So much action, so many returns, so many reveals, and one glorious beheading we've rarely ever looked forward to so much. After the depressing victory of last week's battle at Prestonpans, tonight was some danger, some great fun, and some fantastic revenge.
Simon Callow just put on the performance of a lifetime as the Duke of Sandringham, into whose clutches Claire happened to land in when she had to pretend to be Jamie and Dougal's hostage to save their lives.
Jamie and his men were on their way back to Inverness after being sorta-kinda exiled by the Jacobites. Some of the other commanders thought Jamie was a little too close to the Prince, and after he didn't exactly support their plan to turn back and regroup, they decided to simply send his troublesome self away to find Stuart supporters elsewhere.
On the way to Inverness, some of the group was holed up in a church when Redcoats threatened to burn it down. It was Claire's idea to pretend to be their hostage, just like she did with William Grey, and so Jamie and Dougal were allowed to go unharmed.
They planned to meet up at the place they thought she would be taken, until Claire found out they were taking her to stay with a wealthy Englishman. That wealthy Englishman turned out to be the Duke of Sandringham, who pretended to not know Claire in order to help secure his own escape from his own guarded home (since many of the English still believed he was a Jacobite).
Claire managed to get a message to him via his pal, the always helpful Hugh Munro, and he was soon on his way to the correct place.
While she was there, Claire found several things. First, she found Mary, who had been promised to another rich guy and desperately wanted not to be. Second, she found one of the guys who had attacked her back in Paris when she recognized a birthmark on his hand. Not only is he currently working for the Duke, but he was also working under the Duke's orders that night. The whole ordeal was part of the Duke's way of paying back the Comte for whatever he owed him by helping him get revenge on Claire. He only had her raped of course, and not murdered, isn't that nice of him?!
He also turned Jamie's arrival at the house into a trap, but by sending Mary out to meet Hugh ("Me? Go out into the night and meet a filthy beggar? I couldn't possibly!"), Claire managed to warn him about that too. Jamie showed up at just the right time, as Claire was having a very tense meal with the Duke.
They all fought, Claire explained the Duke's hand in her attack, and they fought even harder. Mary managed to grab a knife and stab the rapist to death, and Murtagh got the final, incredible blow to the Duke's head. He also got several more blows in, and kindly presented said head to Claire and Mary.
"I kept my word. I lay my vengeance at your feet," Murtagh said.
Mary's response to the bleeding head in front of her?
"I think we'd better go."
So (slightly horrifying dental work aside) that was awesome. That was just a good, adventurous, suspenseful, revenge-filled time that gave a few other people the chance to be the hero in the story, and of course, it was written by none other than author Diana Gabaldon herself. More Diana Gabaldon episodes next season, please!
What did you guys think? Sound off in the comments!
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