All of Outlander Season 1 Episodes: Ranked

13. “Rent” Episode 5

The episode “Rent” is a great episode for Claire and Jamie. We are finally out of the stifling confines of Castle Leoch and get to see the Highland. Claire is still under the impression she still has a chance to get to freedom if she can only steal herself away to Inverness. Unfortunately, making her way back to the stones is his going to be hard with a dozen Highlanders watching her every move.

What this episode did right is focus more on the personality traits of the characters, their stories and how that affects their perspective. Dougal, for example, is supposed to be picking up the rents from the tenants but is, in fact, using it to fund the Jacobite rebellion. He’s not opposed to using his nephew Jamie’s scarred back to make his point. The people of Scotland are not free until the English are gone. Claire being from a different time and English starts to understand why the Clans take arms against the British. Claire tries her best to warn them away from such a rebellion without tipping her hand that she is from the future. The next Mrs. Fraser warns them away not because they are wrong but because she knows the outcome. The more time she spends with them, the more she understands.

One of my favorite scenes was watching Claire with the local village women working wool.  You can almost sense Claire’s kinship with these hard working women. It was as if she had been gifted peace even if it was for a brief time.