Jack is back! Claire Fraser (Caitriona Balfe) and Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan) came face-to-face with their archnemesis, Jack Randall (Tobias Menzies), during the Saturday, May 7, episode of Starz's Outlander, and his reappearance could be the end of their relationship. Not only that, but Claire had a super-duper awkward conversation with Jamie's ex-girlfriend, who is clearly not over him. It's, like, get in line, Annalise de Marillac (Margaux Châtelier).
First Up, Let's Check on Mary Hawkins
Last week's episode of Outlander was a major dramafest, mostly due to the fact that Claire and her friend Mary Hawkins (Rosie Day) were attacked — and, in Mary's case, raped — on the streets of Paris. To make matters worse, Mary's boyfriend, Alex Randall (Laurence Dobiesz), was mistakenly arrested for being her rapist because literally nothing goes right in 18th-century Paris.
The good news is that Mary writes a letter clearing her man's name. The bad news is she gives it to Claire — who goes insane in the membrane when she realizes that if Mary and Alex get married, her husband, Frank (also played by Menzies), will never be born. Claire briefly considers burning Mary's letter, but instead of letting Alex rot in jail, she busts him out and informs him that he's too jobless and sickly to make a good husband for Mary — paving the way for her to marry Jack Randall. Wow, Claire. We know you want to save Future Frank's life, but ensuring Mary's marriage to a known rapist is all kinds of shady.
Next Up, Let's Check on Jamie's Tragic Attempts to Change the Future
Reminder: Claire and Jamie are in Paris to change the future and stop the Jacobite rebellion, a plan that can best be described by the words epic and fail. Despite successfully stopping the Duke of Sandringham (Simon Callow) from funding Prince Charles (Andrew Gower), the prince brokers a deal with the Comte St. Germain (Stanley Weber) — intending profits from a mutual wine sale to aid the rebellion. Claire and Jamie's plan? Using "herbs" to make everyone think the Comte's shipment has smallpox, thus ensuring that the wine will be destroyed and Charles will lose his money. Ugh, TFW you're trying to stop a rebellion in 18th-century Paris, but everything is just really hard and annoying.
Oh, and speaking of the Comte, Jamie is 100 percent convinced that he's responsible for a) poisoning Claire, and b) attacking Mary, and he's on a mission to uncover the truth. Of course, as we all know, Jamie is terrible at sleuthing, but he does realize that whoever raped Mary was a patron of his local brothel. Why? Because — somewhat hilariously — Jamie told everyone there that Claire is La Dame Blanche as an excuse for not having sex with prostitutes, which means Mary's rapists must have overheard him.
Jamie Challenges Jack to a Duel
There's so much drama, where do we even begin? Basically, Claire's wandering around Versailles (as ya do) when she runs into Annalise de Marillac, Jamie's ex-girlfriend. This #hater wastes no time musing on how fabulous Jamie was back in the days of yore, and Claire is all *eye roll* before stopping short at the sight of Jack Randall. Yikes.
Turns out Jack is in town to help out his brother, and after an insanely tense conversation with Claire and the king (in which the king throws massively hilarious shade), Jamie shows up. More awkwardness follows, and finally Jamie challenges Jack to a duel out of the king's earshot. Naturally, Jack says yes (which thrills Jamie), so this episode has a totally a happy ending, right? Ha-ha, so wrong.
In Which Claire and Jamie Might Be Dunzo
Jamie's reaction to dueling Jack is best described as pure glee, but unfortunately Claire isn't thrilled by the prospect of Frank's direct ancestor dying. So she goes ahead and gets Jack thrown in jail by claiming he's Mary's rapist.
Jamie's understandably furious with Claire for going behind his back, but things only get worse when she asks him not to kill Jack in order to save Frank. In fact, Claire takes things one step further by claiming that Jamie owes her a life for all the times she's saved his. The whole exchange gets super dramatic when Jamie puts a knife to his chest and tells Claire to off him (he can't live while Jack lives, mmmk?), but he eventually calms down and agrees not to kill his rival for at least a year.
Sounds good, but guys, Jamie is pissed. And judging from the way he dramatically yelled "Do not touch me!" we're thinking this could be a relationship-ending moment. With that in mind, please prepare for the second coming of #droughtlander.
P.S. If you need a glimmer of happiness to get you through the week, Jamie presented Claire with some heirloom spoons for their baby and it was a supercute moment. Too bad everything went to hell right after.
Tell Us: Will Jamie stick to his word and cancel his duel?
Outlander airs on Starz Saturdays at 9 p.m. ET.
