It’s springtime in Scotland, but like most of the northern climates, the weather doesn’t know it. It’s still very grey outside and the wools are just barely enough to fight off the edge of cold. Beaten down, tired, and starving, the army of Prince Charles (Andrew Gower) is looking pretty weak. But doomsday approaches. April 16th sits on the calendar with a dark mark, for more than one reason, as we come to find. This is the day of the Battle of Culloden. This is the day Black Jack Randall (Tobias Menzies) is supposed to die. Nearly back where we started this season, little has changed, despite best efforts, but this episode focuses within. Not yet staging war, but staging characters into war; we ask what this all means for our characters.
What does it mean to be a loving brother? Colum Mackenzie (Gary Lewis) makes his reappearance, arriving at the Fraser temporary homestead seeking his brother and nephew. Colum’s appearance and inability to walk on his own proves that his illness is getting the better of him and these are his final days. A dying wish leaves Claire (Caitriona Balfe) with the decision to help Colum commit suicide with yellow jasmine on his own time. Dougal (Graham McTavish) and Jamie (Sam Heughan) are told what’s to become of Clan Mackenzie: Jamie’s to become the guardian of Colum’s son Hamish, who’s to be Clan Leader when he comes of age. Dougal feels betrayed and manipulated out of his birthright. Jamie’s hesitant to agree, but Colum knows Jamie understands the importance of people over the importance of fighting far more than Dougal ever wishes to.
So, here we find a poignant scene. Dougal sits beside his brother on his deathbed. Graham McTavish needs little more than a close-up to begin to express to Colum his frustrations. He’s trying to know what has happened, how he and his brother were always at odds. A man who’s so strong, stoic, and resilient in the face of battle begins to melt as he speaks to his brother for the last time. Colum passes away mid-monologue and it takes Dougal a little while to notice, but this moment makes his final (one-sided) conversation all the more significant.
What does it mean to be an unloving brother? Black Jack Randall (Tobias Menzies) doesn’t hate his brother. He doesn’t despise him; in fact, he’s gone out of his way at times to make sure Alex has better footing in this world. But, poor Alex Randall (Laurence Dobiesz) is sick, dying. Alex’s paired with Mary Hawkins (Rosie Day); in love and in death, they stand together. Mary’s still immature, jaded by her love and hope for a promising life with Alex. Claire goes to aid the young man, despite both Mary and Alex being mad at Claire for trying to break them up. There, of course, is Black Jack Randall. The last person you want to help anyone. He’s a tortuous man who can make your skin crawl whenever he comes on screen.
For Alex, however, he tries to help and Claire does know best, although he feels the need to object to treatments anyway. Claire can make the best of his time left, but that’s nearly it: he’ll die soon. Jack’s been caring for his brother and Mary financially for some time, but Alex’s dying wish poses more of an imposition to his elder brother. Alex wishes that Jack and Mary wed to care for their unborn child. For months, Claire’s been working to protect the marriage of Jack and Mary because this union becomes part of Frank’s ancestry. Now we see that the child to come from this union is Alex and Mary’s, not Jack and Mary’s, but the marriage still needs to come to pass.
Sitting alone, contemplating his choices, Black Jack Randall sips on whiskey and talks with Claire. Sitting across from the face of Frank and the reality of Jamie’s abuser, Claire tries to convince him that he needs to do this for his brother (and Frank), thinking Mary will be better off his widow than Alex’s. Black Jack lives up to his name, though, manipulating Claire to not insist by reminding her of his unremorseful feelings about what he did to Jamie. Again, Black Jack Randall comes between Claire’s life with Jamie and Claire’s life with Frank.
Claire does bears witness to the marriage, and as Alex dies following the ceremony, Black Jack Randall punches the body of his brother with all the force he can muster. All the humanity that Alex was convinced lived inside his brother that Jack insisted on hiding died right then and there. Any good, any hope, and any spark of morality left as his brother’s soul departed. Claire tried to shield Mary from the moment, knowing that Mary will only be his wife for a few days and not the rest of her life.
What does it mean to be a wife? Mary may never find out, as Claire plans to make her a widow days after her marriage. Claire’s pondered this question several times before. Her relationship with Jamie is bigger than both of them. A force brought them together finding a way to become equals and partners despite their stark differences. With Frank, Claire was always looking to him for advice and guidance on their relationship. Frank loved Claire deeply, but when Claire became Jamie’s wife, she learned of a new kind of relationship and new kind of love. Her loyalty to Frank has been tested and questioned, but she feels that she needs to protect him as his wife, even though she’s hurt many people, including Jamie and Mary, by asking for his life in exchange for their own well-being. Jamie has come to terms with what Frank means to Claire, but she put herself in the way of his revenge in Paris and now that time has come to make good on her promise to kill Black Jack Randall by battle or by bloody hands.
Claire’s loyalty to Jamie led them to trying to stop Culloden in the first place, and yet they still ended up where they didn’t want to be. Now, facing the battle in living color with no halt in sight, Claire and Jamie must make the choice about what future they want and how they move forward knowing how things may change.
We leave the soldiers in a forest. Beginning the Battle in Culloden, just as it says in the history books, a night ride to surprise attack the British fails and the men are too tired and too weak to fight the next morning. Claire didn’t warn them of this part of the fight being the demise of their own making — this may have been listed in a book Claire hadn’t read. All the players are set: Dougal riding for the Clan he doesn’t lead, Jamie still trying to find a way out, Claire still hoping that things will change, and Black Jack Randall cursed, knowing his end is near. The grey sky seems to be fighting for all the looming darkness to come.
Then again, it’s possible the sky will clear; you never can predict the weather in Scotland.