People often live life in two spaces. One is out in the open for all the world to see; the other, behind closed doors. Not just to keep secrets, but also to put out a proper, well-manicured appearance into the world. In the France of 1743, appearance is everything, no matter how vulgar life may be, punctuated by the debauchery of friends and colleagues.
For Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan), he’s beginning to live two lives, one in the world with Claire (Caitriona Balfe) in France, and one where he is trapped in his own mind. Black Jack Randall (Tobias Menzies) abusing and raping him during their last encounter has left deeper scars than any battering. With his back already harshly — and permanently — scarred, and a broken hand on the mend, Jamie’s toughest process of healing comes from the ghost that lives in his head. The face he presents to the Parisians is a far cry from the vulnerable and suffering man Claire shares a bed with every night. The two struggle to reconnect, with Claire trying any means she can to help her husband crawl out of his PTSD.
Despite this, Jamie plays his part in support of his and Claire’s cause. He puts on his brave face and braces for a meeting at a brothel to meet with the Prince Charles Edward Stuart (Andrew Gower) himself in order to persuade him to abandon his plans of supporting a Scottish rebellion. There again we see the parallel lines running through Paris. One of the highest, most regarded members of French society, Prince Charles, sits adjacent to the mainstage at a brothel, with full intention of experiencing its pleasures, still speaking with our Lord Broch Tuarach of serious matters.
Claire, on the other hand, has always led two lives, primarily because she’s never been forthcoming about her true identity. Within Paris and the great house she runs, however, her modest English, and now Scottish, ways are being eclipsed by French maids eager to please and new friends with little in the way of modesty. She’s meeting the right people and connecting with the right influential members of court to support her cause, including spending an eye-opening afternoon with Louise de Rohan (Claire Sermonne) — Prince Charles’ mistress — in order to muster up an invitation to the King’s court at Versailles, which she manages well enough during Louise’s waxing appointment.
So, off the Frasers go to Versailles, dressed to the nines, especially Claire in a stunning red dress so bright she almost looks overdressed for the affair (if one can be overdressed for a meeting with royalty.) The crowd may dress exquisitely and act with the highest and strictest etiquette, but they still have low mumbling conversations about rumors, dealings, and affairs, with one woman even asking Claire, “What is the English name for the male member?”
Jamie, meanwhile, is taken to meet King Louis (Lionel Lingelser). Regal in title, perhaps, but not in person; we meet the King while constipated and struggling on his chamber pot in front a large audience of men. This offers yet another example of the contrast between public and private identities; the dualities of the French Court lie in the separation between pristine appearance and indecorous conversation and actions.
The most outwardly two-faced person suddenly emerges back in Jamie and Claire’s life: the Duke of Sandringham (Simon Callow). The man promised to help Jamie gain a pardon; instead he set-up Black Jack Randall to find Jamie once again. Nearly directly responsible for Jamie’s latest and harshest of assaults from Randall, Claire and Murtagh (Duncan Lacroix) seek to speak their minds to the Duke. The Duke, always plotting, took the precaution of hiring Randall’s younger brother as his secretary. Alex Randall (Laurence Dobiesz) informs Claire that her worst fears have been realized, and Black Jack Randall is still very much alive. Claire’s now faced with a decision of when to tell Jamie of news that could break down all the walls he’s working on building to heal.
So who are we when we’re alone? With friends, with coworkers or allies? Are we the same? Or do we change from one day the next who we chose to be? The episode title, “Not in Scotland Anymore” offers guidance that we’re not to expect what we’ve seen before. The realities of France, and the Parisians Claire and Jamie have met, present French society as held together by pins and paper walls. Everyone in one room witnessing something far different from the next, yet gossip and rumor spread around as quickly as the champagne is poured.
Still, reputations rule the day. So, with Claire and Jamie trying to find their place in society while Jamie is trying to overthrow his ghost, their great house is beginning to look a little less mighty. Then again, this just makes it possible for the two to be more determined to conquer the dark threats looming outside.