BWW Recap: No Sympathy for the 'Devil's Mark' on Tonight's OUTLANDER

It may be a bit early to call it, having only reached the third of an eight-episode long homestretch, but I'm going to do it: the latter half of OUTLANDER's premiere season has exceeded all of my expectations. I'm not totally sure what they were to begin with, but they've all been tossed out the window by this point anyway. Already this show has topped itself, with each new episode since the September mid-season finale proving to be stronger than the last. Tonight's installment, intriguingly titled 'The Devil's Mark' was--yup, yup, I'm doing it--the best so far. I'm probably going to kick myself next week, if we keep up this momentum, but I'm just too darn excited about it.

So much happened tonight, you guys. Literally so much. First of all, within the first ten seconds, Claire and Geillis are thrown down this gross, dank pit--a "thieves hole," Geillis calls it, which, y'know, is a little disconcerting. She seems weirdly chill about it at first, while Claire, the more logical of the duo, starts freaking out. Geillis is pretty confident Dougal will come and save them, because he's just the pinnacle of gallantry, right, but Claire is quick to burst her optimistic little bubble. Newsflash, kiddo: Dougal's been banished. And guess what? Conveniently for nobody at all, Jamie went with him. Long story short, they're on their own here. And it doesn't look good. Claire awakes to the sound of townspeople chanting, "We're going to burn the witches," and isn't that one heck of a wake-up call. To make it even worse, when Claire and Geillis are pulled out of the pit, they see that a pyre is already being built in their honor. Aw, charming village folk, you shouldn't have.

Claire and Geillis are put on trial, accused of witchcraft, blah blah blah, and it's all very Salem, circa 1692. Claire looks around and doesn't see a single familiar face, until lo and behold! Ned Gowan swoops in to save the day (I think I use that phrase a lot, or maybe there's just a lot of swooping and saving on this show). He offers to serve as defense attorney, and the judges begrudgingly allow him to do so. Cue the influx of wacky witnesses, a motley crew of liars, to put it bluntly. They each give their testimonies, while the courtroom gasps in horror at the appropriate moments. Like the common crowd of any Shakespearean drama, they're frustratingly fickle, easily moved by whoever shouts the loudest, basically. One guy literally tells the courtroom--and I'm going to try to type this with a straight face--that he saw, actually saw, Geillis Duncan call down thunder and lightning with her own hand, and then FLY. A. WAY. Fly away! He saw her FLY AWAY. Oh my goodness.

Ned manages to take the witnesses down one by one--shocking, given how solid their claims seem to be--and the courtroom is adjourned for a brief recess. Ned takes this time to tell Claire that Colum doesn't even know he's there, and that he wouldn't be happy if he did. You can practically see the lightbulb go off over Claire's voluminous curls: did Colum set this all up? She doesn't have much time to think about it, because down she goes once again with Geillis into the pit. It's girls' night in the thieves hole, with the unlucky pair drinking and dishing about boys--well kind of; it's as good an image as any. The trial continues the next day with a new crop of phonies, including Laoghaire, who is just the absolute WORST, isn't she? Ned promptly shuts her down, met with uproarious applause from the entire courtroom--okay, fine, just me, just my applause. Next up is, gasp, that vaguely familiar priest who you maybe kinda sorta remember as Father McMeany from episode three, when Claire cleverly deduced that an ailing young boy was not in fact possessed but really just, y'know, sick? Father Bain was pretty anti-Claire at the time, so his appearance before the court doesn't inspire much confidence, but turns out, the priest has had a conversion of his own. He tells the jury how Claire saved the young boy's life and how ashamed he is of himself for doubting her, finally announcing that he would like to leave the parish. That's all well and good, until one schmo stands up and accuses Claire of turning a man of God, well, away from God. Satan's work, ye ken? And naturally, this random outburst is enough to get the entire courtroom going all over again, just when things were starting to look up. Ugh.

With his defense clearly crumbling around him, Ned tells the convicted lasses that only one of them can be saved. Claire. He really means Claire. Sorry Geillis. Geillis of course is against this idea, and lashes out at Claire. Why are you even in Scotland? If she's going to die, she would at least like to die for a reason. Claire admits that her arrival in Scotland was nothing more than an accident. She has no real reason for being there. Hearing this admission, the color seems to drain from Geillis' face. Nothing. She's going to die for nothing. Hey, that stinks, but at least she gets arguably the best line of the entire season:

"Looks like I'm going to a f***ing barbecue."

Beautiful. Anyway, Claire can't bring herself to denounce Geillis, and the two are declared guilty and sentenced to death on the spot. Chaos erupts in the courtroom, with Ned in the crosshairs. In the middle of it all, Geillis turns to Claire and simply says, "1968," and we're all like WHAT. Wait. Really, WHAT? Then guess what happens next? Yup, Jamie Fraser to the rescue. And, I'm sorry, but Sam Heughan is just so perfect, isn't he? Like, he oozes dashing heroism. Geillis then takes the opportunity to do something pretty admirable for a husband-killer: she throws herself under the bus, telling the court that she poisoned Arthur and bewitched Claire. Then she does something kiiiinda odd. She pulls her gown down over her shoulder and shows the crowd the, er, "mark of the devil." But woah, woah, woah. Claire instantly recognizes it as a smallpox vaccination scar. What is happening here. The courtroom goes nuts, and off Geillis is carried in all of her wild, naked glory.

The last chunk of the hour almost seems like an episode all on its own. Jamie has swept Claire away from the crazy courtroom mob, but has to ask. You're, uh, not really a witch, are you? He points out that Claire has the same curious mark on her shoulder, only reason he's asking. Left with no other choice, Claire lays down one truth bomb after another, finally ending the tirade with the most important admission of all. I'm from the future, baby. She lays it all out there, and Jamie actually seems strangely cool with it. In fact, if anything, he feels horrible for beating her after the English caught her at Craig na Dun, knowing now that she was only there because she was trying to get back to her husband. Side note, I love that that's what he's upset about, not that she was...trying to get back to her husband. After hearing Claire's whole life story, the real one, he tells her that he's taking her home. To Lallybroch? Um, no. To Craig na Dun. What. There's nothin' for ye here, lassie. Go back to Frank. For the briefest moment, it seems like Claire really is tempted, reaching tremulously towards the stones. But hey, this is only episode eleven of the show's first season, so of course she can't go through with it. She runs back into Jamie's arms, and away they go to Lallybroch. For real this time.

Phew. See? A lot happened! Now I'm exhausted.

Next week, our favorite couple is finally off to Lallybroch! Will the homecoming live up to Jamie's expectations? Are the newly-wedded Frasers' troubles finally behind them?

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Photo Credit: Starz

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