Episode 804: "Muskets, Liberty, and Sauerkraut" (SPOILERS!)

Here are my reactions to Episode 804 of the OUTLANDER TV series, titled "Muskets, Liberty, and Sauerkraut".

*** SPOILER WARNING!! ***

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

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The opening scene with Jamie, Bree, and Roger is not in the book. In last week's episode, Jamie was strongly against Bree and Roger's plan to travel to Savannah, but now Jamie has changed his mind. According to Frank's book, the Battle of Savannah will take place on October 9th. The Continentals will lose, but as long as Bree and Roger stay in the center of the city, Jamie thinks it will be safe enough. Jamie gives Roger a note for Colonel Francis Marion, a real historical figure who was one of the leaders of the Continental Army at the Battle of Savannah.

"He has a great deal of experience with militias. He might be keen to arm men from the backcountry." Jamie is forming his own militia, as the only alternative to joining Benjamin Cleveland and his Overmountain Men. Jamie's hatred for Cleveland is obvious.

Roger nods at the three gold bars on the table, part of the Frenchman's gold. "You'd think it'd at least have the decency to shine, like in a film," he says. I was a bit annoyed with Roger here. He's looking at a fortune in gold, but he seems not to be taking it seriously, until he sees the very sober look on Jamie's face, and suddenly it occurs to him that carrying this amount of gold will put him and Bree in danger. "What about bandits?" he asks.

Jamie has a solution for that, as we'll see shortly.

The "title card" for this episode shows Bree packing up her brushes and other painting supplies, preparing to travel to Savannah at Lord John's invitation, to paint a portrait of Viscountess Amaranthus Grey and her baby son.

In the next scene, we're in Fergus and Marsali's home in Savannah, identified by the printshop sign outside the door. Bree and Roger have brought them a "wee gift", packed in several small kegs of sauerkraut: a couple of bottles of whisky, and the gold bars we saw earlier. They explain that Jamie is seeking Francis Marion's help to arm his militia.

"I don't imagine you intend to traipse into an army camp with a king's ransom in bullion?" Fergus asks. "No," Roger says. "I don't want to invite any trouble. Nor do I expect that Marion will have crates of guns just lying around the camp that he can readily part with. Arrangements will have to be made."

Marsali and Fergus agree at once that they will hide the gold. Bree is worried, but Roger shrugs off her concern.

"Dinna fash. There's plenty of time to find Marion and be back before the battle."

This made me shiver a bit, remembering the events leading up to the Battle of Alamance, when Roger went across the creek to talk to the leader of the Regulation (likewise intending only to talk to him and then return) only to find himself trapped there once the fighting started.

The next scene is not in the book. Back on Fraser's Ridge, Jamie returns home from visiting his tenants, having discovered that many of them are Loyalists (supporters of the British side in the war), like Captain Cunningham. Jamie will have to travel farther away, taking Ian and Josiah Beardsley with him, to recruit more men for his militia.

Claire wonders if it would be better to evict Captain Cunningham, but Jamie says no. He wants Cunningham nearby, where he can keep an eye on him. The adage, "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer," comes to mind.

Jamie tells Claire what he's learned about Major Patrick Ferguson from Frank's book. Ferguson is a real historical figure who will lead the Loyalist troops at Kings Mountain -- and we learned at the end of last week's episode that Cunningham is working for Ferguson!

"The book says that Major Ferguson is vicious, ruthless on the battlefield and off, burning the homes of Rebels without warning, forcing their allegiance." Clearly, Jamie must do whatever it takes to protect his family and tenants from this man.

Back in Fergus's house in Savannah, Fergus raises a toast: "To muskets, liberty, and sauerkraut, mes amis!" Now we see where the episode title comes from. It's based on a similar bit from BEES chapter 67, "Réunion".

Fergus says he received a letter from Lord John suggesting that he meet with a man named Percival Beauchamp. Bree immediately recognizes the similarity in names; Claire's maiden name, of course, is Beauchamp, pronounced Beecham in the English fashion. "That's quite a coincidence," Bree says, but before she can finish the thought, a rock thrown from outside smashes through the window, narrowly missing her.

Fergus runs after the perpetrator but can't find him. He returns home to find the printshop sign in pieces on the ground. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Marsali says this has happened before.

"These days, when people dinna like the news, they tend to blame the printer."
"Just the life of a news printer in these troubled times," Fergus says, sounding resigned.

What does this disturbing incident have to do with Percival Beauchamp? In the book, the connection is clear, and I think it's worth mentioning.

“Why talk to him at all?”

The Adam’s apple bobbed in Fergus’s lean throat as he swallowed, but he met Roger’s eyes straight on.

“If I must lose my livelihood here [due to the escalating violence], if I can no longer be a printer--then I must find a new place, or a new way to support my family, to protect them,” he said simply. “It may be that Monsieur Beauchamp will show me such a way.”

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 74, "The Face of Evil". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

The next scene, in which Jamie, Ian, and Josiah Beardsley try to recruit new men for the militia, is not in the book. The young men they meet seem willing enough, but they're short of weapons. Jamie assures them, "I'm expecting a shipment shortly. When the time comes, ye'll each have your own musket and shot." When Bree and Roger come back with the guns, he means.

Ian comes to Jamie with an urgent message. He met a stranger, a "Scottish fellow", who said he was heading for Fraser's Ridge, looking for Roger and Brianna. Jamie wonders if the man could be the mysterious Rob Cameron?

Jamie and Ian corner the stranger at gunpoint, and he identifies himself as William Buccleigh MacKenzie, aka "Buck", whom we last saw at the end of Season 7, in 1739.

"Come to tell Roger and Brianna that Cameron won't be botherin' them again, and to return Roger's wee book." He holds up the copy of Roger's "Time-Traveler's Manual", left behind in 1980 when Roger went back in time with Buck in search of Jem.

Jamie stares at the stranger in shock, and finally says, "Buck MacKenzie. Ye remind me of your father." That would be Dougal MacKenzie, of course.

So Buck evidently time-traveled from 1739 to 1980 (focusing on Rob Cameron, probably), disposed of Cameron somehow, retrieved the little book, and then went straight back to the stones and (focusing on Roger or Bree this time?) time-traveled AGAIN, to the 18th century, and possibly tracked the MacKenzies to the Ridge. It's awfully convoluted, to say the least! Apparently Buck's heart isn't affected by traveling through the stones anymore, because he survived not one but TWO additional trips since we last saw him in 1739.

I really want to know why. What's the point of bringing him back, beyond giving the viewers some closure to the story of Rob Cameron and the Nutters? Do they mean to have Buck settle on the Ridge for good?

Meanwhile, back in Savannah, Roger and Bree take their leave of Fergus and Marsali: Bree to go to Lord John's house to take up her painting commission, and Roger to go to the Continental Army camp in search of Francis Marion. (Oddly, Roger doesn't actually do this until the very end of this episode.)

The next scene, with Claire and Fanny, about whether houses are alive, comes straight from the book.

“I think any place that people live for a long time probably absorbs a bit of them. Certainly houses affect the people who live in them--why shouldn’t it work both ways? [....] When someone dies, naturally the people they leave behind will still sense them. I don’t know whether you’d call that haunting, though; I think it’s maybe just memory and...longing.”

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 63, "The Third Floor". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

I definitely felt something like that in my mother's house, for months after she died. You really can't help it, when every inch of the house is filled with memories.

Fanny says that her sister Jane used to say, "Good night, ma cherie," to her every night. This seems clearly intended as a reference to that ridiculous "Faith Lived" plotline. If you accept the preposterous idea that Faith lived (!!) and may have been Jane and Fanny's mother (I for one refuse to believe that!), then it's possible that Jane learned that term of endearment from their mother, who presumably was raised in France or by French speakers. Fortunately, it's just a very brief reference and it doesn't have any bearing on the rest of the episode.

The scene that follows is VERY close to the book, and I loved it! Claire goes to close the shutters against the wind and sees Mrs. Cunningham approaching the house. The WIZARD OF OZ reference is straight from the book:

As I leaned out with the shutter hook in my hand, though, I saw a tall black figure hastening toward the house, skirts and cloak flying in the wind.

“You and your little dog, too,” I murmured, and risked a glance at the forest, in case of flying monkeys.

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 63, "The Third Floor". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

Mrs. Cunningham enters the house, very agitated and clearly in pain. Claire diagnoses a dislocated shoulder, similar to the injury Jamie suffered on the day he and Claire first met. Claire gives her whisky to dull the pain while she works on the injured shoulder. I liked the way they depicted the misshapen shoulder joint before Claire put it back into alignment.

"Grass-combing son of a buggering sod!" Elspeth exclaims as the shoulder joint pops back into place. The rest of this scene is almost verbatim from the book:

“It’s been a long time since I heard language like that,” Fanny said, her lips twitching.

“If you have to do with sailors, young woman, you acquire both their virtues and their vices.” Elspeth’s face was still white and shone like polished bone under a layer of sweat, but her voice was steady and her breath was coming back. “And where, might I ask, did you hear language like that?”

Fanny glanced at me, but I nodded and she said simply, “I lived in a brothel for some time, ma’am.”

“Indeed.” Mrs. Cunningham drew her wrist out of my grasp and sat up, rather shaky, but bracing herself with her good hand on the table. “I suppose whores must also have both virtues and vices, then.”

“I don’t know about the virtues,” Fanny said dubiously. “Unless you count being able to milk a man in two minutes by the clock.”

I had taken a nip of the whisky myself, and choked on it.

“I think that would be classed as a skill rather than a virtue,” Mrs. Cunningham told Fanny. “Though a valuable one, I daresay.”

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 63, "The Third Floor". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

I'm glad they got a little of Diana's humor in this scene! This bit always makes me laugh. And I have to say I'm impressed that they included the entire scene from the book here. I love watching Claire and Elspeth interact. Frances Tomelty, who plays Elspeth, is just wonderful in the part!

In the next scene, Brianna arrives at Lord John's house in Savannah. This scene is mostly based on BEES chapter 93, "Portrait of a Dead Man", and I think it's terrific! Charles and Sophie both did an excellent job here. We've been waiting for this moment for a long time, and they didn't disappoint.

Then one of the taller figures moved, turning, and she saw in outline the same long, straight nose, the same high brow that her fingers had drawn so recently.

“Wait!” she said. She had no memory of striding down the hall but was suddenly face-to-face with him and there was no more obscuring shadow, but morning sun lighting a shockingly familiar pair of blue and slanted eyes fixed on hers.

“Bloody hell,” he said, completely startled. “It’s you!”

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 93, "Portrait of a Dead Man". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

As Lord John and William usher Bree into the parlor, where Amaranthus is sitting with baby Trevor, Bree says, "It seems like a lifetime since we all met." Well, not quite! But it's been almost three years since Episode 702, "The Happiest Place on Earth", first aired. You can see the clip of Bree and William's first meeting here.

A certain amount of small talk follows. Amaranthus is clearly taken aback by Bree's sudden appearance. She makes an awkward excuse about having to feed the baby and leaves. Lord John, likewise, claims that "Various important matters require my attention" and departs, leaving Bree and William alone at last.

"Did you know? That day we met in Wilmington, did you know what we were to each other?"

I was surprised that William didn't react more strongly when she said, "Yes." After all, not that long ago he was berserk with fury at the thought that Lord John had known the truth of his paternity for years and kept it from him. But here, he seems completely relaxed, even comfortable with the idea that this woman he's barely met is in fact his half-sister.

“Well. I do apologize, though. For not telling you.”

He looked at her, expressionless, for the space of four heartbeats; she felt each small thud distinctly.

“I accept your apology,” he said dryly. “Though in all honesty, I’m glad you didn’t tell me.” He paused, then, apparently thinking this might sound ungracious, added, “I wouldn’t have known how to respond to such a revelation. At the time.”

“And you do now?” “No, I bloody don’t,” he said frankly. “But [...] at least I haven’t blown my brains out. When I was seventeen, I might have.”

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 93, "Portrait of a Dead Man". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

Bree understands, more than anyone else in the world, what it feels like to suddenly discover that your real father is Jamie Fraser. It's easy to see how they bonded almost instantly over that shared understanding.

In the next scene, Fergus meets with Percival Beauchamp. This scene is based on BEES chapter 74, "The Face of Evil," although the details are a bit different. Roger isn't present, and there is no mysterious man in a gray suit. Just Percy and Fergus, alone together.

Percy gets right to the point. "Have you heard of a man by the name of the Comte St. Germain?"
"Why?"
"You are his son."

Fergus calls it "preposterous", and maybe it is. On the other hand, he recognizes the name of the woman Percy claims had a "torrid affair" with the Comte: Amélie Levigne Beauchamp.

“You know that name?” Beauchamp sounded surprised but eager. He leaned forward, his face intent, nacreous in the lamplight. “J’ai connu une jeune fille de ce nom Amélie,” Fergus said. “Mais elle est morte.”

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 93, "Portrait of a Dead Man". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

Most of the details of the story Percy tells (including the marriage contract) match the version he told Lord John in ECHO:

The girl had indeed been brought to the brothel, in the middle stages of pregnancy. That had not mattered particularly; there were patrons with such tastes. A few months later, she had been delivered of a son. She had survived childbirth but died a year later, during a plague of influenza.

(From AN ECHO IN THE BONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 58, "Independence Day". Copyright © 2009 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

Percy goes on to say that the Comte St. Germain has been missing and presumed dead for some thirty years, leaving Fergus as the only heir to his estates. When Fergus protests that a bastard cannot inherit property and turns to leave, Percy calls out, "Claudel!" to stop him. I liked the way they did this, with Percy asking, "If I may use your original name...?" and Fergus turning halfway around and saying calmly but firmly, "You may not, sir."

Percy shows Fergus the marriage contract between Amélie Levigne Beauchamp and the Comte St. Germain. It might be a forgery, but what if it is indeed real? Percy goes on to explain what Fergus would gain from this. Essentially, a large sum of money from the sale of lands in the Northwest Territory that the Comte had had a claim on.

That's giving Fergus a lot to think about, for sure! Interesting that he appears to be seriously considering it. (More on that a bit later.)

In the next scene, we're back at Lord John's house in Savannah. This scene isn't in the book. Amaranthus is clearly jealous of William spending time with Brianna, despite the fact that she's a married woman.

"Miss MacKenzie -- Brianna -- is my sister!"
"You told me that you didn't have any siblings." Oops!

So William tells her the truth about his paternity. He adds that he doesn't want to be the Ninth Earl of Ellesmere anymore, that he would renounce the title if he could, but he can't. Amaranthus's solution to that dilemma comes straight from the book:

“You can’t renounce your title, but you could hand it on. Abdicate in favor of your heir, I mean.”

“I haven’t an heir. Are you suggesting--”

“Yes, exactly.” She nodded approvingly at him. “You marry me and as soon as I have a son, you can give him your title, and either retire into private life and breed dachshunds or perhaps pretend to commit suicide and go off to become anyone you like.”

“Leaving you--”

“Leaving me as the dowager countess of whatever your estate is called, I forget. That might be slightly better than being the Duke of Pardloe’s penurious daughter-in-law, mightn’t it?”

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 46, "By the Dawn's Early Light". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

This is the point, in the book, where I became convinced that Amaranthus only wants William for his title and money.

The next scene, between Claire and Elspeth Cunningham, comes straight from the book, and I really enjoyed it! I love watching these two on screen.

“The attic,” she said, after a few minutes of silence. “Why? It’s a remarkably large house, without adding a third floor.”

“Jamie insisted on it,” I said, with a one-shouldered shrug. She made a noncommittal noise of acknowledgment and went on sipping. But her sparse gray brows were drawn together, and I knew she wouldn’t stop thinking about it.

“My husband is the Fraser of Fraser’s Ridge,” I said. “If there should ever be...an emergency of some kind that compelled some of the tenants to leave their homes, they could take temporary refuge here. I’ve had that happen before,” I added. “Had refugees in my kitchen--in the old house, I mean--for months. Worse than cockroaches.”

Elspeth laughed politely at that, but she wasn’t troubling to hide her thoughts, and I knew that she appreciated exactly what sort of emergency I had in mind.

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 63, "The Third Floor". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

Claire asks if Elspeth believes what her son Charles told the men of the Lodge, that he would see his dead son again in seven years. "I only know that he believes it," Elspeth says.

And speak of the devil....here's Charles Cunningham, coming to pick up his mother and take her home to recuperate from her injury. This part of the scene is not in the book.

Notice the way Cunningham reacts when Elspeth says, "Her husband's away at the moment, on business." So Claire and Fanny are alone, unprotected and vulnerable, and Captain Cunningham is looking around at the house as though assessing its weaknesses, looking for the best place to stage an attack.

"You have a very fine home," Cunningham says. "It must feel very empty, with [your husband] away and you here all alone."

That sounded unmistakably like a threat. ("Nice house you've got here, Mrs. Fraser. It'd be a real shame if anything happened to it," that sort of thing.) Elspeth defuses the tension by indicating that she's ready to leave..

"Until next time, Mrs. Fraser." The words are polite, but the threat underlying them is very clear. Chilling!

In the next scene, we're back with Fergus and Marsali, who are discussing Fergus's meeting with Percy. Cesar Domboy is wonderful in this scene, which is adapted from BEES chapter 74. Fergus rarely speaks of his early life in the brothel, so it's interesting to me to hear him describe what it was like.

“Because there are children, there are whores with milk. Those who had--lost a child--would sometimes nurse other bébés. If a whore was called to attend a customer and her child was hungry, she would hand him to another jeune fille. The little ones called any whore ‘Maman,’ ” he said quietly, looking down at his feet. “Anyone who would feed them.”

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 74, "The Face of Evil". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

And yet, Fergus knew this Amélie. According to the story Percy told in ECHO chapter 58, she died when Fergus was about a year old, so he has no memories of her. But in this TV version of events, Fergus was about six years old -- old enough to remember Amélie, even though the memories are not pleasant ones.

"Was she kind to you?"
"She detested all of the children of the brothel, but me most of all. I understand now. I was the spawn of the man who took everything from her. Her love, her freedom, even her family."

I think this change from the books, allowing Fergus to retain a few memories of her, gives Percy's Highly Improbable story more credibility than it had in the books. Fergus has more to rely on than just the word of Percival Beauchamp or a possibly-forged marriage contract. He has his own memories, too. Fergus recalls that the other whores called her the Baroness, "because of her haughty manner" -- but the nickname is also fitting for the sister of the Baron Amandine. If it's not true, why did Amélie hate him more than the other children? Maybe those small details don't mean anything in the long run. I don't think Fergus is interested in Percy's offer. But the scenario seems a little easier to accept when it's supported by those bits of memory.

Fergus's next comments about Percival Beauchamp come straight from the book:

“He’s a whore; he has likely been one all his life.” Seeing Roger’s expression, he didn’t smile, but one corner of his mouth lifted. “What is it they say? ‘It takes one to know one.’ ”

Roger felt a sudden contraction of his stomach muscles, as though he’d been lightly punched. He’d known that Fergus had been a child-whore in Paris, before encountering Jamie Fraser, who had engaged him as a pickpocket--but he’d forgotten.

“Monsieur Beauchamp is too old to sell his arse, of course, but he will sell himself. From necessity,” Fergus added dispassionately. “A person who has lived like that for a long time ceases to believe that they have any value beyond what someone will pay for.”

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 74, "The Face of Evil". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

When Marsali asks why he's hesitating, Fergus said, "Monsieur Beauchamp told me what every orphan wants to hear, that I am the son of a great man. But I'm already the son of a great man."

I wish they'd kept the original quote from ECHO, which I consider one of the best Fergus quotes of the whole series.

"For a long time,” [Fergus] said at last, “when I was small, I pretended to myself that I was the bastard of some great man. All orphans do this, I think,” he added dispassionately. “It makes life easier to bear, to pretend that it will not always be as it is, that someone will come and restore you to your rightful place in the world.”

He shrugged.

“Then I grew older, and knew this was not true. No one would come to rescue me. But then--” He turned his head and gave Jamie a smile of surpassing sweetness.

“Then I grew older still, and discovered that, after all, it was true. I am the son of a great man.”

The hook touched Jamie’s hand, hard and capable.

“I wish for nothing more."

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

The next scene takes us back to Lord John's house, and a terrific scene between Bree and John. I love it whenever these two interact, in the books or show. Bree asks with characteristic directness, "Why didn't you tell William I was coming?"

The answer is pretty obvious: "You and he share a pretty unique experience, discovering that James Fraser is your father."

I liked John's comment about Bree and William's stubbornness: "It's exceedingly difficult to get you to do anything you don't want to do." It makes me wonder how he managed to control William as a very spoiled young child.

The story about young Willie lost in the fog was told in detail in THE SCOTTISH PRISONER, but we also see William's memory of it in ECHO:

[Willie] heard them calling out for him, voices he knew, and he tried to cry out in reply, but his throat was raw from screaming, and he made no more than desperate rasping noises, running toward where he thought the voices were. But sound moves in a fog, and nothing is as it seems: not sound, not time nor place.

[...]

Mac had found him. A big hand had suddenly reached down and grabbed him, and the next minute he was lifted up, bruised and scraped and bleeding but clutched tight against the Scottish groom’s rough shirt, strong arms holding him as though they’d never let him go.

(From AN ECHO IN THE BONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 36, "The Great Dismal". Copyright © 2009 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

Oddly, John doesn't mention that Mac the groom was the one who found the boy. Perhaps Isobel didn't tell him that.

The next couple of scenes are not in the book. We're back on Fraser's Ridge with Rachel and baby Oggy. Probably at the trading post, but if so, it's a part of it I don't recall seeing before. Rachel's eye is caught by a newspaper headline talking about a massacre along the Susquehanna River. She takes one of the papers to show Ian.

Apparently Lizzie Beardsley has been watching Jem and Mandy while their parents are in Savannah. I had to smile at Lizzie's stumbling over the 20th-century word "sleepover" as though it's in a foreign language. Suddenly they hear riders approaching: Jamie and Ian have returned, along with a man they don't recognize.

The kids remember him, though! Jem and Mandy come running out to meet the stranger, who turns out to be William Buccleigh MacKenzie.

"I told him he's welcome to stay on the Ridge as long as he likes," Jamie says.
"Of course. He's family," Claire agrees.

Buck wants to know if Claire has "any of those peanut butter sandwiches", like the ones Bree made for him at Lallybroch in 1980.

Ian finds Rachel outside, looking worried. She tells him about a massacre in the north, led by the famous Mohawk warrior, Joseph Brant, aka Thayendanegea. In the book, it's Ian who tells Rachel about it, but the gist of it is the same.

Ian reads aloud from the newspaper: "The Patriot Army marched along the Susquehanna River, razing every Indian village they could find. Forty villages were left in flames and countless scalps were...." He stops abruptly, too upset to continue.

This happened in the area where the Mohawk village of Shadow Lake (aka Snaketown, in the books) is located, in upstate New York. Clearly Ian wants to go, to see if his first wife, Works With Her Hands, and her children are still alive. Rachel immediately agrees, saying that she and baby Oggy will come with him.

Claire is sad to see them go, of course, but Rachel won't change her mind.

“Would thee let thy husband go alone seven hundred miles to rescue his first wife and her three children--one of whom might just possibly be his?”

Jenny’s mouth opened, but apparently there were no Scottish sounds appropriate to the occasion.

“Well, no,” she said mildly. “Thee has a point.”

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 56, "Thee Would Make a Good Friend". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

Jamie asks Ian to visit the brothel where Jane and Fanny lived, when he gets to Philadelphia. This doesn't make sense to me. We saw in the opening scene in Episode 801 that Jamie already questioned Vasquez, the smuggler who sold the girls to the brothel. Vasquez is dead. Jane is dead. What more can the whores at the brothel tell him that Jamie and Claire don't already know?

Jamie tells Ian about Frank's book and the battle that will take place at Kings Mountain next October. Ian promises that they will return before the battle.

"Da may be gone, but I'll guard your left in his stead." Awwwww! I like that.

Before they leave, Jamie blesses Ian and Rachel and Oggy with the "Prayer for Travelling" from the Carmina Gadelica:

“Traversing corries, traversing forests,
Traversing valleys long and wild.
The fair white Mary still uphold me,
The Shepherd Jesu be my shield.

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 27, "Cover Her Face". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

I like that very much.

Meanwhile, in the Continental Army camp somewhere outside Savannah, Roger has come to find Colonel Francis Marion, aka the "Swamp Fox". He gives Marion a letter from Jamie. Marion is familiar with Jamie's reputation, as the notorious General who resigned his commission following the Battle of Monmouth.

"He should keep his distance from the army. They will use his militia, certainly, they need every man they can get. But the risk to him--him, personally--is very great. If it had not been for Lee’s trial and La Fayette’s good word, Fraser would have been court-martialed himself after Monmouth; perhaps even hanged.”

Marion spoke casually, but Roger felt the scar on his throat tighten and burn beneath the concealment of his high white stock, and he had the sudden uncontrollable urge to fling his arms out, burst the memory of rope and helplessness.

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 90, "The Swamp Fox". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

Predictably, Marion refuses to give Roger any guns. I'm glad, actually, because I thought it was a stupid idea. As Roger himself said at the beginning of this episode, "Nor do I expect that Marion will have crates of guns just lying around the camp that he can readily part with."

Roger tries to leave, only to be told, "That's not possible." It's too late. The battle will begin soon, and the sentries are not letting anyone out of the camp. Recognizing that he has no choice, Roger makes one final request:

“I’m no good with a rifle,” he said. “But if you can give me a sword, I’ll go with you.”

(From GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 90, "The Swamp Fox". Copyright © 2021 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

And with that, the episode ends.
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I hope you enjoyed this recap. Please come back next w.eek for my recap of Episode 805, and look here for my recaps of all of the previous OUTLANDER episodes.

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