Although "Outlander's" "Lallybroch" episode provided a homecoming for Jamie Fraser, who, for the first time brought his new wife to his birthplace, it also opened up old wounds – all of them involving Black Jack Randall.
The reunion between siblings Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Jenny Fraser (Laura Donnelly) began filled with surprise and warmth, but it turned sour when it was revealed that Jenny named her son after her brother.
After it was perceived as a slight by Jamie (he believed Dougal's story that Jenny got pregnant following a rape by Black Jack Randall), an argument quickly erupted between the siblings. Ian Murray's (Steven Cree) appearance clarified the matter of the child's paternity (little Jamie is his son, and Ian is married to Jenny), but Jamie was still left wondering what happened after the Redcoats knocked him out, and Jack Randall took his sister inside Lallybroch years ago.
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Jenny said she would tell the story once, and never again, as the show flashed back to Jack's rape attempt, an intentionally unsettling moment in the drama, which cast and crew took very seriously.
"We had a lot of rehearsal, and there was a closed set and really, the thing that makes that kind of scene is the attitude that surrounds it from everybody that's involved and it was dealt with really sensitively," Laura, who plays Jenny, told Access Hollywood. "Everybody wanted to make sure that there was just enough of it shown on screen that did the story justice, but that nothing was gratuitous and too over the top, and so we did a lot of rehearsal to make sure that it was very finally tuned.
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"With scenes like that, it's not the kind of thing that you can just go and improvise, for many different reasons, one in particular being safety. There's violence in that scene and you have to make sure that you get that right and we had a wonderful director who wanted to make sure that the stories of the characters were told very clearly at the same time," she continued. "So while it was tough in the way that doing anything like that is, because you put yourself somewhere both physically and emotionally quite vulnerable, at the same time, it felt necessary and it felt like it was being handled really well and really sensitively and so I was comfortable."
In the drama, Jack Randall hit and smacked Jenny Fraser, but she managed to defend herself from the sexual assault by finding his weakness. She stopped him from being able to go any further by laughing at him.
"She kind of stumbles on this… frailty of [Jack], that in the face of humor, he's sort of -- he is defenseless," Tobias said of the turning point in the scene. "But we were also keen to make it sort of -- it seems a bit sort of sadomasochistic almost… the sort of multiple strikes at her."
Jamie (Sam Heughan) had a story to tell of his own (to Claire) about what happened when he was in the hands of the Redcoats at Fort William, in between his first and second flogging. Dragged into Black Jack's office (in the Jamie flashback), the villain made Jamie an offer. "It's quite simple. Give over to me. Make free of your body and there will be no second flogging," Jack said.
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Did Jack actually mean it?
"I think he probably did, but again I feel like that's sort of early on, before he really starts to understand who Jamie is and so that feels more kind of standard procedure for Jack, maybe," Tobias said. "I was always kind of negotiating with the writers about the extent to which – 'cause I guess there's a sort of divided opinion on what Jack's sexuality is and I suppose what the obsession [is] with Jamie, whether it is purely sexual. And I was always more keen to make it not just about sex, that it was more about sadism and about sort of finding -- breaking someone down, and that sex was a tool rather than the end point on that. … But that scene is definitely more in the camp of using his position to sexual ends."
As Tobias was filming the first season of the show, beyond his contact with the show's writers, he was able to reach out to the woman who created his 18th century character, author Diana Gabaldon, who is a consultant on the Starz series.
"We email back and forth. She was really helpful," he said.
"I was sort of just thinking about the character and thinking about different sort of underpinnings really," he added of what he discussed with the author. "She was very forthcoming in email and stuff."
Being able to have a back and forth conversation with the author was a fresh experience.
"It's relatively unusual to have someone who's written the books as involved as she is and on the end of an email address. So yeah, it's a privilege to have her involved," he added.
"Outlander" continues Saturday nights at 9 PM ET/PT on Starz.
-- Jolie Lash
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