Outlander - S3E11 - Uncharted

Previously on Outlander, “Heaven and Earth”

If you’ve been waiting for Claire to finally shut her mouth, this is the episode for you. Once she washes up on the shore of Grand Turk, clocks 16 minutes and 49 seconds of almost complete silence from Claire. Granted, she’s wandering the shores of this island dying of thirst and burning to a crisp—also, she is not remotely on Grand Turk— but you get what you get. She becomes fantastically primitive in that fifteen minutes, drinking water collected in leaves and sleeping in anthills, and is discovered in the nick of time by a little dog named Ludo and his master, Father Fogden.

Claire awakens to find herself tied to a bed and tended by Mamacita, her very own Cuban Nurse Ratchet. Between Mamacita and Father Fogden, she learns that she was saved and brought to Hacienda de la Fuente to recover. Having someone tend to her wounds seems like a nice change until she learns that a) she’s on the island of Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti), not Grand Turk, b) Saint-Domingue is rampant with Maroons (escaped slaves) and pirates, and c) she’s being held slightly captive by the batshit overgrown Hobbit, his coconut Wilson, Coco, and one angry Mamacita.

But she does get a bath and a hot, fresh meal, it’s not all crazy white men and mohawked-coconuts. Over dinner Father Fogden tells her the tale of Ermenegilda, how they fell in love and eloped from Cuba, escaping her husband. She died almost as soon as the two of them safely reached Saint-Domingue, leaving just the Father and Ermenegilda’s own Mamacita to live their days out in lonely mourning.

The clock is ticking on Claire getting to Jamiaca to intercept Jamie, and Father Fogden is not particularly interested in helping until he hears of Claire’s own love story. I’m not kidding when I say that she and Coco the Coconut convince Fogden that now is the time, and she’s so close to getting a yes from the crazy old man when the household is interrupted by a murder!

A goat murder. One of the household goats was killed by “a chinaman sailor”, which I guess is slightly better than an Oriental. But Claire knows a chinaman sailor, and since they never get more than one of those in this part of town, what if it’s the same one? Mamacita points her towards the shore and the chinaman’s wrecked ship, too happy to get Claire out of her house.

Of course the wrecked ship is the Artemis, and of course Jamie and company washed up on the exact same island. They get their boat fixed and are ready to sail out on the tide when Claire flags them down; their reunion is no From Here to Eternity, but Jamie and Claire are finally back together, thank God. And as long as everyone has some down time on a tropical island, and as long as there’s a priest handy, Fergus and Marseli might as well get married. It takes a little prep work, because weddings don’t just happen overnight. Yi Tien has to give an eye-rolling apology for eating the Father’s goat, and Claire has to provide a little family planning to Marseli; Father Fogden is clearly high during the ceremony, and Marseli is ready to sprint through the I Do’s to hop into bed with her new husband.

At the end of the day everyone is back on the ship and heading towards Jamaica. Claire, who is now running a fever from her DIY surgery, is feeling more than just the sherry in Yi Tien’s Turtle Soup. It has been a minute since she and Jamie were alone, and once she doses up on penicillin they at least remember to bolt the door before they start rearranging the furniture.

Things and Notes

It seems counterintuitive, since she’s stranded on a lava hot island, but Claire does have the sense to dry her clothes out and put them back on instead of traipsing around naked. Maybe the multiple threats of rape and near-rape have finally sunk in.

Marseli continues to be a delight, and she and Claire actually made a slight connection this week. As long as she doesn’t get pregnant between now and next week, this might turn out well for both of them.

Abandawe. Margaret Campbell (that’s a major callback to a completely forgettable character) knew it, and the people of Jamica know it. It’s a seriously heavy-handed reference, but we might as well write it down now since we’re clearly going to have to remember it in the very near future.