NOTE: This post contains spoilers for Outlander season 7 episode 2, "The Happiest Place on Earth". [check out our Outlander season 7 episode 1 recap]
After ending its season premiere on a cliffhanger, Outlander season 7 chose to forgo giving viewers answers regarding Richard Brown’s fate (let’s face it, Jamie most likely killed him) and took us back to the Ridge several weeks after the events of the first episode. Now that Claire is no longer accused of murder, all should be well in the Frasers’ life, right? Well, not so fast Sassenachs.
Let’s take a look at how Outlander throws a new curveball at its characters in “The Happiest Place on Earth”.
Bye, Allan
Before we can truly move on from the storylines of season 6, Outlander has one more character to deal with: Allan Christie. This second episode of season 7 starts with Allan and Claire having a not-so-nice chat by Malva’s grave. As he weeps over his sister’s resting place, Alan reveals that he loved her a little too much and it becomes clear that the siblings had an incestual relationship (what is this, House of the Dragon?). Claire’s doubts about Tom Christie being Malva’s murderer are reinforced when she understands that the killer was, in fact, Allan.
He was jealous of the fact that Malva slept with other men to hide that she was pregnant with his child and when she refused to continue to pretend that the baby was Jamie’s, he killed her.
Gruesome flashbacks are peppered here and there to illustrate his tale, and when Allan is done yelling that Malva was his, he tries to put a take his own life. Claire stops him but Allan doesn’t stay alive very long because Young Ian steps in and ends his days with an arrow.
Ian had thought Malva’s baby was his, but even if it wasn’t, he argues the child deserved to live, while Allan didn’t. He and Claire go to the woods to bury Allan’s body and are interrupted by Mrs. Bug who admits she never thought Allan Christie was a good person, so she helps them bury the dead. At last, all the Christies are gone!
She who is loved
It is now time for Bree to have her baby and Claire helps her give birth to a beautiful baby girl. Roger and Brianna choose to name her Amanda, Latin for “She who is loved” and are happy new parents. Everyone is overjoyed by the new family addition and there is even a birth announcement published in the newspaper by Fergus.
The grandparents are delighted: Jamie shows the bairn her future horse and Claire takes her on a tour of her surgery and suggests she might want to be a doctor too someday. But as she looks over the child, Claire notices a tinge of blue on her nails. Worried, she listens to Amanda’s heart and her own plummets in her chest. It turns out the baby suffers from a heart defect and her prognosis is not good.
Claire tells Bree and Roger their daughter’s only hope is surgery, one she cannot perform herself, but she does know someone who can… in the future. Bree and Roger then have to make the decision to take their family back to the future, where baby Mandy can be saved.
The return of Lord John
To go back to their time, Roger, Bree and their children need gemstones. At first, they are unsure Mandy can even hear the gem and travel to the future, but their son Jemmy confirms they both have this ability. The Frasers and Mackenzies are then off to Wilmington to find more gems before traveling to the stone circle of Ocracoke.
In Wilmington, Bree runs into an old family friend, Lord John Grey, and his son William (who is actually Jamie’s son and Brianna’s secret brother). He is here with his British army regiment to put an end to the rebellion. She hides her delight to finally meet William rather well, and Jamie spots them from afar. He nods to John but doesn’t approach, aware that it is best for him to avoid having contacts with William. When the latter takes his leave, Bree questions whether Lord John will ever tell him the truth about his parentage. While John considers that to be unwise, Bree tells him of the man who raised her, Frank, and of how she never stopped loving him. To her, William finding out about Jamie would not make him love John less.
After this encounter, Jamie visits with Lord John. The two men are on opposite sides of the looming revolutionary conflict, and while they both agree that William doesn’t need to know about his origins, they cannot agree on the rebellion. Jamie remains on the side of the Sons of Liberty, and John remains a servant of the Crown. To Jamie, their continued association is becoming more and more dangerous for them, and they must cut all ties between them. Before these friends have to sadly part ways, and knowing the Frasers are in town to get some gems, Lord John gives Jamie a sapphire (one he has been holding onto ever since they met at Ardsmuir prison).
Preparing for goodbyes
Roger managed to find some gems in Wilmington and with Lord John’s gift the Mackenzies now have all they need to go through the stones, but before they do so, Jamie wants to spend some time with his daughter.
They take a moon and firefly-lit walk during which Bree tells her father about Disneyland, a place where nothing bad can happen. She recalls going there with Claire and Frank when she was a child, and explains how it is called the happiest place on earth. Jamie then cannot help but ask if this time, this place, is a disappointment to Bree compared to her own time. “Not at all, you are magical to me,” she tells her father, before they speculate about how Jamie would handle traveling to the future.
Back at the inn, Jamie tells Claire of talking about the future with Bree, and admits that he has once dreamt about Claire being in her own time. He explains he knew it was the future because the light surrounding Claire was like nothing he had ever seen and must have been electric light. Jamie wishes they could go to the future with Bree and Roger, and he eventually gives Claire a gem he has been saving. Should he be killed, he thought she could use it, and he wonders if she might want to use it now to go back with the Mackenzies. To emphasize that there is no way she is leaving him behind, Claire throws the gem out the window.
Through the stones and back to the Ridge
On Ocracoke, Claire, Jamie, Roger, Bree and the children have to go through one last heart-wrenching goodbye. While Claire tells her daughter no one knows if they might see each other again, Jamie tells Roger he is proud of him and asks wee Jemmy to send his regards to Mickey Mouse.
Everyone is sad and Jamie struggles to say goodbye to Brianna. The Mackenzies eventually walk to the stones, and disappear. As they look at the standing stone, Claire and Jamie are devastated and he tells her that he will go on for her sake, but that if it were for his alone, he would not. Two hundred years later, Roger, Bree and the bairns wake up by the stones and a passing plane in the skies confirms to them that they have made it to their own time.
Back at Fraser’s Ridge, Claire and Jamie struggle with the Mackenzies’ departure. There has just been so much loss in their lives that this is perhaps one too many. As Claire weeps in his arms, Jamie tells her he is there for her. Weeks go by and life at the Ridge goes back to normal. Lizzy has her baby, pockets of joy are found here and there and Claire’s voiceover even admits that “this is the happiest place on earth”. But life has a way of coming at the Frasers relentlessly and one night, Claire finds Wendigo Donner sitting in her surgery, playing with matches.
It appears Roger’s prayers for Donner have worked and the man found a way to free himself. He now sits in Claire’s house and demands answers. He drank whisky to calm his nerves as he attempted to go back to his time through the stones but it didn’t work so he wants to know what he did wrong.
Claire explains that he has to be focused on where he wants to go and that being drunk probably didn’t help. Answers are not the only thing Donner wants, however, and he threatens Claire with a gun as his goons come out of the rest of the house with Jamie. Wendigo needs a new gem to travel back to the future, and he is convinced Claire must have a secret stash. The men go through the house and find gold amongst Mrs. Bug’s belongings, but that’s not what Wendigo wants. Then they start to search through Claire’s surgery and break several bottles of ether all over the place. As you might have guessed, that cannot end well, especially when Wendigo decides to light up a match to see more clearly in the dark room. Ether and fire don’t mix, and the whole place goes BOOM.
The Ridge is on fire and the Mackenzies are back to the future. What’s next for the heroes of Outlander? Tune in next week on Starz and Lionsgate+ to find out.
