Recap of Outlander
Season 5, Episode 9:
Monsters and Heroes
A nasty snake bite during a hunting trip leaves Jamie teetering on the brink of death with Roger scrambling to get him to medical care. The residents of Fraser's Ridge band together to help their leader but Claire faces an agonizing decision on how to save Jamie's life.
Tropes
- Accidental Pun: After the scene in which Jamie is snake bitten, the scene cuts to the women at home. Lizzie looks at the sky and says "It's a good day for dyeing". Claire laughs and says "I hope you mean the wool."
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: The show makes Jamie extremely distressed by the idea of losing his leg, to the point of being a Jerkass about it. In the books, while Jamie still doesn't want to lose his leg, it's Claire who is more distressed by the idea despite knowing it might be medically necessary. Jamie has to convince her that he's okay with it, knowing that leg or no, the people of the Ridge still need him.
- Amputation Stops Spread: Invoked but averted. When Jamie is getting sicker and sicker from the snake bite, he and Claire have to discuss whether or not they should amputate the leg to save his life. Jamie is firmly against it, not wanting to lose his leg, even if it means dying. He eventually capitulates when he literally feels himself on the cusp of death, but the decision is thankfully nullified when Brianna is able to fashion a syringe to administer the lifesaving penicillin.
- Anger Born of Worry: Invoked by Jamie. He tells Claire that when he's injured but it's going to be okay, she tears him a new one for being stupid enough to get hurt. But when he's hurt and she's nothing but nice to him, that means he's in real trouble.
- Damned by Faint Praise: Jamie comes to the cabin looking for Brianna because he needs a good marksman for their hunt. Brianna declines but volunteers Roger, who is known for being a very bad shot. But Jamie is not willing to outright insult the man by declining to let him join the group.Jamie: If you're willing, Roger Mac. I need able-bodied men and... able-bodied you are.
- Find the Cure!: Claire sets the Ridge Residents to work searching for maggots that can be applied to Jamie's leg to eat the necrotic tissue.
- Foreshadowing: Jamie asks Roger to kill Stephen Bonnet if Jamie doesn't survive long enough to do so himself. Roger says that he doesn't believe he can kill another person. He then quotes Matthew 18:6 which says that it would be better to have a millstone wrapped around your neck and be drowned in the sea than to cause an innocent to commit sin. Sure enough, after plotting kidnap and murder, Stephen Bonnet is sentenced to drown at sea for all the harm he's caused. Brianna ends up mercy killing him, the first time she's ever taken a life.
- Friendship Moment: Jamie and Roger's relationship has been rocky at best with neither man really liking the other, but begrudgingly getting along because of their mutual care for Brianna. But the effort Roger puts into saving Jamie's life and the conversations that allow them to hash out their differences shifts their relationship of one of mutual trust and friendship.
- The Grand Hunt: Jamie, Roger, and the men go on a hunt for bison.
- Imminent Danger Clue: Jamie's horse arriving back alone is what alerts the Ridge that Roger and Jamie are in trouble.
- Injection Plot: Part of the plot focuses on the fact that Jamie needs an injection of penicillin, as topical or orally dosed penicillin is not nearly as ineffective. However, Lionel Brown broke her only syringe several episodes ago, leaving her without a means of injection.
- Interrupted Intimacy: Jamie, excited to go hunting, barges into the MacKenzie's cabin, accidentally interrupts Roger and Brianna's morning canoodling. He awkwardly flushes when he realizes what he's interrupted.
- Intimate Healing: When Jamie's body has gone ice cold and his heart appears to be on the brink of stopping, Claire uses her own body heat and a hand job to get his temperature and heart beat back up to snuff.
- Karmic Nod: Jamie wonders if dying of a snake bite is his penance for saving Stephen Bonnet's life, allowing the man to harm multiple other people as a result.
- Last Request: Believing he's dying, Jamie begins to try to prepare Roger to take over as the head of the household. He gives him a rundown of who can't be trusted and who can't, tells him what to do with his belongings, asks him to finish their revenge on Stephen Bonnet, and to take Claire, Brianna, and Jemmy back through the stones where it's safer.
- Let's Split Up, Gang!: Jamie and his crew of hunters break up into smaller groups to herd the bison into a more easily hunted pattern of movement. This conveniently pairs up Roger and Jamie for their plot arc.
- Now, Let Me Carry You: The Ridge is populated by dozens of people who Jamie has helped over the course of his life. Now, when Jamie is dying, everyone comes together to do whatever they can to help him.
- Prayer Is a Last Resort: Roger initially refuses to give Jamie his Last Rites, insisting Jamie is not going to die. But when Jamie falls unconscious, Roger prays a prayer of healing over him.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Surprisingly, one from Young Ian to Jamie. Ian has always idolized his uncle, but he's disgusted to hear Jamie behaving as though amputation is A Fate Worse Than Death when both Fergus (Jamie's adopted son) and Ian Senior (Young Ian's father) have lived productive lives for decades after losing a limb.
- Saved by the Phlebotinum: Brianna's hastily crafted snake fang syringe allows Claire to inject Jamie with the dose of penicillin he needs, curtailing the blood infection that was killing him and negating the need to amputate his leg.
- Suck Out the Poison: Roger's first attempt at helping Jamie after he's bitten by a snake.
