After being abducted from her home on Fraser's Ridge by Lionel Brown and his "Committee of Safety", Claire Fraser is gang raped by Lionel and his men. Each gut wrenching moment in Claire's ordeal as she is repeated beaten and mutilated is a sick blow to the pit of my stomach. The evil of these men keeps looping in on itself until it will no longer be contained as Lionel and his men take turns sexually assaulting a bound and gagged Claire.
Claire's mind attempts to disassociate itself from her assault. We see images of her from the late 1960s, clean, pretty and polished in a modern home as the Association's "Never My Love" plays on a turntable. In this mental realm in the 20th century, she is same with Jamie, Marsali, Fergus and Ian. Even Murtaugh and Jocasta are there as this warm, smiling family gathers about a long dinner table at Thanksgiving.
It is a fantasy world that can only protect Claire so much as Lionel Brown's grim visage keeps appearing.
Eventually, Jamie Fraser arrives with his men and they lay down some brutal and lethal vengeance upon Lionel Brown's men. Lionel himself barely survives. As much as Jamie wants to run a sword through his heart, he has questions about what the hell Lionel was up to.
Lionel lies in Claire's surgery at Fraser's Ridge, actually moaning for mercy. As much Claire hates this man for all that he has done to her, she will not violate her doctor's oath and take his life. Marsali, on the other hand, took no such oath.
Given Lionel's loathsome attitudes towards women in general and his actions in particular against his own wife and his assaults on Claire, it was appropriate that the last he saw and heard was a woman sending him off on his well deserved journey to hell.
There are other things in this episode that might be worthy of comment. Turns out Brianna, Roger and Jemmy do not go back in time but wind up right back where they started from. Apparently while holding the gem stones and pressing their palms against the stones, they were thinking of home. It seems that for now, 18th century North Carolina is still their home.
And we meet another time traveller, a Native American from 1968 who came back in time with Otter Tooth. I'm sure we'll run into this guy next season.
Lionel Brown's death will also have consequences next season. His own brother Richard admits that Lionel reaped what he sowed and that Jamie Fraser did what he had to do. Then Richard adds that he too will do what he has to do. To translate, "Lionel may be a bastard who deserved to die but he's still family and you'll have to answer for it."
But it's hard to consider these other plot points when Claire's assault and trauma weighs so heavily over the episode.
Depictions of rape is a recurring trope in a the Outlander books of Diana Gabaldon and the assualt on Claire makes the 3rd time one of the principal cast has been sexually assaulted in the TV series. Claire's daughter Brianna was assaulted last season, three seasons after Jamie was raped by his arch-enemy, Captain Black Jack Randall.
There is a lot of debate over the use of rape in dramas. Yes, it can be exploitative and sexualized. But recent TV and movie productions have been careful to convey these scenes as brutal acts of aggression and violence. During Claire's assault, the camera is focused on her face, as she attempts to escape her trauma by dreaming about life in the 20th century with her family. Her face is bruised, cut and covered in blood; there is nothing provocative about this at all other than provoking feelings of pains, sickness and despair, contemplating that Claire is alone, powerless and at the mercy of men who have no mercy for her.
But another point might be made do we need to see this at all? Does the viewer or the reader need to be taken through each excruciating step of such ordeals? Can depicting rape as a brutal act of aggression and violence be its own form of exploitation?
Any form of physical and psychological torment can be uncomfortable to watch in a TV show or movie. Torture, injuries incurred during war or a disaster, scenes of death, all of these can be hard to watch. But when we invest oursevles in the journey of a character, we are there for all the travails that character may face. To look away just when things get nasty and brutal is not an option.
For the assault on Claire, it was hard for me to watch. Each moment in the clutches of Lionel Brown and his men, I feared for her safely and her life. When the men began taking their turns with her, I kept wanting to look away. I felt guilty for doing that. I followed Claire through her journey for good times and bad. I needed to be with her for this terrible time as well.
And the time afterward as well. It was hard to see Claire beaten down, her hair greying, her eyes glazed over in a trauma without end.
The last scene of the episode shows Claire in bed with Jamie. They are both naked, their arms around each other. Jamie asks her how she feels. Before we fade to black, bringing us to the end of another season, Claire replies, "I feel safe."
Claire is strong, smart and determined. It will take time but she will heal.
But in her lost far away stare, one can't help but worry for our Dr. Claire Fraser.
Sing us a song for this lass who is gone?
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