Recap of Outlander
Season 2, Episode 9:
Je Suis Prest
After leaving Lord Lovat's estate, Jamie and Murtagh work to train the Fraser men into a fighting force skilled enough to stand against the British, but find their efforts hampered by Dougal's brazen attempts to seize control of leadership. Claire does her own bit to help the war effort, but finds herself beset by traumatic flashbacks of her time as a World War II field nurse.
Tropes:
- Anger Born of Worry: Claire begins to lash out at Fergus and the men as she starts having flashbacks of two men she befriended during the war who subsequently died. Seeing these men who are obviously under-prepared for a battle they're destined to lose is very triggering for Claire.
- Armor-Piercing Response: When Dougal insists the men are ready to fight and die for their king, Jamie emphatically rebuts that he'd prefer they fight and live for their king.
- Assassination Attempt: William Grey attempts to kill Red Jamie, the unprincipled rebel traitor.
- Back Stab: William Grey unsuccessfully attempts this against Jamie, sneaking up behind Jamie while he's relieving himself only to have Jamie counter his attack, disarm him, and break his arm.
- Badass Boast: Dougal brags that it only took three MacKenzies to infiltrate Fort Wentworth and free Jamie, so they should be more than enough to help in the war effort.
- Bait-and-Switch: Claire, Jamie, and the audience are led to believe that Angus and Rupert are about to announce that Willie has died or been killed. Instead, he has married and moved to the colonies with his new wife.
- Battle Couple: Claire and Jamie.
- Batman Gambit: William Grey quickly establishes that he is defined by his concept of honor. Claire quickly reasons that he would likely do anything to protect her honor as an English woman. Spontaneously she devises a rouse that her "womanly honor" will be sullied unless Grey answers Jamie's questions. Jamie quickly falls in line and the Highlanders in the room can barely bite back smiles as Grey freaks out at the prospect of Jamie "ravishing" his own wife.
- Blackmail Backfire: Dougal attempts to strong arm Claire into convincing Jamie to accept his advice under threat of telling Jamie that she agreed to marry Dougal if Jamie died at Fort Wentworth. Claire reveals that Jamie already knows, as they tell each other everything specifically so that they can't be leveraged against each other.
- Brass Balls: The Highlanders are actually impressed with William Grey's bravery, even it straddles the line of stupidity. That combined with his willingness to divulge army intelligence to protect Claire earns him Jamie's respect and saves his life.
- The Bus Came Back: Rupert and Angus who were last seen in the season 1 finale, show up at camp. Dougal, who was last seen in "The Search" also resurfaces.
- Camping a Crapper: William Grey infiltrates the camp and waits for Jamie to be alone, attacking while Jamie is relieving himself.
- Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough: Jamie and Murtagh respectively.
- Continuity Nod:
- Angus is still angling for a kiss from Claire, much like when he laid one on her before she and Jamie departed from France. This time, he only gets a peck on the cheek.
- When Claire skeptically questions the fact that only a handful of men from Clan MacKenzie showed up to fight, Dougal retorts that it only took a handful of MacKenzies to rescue Jamie from Fort Wentworth.
- Corporal Punishment:
- Jamie has two night watchmen whipped for allowing Dougal to bring armed men into the camp.
- Jamie has Murtagh whip him in front of the men after the lit fires allowed an William Grey to locate their camp, sneak in, and attack Jamie.
- Death by Flashback: Corporal Grant and Private Lucas. A series of flashbacks shows Claire's developing friendship with the two men and their subsequent deaths which leads to Claire's Survivor's Guilt and PTSD.
- Dope Slap: Murtagh is not above slapping a soldier across the back of the head for messing up their drills.
- The Dreaded: Jamie and the men find out that he's been monikered as Red Jamie, the unprincipled and traitorous rebel.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Murtagh plays it up.
- Dwindling Party: Two recurring characters do not survive the battle.
- Early-Bird Cameo: William Grey will return later in Season 3 as Lord John Grey, Jamie's eventual lifelong friend, first as the governor of the prison where Jamie is held and then later as the governor of Jamaica.
- Exact Words: When Jamie asks Dougal why he didn't follow orders, Dougal replies that Jamie never ordered him not to conscript new recruits. Jamie reassigns Dougal and his men to sentry duty and makes it very clear that the new assignment is an order.
- Flashback: Being in the military camp is giving Claire PTSD-triggering flashbacks of WWII.
- Groin Attack: When Jamie get a little too handsy while pretending to ravish Claire, Claire gives him a swift knee to the groin.
- Guile Hero: Claire poses as a hostage to fool William Grey into giving up information about the English army.
- I Want My Mommy!: In the flashback where Claire's convoy is ambushed, one of the young soldiers screams for his mother as he lays dying.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Dougal is convinced that all it will take to win against the British is a few passionate Highland Charges. Jamie, who has actually fought against the British, knows that it will actually take time and discipline to ensure that the men don't panic and runaway in the face of the highly trained, heavily armed British troops.
- Meaningful Echo: "I give you your life. I hope you use it well." John will eventually repeat these words back to Jamie when he arranges an unauthorized parole for Jamie under an alias in season 3.
- Misfit Mobilization Moment: About halfway through the episode, the men begin look like a battle unit that might be able to withstand an attack from the British.
- More Senior Subordinate: As the Laird of Clan Fraser from Lallybroch, Jamie is in charge of their battle unit. This means Murtagh and Dougal fall under his command. Murtagh is fine with, but Dougal chafes as he is the War Chief of Clan MacKenzie and used to being in charge during conflicts. Jamie finally has to remind him that Clan MacKenzie has declared themselves neutral and the men they are training are Clan Fraser, making them Jamie's responsibility.
- No Longer with Us: When Claire asks about Willie's whereabouts, Rupert and Angus' sudden downturn in demeanor makes the audience anticipate that the young man has died. However, after a bit of misleading hemming and hawing, they reveal that he is no longer with them... because he married and followed his wife's family to the American colonies.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Jamie realizes that something is wrong with Claire by how quiet and unfocused she is, very out-of-character behavior for her.
- Prayer Is a Last Resort: Unable to do anything further to help their men, the women of the town begin to pray as they wait for casualties to be brought back from the field.
- Precision F-Strike: Claire emphatically tells Dougal to go fuck himself after he tries to blackmail her into manipulating Jamie.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The Scottish volunteers. Most have never even held a weapon, let alone gone into battle. Jamie and Murtagh have to spend a significant amount of time teaching them how to do things even as basic as properly lining up and marching in step as a unit.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When Dougal accuses Claire of holding a grudge, she makes sure he understands that she doesn't even bother thinking about Dougal because he's a textbook narcissist, suffering from delusions of grandeur, and none of the bad things he's done to her are actually about her.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Roughly half of the men Lord Simon sent deserted en route to camp, not having wanted to leave their families in the first place. Later, Dougal conscripts about a dozen men to join their group, but when Jamie gives them the option to go home with no repercussions, they all chose to return home.
- Shellshocked Veteran: Claire after her WWII experiences. It all comes back to her with force.
- Skewed Priorities: Dougal is more concerned about getting a good spot in the Prince's war council than making sure the men can actually survive a skirmish against the English.
- Stealth Insult: Surprised to learn that Claire told Jamie about accepting Dougal's offering of marriage for protection in the event of Jamie's death, Dougal replies "Well, he's a better man than me." Claire smirks and responds "Truer words have never been spoken."
- Steal the Surroundings: The Highlanders can't move the extremely heavy cannons, so they steal the wheels and firing pins, turning the heavy duty artillery into useless bricks of deadweight.
- Straight for the Commander: William Grey's strategy is to infiltrate the Scottish camp at night and kill Jamie, their commander. Unfortunately for him, Jamie is one of the best trained soldiers in the entire camp.
- Survivor's Guilt: Claire has survivor's guilt after witnessing the brutal deaths of two soldiers she befriended during the War. She overcomes it when she stops Jamie from torturing William Grey into giving up information about the English army.
- A Taste of the Lash: The preferred form of corrective punishment in Jamie's training camp.
- Too Much Alike: Dougal and Jamie are both battle hardened, stubborn, charismatic leaders, but only one can be in charge.
- Training Montage: The men are shown learning how to drill together, how to use weapons, and how to fight hand to hand. The women are shown preparing improvised weapons and first aid supplies.
- Trauma Button: The sound of exploding munitions triggers Claire's PTSD, throwing her into a flashback of being caught in a Nazi ambush where all her companions were killed.
- Victory Sex: Averted. While Jamie is clearly wired and in the mood after raiding the British camp, he stops Claire short of any real action, saying that as much as he'd like to, they don't have time. The British soldiers will soon wake and realize what has happened to their camp supplies.
- War Is Hell: This is shown through Claire's flashbacks of the Second World War.
- We ARE Struggling Together: Used to having the upper-hand while Jamie lived at Castle Leoch, Dougal continually attempts to usurp Jamie's command. Jamie struggles to reign in his uncle without publicly embarrassing the man, finally having to confront Dougal with the fact that he has no authority as they are neither at Castle Leoch nor are these men MacKenzies.
- While You Were in Diapers: Dougal reminds Jamie that he was training warriors back when Jamie was still suckling at his mother's teat.
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Despite his attempt to kill Jamie, the Highlanders take it relatively easy on William Grey as he is obviously still a kid, barely 16-years-old.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Claire and Jamie make Grey believe Claire is in danger of being raped in order to convince him to divulge British military secrets.
- Young and in Charge: Throughout the Rebellion arc, Jamie will be one of the youngest commanders save for perhaps Bonnie Prince Charlie himself.
- Your Other Left: The men are not very good at even the basic soldiering, struggling to act in accord even when given the most basic commands such as Left face (Turn 90 degrees Left), Right face (Turn 90 degrees Right), and About face (Turn 180 degrees Right). Murtagh dope slaps more than one soldier for being unable to distinguish their left from their right.
