I should’ve known something was up with Outlander this week when Season 7, Episode 15, “Written in My Own Heart’s Blood” (named after the eighth book in Diana Gabaldon’s series, written by Danielle Berrow and directed by Joss Agnew) started off with a montage spanning the entire series to date, revolving around life, loss, and war. It’s a sobering reminder of exactly how much Claire (Caitríona Balfe) and Jamie (Sam Heughan) have had to fight through and for over the course of these seven seasons, and that the battle they’re about to face is far from the first time that blood has been shed in their story. Something about this week, though, feels different, and not only because both of the Frasers expressly say as much in the hours leading up to one of the biggest turns of fate on Outlander yet. But let’s recap everything that plays out before then, shall we?
It’s the Calm Before the Storm in ‘Outlander’ Season 7 Episode 15
The morning of the Battle of Monmouth, in 1778, dawns almost too peacefully, with the distant playing of drums, but Jamie has clearly already been awake for hours when Claire finally rolls over in their tent to check on him. It’s only one of the scenes in which Jamie ends up monologuing to captivating ends — Heughan arguably gives one of his best performances on the show this week — but it also provides more of a glimpse into Jamie’s parents’ romance, characters we’ll become more intimately acquainted with in the upcoming prequel spin-off, Outlander: Blood of My Blood. It initially seems strange, at first, to hear Jamie wax nostalgic about Ellen’s death, but then he admits that he lost his mother so young that she never even had a single gray hair on her head. Seeing all the gray in Claire’s hair now, Jamie says, is a reminder of how many years they’ve had together, and how much longer she’s lived. It doesn’t seem like an ominous remark at the time, but in hindsight, Jamie isn’t the one who needs their love to shield him from the dangers of battle.
As she prepares to send Jamie off to the frontlines, Claire refuses to say anything that could be construed as eternally parting words, while Jamie confesses that he wishes his last words to William (Charles Vandervaart) hadn’t been issued in anger. It’s here, too, that we’re given the first of several scenes featuring a sepia-toned Jamie and Claire, sitting by the campfire with nothing but stars overhead. Initially, these moments seem conjured by Claire pausing to reflect here and there, but as the episode eventually reveals, they might have an even more devastating significance. For the moment, however, Claire’s too busy dealing with the army’s doctor, Captain Leckie (Ben Cora), who readily dismisses her medical expertise solely because of her gender, despite Denzell Hunter’s (Joey Phillips) protests. After both of them try and fail to plead her value to Leckie, Claire and Rachel (Izzy Meikle-Small) take point on triage in tents outside the church, which has been turned into a makeshift hospital. Later, Claire brings an injured soldier into the church herself as the battle begins to rage, and Leckie initially protests her diagnosis of a pneumothorax, but when her aspiration technique saves the man’s life, the doctor is clearly forced to eat his words. Nothing hits better than Claire’s competency shining through, especially when men have to shut up and let her do what she’s best at.
Secrets Are Revealed and Choices Are Made in ‘Outlander’ Season 7 Episode 15
Back in 1739, Roger (Richard Rankin) and Buck (Diarmaid Murtagh) have set up camp by the river after sending Roger’s father back to his own time — an emotional farewell, to be sure, but one that clearly has Roger thinking about the importance of family. At the very least, it’s left him more inclined to spill the beans to Buck about the other man’s true parentage, now that they’re literally out in the middle of nowhere. Initially, Roger broaches the subject by admitting that Buck’s mother is a time-traveler too, but it doesn’t take long for the rest of the truth to come out. Understandably, Buck feels like an idiot for not realizing that Geillis Duncan (Lotte Verbeek) was his birth mother while he was literally in the woman’s home, not to mention after his father, Dougal MacKenzie (Graham McTavish), showed up for their first meet-cute in the process. But Roger admits he was afraid that if Buck had learned the truth too soon, he might have done something that could have changed the course of history — and potentially even resulted in him never even being born. Buck storms off in a moment of frustration, but then rightfully points out that Dougal had only showed up at Geillis’ house looking for Roger, so who knows if his parents would’ve ever met otherwise?
Meanwhile, Lord John Grey (David Berry) and Ian (John Bell) have caught up to the Hessians who are holding William captive. At first, they fib their way into the camp by claiming they’ve arrived per Captain Richardson’s (Ben Lambert) orders, but their leader, Oberst (Martin Oelbermann), is immediately skeptical of their story. Still, he agrees to bring William out so the two can verify that he’s mostly unharmed, if a little battered and bruised. A tense standoff ensues, as the Hessians refuse to turn over William, but before one of them can even so much as pull out his pistol, John kills him with a single shot. Bullets are exchanged, and Ian allows Oberst to escape as John frees William from his shackles — but then thinks better of it when the Hessian warns him that he will live to regret the decision one day. Perhaps Ian’s thinking of Arch Bug (Hugh Ross), and doesn’t want to live the rest of his life looking over his shoulder, especially when he has his new wife’s safety to concern himself with now. After parting ways with John and William, Ian doubles back, tracks Oberst down, and kills the Hessian with a knife to the chest. It seems that Rachel’s fear that her husband wouldn’t be capable of making the tough choice to kill is unfounded, but Ian seems poised to be changed forever now that he (literally) has more blood on his hands.
Back at Lallybroch, at two different points in time, Roger and Brianna (Sophie Skelton) have the same idea when it comes to checking in with each other — leaving a letter inside the desk in the laird’s study. Before Brianna can drop in her own message for Roger to find, another drawer pops open to reveal his letter. Now, Bree knows exactly where he’s traveled back to — 1739 — so a reunion for this family seems all but imminent, especially once she brings both of her kids back to the stones and Mandy (Rosa Morris) gets a running headstart. Things aren’t going as smoothly for William, by contrast; once he and John make it back to the British camp, as he learns from a tearful Fanny (Florrie May Wilkinson) that Jane (Silvia Presente) has been arrested for the murder of Captain Harkness (Adam Jackson-Smith) in his absence, but does William have enough authority to stop her hanging from taking place?
A Life Hangs in the Balance in ‘Outlander’ Season 7 Episode 15
Historically, the Battle of Monmouth was something of a lost cause for both sides, with neither the Continentals nor the British really landing a decisive victory — so perhaps Claire was on to something when she admitted to having a bad feeling about it. Now that the British have been forced into retreating, however, their trek will take them right past where Claire, Rachel, Denzell and the others are camped tending to the wounded, and everyone has been ordered to evacuate before the platoon of Redcoats arrives. But Claire digs her heels in, refusing to abandon the injured men she has an obligation to, even as Leckie pleads with her to leave. Finally, respectfully addressing her as “Dr. Fraser,” the captain prepares to depart with everyone else, just in time for Claire to receive the news that an unharmed Jamie is on his way back too. But the British passing by in such close quarters to similarly armed Continental soldiers leads to a rather predictable outcome — in which insults are traded, guns are flashed, and bullets are exchanged. Before Jamie can successfully order his men to stand down, he realizes Claire has been shot in the abdomen.
After carrying a bleeding Claire into the church where others are sheltered in place, Jamie is dismayed to learn that Leckie, for all his proper medical training, can do nothing to remove the bullet. But Jamie not only refuses to let his wife die, he refuses to leave his wife, period, even when he’s ordered to do so. In what could be considered one of the most badass moves of the series, Jamie commands one of his soldiers to strip off his coat and shirt, dips his fingers in Claire’s blood, and uses it to write an official resignation of his commission as Brigadier General on the man’s naked back. (Do you get it: written in my own heart’s blood? Diana Gabaldon, you diabolical genius.) While Claire fights to remain conscious, she manages to tell Jamie to fetch Denzell, the only doctor who might be capable of performing the surgery to remove the bullet. As Claire hovers on the precipice between life and death, Jamie prays over her, begging God not to take his wife from him. Thankfully, Denzell and Rachel arrive just in time, bearing another thoughtful gift basket from Lafayette (Charles Crehange) himself. Claire, recalling the Roquefort, reminds Denzell that the cheese’s mold can be used to make penicillin, for after the procedure, and as Dr. Hunter begins his work, asking Jamie to resume his praying, we see the night sky from Claire’s point-of-view — with one star still burning, even as the rest fades to black.
New episodes of Outlander Season 7 premiere Fridays on the Starz app and at 8 PM ET on Starz.