Jamie and Claire are settling into life back on the Ridge in the second episode of Outlander Season 8. But the foretelling of Jamie’s death is still haunting Sam Heughan’s character, and he’s not the only one who thinks he’ll know when he will die in “Prophecies.”
Before the show gets into omens, there’s a flashback to William giving his cousin Benjamin Grey a toy soldier before he went off to war. William’s mission this episode is to find out more about his cousin’s mysterious death.
At the Ridge, Claire is in the surgery with secret-granddaughter Fanny. (Worth noting, this is Caitríona Balfe’s directorial debut!) While Claire encourages Fanny to be open about her past with their direct family, she advises the child to be careful about speaking about the brothel with anyone else on the Ridge.
Out in the woods, Roger recounts what happened with his descendant, Dougal’s son Buck, to Jamie. When discussing forgiveness, Roger may have been slyly acknowledging how he forgave Jamie for leaving him for dead back in Season 4. But if he were, Jamie was too distracted by Frank’s book to notice. He asks his historian son-in-law if he recognizes any of the names of the men that he’s allegedly going to fight alongside in the upcoming battle of King’s Mountain. Roger doesn’t, and Jamie conveniently leaves out that he’s supposed to die in the battle. He also denies Roger’s offer to read the book and questions Frank Randall’s motives in writing about him.
Captain Cunningham shows up, and Jamie and Roger guess correctly that he’s a Freemason like them. Jamie is starting a Lodge on the Ridge and invites the former British captain to join.
William is in Philadelphia for the wedding of his cousin Henry to Mercy Woodcock. (Mercy says she hopes Mr. Bryan’s bill passes the assembly to end the ban on interracial marriages. She’s most likely speaking of Governor George Bryan, who authored what would become the Gradual Abolition Act.) William supports their marriage, but he’s also there because he’s making his way to New Jersey to investigate Ben’s death. He breaks the news to Henry that his brother is dead and left behind a wife and son in Amaranthus and Trevor.
The women of the Ridge are enjoying some leisurely blueberry picking… until tragedy strikes. (And if you read the ninth Outlander book by Diana Gabaldon, Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone, you knew this was coming.) Just after Amy McCallum discusses her happiness at finding love on the Ridge, she gets attacked by a bear. They rush Amy to Claire’s surgery, but it’s too late. Claire can’t save her. Her husband, Evan, and sons, Orrie and Aidan, arrive in time to say goodbye.
Brianna struggles with the fact that she didn’t help (plus, your friend getting mauled by a bear is a pretty brutal reentry to 18th century life). She goes on the hunt for the bear, though Jamie tells Aidan that the kill can belong to him to avenge his mom. But someone beats them to it — Captain Cunningham. He has killed the bear singlehandedly, and when young Aidan marvels that he could have died, the British captain confidently replies, “There was no danger of that, I assure you.”
The captain’s mom, Mrs. Cunningham, also displays quite the nerve when she returns to the Ridge to help Claire with Amy’s body. Claire’s a bit taken aback, but the all-business, child-slapping Elspeth shows a softer side to Claire, encouraging her to mend Amy’s face as much as possible so that her loved ones can see it one more time during her wake.
In New Jersey, William isn’t getting many answers about Ben’s death, except that he died from “jail fever.” He meets the army surgeon’s assistant, who reveals that Ben was much better before he reportedly died. Hm, suspicious. William sees Benjamin’s sadly-marked grave and gets his belongings, which notably don’t include his toy soldier.
At the Ridge, Claire’s medical duties are not done as Rachel goes into labor. Rachel and Ian welcome a healthy boy, whose name is Oggy for now. Uncle Jamie has a heart-to-heart with Young Ian about being envious that Ian will have the chance to raise this son, something Jamie never got to experience with any of his children, and affirms that Ian will make a great father.
Jamie doesn’t have too long to be sentimental because a sign of his imminent death approaches in the form of Benjamin Cleveland, one of the men mentioned in Frank’s book. Cleveland wants Jamie to join his rebel militia and proudly admits he’s responsible for hanging the “Loyalist pigs” that Jamie and Brianna found in the woods. He’s pretty despicable, and it’s clear Jamie’s concerned about what will happen that could make him join forces with him.
Claire later asserts that Jamie is not going to die in that battle, but she does wonder why Frank went searching for Jamie in the past and never told her. Jamie points out, “Maybe he wasn’t searching for me, Claire. Maybe he was searching for you, to see if you’d leave him.”
Cleveland had also offered to help Jamie get rid of the Torry Captain Cunningham from his land. Though Jamie didn’t accept Cleveland’s offer, Cunningham gave Jamie more reason to distrust him at the first meeting of the Freemasons. Cunningham shares how his son Simon died during the Battle of Saratoga two years ago, but came back to life to deliver the message, “I’ll see you again in seven years.” Cunningham truly believes he will not die until then, which explains his fearlessness in taking down the bear by himself. His invincibility assertion concerns Jamie.
Speaking of cheating death, William, unsatisfied with what he’s learned about Benjamin, decides to dig up his cousin’s grave to see for himself that he’s really dead. And what he discovers is that there’s another man buried in Ben’s grave. Is Ben really dead?! And if not, who the hell is Amaranthus?!
Jamie’s own death looms large as he continues to agonize over Soul of a Rebel. He hears Frank in his head, antagonizing him about the day of his death. Even making love to Claire doesn’t quiet the voice as Frank’s voice says, “You’re going to die. Who will hold her once you’re gone?” Damn, those Randalls are always so brutal to Jamie.
With lots of questions about who has died and who will die and when, only one person truly died in “Prophecies” — poor Amy. In the meantime, Jamie will be left to put together the puzzle pieces that Frank left him and see if he has time to change his fate.
Caitlin Gallagher is a New Jersey-raised, NYC-based entertainment writer. When not writing about or watching TV, she can be found planning her next Halloween costume, crying over rescue animals, or praising Season 2 of The Leftovers.
