‘Outlander’ episode 11 review: One side now?

“Outlander” to us has been so far one of those series that you can tell has the potential be great, but just is lacking a tool or two in order to get it there. Sometimes, we’ve felt like it was too reliant on either the shock value or the sex to bring in eyeballs. This time around, the series really forced us to buy back in to the premise, and created what to us was its finest episode yet in “The Devil’s Mark.”

There are many individual twists that we could break down here in some manner, but let us start with what to us was the surprise of the night: Learning that Claire is not the only time-traveler in this world! Geillis was one, too, and as a means to spare Claire at the witchcraft trial (she knew that she could not be saved), she showed the court what was her mark of the devil: A smallpox vaccine. This proved that she was also from the future,but Claire was never able to have a real conversation with her about it before she was burned at the stake.

This surprise led to another enormous twist, as Jamie then questioned the mark that Claire also had. From here, she proceeded to finally tell the truth about everything: Who she was, where she came from, and how she had tried to get back home the night she was captured by Black Jack Randall. This created a mixture of emotions in his head; obviously he loves her, but he also wants her to be happy. If going back to her own time will do that, he wants that to happen. Therefore, he took her to her place of transport, and allowed her the chance to go back home.

Did she make that choice? We still do not know. Thanks to a brilliant move on the show’s part, we never saw. All we know is that she is back with Jamie now. Maybe she tried and failed, or maybe she decided that she would rather be with Jamie anyway. It should be noted that we are not a book reader, and there is a part of us that enjoys the mystery of it all.

While Claire and Jamie head towards his ancestral home, we go away from this episode feeling largely satisfied. It was eventful, but most of all important and it brings in that element of fantasy to the series that we’ve been hoping for the entire second half of this season. Well done all around. Grade: A-.

What did you think about this “Outlander” episode? Let us know with a comment.