Recap / Outlander S 2 E 13 Dragonfly In Amber

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Recap of Outlander
Season 2, Episode 13:

Dragonfly In Amber

In 1968, following the death of a long-time family friend, Claire returns to Inverness with her now-grown daughter Brianna, and begins to relive memories of her life with Jamie. Flashing back to the 18th century, as the battle of Culloden looms, Jamie is forced to make a heartbreaking decision in a desperate, last-ditch effort to derail the battle.

Tropes:

• Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: Even twenty years after Claire's return to the 20th century, she still loves Jamie and hasn't moved on from him, but she does her best to build a life for Brianna with Frank.
• A Friend in Need: After realising that a younger version of Geillis is in 1968, Claire resolves to try and save her from her eventual fate just as Geillis had saved Claire from being burned at the stake in "The Devil's Mark".
• Apologetic Attacker: Jamie apologises to Dougal's corpse for having to kill him.
• Awful Truth: Dougal discovers that Jamie was never a true believer in the Jacobite cause; Brianna learns that Claire had a relationship with another man and Frank Randall is not her biological father.

• Big Damn Heroes: Subversion. Claire, Roger and Brianna burst onto the scene on Craigh na Dun just as Gillian is about to go through the stones, wanting to prevent Gillian from meeting her eventual fate of being burnt as a witch in the 18th century. Unfortunately, they are too late. Claire just has time to call out to Gillian before she travels back in time.
• Big Damn Kiss: Claire and Jamie share one just before Claire goes through the stones.
• Bookends: The season begins with Claire waking up on Craigh na Dun in her own time, and ends with her touching the stone in 1746 to travel back to the 20th century.
• Break Her Heart to Save Her: Jamie insists that Claire keep her promise to return to Frank, to keep her and their unborn baby safe, something which breaks Claire's heart completely.
• The Bus Came Back: Geillis makes her first appearance since "The Devil's Mark".
• Bus Crash: The gathering in the opening scene is a memorial for Reverend Wakefield, a recurring character in Frank's modern day story arc. The Reverend has died of a heart attack. Likewise, Mrs. Graham the housekeeper has passed on.
• Cassandra Truth: Though Claire tries to tell her, Brianna is unwilling to believe that Claire time-travelled into the distant past and fell in love with a 18th century Scottish Highlander. It takes Brianna witnessing the time-travel first-hand for her to finally believe.
• Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Brianna initially thinks that Jamie was a short fling that Claire had and was cold enough to walk away from the baby he fathered. Claire assures her that impending death was the only thing strong enough to make Jamie give up the chance to raise Brianna himself. And even then it broke his heart to have to send Claire and his unborn child away.
• Dead Guy Junior: Brianna was named after Jamie's father, who was called Brian.
• Deadpan Snarker: Brianna reveals herself as one during her first scene in the episode.
• Death Is the Only Option: For Jamie since he can't be with Claire and can't return home to Lallybroch.
• Deceptive Legacy: Brianna is devastated to learn that Frank Randall is not her biological father and that this fact was purposefully hidden from her by both of her parents.
• Due to the Dead: Claire finally visits the Clan markers on Culloden Moore to say her final goodbyes to Jamie.
• Exact Words: Brianna asks what Claire did that day. Claire says she visited around the village. Brianna asks if Claire visited places "you and daddy visited before" referring to Frank Randall. Claire replies "Some", but she spent the day at Lallybroch, a place she only visited with Jamie, never with Frank.
• Fake Ultimate Hero: Claire considers "Bonnie Prince Charlie" to be this. She's not happy to see how worshipped he is by modern-day Scots when she remembers the drunken idiot he was.
  Claire: They've taken a fool and made him into a hero.
• Flashback: The scenes depicting the last hours before the battle of Culloden take place in flashback form.
• Foregone Conclusion: Because of how the season began (and how this episode begins), it's obvious that Claire will return to the 20th century and that Jamie will fight at Culloden.
• Foreshadowing: Roger and Brianna can hear the buzzing of the stones.
• Freak Out: Dougal flips out when he overhears Claire and Jamie discussing poisoning Prince Charles. He proceeds to attempt to kill Jamie for his betrayal; Brianna freaks out after learning that Frank Randall is not her biological father and is nearly apoplectic at the idea that Claire brought her to Scotland to surprise her with a meeting with her biological father.
• Have We Met Yet?: Subverted in that Gillian and Claire never come face to face, but Gillian does meet Brianna and Claire meets the husband that Gillian sacrifices so she can time travel.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Despite how much he loves her, Jamie sends Claire back through the stones to keep her and their unborn child safe.
• If Only You Knew: Brianna and Roger visit Fort Williams. She says it gives her bad vibes. Later when she tells her mother about the visit, Claire can barely hide her discomfort, knowing that Jamie, Brianna's father, was tortured there and Brian, Brianna's grandfather, died of heart attack there after being forced to watch Jamie's torture.
• Internal Reveal: Brianna discovers that Claire went missing for three years and returned pregnant. Brianna was born eight months later, meaning in all likelihood, Frank Randall was not her biological father.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Jamie forces Claire to go back through the stones so that she and their child can be cared for in relative safety by someone who will love them.
• I Will Find You: Jamie's words to Claire on Craigh na Dun.

  Jamie: I will find you. I promise. If I must endure two hundred years of purgatory, two hundred years without you—then that is my punishment, which I have earned for my crimes. For I have lied, and killed, and stolen; betrayed and broken trust. But there is the one thing that shall lie in the balance. When I shall stand before God, I shall have one thing to say, to weigh against the rest. Lord, ye gave me a rare woman, and God! I loved her well.

• Jerkass Realization: Brianna eventually witnesses Geillis go through the stones and realizes that everything said was true. This is after telling Claire she wished Claire was dead and several days of insisting Claire was a raving lunatic with loose morals.
• Karma Houdini: According to history, Prince Charles escapes the aftermath of Culloden and lives out the rest of his life in Italy. He never receives any karmic punishment for leading the Jacobites to their fate on Culloden Moor.
• Killed Off for Real: Dougal at the hands of Jamie and Claire.
• Like Parentlike Spouse: Although their relationship is very new, Roger is very similar to Frank Randall. He has a keen interest in history, soft-spoken and mild-mannered.
• The Lost Lenore: Jamie is this for Claire. Even twenty years later, she hasn't forgotten him.
• Luck-Based Search Technique: A chance encounter with a rat leads to Brianna and Roger finding a box of mementos conveniently labeled "Randall" within minutes of entering the cluttered attic to find clues about Brianna's parents' time in Scotland.
• Manly Tears: Jamie can be seeing silently crying as he guides Claire's hand toward the stone on Craigh na Dun.
• The Men First: Knowing that the inevitable battle will be an unwinnable bloodbath, Jamie instructs Murtagh to gather the Fraser men and send them back home to Lallybroch.
• Mistaken for Betrayal: After learning that Frank Randall was not her biological father and that her biological father was a Scottish man from the Highlands, Brianna mistakenly assumes that Claire has been spending her days secretly meeting up with the man she had an affair with during the time that she was missing.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Claire and Jamie after they are forced to kill Dougal. The look of complete shock and horror on their faces sells it.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Claire and Jamie's discussion about murdering Charles Stuart is overheard by Dougal, who attacks them in a frenzy of rage. This leads to Dougal's death and forces Claire to return through the stones and Jamie to fight on Culloden Moor to avoid a more painful fate.
• No More Lies: Once Brianna realizes that Claire is not crazy, she wants to know the full truth about Jamie, her biological father, Claire's time in the past, and how she was able to time travel. Brianna demands that Claire be truthful from that point forward, even if the truth might hurt Brianna's feelings. That vow is later tested when Sandy, Frank's lover, shows up at a dedication service for him, revealing to Brianna that her beloved father was not perfectly faithful to Claire either.
• Not Quite Dead: Through the Revered Wakefield's old papers, Roger, Brianna and Claire find out that Jamie did not die at the battle of Culloden.
• One Side of the Story: Brianna is so furious at her mother that she begins making Olympic levels jumps of conclusion. First, she accuses Claire of bringing her to Scotland so she can reconnect with her old lover. Then she assumes that Claire is planning to spring a surprise meeting on her with her biological father. Then, when told that's not possible, she assumes it's because he's a deadbeat dad who doesn't want to meet her. And then when told it's because he's dead and has been for centuries, she assumes Claire is making up a massive story rather than simply admit she's an adulteress.
• Plot-Triggering Death: Reverend Wakefield's death kicks off the search for Jamie and lead to the major arc of season 3.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Brianna to Claire once the former discovers that Frank wasn't her biological father.
• Reality Is Unrealistic: Brianna summarizes the truth of her paternity and thinks it sounds like non-sense of the highest order.
  Brianna: The man I grew up with, who loved me for 20 years, isn't my father. My real father is some 6'3" red-headed guy in a kilt from the 18th century?! What is wrong with you?
• The Reveal:
  • Jamie survived the Battle of the Culloden
  • Roger Wakefield is the direct descendant of Geillis Duncan and Dougal MacKenzie
• Season Finale: This is the season finale of season 2.
• Series Fauxnale: Were it not for the last moments of the season setting up the next, you would be forgiven for thinking this is the final episode.
• Sequel Hook: Claire's statement at the end ('I have to go back') sets up the season 3 plot.
• Speak Ill of the Dead: Claire is not pleased to see a statue of Charles in a museum and how they've made him to be a hero when she knew him as a fool who caused the deaths of thousands of his own men.

• Strong Family Resemblance: Invoked by Claire, who tells Brianna that she looks and acts very much like Jamie.
• Surpassed the Teacher: Dougal has always liked to brag that he taught Jamie how to fight and they've had a handful of physical clash, but when they clash in a life or death struggle, Jamie is able to overtake Dougal and kill the man.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: Claire's suggested plan to murder Charles involves sneaking the poison Yellow Jasmine into his food.
• Time Skip: The episode begins in 1968, and transitions to the 18th century through use of flashbacks.
• Understatement: "He's not the man I thought." In the series premiere, Frank Randall travels all the way to Scotland, enamored with the idea of learning more about his legendary ancestor Jonathan "Black Jack" Randall, Captain of Dragoons in His Royal Majesty's Army. Not long after Claire returns, Frank sends a letter to the Reverend asking him to stop all research into the man, likely after Claire told him about the numerous atrocities Randall committed against Claire, the Frasers, and the Highlanders in general.
• Undying Loyalty: Murtagh shows this when he insists on fighting at Culloden with Jamie.
• Villainous Breakdown: Dougal completely loses it once he overhears Claire and Jamie discussing whether to poison Charles Stuart, especially once he overhears that their method for killing him is oddly the exact same as how his brother died.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Gillian Edgars wants to go back and help the Jacobites restore a Scottish king to the throne to save the Scottish culture that was decimated by the British after their decisive victory at Culloden Moore.

• Wham Line: "I have to go back."
• What the Hell, Hero?: Brianna gives one to Claire after she discovers that Claire had lied about Brianna's parentage.
• You Should Have Died Instead: Brianna's response to finding out Frank, her deceased father, is not her biological father.
• Zeerust: The episodes open with Roger and a group of children watching a black and white television show that featured retro-futurism of what they thought future technology would look like.