Outlander season 7 episode 5 recap: An intense, looming threat
NOTE: This post contains spoilers for Outlander season 7 episode 5, "Singapore".
We are now past the midpoint of Outlander season 7 and the show has switched things up in its opening credits, introducing new glimpses of what’s to come for its beloved characters. In fact, things are kicking up a notch. In 1980, Brianna and Roger are settling into a new work-life balance while in 1777, Claire and Jamie are busy participating in the American Revolution. Other characters are also slowly but surely taking up more space in the show, adding to the various stories the series has to tell.
Whether it is William and the Hunters, Young Ian or wee Jemmy, everyone was quite busy in the latest episode of Outlander, titled “Singapore”. Let’s recap what happened to all of them.
Like father like daughter
In the beginning of this new episode of Outlander, Bree finds her children playing in the graveyard of Lallybroch. Her son, Jemmy, explains that his sister wanted to talk to their grandad, and Bree can’t help but ask if they found her father’s tombstone.
They haven’t, but in any case she just cannot bring herself to enter the graveyard, afraid it might mean her parents are really gone. Later on, Roger finds her in his office, crying over the box of letters they received from Claire and Jamie. They decide to open a new one and find out that, in 1777, Claire and Jamie weren’t on their way back to Scotland after all, but had instead been wrapped up in the war.
Indeed, in the past, Claire and Jamie are now doing their part for the revolution. At Fort Ticonderoga, Jamie is once again a colonel in charge of a crew of men while Claire provides her medical expertise to those who need it (as much as the men there will let her). But things are not going great for Jamie as he alerts his superiors that the fort is vulnerable to an attack by the British army coming from the sea. They dismiss his warnings, arguing that the difficult terrain around the fort makes such a strategy from the British highly unlikely.
Meanwhile, in the 1980s, Bree is also having a hard time being listened to. As she sets for her first day at her new job at the dam of Loch Errochty, she has a feeling her male coworkers might not be keen on her being basically their boss, and she is right. While they are supposed to show her around the dam, they lock her in a tunnel. Luckily, Bree has the plant’s structure memorized, so she can easily find her way out, but not without cursing her coworkers along the way.
However, on the path out of the tunnels, Bree stumbles upon a sort of shimmering portal and struggles to cross it as she hears a familiar buzzing in her head. Did she just find a new place where time-travel is possible?
The best way to cure sadness is reading a letter from Ma and Da. Here's a sneak peek at tomorrow's new episode of #Outlander. pic.twitter.com/K6no0782D8July 13, 2023
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Hopes and expectations
Young Ian has also made his way up to Fort Ticonderoga and is now being asked to deliver a letter to someone at the Mohawk village where he used to live. Uncomfortable with the idea of seeing his former wife there, Ian would prefer they send someone else but cannot avoid the task. Before setting off, he asks Claire why he might not be able to have children. He explains to her that when he and his wife Emily lost their baby, the Mohawks pinned the death on an incompatibility of their spirits.
Ian is now worried that perhaps he cannot have children at all and refuses to put another woman through the loss he and Emily endured. Claire tells him that there could have been many reasons for his first child’s death and that it doesn’t mean he cannot have more. Happy to hear he has good chances to have children with another woman, Ian sets off on his mission.
Once at the Mohawk village, Ian runs into Emily and inquires about her son. He learns she now also has a daughter as well and tells her he is sorry for not being able to give her children. Happy to see she is doing well, he wonders if he can meet her son. Emily agrees but seems hesitant and when the child shows up, we understand why. The red-headed wee lad that walks up to Ian is obviously his son! The kid tells Ian he’s heard of him and that his grandmother says he is the child of Ian’s spirit, confirming who his father is. Emily then asks Ian if he will name the boy with an English name and Ian, happy to see he has a living son, calls him Ian James.
Meanwhile, William and the Hunters are traveling towards Fort Ticonderoga as well. It isn’t William’s destination as he has to rejoin the British army, but he shares part of the road with Denzell and Rachel. On the way, they encounter a man who offers them shelter for the night. The trio therefore spends the evening with Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, an odd couple who serves them rats for dinner. Rachel can hardly stomach it and, as it turns out, William wakes up in the middle of the night later on because of the dreadful meal. However, it is a good thing because he finds Mr. and Mrs. Johnson ready to kill them all.
A fight follows and William kills Mr. Johnson in self-defense. Mrs. Johnson confesses that this is not the first time they lure people into their home to take everything they have and leave no witnesses, but despite knowing he did what he had to do, William feels bad. He had never killed anyone before and thought the first time would be on a battlefield.
Discrimination all around
While Bree is off at work, Roger has his own troubles to deal with. He learns that Jemmy has been getting in trouble at school for speaking Gaelic and that his teachers have resorted to physically hurting him for it. Jemmy struggles to understand why speaking Gaelic is a bad thing and Roger, mad about how his son has been treated, is probably ready to bring all of his Mackenzie fury upon the school.
Later that day, Bree tells her family about her adventures at work, downplaying what really happened to avoid upsetting Roger and the kids. After dinner, she tells her husband how bad the hazing really was and how upset she is that it happened because she is a woman. The next day, she decides to confront her coworkers about the incident and tells them she will not hesitate to have them fired if they pull something like that again.
Meanwhile, Claire is tending to her patients and making the acquaintance of a new surgeon: Denzell Hunter! Helping Walter, a patient who needs an amputation, the two get along immediately and Denzell is a welcome addition to the medical staff for Claire who so far has been continuously despised by the lieutenant in charge of the medical tent… because she is a woman.
Proving a point
Denzell being at Ticonderoga means Rachel is there two, and when she runs into Young Ian, freshly back from the Mohawk village, there is no hiding the fact that these two are very happy to see each other again.
At the same time, Jamie is not making much progress in convincing his superiors of the British threat. After learning from Claire about the Fall of Singapore during World War II, he decides the only way he’ll convince the Continental Army of the British plan of attack is to demonstrate that it is feasible. He therefore sends some of his men to make his point but when he shows his general that an attack by sea is possible, the latter gets angry and shuts down his warning.
Lo and behold, what happens next is exactly what Jamie predicted. The British army shows up from the sea to attack the fort, which has to be evacuated. Unfortunately, Claire’s patient, Walter, cannot leave as his leg is not fully healed. Claire and he exchange poignant goodbyes and she leaves him to an uncertain fate in the hands of the British army.
While Claire, Jamie and co. are fleeing Ticonderoga, Bree and Roger’s evening is interrupted by a scream from Mandy. She was scared by someone outside the window and Roger rushes out to see if anyone is there. He doesn’t find anyone but earlier he did notice some rubbish laying around the property, and has the feeling that somebody is watching them...
After an eventful couple of days, we find Bree where the episode started, back to the graveyard at Lallybroch. She is now ready to confront the ghosts of the past and decides to talk to Jamie’s spirit and tell him what’s been going on with her and her family.
Who is lurking around Lallybroch? Where will Claire and Jamie go now?
Outlander is available to watch on Starz and Lionsgate+.
