"A Masterpiece..."
After agreeing to see the commanding officer of the English garrison, Claire finds comfort among her own people from a different time. However that sense of comfort immediately gets swept away once the notorious Captain "Black Jack" Randall enters the picture.
I'm just going to say this upfront. This is THE BEST episode of the series by far. And I'll be thoroughly surprised if Ronald D. Moore and his cohorts can top this. But I'm pretty sure they can.
The episode begins where the last one left off with a question. A question that gets answered by Claire, letting her current situation be known as a harmless one. Despite this, the English garrison requests that she speaks with their commanding officer. She goes as long as she's escorted by Dougal MacKenzie. There she becomes reacquainted with her people, albeit a past version of her people. It is all there, everything that one would expect from stereotypical Brits with all the pomp and guffawing. It could've gotten old real fast if it weren't for the slight back and forth Warcheif Dougal had with Commander Thomas. Luckily the whole ordeal was handled with a montage in order to shorten Claire's rather comforting reciting of her tale in Scotland to her British compatriots. It was nice to see Claire feeling comfortable and being treated properly. Though it does seem more fun to be in the MacKenzie halls of Castle Leoch than to have an intellectual conversation with the high ranking officers. It goes so pleasantly well that they even offer to grant her safe passage back to where she came from, something that obviously filled her with complete joy. But given that this is a series, we know that this joy wasn't going to last. We just hoped that it wouldn't be taken away immediately.
Enter Black Jack Randall, whom Claire last encounters in the Pilot of this series. And that encounter was a near rape if it weren't for the MacKenzie clan intervening. His entrance and his demeanor automatically signals a huge contrast to the high ranking officers that Claire has been spending time with. The aura he gives off is almost similar to Hans Landa from Inglourious Basterds, but instead of being slightly witty, he is more subtle and a master class interrogator. It would be hard not to compare the two, because I shouldn't, but that was who immediately came to mind for me. This shouldn't be to the shows discredit, as we now have a really powerful antagonistic force taking complete hold in the show. Tobias Menzies does an incredible job playing a completely different character than the caring Frank Randall in the future. It is a true testament to his acting caliber that let's us know immediately that this man is the embodiment of evil. If it isn't his presence that convinces you, then it is his conversation with Claire that will.
Black Jack has Claire interrogated through a simple conversation. There is no acts of violence or torture, just a simple conversation. A conversation filled with intense animosity and incredible defense from Claire. It was mesmerizing watching the two of them exchange words as Black Jack tries to accomplish what the MacKenzies failed to do, get the truth from Claire. But here we see that Claire is extremely capable of fairing against interrogation, as she had slight experience with the botch attempts from the MacKenzies as well as from her husband Frank. However here, it really gets put to the test when Black Jack simply picks apart every single word she says then later feigns his aggression in order to bring back her comfort level. It is a classic interrogative trick in order to feel as if building trust among the one being interrogated. However Claire does a little bit of interrogating herself, and with a swift reference to Jamie, Black Jack seems to break. He recounts a moment that he still haunts him. A moment involving the flogging of Jamie. The flogging that gave Jamie the infamous scars on his back. In flashback we see this moment, and with very specific narration by Black Jack, we learn that it was the moment that he knew he was a monster. It was a powerful delivery, and no matter how I describe it, the only justice to give for the scene is to watch it for yourself. There is so much we learn from Black Jack here. Where his sadistic personality comes from and just how extremely intelligent he really is. It was a powerful battle of words and wits between Claire and Black Jack that makes this episode incredible.
For those who have read the books, then they know that the ending of this episode is pretty much the one that they've been waiting for. For those of us who haven't, I can only guess that this is the moment that all romance novel lovers immediately fell deeply in love with this book. Because at the ending of this episode, the big moment happens between Claire and Jamie. And it is a moment that is better to be seen as to how and why it happens.
This episode delivers the goods that was lacking from the previous one, and you can be sure as hell I'm officially on board for anything else this show has to offer.
SCORE: 9.9/10 - I didn't give it a 10 out of hope that there might be something that tops this
STATUS: DEFINITELY CONTINUE TO WATCH
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