Episode 803: "Abies Fraseri" (SPOILERS!)

Here are my reactions to Episode 803 of the OUTLANDER TV series, titled "Abies Fraseri".

*** SPOILER WARNING!! ***

There are SPOILERS below! If you don't want to know yet, stop reading now.

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The "title card" for this episode features a collection of insects, like the ones Amaranthus embroaders on the waistcoat we see later in this episode.

The episode opens at the new trading post on Fraser's Ridge. Fanny, shopping with Bree, is admiring a fancy comb. "Mrs. Abbott had a comb like this [in the brothel], but she never let us touch it." Bree offers to buy it for her, and Fanny looks stunned. Probably no one has ever bought her a present before.

Bree steps away for a few minutes, and a man approaches Fanny and starts making conversation with her. We don't learn his name and I've never seen him before, but seeing him hitting on Fanny, who is perhaps twelve years old, is sickening.

"You're a pretty one, too. How'd you like to keep me company on my travels?"
"I shouldn't like that at all!"

But he won't stop, until Fanny calls him a "toad-faced foot-licker." Good for her!

Bree asks what's wrong, and Fanny's response is based on this bit from BEES:

“The young one is an officer,” she said, and nodded in affirmation of her observations. “They always think they can do anything they want.”

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 16, "Distant Thunder". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

We see Captain Cunningham ushering the stranger into the general store, apparently on good terms with the man.

Meanwhile, a letter has arrived for Claire. Jamie drops it on the desk in front of her as though he doesn't even want to touch it. "It's from your former husband," he says with an edge to his voice. That would be Lord John, of course, who married Claire in Season 7 when Jamie was presumed dead.

Lord John has invited Brianna to come to Savannah, where he and William are living, to paint a portrait of his nephew's wife and son. (In other words, Ben's widow, Viscountess Amaranthus Grey, and her baby son Trevor.) In the book, Bree is asked to paint a portrait of a wealthy resident of Savannah named Angelina Brumby, but I think the change works well here, to cut down on the number of new characters we're dealing with this season.

"I'll go see if she would like to go," Claire says.

The sequence that follows is just fantastic, one of those scenes that I refer to as "filming the book", because they come as close as they possibly could to portraying the scene exactly as I've always imagined. Most of the dialogue comes word for word from BEES chapter 35, "Ambsace".

“No, you’re not.” He said it calmly, though his answer had come so fast, I thought he’d said it from pure reflex. Then I looked at his eyes. I straightened my back, folded my arms, and fixed him with a stare of my own.

“Would you care to rephrase that?” I said politely.

One of the benefits of long marriage is that you can see quite clearly where some conversations are likely to lead--and occasionally you can sidestep the booby traps and choose another path by silent mutual assent.

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 35, "Ambsace". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

I just love watching Jamie throughout this whole scene -- the whole episode, in fact. I think this is some of Sam's best work in a long time.

The blood was rising up the column of his neck, never a good sign. “I dinna mean to be ‘involved,’ ” he said, handling the word as though it had fleas. “And I dinna mean you to be ‘involved’ with John Grey. At all,” he added as an emphatic footnote, and snatched up the shovel with which he’d been digging the new well for the garden, in a manner suggesting that he would have liked nothing better than to crown John Grey with it--or, failing that, me.

“I’m not suggesting any sort of involvement,” I said, with a fair assumption of calm.

“It’s a wee bit late for that,” he said, with a nasty emphasis that sent the blood up into my own cheeks. “For God’s sake! You know what happened. And how. You know I--”

“Aye, I ken what happened. He laid ye down in his bed, spread your thighs, and swived ye. Ye think I’m ever going to hear the man’s name and not think of that?”

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 35, "Ambsace". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

“And did I tell ye that I grudged every hour ye’d spent in another man’s bed?”

For those of you who don't recall the reference (because it's been a long time, and the scene Jamie is recalling doesn't occur in the show), he's referring to the scene in DRAGONFLY IN AMBER immediately after Alex Randall's death, when he lashed out at Claire:

“Damn right I begrudge! I grudge every memory of yours that doesna hold me, and every tear ye’ve shed for another, and every second you’ve spent in another man’s bed! Damn you!” He knocked the brandy glass from my hand--accidentally, I think--pulled me to him and kissed me hard.

He drew back enough to shake me again.

“You’re mine, damn ye, Claire Fraser! Mine, and I wilna share ye, with a man or a memory, or anything whatever, so long as we both shall live.”

(From DRAGONFLY IN AMBER by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 45, "Damn All Randalls". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

The rest of the scene is almost word-for-word from the book, including Claire's murmured, "Pigheaded Scot!" just after Jamie leaves.

Hearing the commotion, Fanny comes in to speak to Claire. She wants to know why Jamie is so angry.

“He’s Scottish,” I amended, with a sigh. “Which means stubborn. Also unreasonable, intolerant, contumelious, froward, pigheaded, and a few other objectionable things. But don’t worry; it really isn’t anything to do with William.”

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 35, "Ambsace". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

"You've been good to me," Fanny says. "It's a shame I'll have to go." Back to the brothel in Philadelphia, she means. Claire is horrified. She reassures Fanny that she won't have to go anywhere. This bit comes straight from BEES chapter 24, "Alarms by Night".

In the next scene, William tells John that he believes Ben is alive, because he found another man's body in Ben's grave at the end of last week's episode. Most of this scene is not in the book. William tells John about the little tin soldier that was missing from Ben's uniform coat pocket.

"I gave it back to him when he went to war. It wasn't among his belongings."

John is skeptical, but suggests the logical next step: talk to Ben's commander, a Major-General Leslie, who will be attending a luncheon in Savannah soon with other British officers. John offers to get William an invitation to the luncheon.

In the next scene, Bree and Claire are in the kitchen, discussing Lord John's letter about the portrait he wishes Bree to paint. Bree wants to know why Jamie and John are not on speaking terms at the moment, so Claire tells her that she was compelled to marry Lord John in order to keep Richardson from arresting her as a spy.

Bree shrugs. "So why is Da mad? It sounds like John was protecting you. It's not like you slept together."

And then, of course, Claire has to tell her the rest of it:

“And I slept with him. But it’s not what you think…”

At this inauspicious moment, Jamie walked past the window with Sean McHugh. They were talking, both of them looking upward, Jamie pointing at something on the upper story. Brianna made a noise as though she’d tried to swallow a pawpaw whole, and Jamie glanced in at us, startled.

I felt as though I had swallowed a hand grenade, but I hastily pounded Brianna on the back, making an “It’s nothing” gesture at Jamie.

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 36, "What Lies Unseen". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

Bree's reaction to this unexpected news is just priceless! I love the look of total shock on her face as she says, "Mama!!", followed by a wide grin as she can't repress her laughter at the thought.

"Do NOT joke about that in front of your father!" Claire says sternly. No kidding!

The next brief scene is not in the book. Jamie comes to see Captain Cunningham at the trading post, to ask about his connections with the two strangers Bree and Fanny encountered earlier.

Cunningham says they gave him a pistol and a musket as part of his dead son's belongings. He apologizes for the man's behavior toward Fanny.

Jamie examines the pistol but says nothing about it. "I willna tolerate any actions that will threaten the Ridge or its settlers," he warns Cunningham, and leaves.

The next scene is taken mostly from the book, and I thought it was very well done. Amaranthus comes to see William (interrupting him when he's half-dressed!), to give him a present: a waistcoat that she has embroidered with a number of tiny insects.

"I embroidered it for Ben. You're similar in size. I'd be happy for you to get some use out of it." Interesting. This line isn't in the book, leaving us with the implication that she embroidered it specifically for William. The way it's stated here makes her seem a little more sympathetic. It seems more an act of kindness, rather than the action of someone who's "throwing herself at him", and I liked that.

[William] bowed to her, smiling. “By far the most fanciful waistcoat I’ve ever owned.”

She straightened up, looking indignant, and pulled her wrapper tight across her bosom.

“They aren’t fanciful at all! Every single one of those beetles is to be found in this colony, and all of them are the right colors and shapes! Well,” she added, her indignation subsiding, “I’ll admit that the red eyes really were a touch of fancy on my part. I just thought the pattern required more red than a single ladybird beetle would provide.”

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 44, "Beetles With Tiny Red Eyes". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

Amaranthus explains that her father is a naturalist, "when he can afford to be," and a bookseller in Philadelphia. Her grandfather is a botanist, which is where she got the name Amaranthus. The explanation of her name comes from BEES chapter 31, "Pater Familias".

"It's a beautiful name," William says. "And a lovely waistcoat." That waistcoat really is quite beautiful!

In the next scene, which isn't in the book, Roger, Bree, Claire, and Jamie are discussing the idea of Bree going to Savannah to paint this portrait that Lord John reqeusted. Jamie is adamant. "No! Absolutely not!"

Bree says that they're going to need more weapons if the war is coming to the backcountry, "and Savannah is the place to get them!"

"Where there are armies, there are guns," Roger says. I thought that was a particularly clunky line of dialogue. He makes it sound as though they'll just walk into the nearest army camp and steal guns from under the noses of the guards!

Jamie insists it's too dangerous, even though Lord John has sent Bree a letter of safe passage that will get them into the city. He wants to know how they're going to pay for these guns.

"We were thinking [to use] some of the Frenchman's gold," Roger says, referring to the hoard of gold that Jamie found under the remains of the Big House after the fire, which Jamie has been saving in case of need.
"We were almost killed for it," Bree adds. "We might as well use it to protect ourselves."

But Jamie won't hear of it. It's too dangerous. He says, "No. I willna allow it!" and walks out of the room.

The very explosive scene between Jamie and Claire that follows comes mostly word for word from the book, and I loved it!

“I could have lied, you know.” [About having sex with Lord John, she means.]

“No, ye couldn’t. Ye canna lie to anybody, Sassenach, let alone me. And given that his lordship had already told me the truth--”

“You wouldn’t have been sure it was the truth,” I said. “Given what both parties told me about that fight. I could have told you John was talking out his backside because he wanted to annoy you, and you would have believed me.”

“Ye could choose your words wi’ a bit more care, Sassenach,” he said, a hint of grimness in his voice. “I dinna want to hear anything about his lordship’s backside."

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 37, "Maneuvers Beginning With the Letter 'V'". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

The argument continues, again almost verbatim from the book. Claire turns her back to him, silently asking for help with unlacing her stays. I liked the irritated look Claire gave him when he hesitated, as if to say, "Come on, take a break from the argument for a moment and help me. You've done this a thousand times before." It's a sweet little marital moment, lowering the tension a little bit.

I also liked the way they sat down on opposite sides of the bed, facing away from one another as the argument went on. That was an effective bit of directing, letting their body language show how out of sync they are with one another.

“You can’t love somebody if you won’t bloody forgive them!”

“I forgive you,” he said.

“How f*cking dare you?” I shouted, turning on him with clenched fists.

“What’s wrong wi’ you?” He made a grab for my arm, but I jerked away from him. “First ye’re angry because I didna say I forgave ye and now ye’re outraged because I did?”

“Because I didn’t do anything wrong to start with, you fatheaded arsehole, and you know it! How dare you try to forgive me for something I didn’t do?”

“Ye did do it!”

“I didn’t! You think I was unfaithful to you, and I. Bloody. Wasn’t!” I was shrieking loudly enough to drown out the crickets, and shaking with rage.

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 37, "Maneuvers Beginning With the Letter 'V'". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

I couldn't help but notice that they've toned down both Claire's language and her rage considerably in the show's version of this scene, and I wonder why. This scene tends to make me uncomfortable in the book, because I always find it upsetting when Jamie and Claire argue, and they were REALLY tearing into each other, in a way we haven't seen in quite a while. I think the TV version lacks much of that emotional intensity, and that's a shame.

I'm very glad they included the following bit, because I think it's absolutely critical for understanding the state of Jamie and Lord John's relationship at this point in the story, and why they have not been able to reconcile:

“I swear to myself I will put...this...thing...out o’ my head, and mostly I manage. But then that sodomite sends me a letter, out o’ the blue--just as though it never happened! And it’s all back again.” His voice shook and he stopped for a second, shaking his head violently, as though to clear it.

[....]

“If I canna stand the notion that you and he were f*cking me behind my back, how do ye think I can stand to think that you and I are sharing a bed wi’ him in it?”

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 37, "Maneuvers Beginning With the Letter 'V'". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

I didn't really care for the sex scene that follows the argument. But it's a minor point, one of the few things I disliked about this episode.

The next morning, Jamie and Claire's relationship seems back to normal. They talk a little about Frank's book, and then the conversation shifts to Claire's words to Black Jack Randall at Wentworth:

“You asked me, Captain, if I were a witch,” I said, my voice low and steady. “I’ll answer you now. Witch I am. Witch, and I curse you. You will marry, Captain, and your wife will bear a child, but you shall not live to see your firstborn. I curse you with knowledge, Jack Randall--I give you the hour of your death.”

(From OUTLANDER by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 35, "Wentworth Prison". Copyright © 1991 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

"In that moment, it was the only weapon I had, because I wanted to torture him."
"You think Frank is torturing you?"
"Dunno. Maybe. For not forgetting about you. For not letting you go." [....] "I just don't know what's real or not anymore. That's what's worrying me."

Claire goes back inside, and suddenly Jamie hears Frank/BJR's voice in his head: "You know it's real. In your heart, you know what's written is the truth."

Meanwhile, in Savannah, William and Lord John are attending the luncheon with a number of British officers, including General Leslie, Ben's commanding officer. General Leslie can't provide any more details about Ben's death, but he wants to know more about the conditions under which British prisoners are being held. And then he mentions Lord John's experience with prisoners, and William is baffled.

“Prisoners?” William felt something small and hard bob in his midsection, as though he’d inadvertently swallowed a golf ball. “My father?”

Mr. Preston blinked, taken back. “Forgive me, my lord. I had thought--”

“That doesn’t matter.” William waved a hand. “What did you mean, though; his experience with prisoners?”

“Why--Lord John was the governor of a prison in Scotland, perhaps...twenty, twenty-five, perhaps...years ago? Now, what was the name...oh, of course. Ardsmuir. You did not know that? Dear me, I do beg your pardon.”

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 44, "Beetles With Tiny Red Eyes". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

You can almost see William putting the pieces together. His real father was a convicted Jacobite traitor. Lord John had commanded a prison in Scotland, before William himself had been born. Was that where they had met?

Meanwhile, back on Fraser's Ridge, an unexpected visitor arrives. It's a young black girl, perhaps fourteen years old. In the book, her name is Agnes Cloudtree, and her parents are Aaron and Susannah. They've changed the family's surname to Whitaker, and made them free blacks, but otherwise the circumstances are not too different from the situation described in the book. The girl, Agnes, has come desperately seeking Claire's help for her mother, who is having a difficult childbirth.

I'm not sure why they changed the race of these characters in the show, but I don't mind. It's a riveting story in any case. Claire brings Agnes, Susannah, and their friend Binta into her surgery. Susannah turns out to be carrying twins. At first both babies appear to be stuck. Still alive, but not moving.

“The twins are tangled together,” I said, as calmly as I could. I pressed her stomach and felt movement—one twin, at least, was still alive. I was drenched with sweat and my mouth was dry. Someone had set a cup of water near me; I hadn’t noticed. I picked it up and drank, to get enough moisture to say what had to be said next. “Susannah,” I said, leaning forward to look into her eyes. “The babies can’t get out. I can’t get them out. If we keep doing this, they’ll die--and you might die, too.”

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 54, "Moonrise". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

Keep in mind the very high infant and maternal mortality rates in those days. The risk that mother or babies or both might die is very real.

The scene shifts back to the officers' luncheon in Savannah. Lord John finds himself seated next to Percival Beauchamp (aka Percy Wainwright), of all people! Lord John asks him whether he's still working for the Marquis de La Fayette, but Percy won't give him a straight answer.

I had to laugh at the way Percy kept putting a hand on John's leg, and John kept pushing him away.

Percy says, "I'm seeking a meeting with a Claudel Fraser." The name means nothing to Lord John, but it should set off alarm bells for anyone who remembers the young Fergus in Season 2, whom Jamie first met in Paris as an eight-year-old pickpocket named Claudel.

Percy's description of the man who rescued Claudel from the brothel is taken from AN ECHO IN THE BONE:

"I do know that roughly thirty years ago, he was taken from the brothel by a Scotsman, and that this man was described as of striking appearance, very tall, with brilliant red hair. Beyond that, I encountered a morass of possibilities ...” He smiled wryly. “Fraser was described to me variously as a wine merchant, a Jacobite, a Loyalist, a traitor, a spy, an aristocrat, a farmer, an importer--or a smuggler; the terms are interchangeable--with connections reaching from a convent to the Royal court.”

(From AN ECHO IN THE BONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 18, "Pulling Teeth". Copyright © 2009 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

Percy wants Lord John to make contact with Fergus and encourage him to meet with Percy. John says he'll consider it, and in return he asks Percy to locate Captain Richardson.

Meanwhile, back on Fraser's Ridge, Susannah's husband Aaron arrives at the Big House. At first he orders his wife and daughter to leave, saying to his daughter, "You've put all of us in danger!" As a free black man, he's reluctant to accept the help of white people, but eventually relents, seeing how serious his wife's condition is.

In the next scene, we're back in Lord John's house in Savannah. William has brought Amaranthus Ben's uniform coat, which he obtained in last week's episode. Amaranthus reacts with great shock, as though she's only just now remembered that she's supposed to be a grieving widow. "I'll put it with the rest of his belongings," she says. William follows her and notes that she has a drawer full of letters and other things -- including the missing toy soldier that he gave Ben for good luck when he joined the army!

William and Amaranthus find a private spot to talk outdoors, and she proceeds to tell him about the beetles on his waistcoat. Most of the dialogue here is taken from the book:

He looked down his nose at his chest--and Amaranthus’s long, slim index finger. Her wedding band glimmered on the fourth finger, and he took a deep breath that made her pointing finger sink slightly into the ochre silk. She smiled up at him, and slowly withdrew the finger.

“As to the beetle, I wouldn’t know. But you are [rebellious], aren’t you?”

“Me? How do you mean?”

“I mean that you don’t intend to live your life to please other people’s expectations. Do you?”

That was a lot more direct than he’d expected—but then, she was startlingly direct.

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 100, "The Power of the Flesh". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

And then, unlike in the book, they kiss.

Meanwhile, back on Fraser's Ridge, Claire helps Susannah to deliver the first of her twins, a boy. But the second twin is in a breech position and Claire has a lot of difficulty getting her out. Jamie comes in while she's struggling to deliver the second baby. Finally the child emerges, but she isn't breathing. Claire tries desperately to resuscitate her, to no avail. The baby is dead.

We can see Claire reliving the way it felt when she lost Faith all those years ago. She refuses to let Jamie take the baby.

Moved by the deepest of memories, I leaned over and picked her up, holding her against my breast, tiny head cupped in my hand. In an instant, I was holding my lost daughter, grief knifing through me. I closed my eyes, knowing I had to put her down, had to go about my job, but unable to let her go, feeling the slow beating of my heart against the fading warmth of her fragile skin.

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 54, "Moonrise". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

Suddenly we see fragments of memory from Episode 207, "Faith". Mother Hildegarde's voice, then Master Raymond's, and the overwhelming sense of "blueness" all around them. And somehow, from sheer desperation and a refusal to give up, Claire summons the healing blue light.

A blue spark. I saw it, saw it and looked deep into it, willing it to stay, holding it safe in the palms of my hands. Thup... My finger stilled, and the small sound answered. Tup.

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 54, "Moonrise". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

Finally, miraculously, the baby girl begins to cry.

I love that scene in the book, and I think they did an excellent job of adapting it here.

Afterwards, Jamie and Claire talk over what just happened. Claire says she has felt something like it once before, when she was very ill after their first daughter, Faith, was stillborn.

"I was dying, and I knew it. And in that moment, I wanted to die. Then Master Raymond came." Here's how she described it at the time, in DRAGONFLY IN AMBER:

An odd feeling of warmth now emanated from those broad, square, workman’s hands. They moved with painstaking slowness over my body, and I could feel the tiny deaths of the bacteria that inhabited my blood, small explosions as each scintilla of infection disappeared. I could feel each interior organ, complete and three-dimensional, and see it as well, as though it sat on a table before me. There the hollow-walled stomach, here the lobed solidness of my liver, and each convolution and twist of intestine, turned in and on and around itself, neatly packed in the shining web of its mesentery membrane. The warmth glowed and spread within each organ, illuminating it like a small sun within me, then died and moved on.

(From DRAGONFLY IN AMBER by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 25, "Raymond the Heretic". Copyright © 1992 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

Claire describes the feeling of healing the baby, as though "a blue light seeped from my fingers into her body." But Jamie couldn't see the blue light.

"If Master Raymond was able to do that for me, maybe that's how he was able to bring Faith back. Maybe that's what he wanted forgiveness for. For taking our daughter from us."
"Then why did he not tell you? Why did he not return her to you, after?"

NOOOO!! Just NO!! I refuse to take this "Faith lived" nonsense seriously in any way at all. I wish they'd never started talking about it in the first place.

Mercifully, that small digression into pure fantasy doesn't last long. The next bit comes straight from the book:

“Jamie,” I said, a few moments later, raising my head. “What color is my hair?”

This was an absurd question; it was the depth of the night and we were standing in a pitch-black forest. But he made a small noise of appraisal and lifted my chin to look. “All the colors o’ the earth,” he said, and smoothed the hair from my face.

“But here, all about your face--it’s the color of moonlight, mo ghràidh.”

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 54, "Moonrise". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

The next scene with Jamie and Fanny isn't in the book. Jamie takes her to see the cairn of stones he built to mark the place where Murtagh is buried. He tells Fanny that this cairn is her sister Jane's now. "Whenever you're missing her, ye can come and place a stone on top. Speak to her if ye like. Let her know you're thinking of her."

This sweet moment is interrupted by the sound of a gunshot, not far away. Jamie goes to investigate and finds Benjamin Cleveland, whom we met in last week's episode, with two crates filled with muskets.

"I caught these two smuggling guns onto your property," Cleveland says. "You're just in time to help me string 'em up as a warning to others."

Jamie is appalled and refuses to let Cleveland hang them. Fanny recognizes the men; one of them is the "horrible man" we saw at the trading post at the beginning of this episode. Jamie searches the man and finds a sealed note hidden in his boot. He orders Cleveland to get off his land, and Cleveland doesn't argue. He takes the crates of guns and rides off.

In the final scene, which is not in the book, Jamie confronts Captain Cunningham, telling him what he just witnessed. He shows him the letter he took from the dead man. It refers to "Abies fraseri", the Fraser fir that grows in the mountains of western North Carolina, but it's clearly some sort of coded message.

Jamie looks at Cunningham's pistol, now mounted on the wall like a trophy. Jamie takes it down and observes that it's lighter than normal. He removes a cartridge, only to find that it's not a standard cartridge but a rolled-up piece of paper with another message written on it. It turns out to be a coded message about recruiting men on Fraser's Ridge, presumably in support of the Loyalists.

Cunningham says the coded letter is from "my commander, Major Patrick Ferguson". Yikes! Ferguson is a real historical figure who will lead the British troops at the Battle of Kings Mountain. So Cunningham is actively working for the British, and the threat he represents to Jamie and the Patriots on the Ridge has suddenly become clear.

"You're raising a Loyalist militia, on my land."
Cunningham doesn't deny it. He says that supporting the Loyalists is "the only choice to make" if Jamie wants to keep his land and people safe.

As Jamie rides away, we hear Frank's voice in his mind: "I told you, Fraser. It's coming. The pieces are falling into place. Just as I wrote, each day brings you closer to Kings Mountain, and closer to your history." Personally I thought this was a poorly written ending, and unnecessary. Give the audience credit for a little intelligence! We don't need Frank to tell us that the danger to the Ridge, and to Jamie personally, is growing. We can see that with our own eyes. And Kings Mountain is still many months away.
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I hope you enjoyed this recap. Please come back next week for my recap of Episode 804, and look here for my recaps of all of the previous OUTLANDER episodes.

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