Jamie and Claire are forced to change course after the failure of their dinner party during Outlander Episode 204, which could have been titled “Best Laid Plans” instead of “La Dame Blanche.”
Before I recap “La Dame Blanche,” let’s discuss this scene from the upcoming Episode 205, which relates back to it. In “Untimely Resurrection,” Claire learns why the thugs who attacked her and Mary in Paris alley ran when they saw her face.
Seriously Claire (Caitriona Balfe)? You’re going to be mad at Jamie for telling people you’re a white witch even when it saved you? That’s just not right.
Anyway, let’s look back at “La Dame Blanche” before we see more clips from the upcoming episode. The duo visit Versailles, where Jamie (Sam Heughan) plays chess with the French Minister of Finance Monsieur Duverney (Marc Duret). Claire messes up her hubby’s mojo by talking baby names. In return, fate laughs as Claire drinks some wine spiked with bitter cascara, which packs a punch to the innards but won’t kill you.
Claire tells Jamie her poisoner is Le Comte St. Germain (Stanley Weber), whom she spied at Master Raymond’s apothecary right before Raymond (Dominique Pinon) tells her about bitter cascara. So obvi.
Jamie plans to kick Le Comte’s butt; he’ll want that even more soon enough—but I’m jumping ahead. Jamie concocts a plan to have a dinner party and introduce the Duke of Sandringham (Simon Callow) to Bonnie Prince Charles (Andrew Gower). He thinks that once the Duke meets crazy Charlie, he won’t foot the bill for the Jacobite Rebellion.
Thinking he has a good plan but worried what secrets the Duke might spill, Claire tells Jamie his rapist, Black Jack Randall (Tobias Menzies), is still alive. Jamie takes the news like he would a sugary treat. He’s downright giddy knowing that he has yet another butt to kick. Well, he’ll probably kill this one.
Fully recovered the next day, Claire sees Master Raymond to yell at him for giving Le Comte the pretend poison. Instead they play with sheep knuckle bones, which inform Claire she will see 1940s Frank again. She’s not happy.
At Louise de la Tour’s (Claire Sermonne), Claire learns that Louise’s monkey likes to bite people—and that Louise also has a croissant in the oven. Because it’s not her husband’s, Louise wants Claire to make it go away. Claire convinces her to hoodwink her hubby into thinking he’s the baker—even if she has to sleep with him.
Back at home after a long day of visiting people, Claire is greeted by a still happy and handsy Jamie. It seems like their personal Droughtlander is about to end when she notices bite marks on Jamie’s thigh. Apparently one of the gals at the brothel got a little exuberant and Jamie, being a spy and all, had to go along with it.
Knowing Black Jack is alive and he gets to kill the man, Jamie says, has allowed him to feel like a man again. But really, nothing happened (except the bite marks), he tells Claire.
Claire does not like his explanation. A fight ensues in which Claire and Jamie finally blurt out all the sadness, disappointment and confusion they have kept bottled up since he was raped at Wentworth prison.
She feels she has been abandoned to deal with her pregnancy on her own. As Jamie finally puts his post-traumatic stress to words, Claire realizes he battles against it every day.
“There was this place inside me. A place I think everyone has that they keep to themselves—a fortress where the most private part of you lives. Maybe it’s your soul, the bit that makes you yourself and not anyone else. But after Wentworth, it was like my fortress was blown apart. The thing that once lived there was exposed in the open without shelter. That’s where I’ve been ever since—naked, alone, trying to hide under a blade of grass.”
It’s a moving scene of raw emotion, one that I hinted about in my initial review of the season here. And it brings make-up sex that finally reunites the soulmates completely.
But the post-coital glow doesn’t last long because someone is stomping around on the roof of the house. When Jamie attempts to slay the intruder, he finds Prince Charles, who had to make a quick exit from “his lover’s” house when her husband came home. More news from Charles: his lover broke it off, and her pet monkey bit his hand. A lightbulb flashes above Claire’s head that screams: He’s Louise’s baby daddy!
Now the dinner party plan is altered. They’ll invite Louise and her husband, too, so that Charles is driven mad with jealousy and will screw up his meeting with the Duke and other potential investors in his rebellion.
You’d think that was enough for one episode but no, there’s more. On the day of the party Claire, Murtagh (Duncan Lacroix) and Mary Hawkins (Rosie Day) go to the hospital and are stuck there late while Claire heals the wounded. On the way home they are set upon by some masked, well-appointed thugs who knock out Murtagh and rape poor Mary. They plan to do the same to Claire, but when they see her face they scream, “Le dame blanche!” and run.
Back at the house, Jamie is entertaining the guests alone. Claire finally gets home, cleans up and leaves Mary in the hands of Alexander Randall (Laurence Dobiesz), Black Jack’s much nicer brother whom Mary is sweet on.
At the party, Claire and Le Comte trade barbs. The Prince mocks women—while looking at Louise—and then mocks Louise’s husband. The Duke tells a joke about short people, which angers the Prince, who is a short person. The Jamie toasts Louise and her husband on their baby, which really pisses off the Prince.
Everything is going swell at the most awkward dinner party in Paris when Mary wakes up and starts screaming. Nothing Alexander does quiets or consoles her. She draws the attention of the guests, and her relatives think Alex is attacking her.
As all hell breaks loose, many of the guests leave. Le Comte cozies up to the Prince, offering him a ride home. Oh, and young Fergus helps himself to all the food in the dining room.
As the episode ends, Jamie and Claire’s plan seems to have failed. But you can’t keep this scheming couple down.
In “Untimely Resurrection,” they don their fancy court clothes for another trip to Versailles, some face time with King Louis XV (Lionel Lingelser) and to try to fix the failings at their dinner party.
But the past, as they say, rears its ugly head at Versailles. I won’t spoil, but the episode title might give you a clue about what’s coming for TV’s most romantic couple.
Again, “Untimely Resurrection” airs at 9/8c May 7 on Starz. Below you will find three more preview scenes for the episode.
Outlander: I Failed You scene
Murtagh, you redeemed yourself at the house party fight, messy as it was.
Outlander: Mary’s letter scene
My guess is Claire will not deliver that letter lest Mary marries Alex instead of Black Jack, the ancestor of 1940s Frank. But what do I know?
Outlander Episode 205 preview
Apparently I know something. Listen to Claire in this clip.