Or why Claire wouldn’t have rubbed whiskey on the baby’s gums. That was very common in her 1940s era and fairly effective.
One would imagine it was a known treatment in the Scottish Highlands, too 
You’d think! 
Hmmpfh. I misunderstood. But yeah still - who needs their own goat when there are many other options available. It just wasn’t believable.
Watched episode 6 and fangirled all over the place. They preserved the line, perfectly.
James Alexander Malcolm Mackenzie Fraser: doesn’t mind you’re not a virgin… if you don’t mind that he is.
My husband asked me if I needed a paper bag.
Sattua – me, too. With a side of SQUEEEE.
I didn’t know Mel Gibson was directing this.
I guess you mean the “hundred lashes”? The hundred lashes is in the books, and Jack Randall is a sociopath and a sadist. I think they caught that well.
The bit Jack Randall said about he and Jamie making “beautiful art” was, um, weird. Though it does show what he really is.
The second 30 minutes of the show were brilliant, and completely forgive all divergence from the book. Like the shinty scene, it was “different but better”.
The first thirty minutes were a complete waste of air time.
The bad: I hate that, once again, that they’ve made Claire look like a drunk Lucy VanPelt.
In the book, there is no surprise meeting with the Redcoats. There is no General to dine with and delight with her Scottish adventures, she does not amputate the arm off a British soldier, and most importantly, she does not forget her place and accidentally offer her treacherous opinion on the merits of Scottish resistance. TV Claire really, really needs to lay off the wine.
If you want to know what happens in the book, read on:
[spoiler]Claire is rather contentedly on the road with the Scots, and her relationship with Jamie is growing a bit each day, when she is surprised by Dougal’s news that the English are in the area. Since the plan all along was to deliver her to Ft. William (serendipitously very near Craigh na dun where the standing stones are) for safe transport back to her family, Dougal takes advantage of their unexpected presence to deliver her early. Neither has an inkling that the commanding officer is… Black Jack Randall.
In her very brief interview with the Captain, who is the highest ranking officer and clearly feared by his men, she remains silent. She makes up no story about an illicit love affair, nor does she ever mention Jamie’s floggings. (Would you want to waken a sadist’s obsession in the middle of a tense interview?) Because of her insolence in not answering her questions, a quietly enraged Randall punches her in the gut. Shaken, she is allowed to leave with Dougal.
It is only THEN that he tells her that he has been ordered to deliver her to Ft. William by such and such date. And she is so upset that she nearly faints. Because all of her plans would be completely derailed by this. She could very possibly end up in an English prison the rest of her life. That is when he relays the plan he and Ned have concocted, to have her marry a Scot. She’s shocked and appalled.[/spoiler]
I thought it was really odd that TV Claire showed no reaction to Randall’s demand that she be delivered to him by sundown the next night. That news should have been extremely upsetting to her. I’d have expected her to beg Dougal to do something, anything to keep her away from Randall, including making up an excuse to divert to Craigh na Dun. (“I’ve got money buried there, money that you can use for the Jacobite cause!”) Instead, she was preoccupied with making Dougal believe she’s not a spy. Who cares what he thinks at that point?
I also wished that they’d have kept in the line where Dougal, bewildered by her resistance, offers up Rupert as her bridegroom instead.
The good: I’ve never seen Tobias Menzies in action, but he can certainly chew up a scene.
I think that the flogging scene was very effective, though I was hoping to see Dougal react more emotionally, not to mention other people in the crowd. It was a very shocking and appalling thing for both the Highlanders and Randall’s men to see an officer behave so shamefully and sadistically.
What a great episode. Last week I was struggling with the show and Claire; but this week I’m totally on board.
Holy crap Tobias Menzies can act his ass off. And even though I knew KNEW where the scene was heading I was lulled into a sense of complacency right along with Claire.
Really looking forward to next week. We are finally going to get to see more of JAMMF, thank goodness. The virgin line was just done so perfectly. And the sense that really they don’t know each other; Jaime is “just one of the guys” is done with a heavier hand than in the book - in the book they are better friends at this point. But for the show, its really working.
PunditLisa I agree, Claire needs to quit drinking in dicey situations.
Jamie was only on screen for about two minutes, but in my opinion he also acted his ass off. It was the first time I was able to see some fun, subtle layering in what he was doing. You can see everything Jamie thinks in his face.
Which is great for TV.
Book-readers, however, will harumph that Jamie’s face is supposed to be a closed book. Claire is the glass-faced one
A hundred lashes was not an uncommon punishment in the British Army of the time. Sometimes more, up to a thousand lashes, which invariably proved fatal. It may have been unusual for an Army captain to flog a civilian, or to see an officer flogging anyone, as this was usually done by a corporal with a strong arm, but his soldiers would have seen such a sight many, many times.
At the end of the episode, my wife said, “Emmys should come out of this”.
The excessive cruelty was that the 2nd round of lashes were delivered before the first round of wounds had healed. The initial punishment was already seen as excessive for the relatively innocuous charge of “obstruction.” But the second hundred lashes, which were added on when the good Captain couldn’t get the prisoner to cry out, and administered while his back was still raw and bleeding from the first round? Grossly excessive and unnecessarily cruel…which was supposed to be illustrated by the British guard fainting.
Thank you for clarifying this. I again found myself asking my girlfriend, “is she really that stupid in the books ???”
TV Claire seems to be doing EVERYTHING in her power to NOT get back to the stones (and “back to the future” - couldn’t resist 
She’s got the general like putty in her hands to have arranged an escort to Inverness, and then…let’s just spout off about the “Scott’s land and who’s invading who” ! Unbelievable. I don’t think she can even use the wine as an excuse.
Which then leads to her only “legal” protection: to marry Jamie…a known fugitive from the english (were there no “aiding a fugitive” laws back then ?) This choice seems to 1) tighten her bonds to the McKenzies (who don’t want her to leave), and 2) alienate her further from the english (who could get her where she wants to go).
While yes she is being incredibly stupid and more than once, and needs to learn how to keep her mouth shut at key moments, Claire still could have wiggled out of the situation if Randall wasn’t there. He goaded her into her injudicious remarks in the first place because he doesn’t trust her and wanted to tease out whether she was a Scottish, French, whatever spy. She is sympathetic to the Scots but not for the reasons he thinks; more from a general 20th century human rights perspective than any particular care for Jacobites. Though she clearly is growing fond of them personally at this point.
Claire is marrying Jamie for a fairly short-term goal: So that she doesn’t have to go to Ft William and fall back into Randall’s hands. She has to figure that getting away from the Scots, married or not, will be easier than getting away from Randall, who has revealed himself to be a sadist. Also who knows - maybe Randall would ship her off to London, and then she’d be really fucked. At least married to Jamie she’s staying within striking distance of Craigh na Dun.
I told my wife, “That guy who plays the villain should just submit this as his Emmy episode.” I doubt he’ll get one, but he was gripping in the whole scene in the dining room.
Well, yes, it was. But I suspect that reflects modern sensibilities on the part of Ronald Moore. As I said, Randall’s soldiers would have seen 200 lashes applied before. They didn’t stop after 100 to let the victim’s back heal. (Although the regimental surgeon would be on hand for any flogging, and could stop it if he judged the punishment was excessive.) I mean, yes, the whole thing was brutal; but not unusual for the time.
Im 20 minutes into the first episode. Perhaps I am too wary of modern female figures written into historical dramas. The herione is giving me flashbacks of this, both the original series and the linked video:
Not Ron D Moore; that was in the book. Jamie was in such bad nick after the first 100 that the surgeon stepped in to demand that he be given a week to recover.
IIRC, in the book, Black Jack gave him the first 100 also, which goes some way toward explaining why he needed time to recover.