Outlander: Season 2, Episode 4 – “La Dame Blanche”

The enemy of your enemy is your friend. So, let’s have a party.

Like most parties on TV, they offer a good excuse for the writers to put the bad guys and the good guys in a room together. They put on the timer and let it simmer on low until suddenly all hell breaks loose.

Set the timer…

To start things off, Claire’s (Caitriona Balfe) offered a poisoned drink. Jamie (Sam Heughan) quickly comes to her rescue. The poison comes, presumably, from Comte St. Germain (Stanley Weber), her new French nemesis, as he was the only one in the room not concerned for her welfare and watching her go down like hawk with prey. Comte St. Germain’s fight with Claire looks remarkably one-sided. Claire was indirectly responsible for the burning of his ship in the first episode, when she went to care for the shipmen infected with smallpox. While it would be responsible to clean the ship, at the time, procedure and law required burning it. She only had the patient’s (and all Parisians) interest in mind; taking this level of drastic measures against Claire seems incredibly disproportionate to the part she played in his ship’s destruction.

Simmer…

While recovering from her poison attack, Jamie and Claire hatch a plan to have a dinner for the Duke of Sandringham (Simon Callow) to meet the Prince Charles (Andrew Gower). They also hope the Prince will show the Duke his true, rather immature, nature, and the Duke will pull his funding. So, they need to find a way to ruffle the prince’s feathers. At the risk of Jamie hearing from the wrong person at the dinner, Claire finally confesses that she knows Jack Randall (Tobias Menzies) is still alive.

Jamie’s reaction to the news is surprisingly cheerful, giving him, “something to look forward to”, because now he can kill him. Jamie was disappointed that he wasn’t able to witness the demise of his enemy, so he’s excited by the prospect of taking down Randall himself. This changes his entire demeanor, although, it’s an interesting choice to have him become nearly joyous over hearing this news. It certainly goes against what one would expect, but it shows how Claire can no longer predict Jamie’s behaviors. They’ve been emotionally separated for so long that she doesn’t know with certainty what will and won’t affect him negatively.

Later in the episode, their relationship continues to change. Jamie arrives home from a night at the brothel, and for the first time in months he wants to be with Claire. Apparently, he’d nearly been with a woman at the brothel, and was proud and excited that he was breaking through his sexual barriers since his rape. He was able to begin enjoying a sexual relationship again, but Claire was taken aback because none of this happened with her. Not surprisingly, she’s upset by this revelation, and it doesn’t take long for them to have the fight they’ve both been avoiding.

Jamie finally reveals to her that he feels “Naked. Alone. Trying to hide under a blade of grass.” He feels his soul was exposed, and he’s unsure of who he is anymore and is altogether lost. Claire also articulates that she’s felt alone in her pregnancy and hasn’t been sure what she can do to help Jamie. After some breathing room, they reunite for the first time. Claire goes to him in an attempt at matching his renewing sexual self with her own interest in recharging their relationship.

This episode moves at a swift pace, so instead of basking in their rekindled affections, Claire and Jamie are bolted from bed due to an intruder. (There are several storylines at work in this episode, all vying for screen time.) The intruder was Charles. We learn that he was with a mistress when her husband arrived home early. That mistress, of course, is Louise (Claire Sermonne), whom Claire learned earlier in the episode was pregnant. Now we know the baby is Charles’. There’s the bait, and the dinner party plan is set into motion. Invite Louise and her husband (the Prince and the Duke), and make it clear to the table that Louise is pregnant and planning to stay with her husband rather than Charles.

Low boil…

The night of the dinner, Claire’s called away with Mary Hawkins (Rosie Day) to the hospital to tend to several incoming patients. While walking back to the house due to a broken carriage, they’re attacked by a group of men. One proceeds to brutally attack and rape Mary, which the camera never shies away from. Like Jamie’s rape last season, the whole experience is caught in all its gruesome, barbarian nature. Claire, meanwhile, is fighting off attackers herself; Murtagh (Duncan Lacroix) was knocked out quickly. This is made easier when one of the men thinks Claire is “La Dame Blanche”, a witch of sorts, scaring off the attackers and leaving Claire and Murtagh to quickly get Mary back to the house.

Stir the pot…

As I said above, writers love stirring up drama by putting all their characters under one roof. Well, here we go; the stage is set. Mary’s tucked away in bed to recover, with Alex Randall (Laurence Dobiesz) alongside her, as she’s said they were friends. (That being said, Claire and Jamie are awfully quick to trust him, seeing as he’s Jack Randall’s brother and he works for the Duke.) Claire and Jamie sit quietly as they begin to plot at dinner, offering congratulations to Louise and her husband on her pregnancy. The Duke and Charles are already politely fighting over Catholicism, when Charles further spirals learning about Louise. Next to Claire sits the Comte St. Germain, her new nemesis and surprise guest of the Duke’s.

Explosion…

Of course, a fight breaks out. Mary runs down stairs when, in a medical opium high and still in shock, she mistakes Alex for her attacker. Alex catches her, but not before all the dinner guests think that he’s raped her. Mary’s uncle and fiancé start fighting Jamie and Alex, and the Duke, the Prince, and the Comte all leave together. Dinner over, goals busted, and now some living room furniture needs to be replaced.

The mess….

“La Dame Blanche” is all about connections: both reconnections and broken connections. Have these developments been fruitful? The series seems to be veering off in directions that appear to be dead ends. Still, the most powerful parts of the episode are those surrounding Claire and Jamie’s relationship, which deserve more discussion and screen time. There are so many storylines and characters this season that everything’s moving too quickly, with too little focus on mainstay relationships. Hopefully, this pattern will shift in future episodes.