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Outlander: ‘Surrender’ Recap

Last week’s season premiere was explosive. It was all about how Claire and Jamie felt immediately after being ripped apart.  This week’s episode, ‘Surrender’, was more heartbreaking as it focuses more on Jamie’s life. It is six years after the […]

Last week’s season premiere was explosive. It was all about how Claire and Jamie felt immediately after being ripped apart.  This week’s episode, ‘Surrender’, was more heartbreaking as it focuses more on Jamie’s life.

It is six years after the failed Jacobite rebellion. Jamie is living hidden in the woods near Lallybrock, because English Redcoats are still bursting through the gate looking for the sinister Red Jamie. This is the opening of the episode, and Jamie’s brother-in-law Ian is later taken away to prison in the hopes he’ll break and confess to his whereabouts.

Surrender recap
Our feels when the Red Coats won’t give up. Source.

Fergus is still with the Fraser family, and this constant harassment of his master frustrates him. He argues with the soldiers, earning himself a target on his back. Especially when he calls out the Scottish soldier for betraying his people.

The title of this episode, ‘Surrender’, is about Jamie and Claire giving up on their lives. Jamie rarely speaks nowadays. He doesn’t want to even think about the idea of marriage ever again. He doesn’t want kids, knowing full well in 200 years his daughter will have been born. He has no fight left in him. Jamie’s sister, Jenny, says something along the lines of , “You know why I can tell the redcoats Jamie Alexander Malcolm McKenzie Fraser isn’t here? Why I don’t feel like I am lying? Because he hasn’t been here in a long time.”

Surrender recap
Jenny is so blunt, I love it. Source.

When Jenny has her child, and Fergus fires a gun to kill a raven that would bring bad luck to the child, the Red Coats hear the shot. They fail at finding Jamie, but two of the soldiers follow Fergus as he goes to find Jamie. Fergus leads them on a wild goose chase, and he starts calling the Scot in their ranks a traitor. That is when things go south. The soldiers cut off one of the boy’s hands. Jamie springs into action, saving Fergus’ hand, but he realises that he must hand himself over to the Redcoats so that his family would be safe. It’s heartbreaking to watch Jenny cry as she ‘hands over’ her brother. What fate will await the Scotsman in the Red Coat’s hands?

Surrender recap
To Lallybrock or to himself? Source.

Meanwhile, Claire’s version of giving up is succumbing to her old life with Frank. She has sex with him. She holds dinner parties with him. She is the perfect house wife. She finds herself dissatisfied with everything.

Surrender recap
Could she really go back to Frank after this? Source.

She enrols in Harvard Medical School, finding herself as the only woman in her class. ‘Surrender’ ends with and Frank in separate beds. Their marriage will never be whole again, not with the shadow of a certain red head constantly hanging over their lives.

Still counting down the days until Jamie and Claire are reunited.

You can catch Outlander on Showcase on Mondays at 7:30pm.