Outlander Season 3 finally saw the reunion of Claire and Jamie in Episode 6, titled A. Malcolm. It was the most highly anticipated episode of the season and here’s a look back at it.
Outlander Season 3, Episode 6 brought the most anticipated moment of the whole season. Titled “A. Malcolm,” it was all about the reunion of Claire and Jamie. After seeing a glimpse of it at the very end, this extra long episode gave us Jamie’s side of the story when he saw Claire for real for the first time in 20 years.
This was one of those episodes that people seemed to love or hate. Like fine wine, it has aged well, though. If you want to catch the first-impressions recap, you can do over at Hidden Remote, where I wrote before coming here. This recap takes it from a look of watching it again and again to see details that may have been missed.
Seeing Jamie’s life in Edinburgh
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One thing that was disappointing was not really seeing much of Jamie in Edinburgh. The last we really saw of him, he was leaving Helwater–leaving his son behind. Outlander Season 3, Episode 5 was all about Claire’s decision to go back to the past. We missed out a lot of Jamie’s life. Sure, this was to look back at later stages, but just seeing some of his life in Edinburgh before Claire with adult Fergus and Young Ian would have been interesting.
Instead, we saw him walking through the streets to his print shop. He quickly got to work (Sam Heughan really learned how to use that printing press for the scenes) on his latest job and that’s what we got before the bell to the shop rang. Jamie was sure it was Georgie (who we’d get to see for all of two seconds later on), but it was actually Claire.
When Jamie realized it was Claire and she was really there, he fainted. Claire’s face was priceless at this moment and she quickly rushed to him to make sure he was fine.
This led to an awkward reunion between the two. After 20 years, there were elements of shyness between the two, which for me was understandable. Jamie was a little nervous about Claire seeing him again without his pants on, which was sweet and funny at the same time. While he’s in a state of undress, we get to meet Georgie, who instantly jumps to the conclusion that Claire is a whore and he quickly quits and leaves. Oh well, no love lost there.
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Talking about lost children
One of the things that annoyed some fans was how Jamie brought up Willie. What I’ll say I still love about the scene of Claire showing the photos of Brianna, is that all three of Jamie’s children were mentioned. He brought up Faith, he looked at photos of Brianna and took a naturally shocked stance against the bikini, and then he decided to open up about Willie.
Telling Claire about Willie actually showed that trust was still there. This was a major moment in the story later, but he chose to reveal it sooner despite not thinking it would come up. Why then not bring up Laoghaire? Well, that’s not what this moment was all about. It was a discussion of lost children; of the people both have left behind.
Claire’s reaction about Willie is also sweet and caring. She’s not angry that Jamie had a life after her. He didn’t know she would eventually find her way back and he never left clues for her to know he was alive. She was just grateful that he was alive and that he felt comfortable telling her something that he hadn’t told anyone else.