Spoilers below.

Claire Fraser (Caitriona Balfe) didn’t need to travel back to the 18th century to experience war. At the start of the penultimate episode of season 7, a montage begins with Claire’s WWII nurse role before showing the subsequent Outlander battles. Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan) is about to head into combat again, trading a kilt and sword for breeches and a musket. Death is the overarching theme of a sequence that also resembles a love letter to departed faces like Murtagh (Duncan Lacroix), who Claire directly quotes (“There’s always a war coming”). Despite the joy at seeing fan favorites, we are quickly reminded of his fate. “War is inevitable, and death is too,” Claire observes.

The somber mood continues after the credits (the painting featured is “Molly Pitcher at the Battle of Monmouth” by Dennis Malone Carter, but with a clothed Jamie replacing the shirtless man) as Jamie contemplates the task ahead. “You need the strength of your dead in battle,” he says. Ian (John Bell) talked with his dead father last week, and Jamie remembers his mother, who died in childbirth when Jamie was young. His father’s visceral grief and the dead baby in her arms are images he cannot shake. Whereas his mother didn’t have a single grey hair on her 38-year-old head, he sees Claire’s aging as a blessing; it is a gift to grow old.

While Jamie is confident the Battle of Monmouth will not be the end of the Fraser love story, the overall mood is foreboding. It cuts from Claire saying farewell to the couple sitting by a campfire under a starry sky. The sepia tone is unsettling, giving the impression this is a fantasy sequence. “Something feels different this time,” Claire says. There is a disquieting quality to her voice, which Jamie doesn’t match. “You cannae mean death,” Jamie responds. It cuts back to Claire watching Jamie leave, suggesting this conversation is in her imagination.

Before we can delve further into Claire’s psyche, we dial back the years to 1739. Buck (Diarmaid Murtagh) considers the hereditary nature of time travelers, wrongly assuming his father (who he doesn’t know) has this ability. Roger (Richard Rankin) cannot maintain a poker face, so Buck naturally wants to know what he is hiding. Roger spills that Buck’s mother is a time traveler, someone he has already met. “You made a mockery of me,” Buck accuses Roger. Suffice it to say that Buck isn’t thrilled that Geillis Duncan (Lotte Verbeek) is his mother or that he also met his father.

“What if you did something that changed the course of time?” Roger reasons. But this paradoxical issue doesn’t seem to bother any other character who reveals historical spoilers or talks to a family member. Buck also reasons Dougal MacKenzie (Graham McTavish) came by Geillis’s place because of Roger and Buck’s hunt for the “fairy man.” It was Dougal and Geillis’s first meeting, so their being here made it happen. So perhaps they cannot change history because it has always happened this way. Either way, Roger is sorry and still needs his many-times grandfather’s help.

It must be exhausting for Claire to explain in every medical scenario that she possesses the knowledge (more than any man who learned about medicine in the 18th century) to work in a field hospital. Dr. Leckie (Ben Cura) won’t listen, relegating Claire to triage outside. Regardless, Claire sets about making the most efficient system to deal with many wounded men soon to be coming their way. The exploding canons in the distance are impossible to ignore. The scene shifts again to a sepia tone, and Jamie and Claire’s conversation turns to the existential fear that nothing matters. There is more talk of death when it reverts to Claire and Rachel (Izzy Meikle-Small). Claire is worried that Jamie will get himself killed by going beyond the call of duty but doesn’t consider that she shares this characteristic with her husband.

Before riding off to battle, Jamie mentions that the last thing he said to William (Charles Vandervaart) was in anger. Claire reassures Jamie, but William remains in a sticky situation thanks to turncoat Captain Richardson (Ben Lambert). Ian and Lord John Grey (David Berry) pose as Continentals sent to take the prisoner off the hands of the Hessian soldiers. The duo explains they must see the British captain before giving the agreed payment, but Oberst Von Schnell (Martin Oelbermann) is suspicious. It quickly goes south, but luckily, Lord John and Ian pull out their pistols and shoot all but Oberst dead. “You’ll regret that one day, Mohawk,” says Oberst when Ian lets him go. I have seen enough of these shows to know this will come back to bite Ian.

Despite the recent fracture in William’s relationship with Lord John, there is instant gratitude in this reunion. William asks about the eye (the leather eyepatch adds a certain edge to Lord John’s aesthetic), and Lord John waves it off as a “tale for another time.” Williams thinks the Hessians are deserters, and Lord John fills his son in on Captain Richardson’s duplicitous plan to use Williams because of “who your family is.” Despite William getting Ian arrested the last time they saw each other, Ian bears no ill will to his cousin.

After they part ways, Ian looks troubled about his choice to leave Oberst as the sole survivor. Considering that Mr. Bug tried to kill Rachel a few episodes ago after swearing to get revenge on Ian, it seems inevitable the Hessian would make good on his warning. Instead of risking this eventuality, Ian tracks Oberst and stabs him. Maybe don’t threaten someone after they have shown contrition and let you go.

At the British camp, William immediately returns to his pity party for one. William throws back everything Lord John has imparted about the importance of honesty and your name. “A reputation is all a man ever really has,” William recites. This identity crisis is understandable but is becoming tiring as much more significant things are happening. Despite what Jamie did to Lord John’s eye, Lord John reminds William that he shouldn’t take his biological father for granted: “James Fraser is an honorable, courageous man.” Yes, he is a Scot and a rebel, but he has many good qualities. William can’t let Lord John have the last word and says he would never betray his king or country. Never say never is the essence of Lord John’s advice.

William has little time to settle back in post-kidnapping as Fanny (Florrie May Wilkinson) is furious at him for breaking his word to protect her sister Jane (Silvia Presente). In William’s defense, he was a little tied up (literally). But while he was gone, an officer recognized Jane from the brothel and arrested her for the murder of Captain Harkness, and Fanny worries the authorities will send her sister to the gallows.

It is a more peaceful setting, but encountering Jamie’s father in 1739 hits harder after hearing Jamie’s description of Brian Fraser (Andrew Whipp) reacting to his wife’s death. Brian happily aids Roger and Buck, allowing Roger to write a letter in his study. In fact, Roger is actually writing to Brianna (Sophie Skelton) in a bid to send a message through time using the desk that still sits in Lallybroch nearly 250 years later.

In 1980, Bree writes a note to Roger in case he returns to the present after she has gone into the past. My one question is how she got back into Lallybroch safely, but I guess Rob Cameron (Chris Fulton) and his crew left after she shot at them. Bree thinks about her other father, Frank (Tobias Menzies), and idly picks his book, The Soul of a Rebel, off the shelf. Part of me thinks there might be a clue in there. But when Bree goes to leave her letter in the secret drawer, she finds the one written by Roger. “What the hell?” is her relatable response. This sequence conjures images of the mailbox in the Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock time-travel movie, The Lake House. Alas, this is a one-way mail system, and Bree cannot reply.

Roger thanks Buck for having his back throughout all of this. Buck wants to take it a step further, volunteering to return to 1980 through the stones to tell Bree what has happened (in case the letter doesn’t work). Roger is his blood, and he wants to help his family. But Bree and the kids are already at the Craigh na Dun dressed in their 18th-century best. Mandy (Rosa Morris) is reluctant to leave her very 20th-century dolly behind but perks up when Bree says they will see Daddy. Bree instructs the kids to think of Roger, and in her excitement, Mandy runs straight for the stones by herself. Are they all going to end up in the same year?

Back near the Monmouth battlefield, Claire has proven to Doctor Leckie that she has surgical skills beyond his comprehension. However, the British army is retreating toward the field hospital, meaning they must move the soldiers they can. Rachel and Denzell (Joey Phillips) pack up, but Claire refuses to leave the men in her care. Doctor Leckie calls her a “bloody good surgeon,” even if he disagrees with her choice to go above and beyond the call of duty.

Lieutenant Bixby (Hyoie O’Grady) tells Claire that General Lee was relieved of his command after telling his men to retreat as General Washington was furious at this tactical error. Jamie was with Washington and proceeded to attack again, which is why the Redcoats are on the run. Claire thinks they must be winning and is thrilled when she sees Jamie return to the church. Unfortunately, the retreating Brits start firing at the Continentals, and Claire is caught in the crossfire.

Dr. Leckie announces there is “nothing to be done” as the bullet is too deep in her abdomen. Of course, the doctor Claire needs to operate on her is herself. Jamie curses the surgeon and calls him a “whore,” which even makes Claire go, “You called him a whore?” Returning to the sepia filter from earlier, this imagined version of Claire and Jamie talks about the night sky above: the stars won’t burn out, nor will their love. The starry sky in these imagined conversations shifts from sepia to color, indicating all will be well.

Jamie tries to stem the bleeding, but there is a lot of blood, and his crimson-soaked hands are one of the shots from the season 7 credits. A soldier has a message from General Lee that he needs to see Jamie now, which will never happen. Jamie tells the corporal to take off his shirt, and using Claire’s blood, he writes his resignation on the soldier’s back (“Sir, I resign, J. Fraser). It is the opposite of quiet quitting. Claire gestures that she needs Denzell, and while they wait, Jamie prays that no angels are sent for Claire, allowing Heughan to showcase his emotional range.

Thankfully, Denzell isn’t too far away and has been taught by the best. Claire can’t operate, so this is the next best option. Denzell doesn’t arrive empty-handed, as Lafayette has sent some cheese, and Claire realizes that the Roquefort is perfect for making penicillin. Cheese really is a lifesaver! Jamie tells Claire not to leave him, and Denzell tells Jamie to pray. The stars shine bright even during this perilous situation.

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