Why can’t time-traveling romance be easier? I’m not used to Jamie and Claire being apart and it’s just depressing.
When we find out it’s been six years, I do kind of wonder about that—but when you live in the woods on your own, I guess you have nothing to distract you from your own thoughts. While Jamie is busy feeling sorry for himself, Ian and Jenny are dealing with his warrant, spending so much time denying that Jamie’s there that Ian is taken to jail.
Meanwhile, Claire is adapting to motherhood and dreaming about a very sexy naked Jamie. All I could think was, “Why is Claire having my exact same dream?”
Plus, she lives with Frank and has Brianna—her life trajectory is definitely not tragic. She and Frank have friends over, they sleep together, and Brianna is so adorable, everything is moving along. It might not be Claire’s dream life, and she might miss Jamie terribly, but it’s just not that bad.
Jamie is doing what he can to help out while Ian is in jail, bringing home a giant deer for the family. They show them butchering it. I eat meat, but I like mine pre-packaged at the grocery store.
Of course, with three other boys running around, they cause trouble: They use the hidden gun that Jamie told Fergus never to touch again and shoot a raven to protect the baby. Typical kids. Thinking about one thing while ignoring other potential consequences.
The raven is dead and the baby lives, but it costs them attention. Here come the guards, including a Scottish guy who is now a redcoat.
Jamie is in the house and hides with the baby while Jenny covers. Ultimately though, Mary McNabb saves the day by claiming the gun was her dead husband’s.
Claire is going through the motions with Frank, but she isn’t happy, and when she tries to use him for sex, Frank isn’t having it. She won’t open her eyes and he tells her: “When I’m with you, I’m with you. But you’re with him.”
Frank wants all of Claire, but her heart isn’t in it.
Six years later, Jamie comes to a turning point when Fergus tries to lure the redcoats away from Jamie’s hiding place and that evil Macgregor cuts off the poor kid’s hand while Jamie watches, afraid to say anything lest they kill them both.
Sometimes a traumatic moment snaps you out of your own funk. Jamie breaks down over Fergus and wants to do right, so he plans to turn himself into the prison. Ian, who has lost a leg like Fergus has lost a foot, talks to Jamie about the pain of the limb that is gone and he likens that to the pain that Jamie is suffering with the loss of his heart.
On the eve of turning himself in, Mary McNabb comes to Jamie’s cave for a booty call. At first he resists. Then he closes his eyes and cries—but this widow needs him, too. They fade to black.
He comes home after that clean shaven and looking like himself when Jenny stands there sobbing that she will never forgive him and that it’s all his fault, which is the absolute truth.
While Jamie has chosen his next chapter to be prison and money for his sister, Claire has chosen medical school; she sits down as the only woman next to the only black man in the class. She’s back to twin beds with Frank, but she is going to live her life to the fullest.
I believe this is what Beyonce would call “Lemonade.”
Keri is a professional chatterbox who loves watching TV & movies, reading about pop culture, and gawking at any craziness on the internet. You can follow Keri on Twitter.