Outlander: Vengeance is Mine Books Included

June 20, 2016 12:50 PM - Season 2, Episode 11

Claire and the Highlanders head north after the Jacobite leaders decide to halt their march on London; Claire has an unexpected reunion after a band of redcoats makes trouble for the Scots.

Highlights:

Rupert takes an up-close look at a musket ball;
Jamie tries to defy history and get the Prince's generals to agree to march on London, and fails;
Claire tries her "kidnapped Englishwoman" plan again to get the Lallybroch men out of a sticky situation with some Redcoats, and succeeds;
Hugh Munro pops back up, although not as literally as last time;
Claire goes to Downton! (or somewhere nothing like it!), and is reacquainted with the delightful Duke of Sandringham, the original bad penny;
Claire can write in Gaelic (OR CAN SHE);
Another old friend appears in the form of Mary, who is about to be wed to...Mr Granger, to prove Sandringham's (her godfather) loyalty to the crown;
It turns out the men who raped Mary were in Sandringham's employ, NOT the Comte (gasp!);
Thus ensues a complicated non-plan in which everyone attempts to get Claire out of the house and which culminates in a stand-off with birthmark-hand-guy holding Claire at knifepoint. Of course things don't go well for him, but it's Mary who stabs him.

Also RIP Sandringham. He'll never be the head of a major corporation.

posted by tracicle (12 comments total)

Sorry it's late! I was travelling and forgot to tell anyone.
posted by tracicle at 12:50 PM on June 20, 2016

A) I had to pause for a significant length of time until I could stop laughing fit to kill at, "She even misspelled 'help'!"

B) I punched the air and screamed YEAAAAAAAAH when Mary stabbed that fucker and I am not even a teeny bit sorry about it.

C) BYE SANDRINGHAM doesn't have the same ring as Bye Felicia but I am definitely saying it with the same amount of triumphant glee, so, there's that.
posted by angeline at 1:01 PM on June 20, 2016 [2 favorites]

Ooh. And I think it is worth noting that this particular episode was written by Diana Gabaldon herself.
posted by angeline at 1:04 PM on June 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Ohh-kay, now I get why you guys had so much antipathy for Sandringham. Up until now he had seemed to me a harmless eccentric who you probably shouldn't rely on, but no worse than that. I got conned.

This episode was a welcome change of pace. Watching a doomed war effort plod along has been a huge downer, and I'm glad their bunch was exiled towards more interesting adventures.

Now I'm trying to figure out how Mary will end up married to BJR. And how he will be able to sire an heir despite getting righteously stabbed in the cock. (Don't tell me! I have theories!)

It's so sad to see Rupert miss Angus. :(
posted by sively at 3:28 PM on June 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

I did adore Sandringham, such a fun character to watch come to life on screen, much better than I imagined him. But yea, bubbye.
posted by danapiper at 3:29 PM on June 20, 2016

Also RIP Sandringham. He'll never be the head of a major corporation.

I just LOLed for real at that. I really enjoyed this part of the book, it was genuinely fraught with tension, and though I am loathe to praise Gabaldon, I think she did a great job writing this episode. I feared for poor Rupert's life in the chapel. Also, Dougal's horse jump to save Rupert was pretty badass. Best thing Dougal's done since making Claire and Jamie get married.

That was a great episode! I can't believe we only have two left in the season!
posted by banjo_and_the_pork at 3:55 PM on June 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

It's so sad to see Rupert miss Angus. :(

It got kind of old, but at least by the end of the episode he was done crying his eyes out.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 3:56 PM on June 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Ohhhhhhh robocop is bleeding, you deserve SUCH a spanking.
posted by angeline at 4:01 PM on June 20, 2016 [2 favorites]

Man, I had forgotten all about what happened to Sandringham. Yikes.
posted by something something at 6:22 PM on June 20, 2016

When I saw this episode, I kept thinking of Claire's line from the book after Jamie kills the birthmarked guy and Mary promptly throws up on the floor, "The servants were going to have a hell of a mess to clean up in the morning." I hoped the line would be in the scene, but also, no.
posted by orange swan at 8:53 AM on June 21, 2016

At least they were in the kitchen, no carpet that I saw. I mean they're still going to have to mop up several quarts of blood and all, but they won't have to try to get it out of an expensive carpet.
posted by angeline at 11:14 AM on June 21, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'll miss Sandringham; so far my two favourite performances on this show have been
Simon Callow (he really is one of the greats and I hope he lives forever) and that French dog who works as a doctor.
posted by EXISTENZ IS PAUSED at 2:45 PM on October 1, 2017