Warning: This article contains spoilers from tonight's episode of Outlander. Read at your own risk.
Rocky. Creed. Full Metal Jacket. Troop Beverly Hills. All great works come with training montages that show our determined heroes preparing for battle with every fiber of their being.
After tonight, you can add Outlander to that list. Jamie's ragtag group of soldiers pretty much spent the whole episode fumbling with weaponry and having Murtagh scream at them. If you closed your eyes, you could almost pretend the bagpipes in the background were playing "Eye of the Tiger."
Trust us, those kilt-clad soldiers had it coming. Jamie's 100-strong crew has dwindled noticeably, with Young Simon heading home to work on recovering more men. The troops make it to Crieff, where they're reunited with Murtagh and Fergus, plus Dougal's skeleton crew of just himself, Angus, and Rupert. The latter two are as rude and comical as ever, while Dougal's been drinking the Jacobite lemonade, despite his brother's insistence on neutrality.
Claire's on edge, and not just because Dougal is around. As the men train (and train, and train), she begins to recall memories of World War II and two American soldiers she met during her time as a nurse. As the violence intensifies around her, so do the flashbacks. She nearly bites Angus' head off when he makes light of his potential case of trench foot, but refrains from telling Jamie what's really going on inside her head.
The visions come to a head as Claire hears gunfire. She collapses and retreats to her memories once again. Long story short, World War II Claire joined the mission to return the sweet American soldiers back to their unit. Their vehicle was shot at, everyone was killed by the Germans, and she was left to cower in a trench while listening to the dying boy from Texarkana beg for help. Americans rescued her the next morning.
Jamie finds her and she finally admits her PTSD. She's not sure if she's up to going through another war, but Jamie promises her she won't be alone. Also, she's kind of shit out of luck. Didn't she see all the training montages?
Jamie, meanwhile, is also trying to keep an aggro Dougal at bay. After rallying the troops with a speech that would do Mel Gibson proud, Jamie is surprised by a joke attack led by his shirtless uncle, who is lobbying for a leadership role close to Prince Charles. The two have a pissing contest of sorts about who should be in control, but Jamie pulls Fraser rank.
Dougal tries to manipulate Claire into persuading Jamie to give him more control, making it clear that he's happy to play the "remember when you kinda said you'd marry me?" card. Claire isn't buying it and rips him a new one. The words "narcissism" and "fuck yourself" are uttered.
A plot by Dougal to bring in more troops also backfires, landing him and his men on sentry duty. Somehow, though, a 16-year-old boy is able to slip into camp. He has a message addressed to a British officer. He recognizes Jamie, who has just broken the boy's arm, as "Red Jamie, a traitorous rebel." Claire pretends to be an English prisoner taken hostage by these unruly Scots. Jamie commits a bit too much to his role of a lusty Highlander, earning him a knee to the groin from his wife. Ultimately, the teen reveals the size and location of the enemy camp, but still vows to kill Jamie.
Having already lashed two guards for being careless on the job, Jamie takes full responsibility for accidentally alerting the teen to the camp's presence. He takes off his shirt and lets Murtagh give his leathery, scarred back another six lashes. He then leads a successful commando raid that results in the sabotage of the Brits' cannon carriages.
The plan now is to march on to Prince Charles' camp. Finally, Dougal gets a bone: He can ride ahead and announce their arrival. Now, should he do that before or after he follows Claire's careful instructions?