On the way to Scotland, Jamie is pulled back into the Revolutionary War. William is sent on a covert mission. Roger and Brianna struggle to adapt to life in the 1980s.
20th Century
A Most Uncomfortable Woman opens in Scotland at Lallybroch where Brianna and Roger are renovating having purchased her ancestral home. They seem to be living in a trailer while renovating and the kids are fighting. Their contractor mentions they’ve been living in a caravan for two years. He takes them inside and wants to repair the slashes in the upstairs hallway but they tell him they are from the 45 and they want to keep it. He gives them a quote for fixing the upstairs and it is more than they can afford.
Roger is trying to write down everything they know about traveling for Jem and Mandy. He has the musket ball in his hand and is rubbing it back and forth only to discover it is a ball of gold.
Brianna wakes the kids up for school and steps on her clock radio which has been dismantled. Jem says the pixies came and took it apart. Roger takes his pocket money for the week as punishment.
Roger shows Bree the gold ball. They wonder if they should talk to Jem but decide not now.
Bree wants to know if he feels like a laird. Brianna has to go and asks for a kiss for luck. She’s going out for a job.
Brianna is interviewing for the position of plant inspector. The man is floored that she would be going for a job so unsuitable for a woman. Brianna doesn’t take his dismissal well and out maneuvers him with words. She points out all the problems the dam appears to be having and how she can diagnose and fix them. She puts the chauvinist in his place.
At Lallybroch, Roger is painting the walls (why red?) when he hears Jem and Mandy arguing followed by a door slam. When he checks on them; he finds Mandy in the priest-hole. Roger scolds Jemmy pretty ineffectually just as Bree returns with the news that she got the job,
Roger doesn’t seem happy and Bree believes it is because he’s not the breadwinner. And it is true but not for the reasons she thinks. Roger is feeling useless and unneeded. He had a clear role in the 18th century but he’s having trouble finding his place in the 20th. His desire to be a minister was built on the belief in predestination. God’s plan couldn’t be changed. But they changed the past with the matches. Little do they know that what was supposed to happen, did.
Roger feels like he’s failing because Jamie and Claire had so much faith that he could take care of Bree but he’s not.
Later, Brianna notices that the biscuits and crisps (had to look this up – cookies and chips) are gone. When they confront Jemmy he blames the Nuckelavee. Brianna and Roger discuss Jem’s imagination but Roger seems taken aback by the “appearance” of the Nuckelavee.
18th Century
Jamie, Claire and Young Ian are in their camp and Jamie is looking for an apple because he’s hungry. Claire tosses him one. They joke about her being preserved when Ian becomes suspicious that Arch is in the woods haunting him. Jamie tells him to calm himself. Ian is afraid Arch will kill someone he loves and he loves the two of them.
Wilmington
Lt. William Ransom, Ninth Earl of Ellesmere and his cousin Lord Henry Grey are drinking to Henry’s commission. They hear a woman screaming and find a soldier tossing out a woman with the pox. He’s abusing her and then pours alcohol on her and burns her alive. William can’t stand by anymore and puts her out but it is too late as she has died. He becomes angry and goes after those who did it. They are interrupted and leave.
William goes before Captain Richardson who commends him for trying to intervene with the woman who was killed. The Captain has a mission for William but William isn’t willing to spy. This isn’t the mission. He is just being tasked with delivering some letters for Samuel Cartwright, Henry Carver, and Joshua Harrington. He is to remember those names and deliver the messages before going north to join General Burgoyne’s forces in New York.
The Great Dismal
Next, we see William riding through the Great Dismal Swamp. It seems William is riding much too fast. He and his horse come upon a snake which causes Jupiter to rear up. William is thrown from his horse and lands in some brush. Jupiter runs off and William discovers his arm has been impaled by a branch.
Wilmington
Jamie and Claire are gathering supplies for the trip to Scotland. Jamie is pulled aside by Cornelius Harnett (a historical figure in American History). Harnett wants Jamie to commit to the Continental Army but Jamie informs him he has a personal matter to attend to in Scotland. Harnett isn’t having it and means to conscript Jamie into the Army. They are to sail to Fort Ticonderoga to join General Washington’s forces.
While this is upsetting to Jamie; you can almost understand. Jamie is supposedly for Liberty. The war is really starting to heat up and he is going to Scotland? What does that look like to his fellow Continentals? And as the books go, this skips a confusing calamity which honestly doesn’t need to appear in the show. Thank goodness for that.
Jamie lets Young Ian and Claire know about the change of plans and Ian is willing to fight for Liberty as well. Ian proposes going to the Shawnee to secure a position as Indian scout and hopefully win them to the Continental side.
The Great Dismal
William doesn’t look well but he continues on without food or supplies. As he sits at the side of a small body of water he eventually becomes aware of Young Ian and Rollo watching him. Ian seems concerned about his state and when he realizes who William is he makes sure to help him. He lets William know his uncle is James Fraser, a friend of Lord John. He reminds William they met before but William seems to have little memory of his time at Fraser’s Ridge.
Ian cleans William’s wound and gets the bits of wood out of it.
Wilmington
Claire is out doing errands when she literally runs into Tom Christie who is so happy to see her; he kisses her. Claire’s reaction to the kiss is one of the best expressions ever on this show. It is literally the best gif!
The two go into the tavern to talk and Claire discovers he didn’t return to the Ridge because Allan was gone and because of everything that happened. He then reveals that he placed the obituary in the newspaper because he didn’t want her death to go unnoted.
Later, Claire tells Jamie what happened. Jamie isn’t inclined to be jealous unless Claire liked the kiss. Then there is dialogue that is straight out of the book which I felt didn’t really go here.
“Exactly what do you think I might do to you in bed?”
He scratched his chest consideringly, and rubbed absently at the tiny knot of scar tissue where he’d cut Jack Randall’s brand from his flesh. “Well, so far, ye’ve clawed me, bitten me, stabbed me–more than once–and–”
“I have not stabbed you!”
“Ye did, too,” he informed me. “Ye stabbed me in the backside wi’ your nasty wee needle spikes–fifteen times! I counted–and then a dozen times or more in the leg with a rattlesnake’s fang.”
“I was saving your bloody life!”
“I didna say otherwise, did I? Ye’re no going to deny ye enjoyed it, though, are ye?”
“Well … not the rattlesnake fang, so much. As for the hypodermic …” My mouth twitched, despite myself. “You deserved it.”
From AN ECHO IN THE BONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 19, “Ae Fond Kiss”. Copyright © 2009 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.
Dismal Town
Ian and William arrive at the cabin of Dr. Denzell Hunter and his sister Rachel Hunter. William’s arm is badly infected. William is put on their table and Dr. Hunter believes William’s arm must be amputated because of the infection. William is adamant that he doesn’t consent to amputation because he’d rather die (apparently like his father). As Dr. Hunter presses into the arm the abscess in William’s arm bursts and puss comes out. So gross. But apparently, that was enough to prevent amputation.
From the moment Ian arrived and met Rachel there seems to be a connection there and the two get to know each other a little better before Ian reluctantly leaves on his mission.
Later (seems like a day or more), Rachel is assisting William in shaving but is disappointed he’d shave a red beard (wonder where it got that). There is discussion about what Quakers believe when it comes to drawing attention but in the end William tells her the beard is itchy.
Rachel checks his wound and finds a nice scar in the shape of a star.
The show ends with Jamie and Claire amongst a group as they arrive at Fort Ticonderoga.
Thoughts
I’m very glad they skipped some of the more tedious parts that happen during all of this. The scenes in the Great Dismal always seemed long and drawn out and I’m very glad it was shortened.
I absolutely loved the glances and smiles between Young Ian and Rachel.
I loved that Rollo liked both William and Rachel.
The scenes between Roger and Bree are great but I felt like this story is showing them as hands off parents. If they believed Jem was lying there should be more consequences for his actions. Even Roger’s reaction to the Nuckelavee being more intriguing as to how he even knew about such a thing; you would think they would believe Jem was lying and there would be some punishment.
I do recall in the book, Roger and Bree taking a harder stance with Jem blaming mythical creatures for his actions; or what they believe are his actions.
I kind of miss the scenes in the books where Jamie is there to punish Jem. Jamie never expected a child to be good but expected him to learn how to be a respectable man in the future.
