Outlander Review Episode 2×09, “Je Suis Prest”

Outlander Is Going to War

Last week, Jamie (Sam Heughan) spent an entire episode trying to unsuccessfully wrangle men from his grandfather Simon, Lord Lovat, before- in a sneaky turn- he sends him the men anyway with his son. This week, everyone’s favorite ginger hero steps up to the plate to train his men, but poor Claire (Caitriona Balfe) is suffering from some serious WWII PTSD. While all of that’s going on, we’re reintroduced to everyone’s favorite highland duo, Rupert (Grant O’Rourke) and Angus (Stephen Walters) (tell the truth, Outlander fans–  you missed them as much as we did, right?), as well as- SURPRISE- the man with a hundred other agendas, Dougal Mackenzie (Graham McTavish) and he isn’t very used to taking orders.  So what gives?  Will Jamie be able to train his men for war so they won’t die or run away in the first two minutes of the war?  Will Murtagh ever stop yelling?  Will Claire’s flashbacks drive her insane?  Is it possible that Dougal will ever fall in line?  We’re gonna go for it!

Rupert & Angus: Back, and Taking it on the Road

We begin with a Claire voiceover, saying that even though we were uplifted by Jamie actually getting men from the Old Fox last week, they all keep deserting and Young Simon has had to go fetch them back.  Well that takes care of him neatly.  He could probably have used the training, to be honest, but we get it, having him would have made things muddy and confusing, easier to just explain him away.  We can’t help but miss some potentially amusing scenes of him trying to get it together too, though.  We get a reunion with Murtagh and Fergus, and then a stunning highland folk song in what is hands down our favorite thing in this episode:  the music.  Bear McCreary absolutely nailed it in this episode.  He took it home, spanked it, and put it to bed.  If we could think of more bizarre personifications for it, we’d write them, honestly, because listening to the pitch-perfect (no pun intended) music over glorious panoramas of Scotland and camp scenes felt just right in this episode.  It’s difficult sometimes inserting music with vocals into a show, but this felt so seamless and only added to the overall feeling.  The next day brings us two familiar faces, Rupert and Angus, up to their old tricks and bringing smiles to our faces.  Once we see them, we know what’s coming and it’s no surprised to anyone to see Dougal arrive as well.  He hasn’t come from Colum, and the way he mentions his brother is a continuation of the tension we saw last week from the other side of the pair.  Dougal has just brought himself, Rupert and Angus.  Claire’s unimpressed, but Dougal points out the three of them were just find when they were rescuing Jamie from Wentworth.  Touché, Dougal!  It was a great line.  The political differences  between the brothers may run deep, but Dougal shakes it off to tell Jamie about his pride over him joining the Jacobite cause.  Bless Graham McTavish.  Dougal is one of the most nuanced characters in the show.  You never know when he’s being genuine or when he’s being a total snake, and you can never really quite trust him.  Not having him in the France episodes really was a loss.  He’s a fantastic character and McTavish plays him beautifully.  Anyway, Jamie decides to stay put where he is and start training the men.

Future-Post-Traumatic-Stress-Syndrome

That brings us right to our first training montage.  In what will become a theme for him, Murtagh starts yelling at the men and calling them names.  Now, Murtagh.  You know you catch more flies with honey than vinegar!  It becomes patently obvious in the first three seconds that not one of these men has ever been in a position where he’s needed to follow orders before, because they’re a hot mess.  They can’t even figure out how to stand in a line.  The war looks like it’s going to go well!  But his shouting leads to Claire remembering things from her past as a WWII combat nurse, and it’s clearly unsetting to her because watching Fergus play a bit of shinty (which was adorable and the creative team can feel free to add scenes like this any time) makes her flash back to some American soldiers playing baseball.  We’re not stupid- it’s obvious something terrible will happen to these soldiers based on Claire’s reaction to Fergus playing, and he gets a dressing down.  Poor Fergus!  It’s not his fault, Claire.  At least let the boy have some fun and games, he’s in a war camp.

In the next training montage, we get a few laughs mixed in with the seriousness in the form of looking at the men’s different training styles.  Murtagh is still yelling, but it’s clear Jamie is a patient and competent leader.  Dougal teaching them how to maim the straw man with a sword was actually funny until you realize that these same men will be killing REAL soldiers shortly.  It’s a beautifully cut sequence, and again Bear McCreary rises to the occasion with stirring music.

“We should push on… join the prince with due haste.” -Dougal

Dougal wishes to join the prince, and naturally Murtagh disagrees.  Dougal wants make sure he is there to get position in the prince’s inner circle, and this leads us to immediately doubt Dougal’s motives for joining Jamie.  Dougal is a complex character and McTavish plays him beautifully.  Still further on in the episode you’re never quite sure what you’re getting.

Claire’s PTSD seems to be intensifying, and there’s long WWII flashback where she meets the yanks with vague non-geographically specific accents, but who are sweet.  We also learn where Claire’s favorite catchphrase “Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ” comes from, which is kind of adorable. Claire’s also lying to Jamie and saying that she’s fine, when it’s perfectly clear she’s not fine.  Balfe again is given some meaty stuff to do here in this episode, it’s really an excellent exploration of PTSD, eye-opening and handled sensitively.

We’ll Come to War with You, Jamie!

The best work we’d seen from Heughan was last season’s final two episodes, but as season two progresses, he’s really been fleshing Jamie out nicely.  It’s finally becoming clear that Heughan was interested in exploring how Jamie develops as a leader and a man rather than just leaping out of the gate with him as your typical “romance novel cover” highland hero.  He’s been doing some nice work here, and we’re not going to lie-  Jamie was a stone fox in this episode.  We’re not sure if it was the styling (because we noticed and adored the fact that Jamie is wearing his father’s coat at this point in the episode) the light, the speeches, or what, because our compliments to you, Sam Heughan.  As if we weren’t already head over heels for Jamie, this episode really cements it for us.  One final note about the coat- Jamie is clearly a man who is attached to his family and has a certain amount if sentimentality about him (he carries his brother’s snake, he made Claire’s wedding ring out of the key to his home, etc), but we already know how Jamie feels about his father, and it was really quite lovely to see him become a man you knew his father would be so proud of here.   Naturally, Dougal comes in and ruins this scene by scaring the men and proving once again that they’re not ready for battle. Thank goodness Jamie puts him right in his place, though it’s clear Dougal isn’t used to taking orders, especially from his nephew.

“No.  No you don’t.  I ken what these men will face.  And I know how to prepare them for it.  You don’t.” -Jamie

Dougal isn’t done with his manipulations just yet.  Next he goes to Claire and tries to blackmail her into advocating for him with Jamie.  Claire tears into him- she’s having none of it.  And though her methods are a little odd (we get that you want Dougal to know that you’re so much smarter than he is, Claire, but Narcissus…  Really?), we adored her when she threw down the “f-yourself”.  Brava!  But the real star of this scene was McTavish.  If Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, is a fox- what does that make Dougal?  Is he here for his own selfish reasons?  How much of what he does is for Scotland and how much is for his own gain?  We almost believed him when he said he’d give everything he had, including his life, to see a Stuart back on the throne.

Stop Trying to Help, Dougal

After Dougal walks in to camp with ten men he’s essentially forced to join them, Jamie is forced to whip a few sentries, send the “new recruits” home, and set his uncle down.  Again.  And this time, he used his full name to do it!  We know you mean business when you do that, James Alexander Malcom Mackenzie Fraser. He even gives his uncle an order, making him in charge of sentry duty for the entire camp.

“I’m not sure I’m ready to go to war again.” -Claire

During the next day’s training, Claire’s PTSD finally comes to a head, and she gets a flashback that has her clutching her head in echoes of episode 1 where she falls through the stones.  It’s a harrowing scene, and the edit of the soldier asking Claire if she’s alright cutting to Jamie finally lifting Claire and holding her, we sigh and feel everything for the two of them.  We love what Heughan and Balfe are bringing to Jamie and Claire’s relationship this season.  The looks they exchange, even more than the dialogue, seem to convey so much.

That evening Jamie is taking care of some bladder business and a young man called William Grey recognizes “Red Jamie”, the unprincipled and traitorous rebel!  Jamie then makes a very credible show of actually being an unprincipled traitor before Claire, everyone’s favorite worst actress ever, gives Jamie an excuse to not hit the boy by pretending to surrender herself to him.  Speaking of, did anyone else notice Jamie slowly “getting it” through the course of Claire’s speech?  It was so funny, it was one of our favorite parts of the episode.  The entire melodrama Jamie and Claire put on was so patently ridiculous, we loved every moment from Jamie’s clenched-teeth, “Sassenach!” to Claire’s “Watch it, buddy!” look after Grey agrees to tell him the information he wants.  Grey tells Jamie what he wants to know, including the location of all the British weapons, and Jamie orders him tied to a tree and left.  The one thing we didn’t understand was why Grey trusted Jamie to leave Claire alone after he was released.  He had no assurances Claire wouldn’t be harmed, and in fact had just seen Jamie make a show of trying to hurt her.  But never mind- William Grey leaves, and Jamie says he hopes they never meet again, which most assuredly means that wasn’t the last we’ll see from William Grey.

“I give you your life.  I hope you use it well.” -Jamie

Someone needs to be punished for the break in protocol that allowed Grey to come upon them.  Dougal’s men were on sentry duty, and just when you think Dougal’s really gonna get it, Jamie takes the blame on himself, thereby even denying Dougal the martyrdom of some belt strokes.  Dougal’s punishment is worse- because when Jamie goes to raid the British camp, he leaves him behind.  Jamie is finally able to make his uncle follow orders!  Way to go, Jamie!  You’re finally a man!  After the raid is successful and they burn the wagon wheels in a massive bonfire (don’t suppose the British will see that??), Jamie comes back all ready for comfort from his wife.  But they’ve tricked us, Outlander fans!  Just when we think we’re getting some sweet sweet Jamie and Claire loving, Jamie decides to go all reality on us and points out that the British camp will be waking soon and they’d best get away.  So unfair.

Joining the Prince

We make the slow march to the prince, again with a stunning tune to accompany us along with a cheesy slow-motion sword raise from Jamie that, cheesy or not, gave us all the chills.  Jamie clearly has some heart left, because he lets Dougal announce their presence to the bonny prince.

Final Verdict

While this episode wasn’t much more than an extended training sequence, we still really enjoyed it.  Last week, not much happened on Outlander.  This week, similarly, other than meeting William Grey and Dougal, Angus and Rupert returning, nothing much happened either. However where this episode went so right was that even though it was a slow-burn episode, the character development was totally on point.  Jamie seemed to be fulfilling a destiny as a laird and as a man who takes care of the people in his charge- him wanting the men trained was as much about taking care of them in battle as it was about winning.  Seeing Claire so vulnerable and learning her history as a WWII combat nurse was really interesting, and she’s a really strong character so it’s always good to see her vulnerable side.  Great production value, great writing, good direction, it really had it all, but overall the biggest standout this episode was Bear McCreary’s music.  It said everything it needed to and more.  A thousand slow claps for Bear.  Next week we join the bonnie prince, so your guesses please, Outlander fans!  How long until we hear the fateful words “mark me”?

Questions, Comments, Concerns

• Dougal seems like he’s in line… for now.
• When do you predict we’ll see William Grey again?  We’d love a surprise book departure!
• Jamie’s pretty infamous already, if a random kid knew who he was.  That can’t be good.
• The Jamie/Claire relationship is some serious relationship goals, guys.  How do real relationships compare?  It’s so unfair.
• Why didn’t Grey require some sort of assurances that Claire would be released?  You definitely dropped the ball there, kid!
• There aren’t that many questions we have about this episode, it was pretty straightforward!