Outlander: To Ransom a Man's Soul (1x16)

Well then. That's one way to end a season. Honestly, this episode was even tougher than the last one, so if you couldn't stomach, 1x15, steer clear of the followup. Let's take a look at the plot.

Murtagh and the MacKenzie men successfully enter Wentworth Prison by causing chaos with a herd of cows. They get Jamie out, but he is badly injured, both physically and psychologically. Jamie, Claire, and the other men stay at the nearby Scotsman's house while Jamie recovers from his ordeal. It seems no matter what anybody says, Jamie is convinced there's no coming back from what happened to him. He is suicidal, and he actually asks one of the men to kill him. When Claire finds out, she realizes she cannot keep coddling him. She needs to get to the bottom of what happened.

She discovers that Jamie has been branded with the initials "JR" for Jonathan Randall. Jamie explains that he did it himself. Jack got to him. He broke him. In a series of flashbacks throughout the episode, we see the torment that Jamie went through at the hands of Jack Randall. Not only did Jack rape Jamie - he also "made love" to him, as Jamie says. He put him through so much pain and then, in Jamie's relief at the absence of pain, made Jamie equate the physical sensations of sex with Jack to his relationship with Claire. Jack basically forced Jamie to feel pleasure in the act, and then left him to be disgusted with himself.

Claire forced Jamie to see that she still loved him, regardless of what happened. Jack had Jamie's body, but Claire is determined to save his soul. Jamie finally breaks through the haze and decides to keep on living. They cut off the brand, leaving a circular scar behind. Murtagh and the others send Jamie and Claire off as they travel to France. They need to get away and start over, since of course the British will be looking for Jamie.

Claire wonders if she and Jamie will be able to change the future and prevent the catastrophe at Culloden. She insists that they must try. She also tells Jamie an exciting piece of information: she's pregnant!

I'm going to start with some criticism, as I usually do. There was one moment in this episode that made me do a double take, and not in a way that I think was intended. When Claire is saying goodbye to the men, one of them (is it Rupert? I can't tell them all apart, sorry...) grabs Claire's breasts as she goes to kiss him farewell. It was supposed to be a joke, I think, and Claire brushes it off pretty easily and they all gripe about what an idiot this guy is. And I'm sitting here thinking... uh... wasn't this episode supposed to be dealing seriously with issues of sexual assault? To throw in that molestation moment with such an air of casual humor was really strange to me.

I also think, and maybe this is a nitpick, that this finale could have done a better job of reminding the audience where we've been. This has been a crazy season. A lot of stuff happened. And in this finale, I didn't feel much of a connection to any of the other really important story elements. There was no attempt to remind us of Frank. There was no nod to Lallybroch, to what Jenny and Ian would think if they knew what was going on with Jamie. There was no real reference to Castle Leoch or to Geillis Duncan. It felt isolated in such a way that it doesn't really work as a season finale.

However, I do have to praise this episode's extreme daring, and the way it hit me, viscerally, right in the gut. Honestly, I don't think there are enough trigger warnings out there for this episode. The flashback scenes with Jamie and Jack were most definitely the most disgusting and upsetting things I have ever seen on TV. Ever. For sure. No debate. The most disturbing part isn't the violence, although that's bad enough. It's when Jack "makes love" to Jamie, and convinces him that he has betrayed Claire. Jack Randall is a sick, despicable monster, and this episode left no room for debate on that. Yikes.

Also, Claire's dilemma throughout the episode was nicely presented. The pain and trauma of Jamie's experiences are clear to see, but Claire has also been through a terrible, stressful ordeal. I like the way this episode tracked her emotions, from utter relief that Jamie survived, to total horror at realizing he wanted to kill himself. She takes a big risk, confronting Jamie head-on, but she knows him and loves him well enough by now to understand that it's the only thing that might work.

I loved the reveal that Claire was pregnant at the end. They did it differently in the book, but I think I actually liked the show's version better. We've seen Claire pass out and throw up a few times over the past few episodes, and I like the way we can read that as just her stress over the situation, but that now that we know she's pregnant, we can see it as morning sickness.

And after an entire hour of basically non-stop torment, it was lovely to have a moment of happiness on which to end the episode. Claire and Jamie are moving on again, going forward to the next stage of their lives together. Claire is pregnant. It's a great way to end on a feeling of hope after such an emotionally draining and devastating finale.

I guess that's all I've got to say for now. An impressive episode. It really messed me up. I had to watch a lot of it through my fingers, and pause it a few times to shake off some of the most disturbing scenes. Take the warning for what you will.

8/10