Outlander Season 6, Episode 5 recap: Flora MacDonald’s event
Flora MacDonald speaks for the Crown
Claire and Jamie are in Wilmington because Flora MacDonald is coming to town. It turns out Jamie has a crush on her, and Claire notes how she became a figure for the Scottish rebels even in her own time. Now, she’s switched sides. She is speaking for the Crown to encourage people to remain loyal.
Jamie notes that if it wasn’t for Claire and Bree, he would have been on the side of the Crown during this upcoming war. The Scots have fought for a dream before and failed, so they’re not going to do it again.
While at the event, Lord John Grey is there. We had already seen him earlier in the episode. The Governor of North Carolina has received Jamie’s resignation as Indian Agent, and it’s led to questions about Jamie’s loyalties. The Governor wants John to make sure Jamie isn’t a traitor.
Jocasta is also at the event, which is where we find out that Fergus is busy at a print shop. Jamie isn’t too happy, although more at the situation than anything else. Fergus mentioned to Jocasta the last time he saw her how much he missed printing and Jocasta did her part to help. It was out of goodness, but it does mean Fergus and Marsali are going to be moving to New Bern.
When Flora turns up, it turns out she and Jamie have a history. She’s also heard a lot about Claire, especially the surgery at the theater. She then shares a story about how she had a thief attack. She got her necklace back but it’s missing an emerald.
Claire, Jocasta, and Flora get some girl time
Jocasta takes a turn, leading to Claire pulling her away from the crowd. She has something to help Jocasta, and Flora is shocked to see that Claire can tell what’s wrong just by looking at her. Well, that’s not quite the case, although Claire does share that Flora is suffering with the burden of her history and has a touch of nerves.
The three head off to spend some time together. It’s a great chance to see them get some girl time. It’s something Outlander has often missed.
Part of the time together involves Jocasta smoking hemp flower. It will help the pain in her eyes, but it also gets her a little high, which is hilarious to watch. There’s also a touching moment as Jocasta thinks about Murtagh. She still grieves him.
Flora also has a chance to open up about what she thinks about Bonnie Prince Charlie. He was not a leader of men, and Claire notes that the last she heard he was in Italy drinking himself to death. Charles did spend the rest of his life in Europe.
Claire continues to self-medicate to deal with trauma. Thoughts of King Louis come up during the conversation, and she ends up using some of her ether on a tissue to help her deal with some of those thoughts.