Outlander Season 3 Episode 4 Recap: Of Lost Things
Quite a lot happened in last week’s episode of Outlander, and some of it, even, was not related to Murtaugh. This week, in “Of Lost Things,” we take our foot ever so slightly off the gas, though nothing is ever truly quiet in the love and lives of Claire and Jamie.
Let’s start in 1968 Scotland, where we have finally caught up to the future Claire seen in last season’s finale. Bouncing back from Frank’s death, Claire has marshaled her investigative team to try to prove whether Jamie survived these past 20 years. (Roger has constructed a thumbtacked timeline so thorough you’d think he was tracking a serial killer.) Claire, however, is the one who makes the critical discovery: she finds Jamie’s name on the Ardsmuir Prison records. But where did Jamie go when the prison closed?
They may not yet know the answer, but we do. Off to Helwater, England, we go. It’s 1756, and Jamie has taken up the role of groomsmen for the noble Dunsany family.
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The youngest (and brattiest) Dunsany, Lady Geneva, is about to be auctioned off married to an old codger who could be her father. If that were not concerning enough, the Earl of Ellesmere is rude to Jamie, a disqualifying trait for a potential suitor if ever I’ve seen one. Perhaps because she’s backed into a corner by pre-marital desperation, Geneva sets her sights on our favorite hunky servant.
That this predator-prey relationship is spliced between glimpses of Brianna and Roger’s romance (with its standard teasing, flirting, stuttering, and roadside car maintenance) makes it all the more uncomfortable.
Surely the arrival of John Grey can right the ship! He’s stopped by for a quick chess match, which is cheerful until it’s upended by his brother, Lord Melton, strolling into view with Geneva and her sister Isobel. Melton’s face upon seeing Jamie drains with Black Jack Randall speed. He, John, and Jamie then engage in a series of euphemisms as they try to avoid revealing the true nature of their acquaintance.
Geneva may be annoying, but she’s not slow. She worms the secret out of a drunken Melton. And then she strikes.
With the knowledge that Jamie is vulnerable and full of secrets, and with her own increasing desperation to have a decent, age-appropriate first time, she does what anyone looking to start a fling might do: she threatens to reveal Jamie’s true identity to her staunchly anti-Jacobite mother. And that is how she blackmails Jamie into her bed—all while they stand next to a pile of dung.
“I’m damned if my maidenhead will be given to a depraved old goat.” I may not agree with her methods, but I can’t fault her for the sentiment.
Their night together doesn’t come close to the levels of discomfort of Claire’s encounter with King Louis XV, but it tries. Jamie acts as lover, sex-ed instructor, and tour guide all at once, while Geneva’s typical bluster is tempered by her own inexperience and anxiety. Her post-coital evaluation escalates quickly: “It was painful at first, but then I liked it. I love you.”
Jamie’s response to that is tender and a reminder of why Claire needs to get her modern tush back here. “What you have with me now, you could have with any other man,” Jamie tells a euphoric Geneva. “Love is when you give your heart and soul to another, and they give theirs in return.”
While we sob, Claire has stalled in her efforts, though the interpersonal dynamics at play have not. Late one night, Brianna confesses to Roger that there’s a part of her that fears finding Jamie, because it means losing her mother.
“Part of me doesn’t want to find him either because once we do, you’ll go back to Boston,” Roger replies, like the introverted heartthrob he is. And with that, Brianna finally seizes the moment and gives him a good snog. Well done, kiddos.
Speaking of snogging: Jamie seems to have fathered yet another child with somebody else’s wife. This time, a fine healthy boy. Unfortunately, the boy’s mother, Geneva, dies shortly after childbirth—without ever having slept with her husband. The esteemed Earl is steaming, and Jamie steps in to resolve a standoff hurtling toward violence between him and Lord Dunsany.
Well, he reaches a resolution of sorts. When Ellesmere moves to stab the baby in his arms, Jamie shoots him down. At least, Jamie will get to watch this child, William, grow up, even if he can’t reveal their true relationship.
His actions also earn him goodwill among the last Dunsany left to win over: the anti-Jacobite lady of the house. Lady Dunsany has uncovered Jamie’s past, but she no longer cares. She comes to Jamie to offer her family’s help in securing his release.
After looking into the wee face of his newborn son, however, Jamie turns her down, bluffing some excuse about wanting to earn some money to send home first. “When you are ready to leave, you have only to ask,” she tells him.
That moment doesn’t come until 1764. By this time, Willie is a growing boy, and he’s growing more and more into a resemblance of his true father. Because nothing can ever go right in Jamie’s life.
After a heartwarming scene saying his goodbyes to his son, and baptizing him as a “stinking Papist,” Jamie does, uh, something. He asks John Grey to look out for Willie, “to spend time with him, to serve as his father.” He proceeds to offer his body to John in exchange for this favor. Understandably, John spends a few minutes spluttering, before refusing this offer.
Only then does he mention information that would have been prudent to disclose earlier: he is to be married—to a woman, to Lady Isobel, in fact. This, in effect, means he’ll be able to care for Willie without any more uncomfortable bargains with sex as the currency.
Having missed this entire scene, Claire is getting dispirited by her inability to track down Jamie post-Ardsmuir. She complains of “spending my life chasing a ghost” before telling Brianna that it’s time to go home. Now, if you’ll excuse me for one moment.
CLAIRE BEAUCHAMP RANDALL FRASIER, don’t you dare just give up.
Ahem. The only positive at the end of this episode is the teaser for the next, which indicates Claire and Brianna wasted all that airfare home (but, man, those spacious plane seats!). The preview finds Claire walking in her 18th-century garb and knocking on a door, behind which is, hopefully, a disrobed Jamie Fraser.
The youngest (and brattiest) Dunsany, Lady Geneva, is about to be auctioned off married to an old codger who could be her father. If that were not concerning enough, the Earl of Ellesmere is rude to Jamie, a disqualifying trait for a potential suitor if ever I’ve seen one. Perhaps because she’s backed into a corner by pre-marital desperation, Geneva sets her sights on our favorite hunky servant.
That this predator-prey relationship is spliced between glimpses of Brianna and Roger’s romance (with its standard teasing, flirting, stuttering, and roadside car maintenance) makes it all the more uncomfortable.
Surely the arrival of John Grey can right the ship! He’s stopped by for a quick chess match, which is cheerful until it’s upended by his brother, Lord Melton, strolling into view with Geneva and her sister Isobel. Melton’s face upon seeing Jamie drains with Black Jack Randall speed. He, John, and Jamie then engage in a series of euphemisms as they try to avoid revealing the true nature of their acquaintance.
Geneva may be annoying, but she’s not slow. She worms the secret out of a drunken Melton. And then she strikes.
With the knowledge that Jamie is vulnerable and full of secrets, and with her own increasing desperation to have a decent, age-appropriate first time, she does what anyone looking to start a fling might do: she threatens to reveal Jamie’s true identity to her staunchly anti-Jacobite mother. And that is how she blackmails Jamie into her bed—all while they stand next to a pile of dung.
“I’m damned if my maidenhead will be given to a depraved old goat.” I may not agree with her methods, but I can’t fault her for the sentiment.
Their night together doesn’t come close to the levels of discomfort of Claire’s encounter with King Louis XV, but it tries. Jamie acts as lover, sex-ed instructor, and tour guide all at once, while Geneva’s typical bluster is tempered by her own inexperience and anxiety. Her post-coital evaluation escalates quickly: “It was painful at first, but then I liked it. I love you.”
Jamie’s response to that is tender and a reminder of why Claire needs to get her modern tush back here. “What you have with me now, you could have with any other man,” Jamie tells a euphoric Geneva. “Love is when you give your heart and soul to another, and they give theirs in return.”
While we sob, Claire has stalled in her efforts, though the interpersonal dynamics at play have not. Late one night, Brianna confesses to Roger that there’s a part of her that fears finding Jamie, because it means losing her mother.
“Part of me doesn’t want to find him either because once we do, you’ll go back to Boston,” Roger replies, like the introverted heartthrob he is. And with that, Brianna finally seizes the moment and gives him a good snog. Well done, kiddos.
Speaking of snogging: Jamie seems to have fathered yet another child with somebody else’s wife. This time, a fine healthy boy. Unfortunately, the boy’s mother, Geneva, dies shortly after childbirth—without ever having slept with her husband. The esteemed Earl is steaming, and Jamie steps in to resolve a standoff hurtling toward violence between him and Lord Dunsany.
Well, he reaches a resolution of sorts. When Ellesmere moves to stab the baby in his arms, Jamie shoots him down. At least, Jamie will get to watch this child, William, grow up, even if he can’t reveal their true relationship.
His actions also earn him goodwill among the last Dunsany left to win over: the anti-Jacobite lady of the house. Lady Dunsany has uncovered Jamie’s past, but she no longer cares. She comes to Jamie to offer her family’s help in securing his release.
After looking into the wee face of his newborn son, however, Jamie turns her down, bluffing some excuse about wanting to earn some money to send home first. “When you are ready to leave, you have only to ask,” she tells him.
That moment doesn’t come until 1764. By this time, Willie is a growing boy, and he’s growing more and more into a resemblance of his true father. Because nothing can ever go right in Jamie’s life.
After a heartwarming scene saying his goodbyes to his son, and baptizing him as a “stinking Papist,” Jamie does, uh, something. He asks John Grey to look out for Willie, “to spend time with him, to serve as his father.” He proceeds to offer his body to John in exchange for this favor. Understandably, John spends a few minutes spluttering, before refusing this offer.
Only then does he mention information that would have been prudent to disclose earlier: he is to be married—to a woman, to Lady Isobel, in fact. This, in effect, means he’ll be able to care for Willie without any more uncomfortable bargains with sex as the currency.
Having missed this entire scene, Claire is getting dispirited by her inability to track down Jamie post-Ardsmuir. She complains of “spending my life chasing a ghost” before telling Brianna that it’s time to go home. Now, if you’ll excuse me for one moment.
CLAIRE BEAUCHAMP RANDALL FRASIER, don’t you dare just give up.
Ahem. The only positive at the end of this episode is the teaser for the next, which indicates Claire and Brianna wasted all that airfare home (but, man, those spacious plane seats!). The preview finds Claire walking in her 18th-century garb and knocking on a door, behind which is, hopefully, a disrobed Jamie Fraser.