while they in bed together, an intruder breaks into the print shop. Immediately, Brighid leaves while Ian fights off the robber. In the midst of the struggle, the intruder find documents that declare Jamie is committing treason. Ian fights to get the documents away from the man but instead a fire breaks out. I was really surprised at the bravery of Ian considering how scared he was to pursue Brighid. Here he shows absolute strength and loyalty to his uncle so much so that he is willing to die for him.
When Claire returns back to the brothel, she tells Jamie that they should find a home of their own. Jamie explains that they have no rent living there and that all of the money makes goes back to Lallybroch. Claire tells him that she’d like to make a living as a healer and that she’d like to open up her own office. Before they have an opportunity to go into this further, they are interrupted by the visit from Ian Murray, young Ian’s father. Jamie asks Claire to lie about young Ian’s whereabouts to his father. Later, in their room, Claire argues that Jamie’s decision to lie is wrong and that he has no idea what it’s like to be a worried parent. Jamie fires back about how he is Breanna’s father and that he has had no say in how she was raised. He said that she was raised with no virtue being able to flaunt herself around in a bikini. This is where the obvious differences in modesty of the times are shown yet at the same time a complete contradiction, too. Jamie lives in a brothel, teaching young Ian to smuggle, which gives his argument no strong stance. I find it interesting here how blind Jamie is to his surroundings and his lifestyle. The debate ends when Jamie is told that the print shop is on fire.
Jamie rushes into the blazing print shop to find Ian passed out in the smoke, the intruder gone. Once they are safely out of the fire, Jamie makes a plan to leave Edinburgh for fear of being arrested. He also agrees to send Ian home to his parents. He gives explicit instructions to Fergus to try and find the intruder before he gets to Sir Percival. To me Jamie appears much more conniving than we’ve seen him previously. I wonder if this is going to cause friction and more problems between him and Claire once she starts discovering more truths about him…
Mindy Campbell
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