Outlander‘s “Creme de Menthe” May Leave Fans of the Book Disappointed

So we went from all the love-making to none of it. Times 200 years ago were rough.

“Creme de Menthe” begins where we left off, with Claire being attacked by a man while she’s in her nightgown. He’s very aggressive about his plan to rape her, but she fights back with a knife and sheer force of will.

The man doesn’t appreciate her rebuffing his advances, but it’s too bad—he falls, hits his head and when Jamie walks into the room, she thinks she has killed him.

Jamie doesn’t care. The guy was trying to hurt her. No tears shed over his death.

Then, all of a sudden, he breathes. Claire goes into full doctor mode trying to save her abuser.

This puts Jamie into a bad spot, because his smuggling business is under suspicion and he knows this little incident is not going to go well for him.

Fergus is part of Jamie’s operation and is reminded of how strong-willed Claire can be when she is determined about something; he doesn’t even question it when she asks the brothel madam for a drill so she can drain the hemorrhage in the man’s skull.

While they procure what she needs for her surgery, she also makes a run to the apothecary for some other supplies. She very politely tries to cut in front of the line but the man won’t budge so she pays him in the best way possible: free medical care for his sister.

Even back then, healthcare was an expensive proposition.

When Claire comes back from the apothecary, she finds Jamie and her patient and she gets to work with Mr. Willoughby as her assistant.

Then she drills into the guy’s skill and yikes, it was graphic and it didn’t even work. The guy dies anyway.

Claire is distraught because she hates to lose a patient. Jamie thinks, “Good riddance!”

She takes a walk to make good on her promise and finds a woman who is mentally disabled.

The man uses her has a seer, but really she’s just out of her head and needs help so Claire gives her brother an action plan and heads on her way.

While she was helping a patient, Fergus was busy helping young Ian with some lessons in love.

He tells him how to seduce a woman and tells him how great his first time was because it was a menage à trois.

Does anyone really believe that? I know he’s French, but that was probably on the second time.

At any rate, Ian propositions a young lady and the two go back to Jamie’s print shop, where he attempts his seduction.

He’s successful, but it’s also abundantly clear that he had the same thoughts about being with a woman that Jamie had. The highlands are sorely lacking in sex ed.

Claire comes home after her appointment and finds out that Jamie got rid of the body in a tub of creme de menthe. (He wasn’t worried about anyone finding him because no Scotsman drinks the liquor.)

This episode reintroduces Ian and Claire. He is looking for his son and Jamie lies about knowing where he is, making Claire very annoyed but still so thrilled to see Ian.

She then calls Jamie out on lying to his family and the two get into quite an argument about parenting. He’s jealous that Frank was a good father to Brianna, but then calls Claire a bad mother because of the bikini.

Does any dad really like his daughter to wear a bikini?

The are interrupted by a fire at the print shop, though, and while Claire has accused Jamie of not having paternal instincts, he proves her wrong when he runs into a burning building to save Ian.

He finds him and takes the time to save Willie’s photo and carries Ian to safety.

It looks like this group is headed home to Lallybroch sooner rather than later.

I think what fans of the book will be most upset about is that Ian’s loss of virginity was not tied to comfort from a traumatic experience. This was a pretty fundamental change. My guess is, fans aren’t going to have any love lost for this episode, especially coming on the heels of last week’s amazing reunion. Here’s hoping next week the show rediscovers its mojo, or we will all be drinking creme de menthe.

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.