Warning- Contains spoilers for Outlander Episode 402: Do No Harm.
Wow, my friends, that was a truly excellent episode. I cannot applaud this week’s writers enough for tackling such a complicated story so deftly. This episode was beautiful in its sadness, haunting in its message, and terrifically executed. It also managed to tick a lot boxes that will be important for many fans: Claire and Jamie working perfectly and equally in tandem, references to Jamie’s faith, and wonderful novel-to-screen character introductions in the way of Jocasta, Ulysses, Phaedre, and John Quincy Myers.
Before we dive in, I will warn readers that toward the end of this recap I do discuss current politics. Not in reference to any current politician or political party, but more reflecting on our current political zeitgeist. If you prefer not to mix your Outlander with politics I suggest you opt out now. I tend not to make political statements on the blog, but it’s fairly impossible not to do so this week with an episode that deals with this subject; slavery is undoubtedly the most difficult political challenge the United States has ever faced and we still haven’t fully recovered from our country’s dark beginnings.
And speaking of darkness, so much of this episode focuses on blindness and vision. Whereas last week’s episode explored a theme of hidden darkness, this week the ugliness is front and center, out in the open for those who can see it or choose to see it.
Aunt Jocasta literally cannot see, but figuratively she is also blind— she cannot envision a different life for her slaves, she cannot see that their captivity is wrong, she cannot foresee a future for River Run in which slavery does not exist. Most of her colleagues, although visually capable, are just as morally blind.
We also reference Jenny, who we know has a touch of the Sight. And Claire, of course, has the advantage of a vision of the future— it’s easier to picture a better world when you’ve actually seen it. In the end, however, it is Jamie who is arguably the most clear-visioned: he sees that the future does not allow for slavery because slavery is fundamentally wrong, but he also sees the sad reality of the situation with Rufus for what it truly is— a loss no matter the outcome.
There is no way to tell an accurate story of Colonial America without addressing slavery, and I don’t envy the writers of this episode for the task of dissecting out in one hour the enormous complications of the institution. After all, it took our country nearly a century and a civil war to attempt to figure it out. That’s not to say that the concept of slavery itself is complicated— that one is easy: slavery has always been and always will be wrong and evil. But, as this episode so beautifully demonstrates, changing the course of history is enormously complicated.
As Jamie comes to realize, there are frustrating legal, political, and social ramifications in attempting to change an institution that is so deeply embedded. A movement (here, abolitionism) can be morally right, but others often don’t see it that way; bending the will of disbelievers toward that “long arc of justice” can often come at the cost of endangerment to yourself and your loved ones. This is nothing new, of course, and any civil rights leader will tell you that these challenges didn’t end with the Emancipation Proclamation.
I can’t really recap this episode the way I normally would, given the gravity of the subject matter it addresses, but first we need to set the scene. Jamie, Claire, Ian, and Rollo finally arrive at River Run where they are greeted by Jamie’s Aunt Jocasta Cameron and her slave butler, Ulysses. Maria Doyle Kennedy and Colin McFarlane both give outstanding introductory performances in this hour.
Huge round of applause to actor Kyle Rees, who infused this character with such a kind and worldly personality. In the novel JQM is exceptionally tall; Kyle Rees isn’t extraordinarily tall but he still gives Myers a larger-than-life feel.
What Jocasta Cameron lacks in sight she makes up for with true MacKenzie manipulation. It is not surprising that in an episode featuring the last surviving MacKenzie sibling there are a ton of call backs to Castle Leoch, Dougal, and Colum. But whereas Leoch and the world of Season One was ancient stone, castles, and deep Highland ties, everything about River Run is extremely new.
The home is recently built and of wood, the tapestries are clean and in good condition…it truly is a New World here at River Run. Everything is shiny and bright and Jon Gary Steele did a phenomenal job with set design. River Run’s exteriors and interiors are truly a delight for the eyes- almost like seeing the White House as it might have been brand new.
We want to like Jocasta (and River Run), and there is quite a bit about her to admire at face value: she’s outspoken, independent, and keenly intelligent. She also welcomes Jamie and Claire with open arms, even if she does have some ulterior motives. But for all her strengths, she still is a woman of her time. Keeping slave families together seems like a benevolent gesture (if you overlook keeping slaves in the first place), until you learn she values her slaves not as equal human beings but as extremely expensive financial investments. They are more costly than livestock and they “perform” better when happy. She speaks of her slaves like the property they are to her, much the same way we might discuss a new car.
Look how everyone’s costumes in this scene blend in with the colors and aesthetic of River Run. Ulysses matches the fall colors of the landscape, Jacosta’s dresses and shawls complement the colors of the house. Even Jamie blends in, mostly because he is at the home of family. Everyone seems fairly matched to River Run except…
Claire, who stands out in bright red. She is the one at most odds with the plantation, her bright and clashing color perhaps signaling her opposition to Jocasta. It could also represent her Englishness…she is again an outlander in this environment.
I also like the small irony here of Claire stating she is against slavery while being tended to by Phaedre, although I get the impression that Claire didn’t have much say in the matter. As an aside, Natalie Simpson is so lovely in this episode and emanates radiant energy from her character.
Despite the Fraser clan coming in, skunking up the house, questioning Jocasta’s morals, and needing new clothes, Jocasta still bequeaths River Run to Jamie and names him as heir. It’s too bad Jocasta is blind, because the looks on Lieutenant Wolff and Farquard Campbell’s faces are pretty priceless:
This development is distressing to Claire but Jamie sees it as a possible opportunity– a chance to change history in this small part of the world.
Note: I’m not certain, but I believe that’s a poppy flower on Claire’s white dress. Production likely didn’t know the air date of this episode when they filmed it, but it ties in beautifully with Remembrance Day. It also might symbolize the laudanum Claire uses later in the episode. UPDATED: Terry Dresbach says it’s a dogwood blossom.
But the next day, as Jamie is educated in how it would be nearly financially and logistically impossible to free all the slaves at River Run, all hell breaks loose.
A slave, Rufus, has injured Byrnes, the overseer. Claire and Jamie rush to the scene, only to discover that Byrnes has impaled Rufus on a hook. Despite Rufus being destined to hang for drawing blood from a white man, Byrnes has taken justice into his own hands. As was observed last week, there is the law and then there is what’s done.
I applaud the writers for including this book scene and portraying it as graphically as Diana Gabaldon wrote it.
Claire goes into full surgeon mode, rushing Rufus onto Jocasta’s dining table and tending to his life-threatening injuries. For Claire, a twentieth century physician, there is no racial identity or other impediment to administering treatment; this is simply a man needing medical care.
The world of eighteenth century Cross Creek does not agree. A mob threatens River Run if Rufus is not given up for hanging. There is no right way out of this situation; Rufus is destined to die regardless if he survives his injuries.
(I’d be remiss if I didn’t comment on the wonderful acting job performed here by Jerome Holder, who plays Rufus. This episode really hinges on this character and he more than delivered with his performance.)
In the end Claire gently administers an overdose of aconite to Rufus, giving him the best thing that she possibly could given the circumstances: a peaceful death. We remember a similar scene with Colum, of course, but we are also reminded of a time twenty years ago when Claire oversaw the death of another young man who had been impaled. “Tell me about your home,” she guided young Geordie then. “Tell me about your sister,” she guides Rufus now.
This episode begins with Jamie lamenting that he couldn’t do more to help and save the ones he loves during the boat attack. Claire absolves him of this burden, helping him heal with love. The episode ends with similar sentiments, with Claire wishing she could have done more to save Rufus, and Jamie essentially absolving her of her own perceived sin. It is not that Claire could have done better, it is her fellow human beings who need improving.
I’ve read some criticism that Claire acts recklessly in this episode, unable to grasp the ramifications of her actions. But to me she is acting very much in character— a Sassenach wearing nothing more than a flimsy dress ordering a bunch of seemingly dangerous Highlanders around rings a certain bell. It doesn’t always make her actions right, but it at least makes her consistent.
Frankly, changing the world requires us to do things that are a bit dangerous and go beyond social norms or expectations. Ask anyone who sat at a lunch counter, rode the front of the bus, or marched across bridges.
The title of this episode, “Do No Harm,” forces us to question when to take action- either as a doctor or just in our everyday lives. When is doing nothing the better or right thing to do and when is it the wrong decision? When do we step in and try to fix an injustice? Is there ever a time when we can’t…or won’t?
And because the problems of our past help highlight the problems of our present, this brings us to some political commentary. What Claire and Jamie experience at the end of this episode is a great example of privilege. That word- privilege- gets thrown around a lot lately in our current discussions, but it is often misunderstood as a label meaning people are wealthy or somehow do not work hard for their place in life. We know that’s not true, as Claire and Jamie as first generation immigrants exemplify the can-do, roll-up-the-shirtsleeves attitude that comes to help define the American Dream.
But the privilege here is that they get to walk away. They can leave River Run behind them, while the slaves can never leave. And that is what is meant by privilege in our society: who gets to walk away. Who gets to tune out the news, not invest in politics, or not engage in uncomfortable discussions. Who can afford to simply walk away.
And the ones who cannot walk away in this episode are the ones, finally, who tell Claire and Jamie what they need to do. A reminder to all of us to stop and listen to the people in our society who are less privileged and perhaps have a different perspective for us to consider.
The hands of time feature prominently in this episode. There is a deadline of midnight and we can imagine Claire, as a doctor, calling the time of death. Time is working against Jamie and Claire in “Do No Harm,” and the times (meaning the eighteenth century) are working against them as well.
Claire and Jamie tried to change history before, to no avail. In the end, perhaps the lesson we learn from this episode is that we can make small changes one person at a time. We can better one person’s life…or death. We can hope to change at least one person’s mind when we see injustices. We can raise our children to be better than us. We can aim to do no harm.
Slàinte.
photos: STARZ
Outcandour 
This is both thoughtful and thought provoking. I also felt so many of these things while watching, but I truly appreciate your ability to put the feelings into words so beautifully. Thank you.
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Thank you so much
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I could not agree more with everything you say here. I do suspect that when Starz was determining a premiere date for the season, they may have been very aware that the 2nd episode would air on the 100th anniversary of the armistice that resulted in Remembrance Day/Veteran’s Day if they decided to air the first one on November 4th. Thanks for this recap.
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Thanks, as always, for reading. 🙂 There is so much stuff in this episode that seems really fitting for this weekend, so I agree they might have chosen the date purposefully.
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Just a quick note for you…it was Aconite that Claire gave Rufus to kill him..the laudanum was for the operation..
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Thanks, I will edit it later today when I have my computer 🙂
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Very inciteful and moving review. I think that Claire and Jamie are caring human beings and want to make a difference that touched me and that Claire as a 20th century doctor tried to show her compassion to help Rufus as a human being. I was so moved by this episode and cried a lot. Many have criticized Claire for this or that but the one thing she is someone who wants to make a difference. Jamie too. I thought that they all working as a team to save Rufus along with Ian was so touching. I often think of Martin Luther King Jr, and others after this time period if one person does something to make a difference that counts for so much.
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I agree with all your sentiments, thank you
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a brilliant recap! there were so may symbolic bits in this episode, and you captured them nicely. i’m very glad you at least touched on the relevance of those 18th century events to events in current usa! we have much work to do towards becoming a more humane society, beginning with opening our minds, broadening our perspectives, and revising the direction in which we must go from that insisted on by our current government.
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Thank you so much, and I agree completely. We need to listen and understand and work hard to improve the world as we see it
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Sorry, this episode was a pile of steaming horse crap. Claire was ordering servants to do her bidding, these very same people she abhorred seeing used as slaves out in the field. She wasn’t ordering Highlanders about, but playing Dr Clairelander again. With the episode written by Karen Campbell, who gave us a rehashed version of Crème de Menthe, which she wrote in S3, where she took apart any love and depth of feeling between Jamie and Claire, and instead alters their characters from those of Episode 1, changing it to suit Claire’s immobile face – no emotions shown at all, just a blank face throughout everything, other than the needless eye-rolling and arm crossing at Jocasta’s explanation of her keeping families together, and seeing that they were fed and clothed. Jamie actually saying Claire’s rudeness to his aunt was one of the qualities he admires about her most… FFS – his behaviour in Ep1 was stellar, they kept Claire supressed, rightly so, as Ep 1 was Jamie’s – In the books Claire and Jamie discuss the slaves discreetly when alone, coming to a mutual agreement they couldn’t keep slaves, and that’s what prompted their search for Fraser’s Ridge and taking up the Governor’s offer. The saving grace of the episode was Young Ian, Rollo and John Quincy Myers, and it is a disappointment that his operation was amended to that on Rufus. It’s also a shame that Claire’s insistence and actions nearly caused the beautiful River Run set to be burned to the ground by the mob. Episode 3 needs to be a heck of a lot better to get past this rubbish.
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Beautiful and insightful review. Tough episode to make and in the end I think they found a respectful way, even if there will be many who will disagree. Thank you.
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Thank you so much. And I agree- I think the writers did the best job they could given the difficult task at hand
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Your post(s) continually amaze me your analysis of the episode(s). Thank you.
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Thank you so much- I appreciate the positive feedback ❤️
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What a pleasure to read your analysis. Well thought out based on the reality of things then and now. This is the first article that is positive of the show on my current Facebook feed. All other comments have been so hateful, blaming, just awful. I think I’ll just reread yours again so I feel as though I’m in touch with a sane person who understands things, people and actions!
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Thank you, I sincerely appreciate that 🙂
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I will rewatch using your eyes to see if it changes my mind. I was pretty unhappy with the episode. I can understand why they didn’t do JQMs surgery.. pretty hard to do that on tv. There were high points, Rollo, Ian, Jamie’s joy at being with his family. But, I thought they skipped too many details that would have given it more consistency . Could have made the surgery shorter and put in more of them. I guess I’m not looking for what the writers are keeping in, but what they are leaving out. Glass half full vs. half empty . This episode like the last felt incomplete. I actually thought the end was a commercial break!
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I appreciate your reviews so much. This one adds so many insights to my own thoughts on viewing it! I especially appreciate the comment that privilege in this situation is being able to walk away. Thank you for your post.
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I am so relieved to read your review, although I shouldn’t be as I have read them for a while now. Respectful, balanced and insightful — thank you! To be honest, I no longer want to read any other Outlander FB pages with comments attached because there are so many rabid complainers, series vs book, about how the former keeps falling short. I am a relatively new Outlander lover, having binge watched Seasons 1 and 2 just before 3 came to television. I’m 1/4 of the way through Book 1 and am savouring it. I just love the ride, both rides. It seems to be such a tragedy to me that the book readers expect the series to be a carbon copy — I agree completely with Judith Clayton above. Many of the comments out there are just sucking the joy out of the experience — just completely toxic. I understand coming to love something for many years (sort of like the experience of reading Lord of the Rings or the Narnia series and then comparing them with the movies), but honestly, there is absolutely no reason for a film version to follow the book so closely. The actors’ skill and interpretation, the time constraints, the direction, the locations, the creative re-interpretation by the screenwriters — it all creates a new art form. I, for one, am so mesmerized by it and happy that it gives me such a wonderful escape every Sunday night. And speaking as a Canadian, who doesn’t have the same investment in US history and ideology, I am not at all offended by any parallels between early America and today or “politicizing”. I think this episode is just one piece of the unfolding story that I am thrilled to be carried along by….can’t wait to see how it all evolves. I’m so glad that when Droughtlander happens again, I have the books to tide me over.
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Thank you so much for reading. I agree with some of the recent negativity in the fandom…it’s getting to be a bit much. People just have so much invested in these characters and their story- emotions run high, I guess!
Thanks again, and enjoy reading the novels. They are wonderful, too 🙂
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I really appreciated your blog post – not an easy episode to comment on! I can see that people have got stirred up and you do acknowledge that with tact and sensitivity. There are many injustices all over the world and maybe something like this TV show can stir people up in a positive way to do their own little bit… who knows?
Thanks again.
PS so sorry about the awful Californian wild fires 😦 Keep safe.
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Thank you- I am safe here in my part of California…just extremely smoky. Bank you for your concern and for your kind comments
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I really appreciate the way you articulate my responses so much better than I ever can, as well as giving me insights I wouldn’t find on my own. It was a wonderful episode (one of my favorites ever) which your recap makes even more significant.
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Thank you- I appreciate that! Thanks for reading 🙂
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Another excellent review. Glad to be able to find a true critique instead of a list of what’s wrong with the show, the actors, the characters they play, the wigs they wear, the way they are just not what they imagined them to be. These (slavery, violence, war) are hard subjects to deal with and we should. Diana’s books, in my view, takes a real good hard look at them and the Outlander writers tackle these subjects in a fitting way for this show and the medium it is shown in. Thanks so much.
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Thank you for reading. I agree- I think the series writers do the best they can for their medium; the show and the novels are both excellent
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Interesting and thoughtful recap of yet another ‘challenging’ episode. While I found this one, as well as 401, a bit difficult to watch at times, that in and of itself doesn’t make them ‘bad’. However, it seems that they are definitely provocative to some! Afraid I too am finding that constant bitching (yes, that’s the word I chose to use, not gonna glorify it) more than a little tedious. If someone truly doesn’t enjoy the stories as portrayed, perhaps it’s time to find another series to obsess over? I’m not always appreciative of the treatment of the original text, as it’s not how I thought it would play out, but I’m not a purist who treats the books as sacrosanct. The series is still among the best entertainment out there. The work of Jon Gary Steele and his team continues to both amaze and delight my senses. The new additions to the cast have brought strong performances to this episode that well compliment our beloved regulars. And your critique captures so many points I had pondered as I reflected on what was presented in 402.
Thank you for your sensitive and sensible review! Brava. Well done.
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Thank you for your kind comments and for reading! I think the process of adaptation is probably enormously challenging; overall I think the series writers get it right more than wrong. I appreciate adaptive changes- keeps us all on our toes and is never boring. How predictable would it be if we just had verbatim translation?
Anyway, thanks again for reading! I have a feeling the next episode will be a little lighter (pun sort of intended 🔥)
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Interesting review. I love hearing other people’s points of view. I’m left wondering what happened to the man that lost his ear? Shouldn’t Claire work on both of them if she’s really a dedicated healer? Doctors can’t make personal decisions when someone’s been hurt…right?
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I would assume she maybe tended to him after all the chaos subsided? Maybe we will find out next week.
Thanks for reading ❤️
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I liked your analysis of ep.2. I’m a book reader and do sometimes wonder why they changed something when it didn’t seem necessary. I think they really wanted to show the difference between Claires 20th century thinking and Jocastas 18th century thinking. To Jocasta, the keeping of slaves would seem normal [she’s lived in America for 20 yrs.] I’m sure that in 200 yrs. time we will be just so judged by those people for the things we do now. I don’t want to make this political, but I can think of things right now that are wrong. I liked the new cast members as well as the old.Jamie is perfection as usual.I do feel Claire has to take more care, she creates havoc wherever she goes. I’m looking forward to the next episode.
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