Wow, this week’s episode of Outlander has me all in my feels. It’s difficult sometimes to encapsulate all my emotions apout this series and its storylines. This week is one of those times. The time-traveling series takes a beat to focus on Young Ian’s (John Bell) past, and does an absolutely wonderful job with it.
We’ve learned that Young Ian got married during his time with the Mohawk. What we don’t know is why Young Ian returned to Fraser’s Ridge sans wife and child. As it turns out, the story is a lot more tragic than we knew.
We also focus on Malva (Jessica Reynolds), who has grown stranger and stranger with each episode. There is definitely something off about her, and having not read the books, I cannot wait to see what it is. Is anyone else frightened by her?
Claire (Caitriona Balfe) continues to play around with the idea of creating an anesthetic, numbing pain, and putting someone to sleep for medical purposes. Malva has been her apprentice, but I have an unsettling feeling that Claire’s trust in her is going to backfire.
Outlander also gives us a grim reminder that with the war on the horizon, the Native tribes are in danger. Brianna (Sophie Skelton) and Claire are aware of what’s to come, which puts Jamie (Sam Heughan) in a difficult position as the Indian Agent.
There was a lot of narrative development in this week’s episode, so without further ado, let’s talk about “Hour of the Wolf”. SPOILERS ahead!
Outlander reflects on Ian’s past
This was the strongest part of the episode. We haven’t had enough time with Young Ian, but this episode really changed that. Young Ian finally opened up to Jamie about why he left the Mohawk tribe behind, and what happened to his wife Wakyo’teyehsnonhsa (aka Emily) and their child.
As it turns out, Ian and Emily were very much in love. In typical Outlander fashion, we get a love scene to show just how in love they were. However, things took a turn when Emily got pregnant and miscarried their first child. It was a traumatic moment in their relationship, but she got pregnant once again.
Sadly, she miscarried again, which became the turning point for their marriage. The leaders of the tribe, along with Emily, insisted that this tragic luck was the result of Ian not being a born Mohawk. Sure, he had accepted all their ways, learned the language, and adapted their way of living, but his true spirit was not Mohawk.
He was told to leave and return to Fraser’s Ridge while Emily got married off to a member of the tribe. A tearful goodbye revealed it was what Emily wanted as well, but my heart broke for Young Ian, who had to walk away from the love of his life.
Outlander sure knows how to break our hearts, doesn’t it?
Towards the end of the episode, things come full circle when Young Ian and Jamie go to deliver the shipment of guns to the Cherokee tribe. Members of the Mohawk tribe are there as well, and Young Ian finds himself in front of his wife’s new husband. As much as it hurts for him to hear, Emily gave birth to a boy and is very happy.
Young Ian is hurt by this revelation, but he realizes that this is the way things had to be. They weren’t meant to be together, and although his spirit wasn’t Mohawk, he’s proud to have it as part of his identity, just as much as his Scottish heritage.
And I loved that Jamie was there to listen to Young Ian and provide support; it’s a beautiful uncle/nephew relationship.
Jamie crosses paths with another Indian Agent
While meeting with the Cherokee tribe, Jamie meets another Indian Agent by the name of Alexander “Scotchee” Cameron (Michael Geary). He’s not as civil and articulate as Jamie is, and has ulterior motives for the meeting. Alexander is a drunk and aggressive man who looks like he means well but isn’t really the best guy.
When Ian gets upset after seeing his wife’s new husband and gets in a scuffle, Alexander decides to join in for no reason. The fight becomes less about Ian’s anger and more about Alexander’s yen for violence.
Alexander challenges the Mohawk man to a duel, and the man agrees. If the man dies, it could make things difficult for Emily. I think Ian recognizes that, so when the time comes he ends up helping the man. When the duel begins, Alexander tries to be sneaky and spin around too early, but Ian diverts the gun by throwing the Mohawk man’s tribal hammer at it. He got it in exchange for providing Jamie’s gun for the duel.
I loved to see this moment, because as easy as it would be for Ian to let the man die, he understands that this is not how things should be. Instead, he accepted the fate God had given him and opted to do the right thing.
And speaking of doing the right thing, some may feel conflicted about this, but I really enjoyed one particular scene between Jamie and the Chief. After learning about the history of what’s to come for the Native tribes, Jamie reveals that in 60 years, the Trail of Tears will occur. He tells the Chief that his people’s land will be snatched away from them and they will be forced to relocate far from North Carolina. Jamie advises the Chief to pass this information along to his descendants so they can prepare for what lies ahead.
Is Jamie messing with the time-space continuum by revealing the future? Maybe, but I appreciated his kind gesture.
Claire continues to be the greatest doctor in history
Over the past few episodes, we’ve seen Claire use ether as anesthetic. She may be messing with history by introducing things earlier than she should, but she’s just an amazing doctor, which is always what comes first.
In this week’s episode, we see her teaching Malva about the concept of anesthesia and putting people to sleep while performing surgery. Claire asks Lizzie (Caitlin O’ Ryan) and Josiah Beardsley (Paul Gorman) to be her guinea pigs. It’s not exactly something anyone is jumping to volunteer for, but they are both troopers. I love how authentic O’Ryan and Gorman made these scenes feel.
I want to take a moment to talk about Malva. I haven’t read the books so I don’t know what’s to come, but she’s beginning to act very strange. And by strange, I mean a bit evil.
She makes certain facial expressions that make it seem like she has ulterior motives. While Claire is showing her how to put someone under anesthesia, there’s a weird excited look in Malva’s eyes. She takes way too much joy in the idea of cutting into someone.
There is definitely something off about her, and I’m interested to see what that is.
Oh, and if you didn’t find her behavior odd already, the episode ends with Malva creepily spying on Jamie and Claire making love. Yeah, this girl is not good news, is she?
We’re already four episodes into this season of Outlander, folks! This means we only have four more episodes left until another Droughtlander descends upon us. Ugh, I am not ready for the end just yet, but the only thing that keeps me going is the thought of season 7 having a lot more episodes. It will be worth the short season 6, and I cannot wait to see what lies ahead!
This week’s episode proved that there is so much story left to tell. Jamie is at the center of it all, and I think we saw in this episode that the stress is starting to get to him. He’s feeling torn, which is why he’s going to resign as the Indian Agent. But whether that will help or make things worse is just one of the many things we’ll have to wait to see.
See you guys next week!
Grade: A
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