When last we left Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and Jamie (Sam Heughan) in the 18th century
at the end of Outlander Season 5, things were in a rather precarious state.
Claire had thankfully survived a brutal kidnap and rape from Lionel Brown (Ned Dennehy) and
his crew and was safe — at least for the moment — back in Jamie’s arms.
However, Fraser’s Ridge and the territory at large is on the brink of revolution, so
it was clear back in the Season 5 finale that safety and relative peace was short-lived.
Given the way the “Echoes” kicks off, that certainly seems to be the case.
The first 20 or so minutes of the episode take us back 20 years to 1753 when Jamie has
just arrived at Ardsmuir prison following the Jacobite uprising.
There’s a whole group of men there who fought but failed against the English, but there’s
a divide even among these men as some are Catholics and others are Protestants.
On the Protestant side is Thomas Christie, who seems to have something of an understanding
with Governor Harry Quarry (Jay Villiers) who runs the place.
Quarry deems Christie a “more decent sort” than Jamie but does notice and acknowledge
that Jamie holds power among the prisoners.
Jamie and Christie don’t really see eye to eye but there does seem to be somewhat
of a mutual albeit begrudging respect between the men.
In any case, Jamie’s fortune changes soon after when Quarry grants his request to become
a freemason and transform the prison to a lodge (though not before Jamie takes a serious
flogging for a piece of tartan placed gifted to a prisoner in memorium).
Seems Quarry wasn’t all that into being a prison governor after all.
Flash forward to North Carolina in 1773.
Claire is sleeping restfully, only Jamie finds it incredibly hard to wake her.
When she finally comes to, she’s thrilled.
It seems she’s found a way to produce ether, which she tells Jamie puts the user in something
“deeper than sleep,” making it much easier and less painful to perform surgery when needed.
If you’re thinking, “Hmm…
Claire has a lot of untapped trauma, this could be dangerous!”
then you get a prize because you’re 100% right.
Jamie shares that Major McDonald, who took over for the old Governor, wants him to come
on board as an Indian agent to represent the Crown and improve relations with the Cherokee
tribe.
Claire wants him to say no and he says he will, but spoiler alert: by the end of the
episode, he’ll change his mind.
In the meantime, Jamie insists on following Claire everywhere she goes, clearly concerned
about her safety and mental/emotional wellbeing ever since the kidnapping.
She insists she’s okay, which can definitely be translated to mean the exact opposite.
It soon becomes clear why we started the episode with the Ardsmuir flashback.
It’s only Thomas Christie come to find Jamie in Fraser’s Ridge!
Jamie apparently sent out a very talked-about invite for anyone from his Ardsmuir days to
come and join him in settling in Fraser’s Ridge and Christie decided to take him up
on the offer.
He’s brought his two children, Malva (Jessica Reynolds) and Allan (Alexander Vlahos) (who
are more like young adults really), along with him.
Their mother is dead, and while the reason is never discussed explicitly, anyone who’s
read the books will know that she was hanged for the murder of Christie’s brother, Edgar.
Now seems as good a time as any to mention that Roger (Richard Rankin) and Brianna (Sophie
Skelton) are still around, though there’s only a quick glimpse of Jemmy in this episode.
Brianna has been working on her designs here and there but given what happened to her mother
for being “ahead of her time,” she’s a bit hesitant to publicize it much.
It’s hard to say what Roger is up to these days, though he is the one who welcomes Christie
to Fraser’s Ridge since Jamie and Claire are out running errands when his camp arrives.
At one point, Young Ian (John Bell) decides to take Allan hunting and notices and admires
his gun powder horn.
It’s a bit of a nothing scene, or it would be if it didn’t serve two distinct purposes:
showing us that Richard Brown (Chris Larkin), that awful Lionel’s brother, is still around
sneering and being generally The Worst and also showing that Allan seems to have sticky
fingers.
Richard brings his whole motley crew of self-proclaimed law enforcement officers over to Fraser’s
Ridge later that day and says he’s there to arrest Allan for stealing a powder horn
with his brother’s initials engraved in them.
Christie asks Richard to allow him to bestow discipline on his son personally, but Richard
thinks that Jamie should do it, and that a just punishment would be 10 lashes.
As basically the entire settlement of Fraser’s Ridge looks on, Jamie does exactly that.
The sense of foreboding here is pretty powerful.
Things are not going to end well with Richard Brown.
By the end of the episode, we get a glimpse into Claire’s current state of mind.
Seeing Richard has triggered terrible nightmares for her, though it’s likely she was already
having them.
She wakes up hyperventilating but insists she’s fine and just needs a cup of tea.
However, she instead mixes herself up a dose of ether and knocks herself out in the bed
in the other room.
It’s going to be a tough ride this season for Claire, that’s for sure.
Caitriona Balfe has pretty much said as much in recent interviews, so this will be interesting
to see.
Malva is doing a lot of sniffing around Claire, particularly when it comes to her medical
work.
She asks a lot of questions and doesn’t come across as particularly trustworthy, though
what she’s up to remains to be seen.
It wouldn’t be an Outlander season premiere if we didn’t have a steamy Claire and Jamie
sex scene.
The one in “Echoes” was relatively short for them and still very loving and romantic,
but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that it was also somewhat uncomfortable knowing
how traumatized Claire still is.
Marsali (Lauren Lyle) is still extremely pregnant and Fergus (Cesar Domboy) is now a drunk,
which is always great.
She told Claire in this episode that the baby hasn’t been moving much but that they never
do when they’re nearly ready.
Let’s hope this isn’t a foreshadowing of something really bad for her.
Jennifer Still is a writer and editor from New York who cares too way much about fictional
characters and spends her time writing about them.