BWW Recap: Can Anyone 'Ransom a Man's Soul' on Tonight's OUTLANDER Finale?

I'm going to cut to the chase here: tonight's season finale of OUTLANDER was hard to watch. I mean, really hard to watch. It made 'Wentworth Prison' look like an episode of 'Full House.' I'm pretty sure my skin was crawling for the entire 60 minutes, starting with that first shot of Jamie staring dead into the camera. Jamie, whose dashing heroics and boyish humor charmed us all season long, now broken, with empty eyes and mangled hands. And as the camera slowly pans up to reveal a naked Jack Randall lying beside him, we come to understand. We didn't need to see exactly what had preceded this moment because the look on Jamie's face says it all. And maybe we even gave a tiny sigh of relief that we didn't see what happened. But that doesn't last long. Not to compare Jamie's experience to our own watching the episode, but it seemed like the audience was meant to undergo some psychological torment, too, with enough subsequent images to send us directly into the shower to wash off that Black Jack grime as soon as it was over.

Woah, that was intense. Before we delve into that, I'd like to briefly mention the one miniscule glimpse of humor this episode had to offer. Actually, I don't know if it was intended to be funny, but given the circumstances, I really needed a laugh, so I just took it. While Randall gets dressed, Jamie asks in what little voice he has left for Randall to remember his debt. Fair's fair, so Randall draws his knife, when suddenly some inexplicable commotion ensues. Randall goes to investigate, and--BOOM! Or, um, should I say, MOO! A stampede of cattle breaks down the door, encouraged by the uproarious Highland boys, knocking Randall to the ground and trampling over him. Okay, so when I put it all like that, it really doesn't sound that funny, but it just reminded me of every senior prank ever-y'know, with like, chickens or whatever running rampant through the high school. Ha. See. It's funny. Alright, well, anyway, the trick works, and the boys are able to scoop Jamie right up and sneak him out the door Claire had left open.

Once reunited with Claire, it becomes obvious very quickly that even though Jamie has been rescued, he is far from being saved. What exactly Black Jack had done to him, Claire can only guess, but he is clearly traumatized, unable to look at his wife's face without seeing Randall's and shying away from every touch. They finally reach a monastery, where the monks have agreed to give them shelter. Claire then sets to heal Jamie's wounds--the physical ones, anyway.

As I alluded to, I think, once Jamie had made it out of Wentworth, we all just assumed we had too. So it comes as a nasty surprise when we flashback to the prison, when Jamie's hand was still nailed to the table, and we have the terrible realization that we're about to see it all. The flashbacks are incredibly disturbing, to put it bluntly. First, Jack removes the nail from Jamie's hand and then proceeds to, er, comfort him, running water tenderly over his face. Even as I type all of this, I feel like I need to wash my hands. Then Randall kisses him and demands that Jamie kiss him back, like he means it. He's determined to get some response out of Jamie, so he roughly turns him around and sodomizes him until he screams. Yeah. It's horrible. And that's just the first flashback. Later we see why exactly Jamie's wounds run so deep, why he can't bear to look at Claire or let her touch him. As Randall continues to violate Jamie, he tells him to think of Claire, think of his hands as Claire's hands, etc. He even gets Jamie to brand himself, burning his tormentor's initials into his chest--a moment that reveals just how far into Jamie's psyche Randall has burrowed.

At the monastery, Jamie refuses to eat and wishes to die. When Claire hears that he had asked Willie to kill him, she retires her kindly bedside manner in favor of some tough love. It gets violent, but eventually Jamie opens up and admits that Randall, ahem, "made love" to him. And because Jamie was conditioned to think of Claire, he sort of...went along with it. He had convinced himself that Claire would never forgive him for it, and that he couldn't possibly be her husband anymore. Claire tells him that Randall may have had his body, but Claire still has his soul--and that's more important anyway. Ain't nothin' gonna tear these two crazy kids apart, so finally Jamie is able to snap out of it. They cut the brand out of his chest and toss it into the fire--the last remaining stain of Black Jack burnt to ashes.

The episode ends on a more hopeful, and certainly happier, note. Jamie and Claire clearly can't stay in Scotland anymore, so they decide to set sail for France, where Jamie happens to have some relatives. And just what are we going to do in France? Jamie wonders aloud. Well, another story for another season, but Claire provides us with some teasers of what's to come. First of all, the Bonnie Prince Charlie is in France, which is convenient, because he could be the key to stopping the imminent massacre at Culloden. And, oh yeah, second of all, Claire's pregnant. SURPRISE!

So there you have it. Season one, done and done. Anyone else already super excited for season two? I mean, I don't know about you guys, but I've always wanted to go to France.

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Photo Credit: Starz

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