Outlander gives us the steamy reunion we’ve been dying for!

Outlander gives us the episode we’ve been dying for for over a year! At the end of 3×05, Claire (Caitriona Balfe) had just returned to Jamie and we saw him pass out from the shock. But what had Jamie (Sam Heughan) done earlier that day? Now we get to find out! A French woman we’ll meet more formally later dresses him for his day and sends him out the door to his print shop. Jamie hears some activity but not to worry. It’s only some men who work for him who have stayed over in the shop overnight. They’re not the kind of employees who are allowed to use the front door because they’re sketchy as hell. Jamie gives them a legally questionable task and they’re on their way.

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Jamie’s also got a salty employee who’s a chuckle because he has a massive goiter on his next and a bad attitude. He too is reluctantly sent on an errand. Which sets the scene for Jamie to be alone when Claire arrives. You remember he faints, right? Anyway. He wakes up and Claire is there. She’s actually standing over him. We can’t breathe you guys. Jamie changes his trousers and asks permission to kiss her and they kiss and the music rises and we will discuss this. With Jamie still sans trousers salty Geordie walks in and quits because he can’t work in the place where they have orgies in a shop before noon. (Sounds like a dream job to us but what do we know.) They decide Jamie really should be wearing pants so they go to the back of the shop to find out what the hell they’ve each been doing for the last twenty years.

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Jamie asks about their child. Claire takes the opportunity to show Jamie photos of Brianna. He’s embarrassed about his needing glasses and Claire is a little embarrassed about her grey hair but it’s been a lot of years between them and this isn’t the first time they’ll be shy of each other after all this time. Jamie is moved by the photographs of Brianna and he’s compelled to tell her the story of his son Willy. Claire seems a bit hurt but recognizes he’s had a life since they were apart. He also starts to dig a little about Frank and Claire is a bit cryptic about it. Jamie realizes he has an appointment and off they go to the World’s End tavern.

In the street they meet Fergus (Cesar Domboy) and Claire and he have a short reunion which requires some quick thinking on Claire’s part. She did just return from the dead after all and gives them a half baked story about being in America. Fergus says he needs to talk to Jamie about a Mr. Willoughby (Gary Young) but instead they have a super cryptic conversation about something that Jamie needs to consult with a lawyer about. There actually is a problem with Willoughby though and Fergus catches Jamie up.

At the tavern we meet Mr. Willoughby, whose real name is Yi Tien Cho. He’s a Chinese immigrant who isn’t adapting to the racism in 18th century Edinburgh particularly well. Jamie also pays off a tax man while Claire and Yi Tien Cho get to know each other. Afterwards Jamie takes Claire back to the brothel where he keeps rooms and once they awkwardly get the reason for that out of the way (Jamie’s a smuggler and sells spirits to the brothel of course) they eat and try to get to know each other all over again. This includes Jamie questioning why Claire has come back at all.

There are tears and laughter and intimacy. Lust and love equally. They make love several times and talk even longer over the night. In the light of the following day Jamie has to run an errand and leaves Claire in bed with instructions to wait for him. We meet a new character, Ian Murray (John Bell), who we last saw when Jamie’s sister Jenny gave birth to him in episode 2. He stops by Jamie’s rooms at the brothel looking for Jamie but we never find out why as he runs into Claire instead.

Afterwards Claire goes below to find some breakfast and Claire is mistaken for another whore by the other whores of the establishment. They give her all sorts of hilarious advice before a horrified Madam Jeanne sends her back upstairs and out of their company. Too bad there’s a man there going through Jamie’s things looking for something. At first he mistakes Claire for a whore but she sets him straight and tries to kick him out. He isn’t particularly inclined to listen and as he grabs her episode OVER and we’ve got to wait until next week.

There is so much to say about Outlander episode 6 that we’d better get started!

Throwback to 1743

Matt Roberts and Outlander found a formula that works. In “The Wedding”, season 1 episode 7, the book was written from Claire’s perspective. The show flipped this and we watched the episode from Jamie’s perspective. This is similar to what’s happened here as we get to relive Claire and Jamie’s reunion from his perspective. It was effective then and it’s effective now. In fact this entire episode takes winning moments from previous episodes and uses them again. The extreme close-up of Claire untying Jamie’s stock was a direct reference to Claire checking Jamie’s shoulder at Castle Leoch in season 1. And all the time spent between them exploring intimacy was “The Wedding” all over again.

“It’s always been forever for me, Sassenach.” -Jamie

Roberts even found a way to reintroduce a line that was missing from season 1 here in season 3 that makes sense. Having Jamie tell Claire “It’s always been forever” for him was a nice easter egg for fans. What was nice about this episode was that Claire and Jamie got what they never got in season 2. They got intimacy. That’s not just sex people. They talked about meaningful things, they laughed together. There was emotion and connection between them. When they first kissed and you could see tears streaming down Claire’s face it was everything. Maybe it was a lot of dialogue between the two of them. And we really could’ve done without the thousand references to Jamie keeping some big secret that was going to drive Claire away. (How many times was she going to say she’ll never leave him again?) But who cares?? We could’ve watched that first kiss on loop for an hour and been happy.

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Sam Heughan, superstar.

We’ve talked a great deal this season about how Sam has really grown in the role of Jamie this year. The writing for the character has improved significantly but he’s just really become Jamie. Some of the book dialogue that’s been used in the past and worked really well on the page has just seemed silly spoken aloud. This episode borrowed book dialogue very heavily but it all just worked because the delivery really worked. It might’ve been easy to spend the entire episode in tears for both Sam and Caitriona. And there were tears galore. But it was measured. It built. It took you over peaks and through valleys. The performances were really lovely.

“I could watch you for hours, Sassenach. See how you’ve changed, how you’re the same.” -Jamie

We really enjoyed the supporting performances as well! We met two “new” characters this episode. César Domboy and John Bell now play the older versions of their characters. Their don’t get much screen time here but it was enough to make an impact. César has that Gallic insouciance down cold. John Bell really let Young Ian’s youthful enthusiasm and exuberance show through. These guys are going to be around for some time, and we’re really grateful they’re off to such a great start.

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It isn’t all rosy. It gets rapey

Of course every moment can’t be wonderful. Why’d you have to do it, Outlander? The first episode back in the 18th century and Claire is under sexual assault? Again? It’s just lazy. And it was really unnecessary. There are about ten other ways that man could’ve posed a threat to Claire. Why? Because they’re in a brothel? Hint: You can be a bad guy and not threaten to rape someone. This just isn’t the way we wanted to end an otherwise excellent episode.

“Maybe if I f*ck you it’ll jar your memory.” -Barton

The other scene that danced on the borderline of bad taste was in dealing with Mr. Willoughby. Yi Tien Cho’s tendency to drink too much lends him an air of buffoonery that is borderline offensive. Thankfully Gary Young is great and doesn’t carry it forward. His conversation with Claire while Jamie conducts business does a little to humanize him. But there’s no attempt and showing us what he’s feeling at all! It’s like Willoughby is currently being used as a cardboard cutout caricature. He’s just been treated in an embarrassing and terribly racist way by a prostitute (they’ve substituted the feet from the book for an elbow here thank the lord) and what Willoughby feels about it is completely negligible. Here’s hoping Yi Tien Cho is giving a little more respect as a character.

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Final Verdict: Outlander 3×06 scorched, smoldered and sparked (until the last five minutes, that is)

We (mostly) got everything we wanted from Outlander 3×06. The scenes between Jamie and Claire were sultry and sexy. The level of intimacy was beautifully balanced by laughter and story. It was a satisfying reunion that afterwards left us feeling drained and sated. The last five minutes couldn’t destroy it but the absolutely didn’t help. A rape cliffhanger after a beautifully sex positive episode was just a cop out.

RELATED | Outlander Roundtable 3×05 “Freedom & Whiskey”

We really enjoyed the older versions of some familiar characters. Jamie’s unsavory employees Lesley and Hayes are trying awfully hard to be season 3’s Rupert and Angus. We’ll see if they get there but we’re hoping the creators give them their own niche instead of putting them in that space.

Jamie’s keeping a secret from Claire! It’s like a neon sign that flashed more times than we cared to see. Jamie’s conversation with Fergus started it. Then Jamie starting to tell Claire something at least three different times leading to Claire’s declaration at least three or four times that she wasn’t leaving him unless he did something completely amoral. Outlander you really could’ve stopped with just the Fergus conversation. We totally get it.

Praise this week for Claire’s 1950’s undergarments masquerading as 18th century corsetry. We know we complained about Claire making that dress and we’re still not over it but the costumes really were fantastic this week. Jamie’s somber black suit and the jaunty way he draped his cloak over his shoulders were fantastic. We enjoyed looking at him dressed just as much as we enjoyed watching Claire helping him take it all off later.

The most high production accolades this week have to go to production designer Jon Gary Steele. The print shop felt sumptuous and beautiful. The perfect example of form and function. The way the light streamed through the space was really effective. It felt cluttered in a really organized way and the printing press itself was a masterpiece. You could probably pause a scene and look for hours at all the little details. The sign to the print shop alone, with its alchemy symbols for printing type to the hidden masonic symbol in the center shows just how much fun Steele and his team had with recreating the print shop set.

Madame Jeanne (Cyrielle Debreuil) gave us quite the chuckle this episode. It’s so clear from the way she ties his stock right at the top of the episode how much she wants Jamie. Her expression when Jamie introduces her as his wife was priceless as well. The woman looked as if she sucked on a lemon. Will Madame Jeanne reveal she did have designs on Jamie? Is he really that oblivious? We’re kind of hoping she causes a few more problems between him and Claire. And why did Claire back down from her so easily? Where are your claws, Claire. Come on girl. Don’t let us down.

Did anyone else want a bigger reaction from Jamie when he was looking at the photos of his daughter? He seemed to be a little too blasé about it. Then he launched right into telling Claire about Willy. We don’t mind this change of location from the book. We just wish it wouldn’t have become all about Jamie’s son when we were really looking for a bigger reaction from Jamie about his daughter.

Jamie is clearly the master of his own universe but he’s playing a very dangerous game. He’s really walking a very fine line and he wasn’t kidding when he was saying they could bring him in and have him hanged. First he’s threatened by the tax official he’s bribing and that sure isn’t going away. Then Madame Jeanne has the power to hurt him because she obviously knows quite a bit about his illegal dealings. Jamie might trust Lesley and Hayes with his life but they honestly don’t seem like the most circumspect folks. And Willoughby isn’t exactly inconspicuous. Which one of these balls Jamie is juggling going to drop first?

Oh that rapist Barton. Who does he work for and why is he looking for Jamie’s ledgers? And dear god why did he have to go and try to rape Claire? We’re hoping she’s the one who shuts that down and doesn’t need rescuing from Jamie. And when are we going to find out about Jamie’s big secret? We’ll be with Outlander next weekend!

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Comments and Questions: Some investigation of our own

• Did anyone else give a little “Awwww” when they saw how much pride Jamie takes in the print shop?
• You know how when you’ve been waiting for something for a year and waiting and waiting and you finally see it and you think nothing can ever live up to what you built up in your mind? Well this came damn close!
• It was super weird of Jamie to take off his pants and THEN tell Claire he wanted to kiss her.
• Wish the photo of Bree with Smokey had been in color.
• Claire seemed to take the news of her husband having another kid pretty darn well. Separated or not we would’ve had a mini meltdown.
• Why isn’t Madame Jeanne way more surprised that Jamie just trotted into the brothel he’s been living in for a good long time with a wife? She just gets over that so quickly!
• What’s with the orgy in the main room of the brothel? Seriously people. Get a room.
• Was anyone else surprised when they didn’t cry when they were having sex the first time?
• We really wish Claire would’ve kept her eyes open the entire time she had sex with Jamie the first time. It would’ve been a really nice foil for the last time she made love with Frank. 

Outlander returns Sunday, October 29th, 2017 at 8/7C on Starz.