Outlander season 3, episode 5 recap: ‘Freedom & Whisky’

Claire finally arrives in 1766 Edinburgh and finds her way to A. Malcolm’s print-shop! And other things happen, too!

Oh, Outlander, only you can do what I explicitly asked you not to do — wait till the very end of “Freedom & Whisky” to get Claire to that print-shop — and still manage to please me to no end. Claire and Jamie only shared one scene before the credits rolled but their exchange was perfect. In short: Claire announces herself; Jamie slowly turns around and looks at her with joy and disbelief; Claire grins with tears in her eyes; Jamie faints dead away; end of episode.

It didn’t give us too much in the way of romance (that will have to wait until next week, I suppose) but their interaction is basically a microcosm of the best of what Outlander has to offer: comedy, heart, genuine surprise, and gender-flipped tropes. Instead of Claire fainting from the emotion of reuniting with the love of her life, Jamie ends up playing the overwhelmed damsel in distress. After all he’s survived throughout the past 20-plus years, it’s sweet that Claire is the one person who completely throws him off his game.

Thank you, Outlander. This scene was better than I could have imagined.

Here are some of the other highlights from “Freedom & Whisky”:

My parents, myself

This episode also succeeded in making me empathize with Brianna, even if I still don’t quite enjoy her and Roger’s subplots. She’s struggling when we first catch up with her in “Freedom & Whisky”: she’s drawing instead of taking notes about Paul Revere, failing her classes at Harvard, and sadly going through Frank’s things back at the house. Basically, she’s not coping with the news of her real parentage extremely well.

What’s interesting about Bree’s existential crisis is that — no sarcasm intended — it is really just about her. She’s accepted her mother’s connection to Jamie, seems unsurprised when she learns about Frank’s relationship with Sandy, and is wholly supportive of Claire’s decision to go back to Jamie. But when it comes to her own life and background, Brianna can’t quite reconcile her love for Frank with her curiosity about Jamie. “You expect me to come back to Boston and be who I was?” Bree asks Claire when she announces she’s leaving college. “I tried and it’s not working.”

Not only that, the news of who she really is has made Brianna question everything. How can she be invested in history, in what happened before she existed, if so much of what’s been recorded is skewed or simply not true? Brianna tells Roger that history is “just a story” that “can’t be trusted.” “It changes depending on who’s telling it. Like Paul Revere’s, like Bonnie Prince Charlie’s, like my parents’, like my own.” However, by episode’s end Bree has taken the first steps towards reclaiming her history. When she convinces Claire to return to Jamie, she says, “I have been trying to figure out if I was more Randall or Fraser. And what I realized is that I’m more you than I am either of my fathers.”

Joe and Lady Jane

Claire might be suffering from doubt in “Freedom & Whisky,” but what she lacks in self-confidence she makes up for in support from others. Bree is enthusiastic about Claire’s return to 18th century Scotland, and Joe Abernathy also encourages Claire, even though he isn’t privy to the whole time-travel story.

Which brings us to the problem with Joe as a character. He’s basically been relegated to the role of supportive friend in a rom-com — one of his lines is literally, “If you have a second chance at love, you should take it” — and he deserves more. Even when the show hints at his life outside of Claire’s story, it’s frustratingly brief. We know he eats chicken cacciatore on Tuesdays (per last week’s “Of Lost Things”), that he’s more cautious in surgery than Claire, and that he has an anthropologist friend named Horace. Oh, and we know that his term of endearment for Claire is “Lady Jane.” Since Bree and Roger will remain in Boston 1968 for the time being, it’s possible that the series isn’t done with Joe just yet. But if “Freedom & Whisky” is the last we see of him, it’ll be one of the rare times Outlander has wasted the opportunity to flesh out a secondary character.

Switching gears slightly, Joe’s comment that he has “watched [Claire] live a half-life for 15 years” is heartbreaking. Not only has she been unhappily married for two decades, she’s been distracted and living in the past. Claire has never been completely present since she returned through the stones; when she “closed the door” on Jamie and the past, she also closed it on a part of herself.

The way back

And yet this episode sees Claire pry the door back open again with a vengeance. After waffling about leaving Brianna and worrying that, after 20 years, Jamie won’t even want her anymore, Claire decides once and for all to go back through the standing stones. And like Jamie’s fainting spell, her preparations for the journey back are adorable. She stocks up on scalpels and penicillin. Her Christmas presents from Bree and Roger include 18th century currency, a Scottish history book, and a topaz pendant that will aid her journey at Craigh na Dun. Ever the Renaissance woman, Claire also fashions a nice, period-appropriate frock with hidden pockets out of old raincoats.

Remember how I said Claire is the only person who can throw Jamie off-balance? Well, the opposite is also true. The usually self-confident Claire worries about her looks once she knows she’ll see Jamie again; she picks at her face and dyes the grey streaks in her hair. Best of all, she turns to Joe and asks him point-blank if she’s still sexually attractive. After doing a truly hilarious double-take, Joe admits Claire has a nice posterior even if she is “a skinny white broad with too much hair.” He adds that Jamie will be “in heaven when he sees [her].” You don’t even know how right you are, Joe.

Next: Outlander S3E4 recap: 'Of Lost Things'

Misc.

• Alias Watch: Jamie is now running a print-shop in Edinburgh as Alexander Malcolm.
• With their references to Dark Shadows, Batman, and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Roger and Joe are destined to become best friends and co-presidents of one of the first TV fan clubs, right?
• Speaking of which, I like that Roger unabashedly enjoys Dark Shadows: “Ah, those troglodytes wouldn’t understand the travails of the House of Collins.”
• I’m assuming the skeleton Claire and Joe examine will be significant later this season. The bones belonged to a woman in her 40s who was decapitated with a dull knife — is anyone else getting Black Jack Randall vibes?
• Does Joe call Claire “Lady Jane” because it sounds vaguely British and posh? Or is he referring to the tragic Nine Days Queen? For Claire’s sake, I hope it’s the former.
• I think the scene in the print-shop is the happiest we’ve seen Claire since season 2.
• I’m not a fan of the way the show decided to handle Sandy post-Frank’s death — she’s just a little too evil. I get that she’s grieving and angry that she didn’t get to spend her life with Frank, but what exactly did she expect when she got involved with a married man? Blaming Claire for everything is just petty.
• This week’s most swoon-worthy line: When Joe asks if Claire’s romance with the other man was serious, she replies, “As serious as it comes.”
• That’s Joe Tex’s “Show Me” playing as Roger arrives at the Randalls’ home. Its lyrics are a nice parallel to Claire’s comment that Roger is “a good one.”