Recap of Outlander
Season 5, Episode 11:
Journey Cake
When they discover that Jemmy may be able to pass through the stones, Brianna and Roger have to make a decision about their future. Meanwhile, Lionel and Richard Brown attempt to strong arm Jamie into joining their safety committee, but he remains firmly unconvinced that the Browns are actually dedicated to making the county a safer place.
Tropes
- A Friend in Need: After he's forced to leave River Run after killing Mr. Forbes, Claire and Jamie help hide Ulysses until Lord John can arrange for his safe passage to England. If it were discovered that the Frasers were helping aide and abet a Black man accused of killing a white man, they could face a great deal of trouble much like in season 4 when they initially refused to hand over a slave accused of injuring an overseer.
- Bait the Dog: Lionel Brown attempts to make peace with Claire by bonding over their love for their daughters. But later, angry over Claire's perceived meddling in his marital affairs, he arranges for her kidnapping and then orchestrates a gang rape against her.
- Call-Back: Lord John informs Jamie that he is returning to England. Lord Dunsany has died and he needs to help settle the affairs of the Helwater estate which now belongs to William.
- Chekhov's Gun: The celtic cross. In episode one of the season, Jamie lit it and asked for oaths of fealty of the men of the Ridge. He then declared he would not light it again unless he needed the men to gather for battle. When he discovers Claire has been kidnapped, he runs as fast as he can to the cross and signals for help.
- Comfort Food: Claire wants to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, a typical kid food in modern day America, for Jemmy. Claire and Brianna discuss packing PB&J sandwiches for their trips through the stones.
- Crime of Self-Defense: Ulysses is sent underground, since killing a white man even to defend his mistress from attempted murder, would still no doubt mean he'd be lynched.
- Dramatic Irony: Ulysses himself notes the irony of how Forbes witnessed the document giving him freedom.
- Due to the Dead: After discovering a family that has been murdered and their cabin burned down, Jamie gives final words over the only survivor before Roger mercy kills her. They then bury the family and mark their graves with a cross.
- Formal Full Array of Cutlery: Played with. Jamie is unfamiliar with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and doesn't realize they're a finger food. Having been to multiple foreign countries with foreign foods, he politely eats his sandwich a knife and fork.
- Hope Spot: When Ian learns that time travel is possible, he pleads to be allowed to use it to fix his relationship with his wife. He's heartbroken to discover that the ability is genetic and he doesn't have it.
- If Only You Knew: Lord John, an English soldier, tells Jamie that he feels the mood darkening in the American Colonies and he believes a period of great upheaval is coming. Jamie, who is aware of the impending American Revolution, agrees with him and is glad that John is headed back to England for the time being.
- Internal Reveal:
- Ian finally discovers that time travel is possible and that Claire, Brianna and Roger are from the future.
- Brianna learns that she has a paternal half-brother and that he is being raised by Lord John in Jamie's stead.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Jamie has always been aware that his family only remains in the 18th century because he himself is unable to travel to the 20th century. As much as he loves having Brianna, Jemmy, and Roger around, with a massive war on the horizon, he encourages them to go back to the safety of the 20th century even though it means he'll likely never see them again.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Jemmy seems particularly sensitive to the travel stones. Brianna thinks it may be because both of his parents are time travelers, rather than just one like with Brianna, Roger, and Claire. This may be proof that he's Roger's biological son.
- Meaningful Echo: In season 4, when Lord John helped Brianna despite how rude and abrasive she was towards him, she told him that he was impossible not to like. Now that Brianna has fully accepted him as a friend and gives him a heartfelt thanks for all the help he's given her family, saying they're to have him in their lives, he repeats the phrase back to her.
- Memento MacGuffin: Lord John brings Jamie and updated portrait of William; Claire asks Brianna to draw portraits of the family so they have something to remember each other by.
- Mercy Kill: After discovering a cabin burned to the ground, Roger locates a girl who is burned beyond saving but still clinging to life. With no way to help her, Roger smother her to put her out of her misery.
- Mineral MacGuffin: The opal that Claire finds in Otter Tooth's skull reveals that Jemmy can travel through the stones; likewise it proves that Ian cannot, as he does not hear the noise that the other travelers can nor does the stone feel hot to him as it does to the others.
- Musical Nod: As Jamie lights the cross to signal the need for help across the Ridge, Moch Sa Madhainn plays, the soundtrack that plays whenever Jamie and the men he leads are headed into battle.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished:
- Even though it was to save his mistress's life, Ulysses knows there's no way a black man in this time period will be forgiven for killing a rich white banker, not even on who was attempting murder at the time of his death.
- Claire insisting on medically treating Lionel Brown and his wife is how Lionel discovers her alias of Dr. Rawlings. This leads to Brown and his men kidnapping Claire and raping her.
- Non-Verbal Miscommunication: Claire puts on her special perfume, her sign that she wants to have sex. Jamie misses this and is asleep by the time she finishes. Later, he's embarrassed when he smells the perfume on her skin and realizes that he missed his cue.
- The Reveal: Ulysses is not a slave. He was granted his freedom years ago but chose to stay with Jocasta because he had feelings for her.
- Running Gag: Lord John is surprised when Jamie invites him to stay in the guest chamber upstairs. Since early season 4, the Frasers have been having to explain to people that their guest chamber and upstairs are not yet ready, leading to a game of musical beds as they try to accommodate their guests.
- Sadistic Choice: Brianna and Roger are finding it hard to leave their 18th century family. Do they take Jemmy to the 20th century where there is modern medicine and an abundance of opportunities or stay in the 18th century which is more dangerous but where he has parents, grandparents, cousins, and friends?
- The Scapegoat: The cabin the Fraser-MacKenzies find burned to the ground with the family has a single arrow lodged in the wall. Both Jamie and Ian say that this is not typical behavior for the natives and Jamie notes that the family was dead before the fire was set. When Lionel and the Brownsville men come around later recruiting for a safety committee, it becomes clearer that they are attacking outlying settlers and blaming the natives so they can receive money from the governor for protecting the area.
- Signature Sound Effect: The opal, once broken, gives off the signature buzz of a time portal which only time travelers can hear.
- Sliding Scale of Free Will vs. Fate: Ian, Claire, and Brianna discuss the ability of time travelers to change the past. Claire and Brianna are in agreement that things like war are too big to alter because of the sheer number of people involved, but they think that smaller things that involve very few people may be malleable. Claire mentions saving the men of Lallybroch who would've otherwise been slaughtered or jailed. Ian wants to know if he can go back and change the event that estranged him from his wife.
- So What Do We Do Now?: Brianna and Roger never intended to remain in the past. Brianna simply wanted to warn her parents and Roger wanted to make sure that Brianna was safe. After Brianna got pregnant, they swore they would return to their own time period once they had evidence that Jemmy could safely pass through the stones. But the intervening years, they've grown accustom to life in the 18th century and they're uncertain they want to leave their family behind even if it means regaining the safety and conveniences of the 20th century.
- Vulgar Humor: Knowing that not much is known about reproductive heatlh in the 18th century, Claire teases Jamie by showing him a microscope slide without telling him what it holds. After he is very complimentary of the sample, she reveals that it is his own sperm. He's a little awed and also confused about how she got it and why they're still alive. After she explains how spermatozoa work, Jamie asks her to give his sample a proper Christian burial.
- Wham Line: When the men return from dealing with the whisky still explosion.Fergus: What are you doing out here by yourself, ma petite garcon? Where's maman?Germain: Maman won't wake up, papaJamie: Where's your granny?Germain: The bad men took Grandmama
- We Need a Distraction: The men of Brownsville set off an explosion at the whisky stills to draw the Fraser men away from the house. They then go in and attack the women and kidnap Claire.
- You Owe Me: Richard Brown feels that because the men of Brownsville joined the militia when Jamie asks, the men of Fraser's Ridge are obligated to join their safety committee. Jamie declines stating that the militia was a temporary military force and his men are not dispositioned to be a permanent policing force.
