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TV Review: Outlander 2.6 “Best Laid Schemes…”
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Outlander
Season 2 Episode 6: “Best Laid Schemes…”
Directed by Matthew B. Roberts
Written by Metin Hüseyin
Created by Ronald D. Moore
Based on the books by Diana Galbadon
Starring Caitriona Balfe, Sam Heughan, Duncan Lacroix, Graham McTavish, Tobias Menzies, Grant O’Rourke, Stephen Walters, Robert Cavanah, Stanley Weber
Starz
Air Date: Saturday, May 14th, 2016, 9:00pm

Last week on Outlander, Claire (Caitriona Balfe) interfered with Mary Hawkins and Alex Randall (Rosie Day and Laurence Dobiesz), by convincing Alex to leave the girl. Prince Charles (Andrew Gower) came up with another scheme to get the money, and it involved partnering Jamie (Sam Heughan) with the Comte (Stanley Weber). Claire ran into BlackJack Randall (Tobias Menzies) at Versailles, and they exchanged hostile pleasantries after the shock. The King (Lionel Lingelser) showed up and humiliated Randall to the delight of Jamie, who strolled up just in time. After the king and entourage leave, Jamie set a time to duel with Randall, and then fought about it with Claire later. He angrily agreed to not kill him for Frank.

Spoilers below.

Outlander 2.6 “Best Laid Schemes…” review: Murtagh lets Jamie know the arrngements had been made – “Two days from now… at dawn. He tells him the duel is off. Murtagh is pissed. He does not understand anything that is going on.

Claire is at the hospital when the doctor/executioner asks her to finish something up for him. He has to go to his other job, and proceeds to explain how to draw and quarter in gory detail – “…so that the organ might be pulled forth while it is still beating.” Practitioners of dark arts are being rounded up. He says maybe she should visit Master Raymond (Dominique Pinon) for her paleness. She goes and warns him.

That night, Jamie said he doesn’t owe her a life. But that he has another reason for not killing Randall yet. If anything should happen to him, he wants her to go back, “Promise me if the time should come, you will go back through the stones. Back to Frank.” We know she kept that promise.

The plan to take down the new shipment begins. She shows Jamie, Murtagh, and Fergus how to make fake smallpox, and Jamie comes down with the symptoms. This may be hard to believe, but Murtagh is even more angry.

“We need to tell him.” Jamie got only one punch to the face. Murtagh is a better man than I.

Murtagh to Claire: “Even knowing what Jamie says you do, I wouldn’t want to bear that burden.”

Jamie and Fergus go to set up the faux smallpox. It works, but the Comte and Prince found the affected men and had them squirreled away. The prince asks Jamie to fix this. New plan (Jamie’s private plan) – have pretend highwaymen led by Murtagh steal the goods. Jamie even lets bandit Murtagh knock him out.

Claire starts bleeding a little. Mother Hildegarde makes her stay the night.

Jamie gets summoned to bail the prince out. Fergus goes with him and starts exploring while he waits. Camera pans on… a red military jacket.

Claire comes home. Jamie went to go meet Randall. She runs as fast as a million month pregnant lady can, but by the time she gets there, they were dueling and she couldn’t interrupt.

This is a magnificent dueling scene, with blades clashing, and Claire watching breathlessly and in no little pain. The fight ends when he pierces Randall’s groin. As Jamie gets arrested, they scream for each other, until Claire bleeds and passes out.

There were two major scenes that fans of the book have been waiting for. The first – The Frasers finally bringing Murtagh into their confidence about Claire’s real era. I really felt like punching Jamie’s super handsome face as well, both when I read it, and now as I watched it. Lacroix played Murtagh’s reactions brilliantly, as this grounded character accepts the impossible as possible.

The second – The duel scene, which juxtaposed Claire, Jamie, and Randall’s pain perfectly, sets in motion the expected tragedies and the unexpected results and consequences. Jamie may not have killed Randall, but he certainly made it impossible for fathering children. Since we know Frank did not wink out of existence because of episode 1, there has to be a different explanation for why Frank still exists and why he looks exactly like BlackJack.

I mean, I know why… and most Outlander fans know why. But there just may be fans out there who have not read them. The show is just as good as the books, and I rarely think that.

By the way, I really, really enjoy Andrew Gower’s portrayal of Prince Charles Edward Stuart.

Outlander airs Saturday nights at 9:00pm ET on Starz.

Image Gallery

Videos

Outlander | Ep. 206 Clip: Lived Through These Years | STARZ


Murtagh asks Claire more about being from the future in this clip from Episode 206.

Outlander | Episode 206 Preview | STARZ


On “Best Laid Schemes”¦”: Jamie and Claire use Claire’s medical knowledge to devise a scheme to stop a wine deal which could fill the Prince’s war chest.

2 Comments »

  1. Episode 206 “Best Laid Schemes” was written by Matthew B. Roberts and Directed by Metin Hüseyin

    Comment by KatSchella — May 15, 2016 @ 4:06 am

  2. Thank you! I had changed the director in the tags, but not the header. Good eye.

    Comment by Olympus Athens — May 15, 2016 @ 10:57 am

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