Outlander: 25 most gut-wrenching moments so far
By Amy Kaplan
2. Jamie’s rape
It’s no secret that “Black” Jack Randall did many awful things to Jamie (and Claire) throughout the season. He flogged Jamie within an inch of his life because he refused to allow him access to his body. He tried to kill and rape Claire in front of him and, the worst of all — he brutally tortured and raped Jamie in exchange for Claire’s life.
It’s hard to watch, and even harder to talk about, but it happened and it’s incredibly important to the story.
Jamie was captured and imprisoned by Randall. When Claire breaks into the jail to save him, she finds him already badly tortured and ends up trapped herself.
Randall tortures Jamie by nailing his hand to the table and forces Claire to watch. Randall, who has always had a sick sexual obsession of Jamie, agrees to allow Claire to leave the prison unharmed if Jamie agrees to allow him access to his body (something that Jamie has refused for years).
Eventually, Jamie agrees in order to save Claire and the next few episodes (flashbacks) are some of the hardest, most heartbreaking moments of the entire series thus far.
We all know that eventually, Jamie escapes, but not without physical and emotional scars that are clear even now all the way in Season 4.
I tend to skip through these scenes when binge watching, but if you are a first-time watcher it’s important to watch these scenes at least once so you can understand the connection between Claire and Jamie and the hatred they both harbor for Randall (who also escapes alive).