Wedding bells are ringing onOutlanderagain.
This time at River Run.
But before we get there, we kick things off with a flashback to Scotland in 1746.
Credit: Starz
A carriage is racing down the road at dawn when two English dragoons order it to halt.
Hector forces Jocasta to climb in the carriage, leaving their daughter’s body behind in the mud.
Back at River Run, Jocasta remembers this horrific event while she prepares for her wedding to Duncan Innes.
And both Jocasta and Ulysses know Ulysses did it on purpose.
Jocasta will serve as the guardian of the plantation until Jemmy comes of age.
At River Run, the wedding festivities are pretty excessive for a loveless, second marriage.
There’s a pavilion complete with metal balustrades.
Jamie is bitter that Murtagh isn’t the one at Jocasta’s side.
Lord John Grey is even there, trying to fend off advances from all the eligible ladies.
Apparently, Mrs. Tryon has a big mouth.
Look at you, you thought you could escape pandemic measures and coronavirus discussion by watching a period piece.
But really though, Tryon is so ahead of his time, instituting basic shelter-in-place legislation.
Too bad we currently lack this level of national leadership.
Meanwhile, the residents of the Ridge are preparing for a different bang out of plagueone of locusts.
They fear the insects will destroy their crops and want to burn Jamie’s fields to prevent a spread.
But Roger fears that could spin out of control and set all of their homes on fire.
This leaves Roger to have to devise an alternative solution.
But the man is rumored to be in tremendous gambling debt.
Mistress Tryon proves a great wing-woman and makes up a fake Jocasta emergency to get her outta there.
He’s already looking forward to New York, having been offered the governorship there.
Jamie urges him to leave a legacy of mercy behind, but Tryon ain’t buying it.
Roger and Bree prepare the Ridge for Operation Smoke the Locusts Out.
They walk off together, and Wylie admires both of her wedding rings.
Right, because that’s the only reason.
Back on the Ridge, they’re lighting fires and blowing smoke with bedsheets.
Roger and the settlers watch with dread as the cloud of locusts approaches.
Soon, the locusts almost block out the sun and there’s smoke all around them.
But it passes quickly, and they all embrace as they hope for the best.
Jamie decides to give a shot to engage Wylie in a wager, a game of whist.
He threatens to get Mistress Tryon to spread word of his ungentlemanly nature.
This is his offerif Wylie wins, Wylie gets to leave with his honor intact.
If he loses, Jamie gets his horse.
But the thing is Wylie doesn’t really care about his pride, only gold.
This leads Jamie to ask Claire for her gold wedding ring from Frank as collateral.
Claire is furious, knowing Wylie knows how much it means to her and is seeking revenge.
But Jamie is insistent, hoping this is the way to get their shot at vengeance on Bonnet.
Roger’s smoky plot works.
They lose some beans, but the cornfields are saved.
The men on the Ridge admit they were skeptical, but now are indebted to Roger’s smarts.
But Roger is honestly just relieved to have gotten through the crisis in one piece.
It’s Murtagh!!!
But the real reason he’s come is to ask her to wait for him.
They kiss, but she pushes him away.
Her two eldest daughters died in fires set by the Brits after Culloden.
Now, she sits in a house built by the gold that took her children from her.
There’s not a moment she doesn’t think of this.
Murtagh finally tells Jocasta he loves her, but it’s not enough.
Claire is still mad that he almost let Bonnet take the rings from them, metaphorically speaking, again.
She slaps him for it, but it turns out that’s just foreplay.
In the afterglow, Jamie apologizes for coming after her like that, but she admits she liked it.
Jamie reveals that he agrees with Wylie to trade the horse back for a whisky partnership.
Mr. Bonnet will soon be meeting whisky purveyor Alexander Malcolm, Jamie’s old Edinburgh smuggler alias.
Speaking of the devil, Bonnet is taking a meeting in Wilmington with Mr. Forbes at a coffeehouse.
This can only be bad news for everyone.
The episode ends on an even lower note as Jamie goes to visit Tryon once more.
What’d you think Sassenachs?
