Sunday's episode of Outlander was a far cry from the (mostly) peppy premiere, with Claire and Jamie realizing that life in America isn't all sunshine, roses, and patriotic eagles flying in slow motion.
As Claire knows (and Jamie's just finding out), slavery was a huge part of life in pre-revolutionary America, and will henceforth be a huge part of Outlander as the couple traverse a society with laws and traditions they deeply disagree with. Outlander's attempt to navigate Claire and Jamie's time on his aunt's plantation is complicated, nuanced, and not always succesful—but this episode covered a lot of ground. Here are the main takeaways.
Aunt Jocasta complicates things.
The time has come to meet Jamie's aunt, Jocasta.
She's a complicated character—a self-made woman who respects tradition (even when that tradition is racist and deeply immoral), is sick of the patriarchy, and is extremely pleased with herself for being such a "benevolent" slave owner. But it's hard to root for someone who—when asked about slaves—says things like, "Lord knows where'd they'd be if I hadn't taken them on." The show seems to want us to like Jocasta, but as she herself points out, history tells us there were abolitionists in this area. She clearly isn't one of them. So, thank u, next.
Anyway, within approximately two minutes of meeting Jamie and Claire, Jocasta gifts them River Run, a massive and very profitable property. The problem is, River Run has 152 enslaved people, and Claire and Jamie obviously aren't willing to take the estate if they can't immediately free them. Yet this a process Jocasta's lawyer assures them is impossible, foolish, and very expensive.
Claire and Jamie immediately make enemies.
Naturally, Aunt Jocasta hosts a party for Claire and Jamie where she announces Jamie's her new heir. Even more naturally, Claire spends the entire evening having extremely tense conversations and pissing everyone off. And honestly, good for her. There's definitely some danger of the Frasers slipping into the white savior trope, but it would be extremely disappointing if Claire wasn't using every single opportunity to speak up about how wrong slavery is.
Unfortunately, Claire and Jamie discover the consequences of fighting the system when they help an enslaved man named Rufus. After spilling a white man's blood in self defense, Rufus is attacked and hung by his stomach. Jamie and Claire incur the wrath of the entire town by taking Rufus to River Run for an emergency operation, which is when the episode takes a turn.
Claire kills Rufus to save him from a worse fate.
Long story short, a mob forms and demands that Claire, Jamie, and Jocasta hand over Rufus—a death sentence for the enslaved man no matter what. The Frasers have until midnight to turn him in before the mob burns down River Run, which leaves the couple with very few options. Actually, that's not true. They could sacrifice the house to make a statement and flee the state. They could sneak Rufus out the backdoor and create a diversion. Wilder things have happened on this show, and people have been saved under more impossible circumstances! But instead, Claire and Jamie decide to kill Rufus with poison prior to giving his body to the mob in order to "save his soul" and help him avoid an even more brutal death.
This is shocking and deeply upsetting, but Jamie and Claire's rationale is that A) if they refused, all the slaves would have been punished by the mob, and B) they'd be placing Aunt Jocasta's life—and their own lives—in danger. Either way, it was an alarming decision on Claire's part, and will doubtless impact her arc throughout the rest of the season.
