‘Outlander’ Recap: Episode 8, “Both Sides Now”

In Episode 7, “The Wedding” we watched with wrenching guts as Claire was forced to marry Jamie, otherwise feel the wrath of her long-future husband Frank’s relative Black Jack Randall. Well, this week we’ll see how the repercussions of this marriage ripple through Claire’s life and we’ll see a little bit more from Frank. (And, for the record… DANG Tobias Menzies is a phenomenal actor!)

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Episode 8, “Both Sides Now” begins with a ringing telephone. We surely haven’t heard that sound in the show since mostly we’ve been stuck in the 18th century with Claire, so to hear a sound so foreign to the “normal” setting of Outlander brings the viewership out of what might be compared to a deer-in-the-headlights kind of zone right at the beginning of an episode.

BOOM. We know we’re not in 18th century Scotland anymore. *Ring Ring Ring* “Yes, hello, what in the heck is going on?”

Ahem.

So we see Frank in a police station. He’s back in Inverness (or never left, maybe?) and is inquiring into the investigation and search for his wife. The detective tells Frank they’ve done all they can, they are doing all they can, but of course he doesn’t think it’s enough (because that’s what good spouses do when their significant other has gone missing). The investigator believes Claire has run off with the strange highlander that Frank saw outside her room in the first episode and Frank is NOT having any of that nonsense.

Back in the highlands, Claire and Jamie are resting on a hillside. Hugh Munroe has come to tell Jamie that a man who was there the day Jamie was accused of murder can vouch for him and clear his name. A man named Horrocks who happens to be a Redcoat deserter. Jamie is unsure about meeting him and rightfully so.

Later that night the group of them are raided and have stolen a few horses and food. No one is harmed, but their feathers are sufficiently ruffled, and the MacKenzies have decided that Claire needs to learn a little self-defense. They teach her basic knife skills and before she can even think about having to use them, she has to use them. She and Jamie stop along the road to get it on in some grass and are come upon by a rag-tag pair of Redcoat deserters. One grabs Jamie and the other makes to rape Claire but she stabs the guy before he can do much hard. Jamie finishes him off, slitting his throat.

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Back with Frank, we find him at a bar whetting his whistle, drowning his sorrows. A woman approaches him and says she knows the highlander from the wanted posters, and will meet Frank at another location if he brings the reward. Well, she’s set him up, obviously, and sends a couple goons to beat up Frank at the rendezvous location. Frank gets one over on them, though and nearly beats one of them to death in the streets.

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Back at the reverend’s home, his housekeeper has some secrets that she decides to make Frank privy to. She knows about the stones and how people sometimes vanish into them, travelling through time and often returning. Frank is incredulous, not able to believe something like that over hard facts and science. On his way out of town, though, he sees the sign for Crag na Dun and pulls in, wondering if he’ll find anything during one last stop.

Cut back to Jamie and Claire. The MacKenzies won’t let Jamie meet with this Horrocks fella by himself- not after the raid and the attack on Claire. They go off to meet the man, and Claire promises she’ll stay put with Willie. Willie, though, goes off into the woods to deal with his bowels and Claire goes for a walk, then spots Crag na Dun off in the distance!

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The next scene is a mixture of Claire back in the 18th century and Frank in the 20th century as they both climb the hill to the stones. Frank calls out to Claire and she hears him through the gap in time between the stones. She calls back. Did Frank hear her? This is up for debate, but either way, he doesn’t linger very long and then Claire is ripped away from the stones before she can go back to him. The redcoats have found her.

More from Claire and Jamie

She’s being taken to Ft. William. During her travels there, she racks her brains trying to think of what she’ll say to Randall when she gets there. She decides to play off what she knows from Frank and his findings about his long dead relative. She tried to play this against him, bringing up the Duke of Sandringham. Black Jack plays her right back, though, and it ends up not being in her favor. He catches her in her lies with a lie of his own about the Duchess of Sandringham- surprise! There isn’t one…

Black Jack ties her up, slits the laces of her dress and gets behind her to rape her. Then, from the window, we hear:

“I’ll thank you to take your hands off my wife!”