Recap of Outlander
Season 3, Episode 7:
Creme de Menthe
In the aftermath of a violent confrontation, Claire is bound by duty to use her medical skills to help save the life of one of Sir Percival's men while Jamie scrambles to cover evidence of his illegal dealings. Meanwhile, Fergus helps Ian overcome his shyness and make a move on the girl he fancies.
Tropes
- Armor-Piercing Response: Claire tries to admonish Jamie for lying. When he reminds her that she lies all the time, she claims that her lies are harmless white lies to protect people from things they couldn't possibly understand.Jamie: I didn't realize lies had shades.
- Asshole Victim: John Barton, the henchman. He's sent to Jamie's room to find ledgers. He decides that the best method would be to rape Jamie's wife. He thinks her attempts to defend herself with a knife are adorable and he's laughing snidely all the way up to the point where he trips over the strewn bed covers, falls backwards, and hits his head on the fireplace hearth, knocking himself unconscious and causing a brain bleed that leads to his death.
- The Bus Came Back: Ian Murray Sr is seen for the first time since Surrender.
- Doom Magnet: Invoked by Fergus. He and Ian like Claire and think it's great that she's back, but admit that she has created a huge mess that they're scrambling to clean up.
- Empty Promise: Jamie promises Ian Sr that should Young Ian show up, he'll send the boy straight home. In reality, Jamie knows exactly where Young Ian is and has been housing the boy for months, against his parents' wishes.
- Fingertip Drug Analysis: Sir Percival's henchman dabs some liquid from the brothel's basement floor and tastes it to check and see if it is brandy that Jamie has not reported importing to Sir Percival. It ends up being water leaking from the upstairs.
- Heroic Fire Rescue: Jamie risks his life by going into the burning print shop to find and rescue Young Ian who is trapped by the flames. The two emerge moments before the staircase exit collapses.
- Hypocrite: When Claire tries to chew Jamie out for lying, he reminds her of all the lies she's told and all the lies she's convinced him to tell. Even in the same conversation where he lied about Young Ian, she lied about where she'd been for the past 20 years.
- Immediate Sequel: The episodes picks up with the henchman from the previous episode attempting to rape Claire
- Inconvenient Hippocratic Oath: Claire feels bound to help Barton since she's a doctor. Everyone else thinks he should die because he attempted to attack her and he could bring the local officials down on them should he survive.
- Innocently Insensitive: Claire chews Jamie out for not telling Ian Sr the truth about Young Ian. She tells him he doesn't know what it feels like to raise a child and be constantly worried about their safety. Of course, Jamie doesn't know because he didn't get to raise any of his children through no fault of his own.
- Instant Sedation: Claire pours laudanum in Barton's mouth and he's out nearly as soon as he swallows. It probably helps that he was only semi-conscious to begin with.
- Internal Reveal: Ian Sr learns that Claire has returned.
- Keeping Secrets Sucks: This episode ends with most of the lies and deceptions Jamies has been up to finally crashing down.
- Madonna-Whore Complex: Discussed by name as Jamie is still upset that Brianna is wearing a bikini in the photo Claire showed him in the previous episode. She rebuts the notion, complaining of its being so rebuts in the 1700s.
- Mad Oracle: Margaret Campbell, the things she says may be true fortunes but she also is being heavily drugged with laudanum which causes violent hallucinations. Her brother Archie tells Claire that Margaret often frightens strangers.
- Maintain the Lie: Jamie asks Claire not to mention that she's seen Young Ian since he's been lying to Ian Sr and Jenny about not knowing where the boy is.
- Police Are Useless: After Barton is gravely injured, Claire thinks they should simply tell the police what happened since he attacked her. Jamie reminds her that in this time period, she would be arrested for attacking Barton since Barton works for Sir Percival. The police would not believe the word of a woman who was in a brothel hotel room unaccompanied with a man to whom she's not married over the word of a government worker who would claim Barton was there on legitimate business.
- Running Gag: In Ian's first attempt to have sex, he bends Brigid over, intending to take her from behind only to be stopped and corrected to face to face, the same as Jamie did his first time with Claire back in season 1. Also like Jamie, Ian is a virgin whose partner is older, much more experienced with sex, and bolder about sex than the average woman of that time period.
- A Simple Plan: Jamie's attempt to hide his smuggling expansion ends in the death of a government worker, his shop being burned down, and Jamie back on the run for treason and murder.
- Tempting Fate:
- As they are moving the casks of illegal alcohol, Jamie's crew asks him if they should also get rid of the treasonous pamphlets that are stored at the print shop. Jamie assures them that Sir Percival knows nothing of the materials and never will. Sure enough, by the end of the episode, the pamphlets have been discovered and Jamie is on the run for treason.
- After Jamie hides Barton's body in a barrel of Creme de Menthe Claire questions whether the body will be found. Jamie assures her it won't happen for a long time, as Creme de Menthe is unpopular in Scotland and alcohol slows the decay. In a few episodes, they will find out that the body was found fairly quickly and there is a warrant out for Jamie's arrest for murder.
- Their First Time: Ian loses his virginity to Brigid the Tavern Wench.
