Not only that: Randall branded him, too, with his initials, as though Jamie were a monogrammed towel. “He made love to me, Claire,” says Jamie, disgusted with himself. Randall uses every tool at his disposal - pain, relief, lust, and even the specter of Claire - to break Jamie. Eventually Jamie has no choice but to oblige. When that approach doesn’t work, he tries plan B, flipping Jamie over across a wooden table and pounding into him while instructing Jamie to scream. “Jamie,” says Randall at one point, his voice almost gentle, “I just want this to be a pleasant experience for us both.”
But that doesn’t make these scenes easier to watch. Tobias Menzies holds nothing back in his portrayal of a creatively sadistic villain who is in love with his victim, and he deserves all the Emmys. Then, though it’s the last thing we want, we are treated to a flashback of Jamie’s torture, which is one of the more perverse bits of television I have ever seen. “What did Randall do to you?” Claire asks, in desperation. Jamie is raving he doesn’t recognize Claire and won’t let her touch him.
In the book, the monastery is in France, but the Starz team has to wrap up this story in less than an hour and there’s no time to cross the Channel, so local monks will have to do. Shortly thereafter, our heroes have reached a monastery. I can hardly find flattering jeans in the 21st century - how on Earth did she get a pair in an age when no woman would be caught dead in them? No time to ask her about it the boys come rattling up with what remains of Jamie in the back of a cart, and Claire jumps in there with him. A-plus plan!įurther down the road, Claire waits impatiently, wearing pants that fit her so well I’m jealous. Murtagh swaddles Jamie in his plaid and the clansmen manage to spirit Jamie away while the British remain distracted by the cows. Though still beautiful, of course, and still awfully like a hunky Scottish Jesus. Seeing him unconscious and bleeding, they leave him for dead and instead go after Jamie – who is semi-conscious at best, and bleeding, and naked, and looking rather the worse for wear. The clansmen following the beasts give Randall the barest glance. How will Jamie’s wife and clansmen manage to rescue him from the Pit of Despair at the very bottom of Wentworth Prison, where he has been savaged - and ravaged - by his besotted arch nemesis Captain Jonathan “Black Jack” Randall? As it turns out, all they need is one very large, hairy diversion.Ī herd of cattle storms the prison basement, knocking Randall flat when he goes to investigate the hellish sound of hoofs echoing through the stone halls.
It puts the recent brouhaha over Sansa Stark and Ramsey Bolton’s wedding night to shame.įirst things first, though: We have to free our hero. But the darkness … it is impressive, even by the standards of cable television. The finale takes us even further into the darkness and then, of course, the light. Season one’s penultimate episode got pretty Catholic, what with all the Passion Play, Jamie-as-our-Lord imagery.