‘Outlander’ Season 3, Episode 2 Recap

“Outlander” Season 3 continued to tell Jamie and Claire’s separate journeys in episode 2, and they’re trying to move on. The key word there is “trying.” The lovers both had sex with other people in this episode, titled “Surrender,” but their love doesn’t seem to burn out.

Jamie’s (Sam Heughan) story picks up six years later on the Starz drama. The redcoats are looking for him at Lallybroch, but Jenny (Laura Donnelly) and Ian (Steven Cree) say he’s not there. The soldiers take Ian away, hoping a few days in jail will change his mind. It’s apparently something that has happened several times before.

Jamie happened to be out hunting at the time, but he is staying in a cave nearby. When he comes to drop off his latest kill, he thinks he sees Claire (Caitriona Balfe) in the garden, but it’s actually Jenny. His sister wants him to get back to being himself.

Outlander
Outlander

Jamie (Sam Heughan) was in hiding in “Outlander” Season 3, episode 2. Photo: Starz

Fergus (Roman Berrux) finds a gun and wants Jamie to teach him out to use it. Jamie refuses and notes that guns are outlawed. When a raven shows up while Jenny is in labor, Fergus and his friends think that it could be an omen of death. Fergus shoots the bird, but the gunshot obviously calls attention to Lallybroch.

After giving birth, Jenny asks Jamie how long it’s been since he was with a woman. She tries to suggest her maid Mary (Emma Campbell-Jones) as a possible option. “I won’t marry…ever again,” Jamie says.

Their conversation is cut short when the redcoats come storming in searching for the gun. Jamie hides while Mary takes the blame and gets the officers to leave.

Fergus later taunts officers who want him to lead them to Jamie. The exile watches from behind a tree as redcoats hold Fergus down and chop off his hand. Jamie carries Fergus home to safety, but he feels terrible for putting Fergus in that position.

Outlander 302 recap
Outlander 302 recap

Corporal Macgregor (Ryan Fletcher) and Private Jenkins (Will Richards) chop off Fergus' (Romann Berrux) hand in “Outlander” Season 3. Photo: Starz

“You remind me I have something to fight for,” Jamie tells Fergus.

Jamie realizes that the redcoats aren’t stopping any time soon. He wants Jenny to turn him in. It’ll protect her from being considered a criminal and she’ll get reward money. She doesn’t want Jamie to go to prison, but he doesn’t think it would be all that different from how he is living now.

Later, Jenny sends Mary to bring Jamie some food. She cleans up his beard and hair, and Jamie compliments her on taking the blame for the pistol. It all seems amicable until Mary takes off her clothes and tries to seduce him.

Jamie is angry because he thinks Jenny asked her to sleep with him. However, Mary says this was her choice. She knows that Jamie loved Claire, and she isn’t trying to replace his love. She just wants to give them something they both need. Jamie sheds a tear while they kiss.

Later, Jenny and Jamie stage a big fight for the redcoats. Jenny is given a bag of money for her “service to the crown,” and Jamie is taken to prison.

Outlander 302 spoilers
Outlander 302 spoilers

Claire (Caitriona Balfe) threw herself into her new role as a mother in “Outlander” Season 3, episode 2. Photo: Starz

Of course, “Outlander” didn’t forget about Claire in episode 2. In 1948, Claire wakes up from a sexy dream about Jamie. She can’t be celibate for the rest of her life, so she decides to turn to Frank (Tobias Menzies).

“I miss my husband,” she says while in bed with Frank (note how she doesn’t specify which one). She initiates sex with him, but she keeps her eyes closed the entire time.

After a dinner party, Claire once again has sex with her husband — or at least she tries to. When Frank demands that she open her eyes, they have a problem. Frank knows that she’s thinking of Jamie.

With romance clearly not working out, Claire throws herself into motherhood, but she still needs something more. She enrolls in medical school. Her white male classmates don’t seem very happy to have a female join the class. Luckily, there’s another outsider. A black man named Joe Abernathy (Wil Johnson) takes a seat next to Claire, and it’s clear that they’ll be working together plenty throughout the semester.

Claire is used to being an outsider, though. She seems relatively content as she and Frank go to sleep that night in separate beds.

“Outlander” Season 3 airs Sundays at 8 p.m. EDT on Starz.

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