Outlander Midseason-Premiere Recap: Back to Lallybroch
Hey, quick question: Did anyone else watch this episode of Outlander and feel like they time-traveled? I’m not talking about the slight nausea, the splitting headache, and the heart palpitations you might be feeling — sorry to tell you, babe, but I think that’s just part of being alive in 2024. No, I mean the fact that you have to comb through your brain to remember what exactly was going on in Outlander season seven over a year ago so you could comprehend anything happening in “Unfinished Business,” which, yes, is still technically Outlander season seven. It feels like 200 years ago. (Honestly, can you believe the season began with Claire in prison for Malva Christie’s murder?!) It’s not, like, the best way to do television, but you know Claire time-traveled into so many uncomfortable situations, and she pressed on, didn’t she? I mean, she had a hunky Scot to ease the pain of any of her rocky landings, and we do not (unfair), but press on, we must.
Surely, you’ll at least remember that the very end of the midseason finale was a shot of Claire, Jamie, and Young Ian laying their teary, weary eyes on Scotland for the first time in years. It was a joyful, hopeful note to go out on. But don’t you worry, in true Outlander fashion, that joy and hope are mostly beaten out of us by the end of this episode. Even in Jamie’s opening voice-over, he speaks of a storm of his own making looming on the horizon. Very ominous!! We cannot have one hour that’s simply basking in happiness — it is the Outlander way.
Even the big reunion between our travelers from America and their families at Lallybroch is bittersweet once Jamie, Claire, and Young Ian discover Old Ian is dying from tuberculosis. He could go any day now (or live another year; it’s a crapshoot), and that realization colors every aspect of their return, especially for Young Ian.
Ian harbors a ton of guilt over leaving his parents multiple times for deciding to stay in America, fearing he has broken his father’s heart too many times. This go-round, he’s staying for however long Ian Sr. has left, he says. The vibes coming off dear old da’ couldn’t be more opposite, though. He’s overjoyed to see his son, to hear about his grandson Swiftest of Lizards (he weeps when he hears his other name is Ian James), and to push Ian Jr. to do whatever he can to be with Rachel as soon as possible.
Ian’s not the only Scot around trying to assuage his feelings of guilt now that he’s back in town. Jamie feels like he has some unfinished business with Laoghaire, which is mostly that he wants to apologize for being a shit husband, but also probably that he doesn’t feel like paying her alimony anymore. I don’t know. I do want to scream at Laoghaire that harboring decades of anger isn’t good for your complexion. Still, Jamie shows up to tell her that he’s sorry for ever marrying her because he was actually dead inside the whole time, which isn’t really the thoughtful apology he thinks it is. Laoghaire knew that Jamie only ever loved Claire, but she thought she could help him through his Sad Boy Cave Phase, you know? It was unnecessary for him to remind her that he never wanted to make it work or look at her as an actual person with her own wants and needs, and therefore, I totally support Laoghaire throwing metal objects at his head even if she refuses to stop calling Claire a Sassenach whore. It’s complicated and messy, and in that moment, I bet Jamie is wondering why he ever left the Revolutionary War for this shit.
Thankfully, Joan, Laoghaire’s younger daughter, shows up to put all this drama to bed. Don’t sleep on the youths who want to be nuns, okay? They might save us all. Joan tells Jamie that, apparently, there is something in the agreement they made when Claire returned that says if Laoghaire marries someone else, she forfeits her home and the alimony. Her mother also refuses to release Joan’s dowry to pay for the convent, and she’s living in sin with Joey, the farmhand, who it does seem like she actually loves very much. Jamie can fix all of this by amending the agreement — and so he does! Jamie wants Laoghaire to marry this Joey guy and also release Joan’s dowry — yes, she’ll forfeit the alimony, but he’ll hand over ownership of her home so it is Laoghaire’s until her death, and he’ll help pay for the convent. Laoghaire still rolls her eyes at the whole thing, but it’s a pretty great deal considering, so she signs. Good-bye, Laoghaire! I will not miss you, but I will miss the way you pronounce the word whore.
Claire, too, has some serious business to attend to: She wants to tell the whole family that she’s a time traveler. No, seriously! When the gang first rolled up to Lallybroch, Young Ian’s brother Michael was going on and on about how he lives in France, that his French wine business is thriving, and he supports the American Revolution, but he just could never imagine such upheaval, especially in a place like France. Claire might be smiling at him while he speaks, but the commentary in her head is definitely fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. Ever heard of the French Revolution, bro? I mean, Michael hasn’t because it doesn’t happen until 1789, but Claire has. So, with Jamie and Young Ian by her side to support her, she tells Jenny (who’s been recast this season with Kristin Atherton), Old Ian, and Michael that she was born in 1918 and also some real rough shit is going to go down in France in about ten years.
What does one say when a family member informs you they are from the future? The three Murrays are shocked into silence at first, but they all have to admit that it does sort of make sense; there have been rumors about Claire since she first came around, and if Jamie and Ian believe her, why shouldn’t they? The whole future part actually goes over pretty smoothly. Things only get heated when Jenny comes to Claire begging her to use her future magic to cure her husband. It’s a heartbreaking conversation. It just doesn’t work like that and there’s nothing in this time period that would heal Ian — Claire would give her soul to fix him if she could. “Maybe you have no soul,” Jenny spits at her before running off in tears.
Obviously, this is the grief talking. And if you weren’t convinced of that and just thought Jenny was going to be a straight-up bitch till the day she dies (compliment), you certainly must understand this is a woman in pain by the time Jamie finds his sister screaming at the heavens out in the woods. She doesn’t know how she’ll survive without Ian. Jamie has to remind her that she’s the strong one in the family. It’s a very touching brother-sister moment (plus, it gives us a callback to that time Jenny laughed at Jack Randall’s dick, which is always welcome) and also sets the tone for the entire end of the episode which is mostly just a big ol’ cryfest.
Admittedly, Young Ian has never been my cup of tea, but holy hell, if John Bell doesn’t sell the torment this guy is carrying, not just having to choose between staying with his dad until he dies or going after the woman he loves, but also the torment he feels over the loss of his baby daughter. Jenny takes her son to see that they made a gravestone for Iseabaíl, a marker to show him that she’ll always be with him and the family. She also tells him that no matter where he is, he’ll be with them, too, and both she and his father want him to go off and live his own life. He needs to go find Rachel, tell her he loves her, and marry that girl. It’s a nice sentiment, but kind of a wild risk — Rachel seemed into him but hesitant to, you know, give up her entire Quaker community to be with him. She could just hand over Rollo and be on her way! Although, it’s probably a good thing he’s returning to America so quickly because, as you may recall, when we last saw Rachel, Arch Bug, who swore to bring misery and pain to Ian’s life, was creeping about. Risky all around — but Young Ian decides to go for it.
And how does he wind up hitching a ride back to America? Well, he’s going with Auntie Claire. You guys: Claire receives an urgent letter from Lord John Grey, informing her that his nephew, Henry, took two bullets to the abdomen in the war and is dying in a Philadelphia convalescence house, and John believes Claire is the only one who can save him. With a push from Jenny, who reminds her that Claire should save who she can save, she says yes! Does she not realize it’s 1778, and she could easily be like, Oh, sorry, I guess I never got your letter, baby. Also, will this guy even last the amount of time it took for Claire to get this letter and sail across the Atlantic Ocean? Any time Claire and Jamie part ways, disaster happens, so I just find it hard to believe these two ding-dongs are like, yes, you must go, and I must stay, and definitely nothing bad will fall upon us. Of course, Jamie needs to stay and be with Ian and Jenny, but hello, he was the one telling us about a looming storm of his own making!! Grow up, my man!
The scene in which Claire and Young Ian leave Lallybroch is devastating, which is pretty wild seeing how we’ve barely spent time with Ian or Jenny in years. But damn, if Ian doing everything he can to get down those stairs and say a proper good-bye to his son — knowing it’ll surely be the last time they see each other — didn’t just lay me out completely.
And while Outlander can easily devastate you, it can also really make you laugh. Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about our other two time-hoppers, Roger and Buck. At the end of the midseason finale, Roger and Buck hopped through the stones at Craigh na Dun in an attempt to track down Rob Cameron who time-kidnapped Jem in order to hunt down the Jacobite gold Jamie had hidden in North Carolina. It doesn’t take too long for Roger to realize they hopped back a little too far — they didn’t land in 1778, but instead find themselves in 1739.
How does Roger realize this? When he knocks on the door at Lallybroch, he comes face-to-face with Brian Fraser, Jamie’s father. Roger meets a young Jenny (will old Jenny remember that she met a mysterious Roger MacKenzie in her youth and tell Jamie?) and learns that Jamie is off at university in Paris. At this point, he has no idea if Rob and Jem landed here, too, but there have been some rumors about a “fairyman” in strange clothing — it could be Rob.
Unfortunately, Roger’s hunt for his son takes a detour when Buck, who didn’t take to the time travel too well, falls ill and they have to rush him to an herbalist in a nearby town. When Roger knocks on that herbalist’s door, who should answer but none other than Geillis Duncan. See? Sometimes Outlander can be down right hysterical.