Recap of Outlander
Season 1, Episode 11:
The Devils Mark
As Claire and Geillis are forced to stand trial for witchcraft, Claire discovers that Geillis has another startling secret. Later, Claire faces an agonizing decision regarding her future with Jamie.
Tropes:
- Act of True Love: Jamie takes Claire back to Craigh na Dun after Claire tells him the truth about her origin, so that she can go back to her own time and Frank.
- Anachronistic Clue: Claire quotes "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." It is from Colonist Nathan Hale who will be hanged during the American Revolution for treason against the Crown... 30 years after Claire is quoting him. This clues Geillis into the fact that Claire is also a time traveller.
- An Aesop: Jamie and Claire decide that the best way for them to keep each other safe is to make sure they have no lies between them.Jamie: And I'll ask nothing of ye that ye canna give me. But what I would ask of ye—-when you do tell me something, let it be the truth. And I'll promise ye the same.
- Big Damn Heroes: Jamie arrives at the trial just in time to interrupt Claire's whipping and rescue her from being burned at the stake, using his broadsword and dagger to hold off the entire room of men single-handedly.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite all his quirk, Ned is very good at practicing law and nearly turns the tide of the trial. But as good as he is, he can't overcome superstition.
- Burn the Witch!: The aim of the witch trial.
- Courtroom Episode: The episode focuses on Claire and Geillis' trial for witchcraft by the Court of the Church.
- Deadpan Snarker: The jailer does not believe Claire's claim of being the wife of the Laird's nephew and snarks "Yeah, and I'm King Arthur." Geillis quickly quips that she'd heard that King Arthur was a great deal better looking.
- Frame-Up: Several witnesses come forward to tell anecdotal stories that create a circumstantial case for Claire and Geillis being witches. More than one witness backs down when Ned is able to rebut their testimony by pointing out that they stand to benefit from either Claire or Geillis being convicted and killed.
- Hellhole Prison: Claire and Geillis are locked in a literal hole in the ground, exposed to the elements, to await trial.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Geillis sacrifices her own chance at being proven innocent to give Jamie and Claire a chance to escape the village.
- I Choose to Stay: Despite Jamie presenting her with the opportunity she's been seeking for months to return to Frank and the 20th century, Claire decides that she loves Jamie too much and will instead stay with him in the 18th century.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Jamie is fully prepared to let Claire go if that's what Claire wants. He even takes her back to the rocks of Craigh na duhn.
- Kangaroo Court: It's a foregone conclusion that the Court of the Church will find Claire and Geillis guilty of witchcraft, regardless of what evidence the women offer to the contrary.
- Love Makes You Evil: Laoghaire is so determined to get with Jamie, she accuses Claire of hexing him, despite knowing that witchcraft is nearly a guaranteed death sentence.
- Manly Tears: When Claire returns to Jamie after having not decided to go through the stones, she finds Jamie asleep with tears on his cheeks. He cried himself to sleep, believing that he'd never see Claire again.
- No More Lies: Jamie demands that Claire tell him the full truth, insisting that he can only keep them safe if he knows the whole truth of where she came from and why she behaves the way she does.
- Oh, Crap!: The face Geillis makes when she realizes that Dougal has been banished from town and won't find out what is happening in time to get back, let alone rescue them, before they are tried and executed.
- Precision F-Strike: Geillis' "Looks like I'm going to a fucking barbecue", doubling as a Wham Line because it reveals that she, like Claire, is not from the 1700s.
- The Reveal: Geillis is really a time-traveller from 1968.
- Sadistic Choice: Claire either has to accuse Geillis of bewitching her, condemning Geillis to burn at the stake, or risk being burned as witch herself. As a woman from the 1940s who doesn't believe in witchcraft, it's an extremely difficult choice.
- So Crazy, It Must Be True: After Claire reveals herself to be from the future, Jamie asks a bunch of questions but eventually decides to believe her. Claire is skeptical of his easy acceptance, but Jamie says he trusts her and it explains a lot of the questions he's had. He does quip that it would've been easier if she was just a witch though.
- A Taste of the Lash: Claire is whipped for disrespecting the court of the church.
- Time-Traveling Jerkass: Geillis is revealed to be from 1968, having come back to restore a Stuart king to the throne, which would drastically change history. Additionally, in her machinations, she kills her husband and very likely Dougal's wife to maneuver closer to a seat of power.
- Wham Line: Geillis to Claire on why she thinks history can be changed: "1968."
- What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: Geillis is so sure that Dougal will protect her that she doesn't fear the consequences of murdering her husband, Arthur. She didn't count on Colum finding out about the affair and sending both Dougal and Jamie away before Claire and Geillis are even arrested, leaving the men none the wiser to the danger they're in. A potentially fatal misstep in a time where a woman's husband is her only defense if accused of misdeeds.
