‘Outlander’ season 2, episode 12 review: Death without dignity

For this weekend’s new episode of “Outlander,” there was clearly one moral to the story: Nothing comes easy in life, and even seeing the future does not mean that you can change the present.

While we anticipate something huge coming soon in the Battle of Culloden, the story in “The Hail Mary” was more about death via other means, whether it be illness or natural causes. What happened to Alex Randall particularly harrowing, beginning with how his brother Jonathan was willing to (temporarily) present himself as a slightly different person in order to figure out if he could see his brother spared. However, what he realized not long after that was that there was no real way for this to happen. Claire, despite her best efforts, only was able to end some of his suffering, and kept him alive long enough to make plans for Mary.

This is what Mary becoming Black Jack Randall’s husband was ultimately all about: Finding a way to make sure she would be properly cared for in the event that both Randall brothers die. Also, her being with child illustrates the interesting relationship between history and reality. Maybe Claire has ended up fulfilling the Randall family legacy, but in a very different way than expected.

Jack did not take Alex’s death well, violently attacking his corpse in yet another reminder (to go along with his conversation with Claire from earlier) that this is very much the monster we remember. He is threatening, imposing, and unafraid of facing death in the face. We loathe him so, and kudos to Tobias Menzies for allowing it to be this way.

It’s odd that we went this far without even discussing the end of Colum MacKenzie, and what this means for both Dougal and also Jamie given the sort of promises and proclamations that Colum attempted to lay at Jamie’s feet rather than his own brother. With that, we say farewell to another critical character to this story, especially when you look back at the events of season 1 perpetuated by his hand.

An additional note for this episode is that despite the best attempts by Jamie to divert things from Culloden, Prince Charles’ men being a no-show at his attempted nighttime attack all but guarantees that it will happen. Here, we’ve got a group of men so determined that their way of thinking is right based mostly on pride and ego, and not by looking at the facts such as the state of the Culloden battlefield. This could be the end for them, and oddly, they don’t seem too concerned about the possibility of losing. The show played out this stubbornness and temperament very well.

While the Jack Randall scenes were of course tough to watch, there’s no denying this was another brilliant episode that sets the stage properly for the finale. Grade: A.

If you are interested in getting some other news right now when it comes to “Outlander,” just be sure to head over to the link here! Also, sign up over here to secure some other TV news on all we cover, sent right over to you via our official CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: Starz.)