Remember Where ‘Outlander’ Left Off Before Season 3 Starts

The longest ever Droughtlander is almost over, but it’s time for Sassenachs to brush up on where Jamie and Claire left off. If you need a quick refresher before Season 3 premieres on Starz Sunday night, check out a recap of the Season 2 finale below.

Scotland 1746

Jamie is still trying to stop the Battle of Culloden, and Claire comes up with a plan. She could poison Prince Charles Stewart, and then the battle would never happen. It would be a quick and painless death.

Unfortunately, Dougal discovers their plan. He is livid after learning they want to murder the prince, and he goes after Jamie and Claire with a sword. Jamie and Claire push Dougal’s own blade into his chest, killing him.

Rupert walks in on Jamie standing over Dougal’s body, and he is disgusted. Rupert agrees to give Jamie two hours before he reports Jamie’s crime.

Jamie has affairs to get in order first. He signs the deed to Lallybroch, leaving his home to Jenny and Ian’s son. He sends Fergus to deliver the document, ensuring that he does not get caught in the fight.

He takes Claire into the woods and says that he has to save her. He knows that she is pregnant. He wants her to save the baby, and he knows that Frank will care for her and their child.

Claire asks him to come with her, but Jamie doesn’t hear the same buzzing. He knows that fighting in the Battle of Culloden is his destiny, and he belongs in this time. They have sex by the stones one last time before saying goodbye. Claire gives Jamie the dragonfly in amber, and Jamie gives Claire a ring to give to the baby. She says she’ll name their son Brian, after Jamie’s father.

Outlander Season 2 finale
Outlander Season 2 finale

Claire and Jamie said goodbye in the “Outlander” Season 2 finale. Photo: Starz

Scotland 1968

Roger is hosting the wake for his father’s death. Reverend Wakefield had died, and that’s what brings Claire back to Scotland with her daughter Brianna. She’s ready to leave after the reception, but Roger insists that she and Bree stay the night.

Roger and Claire share a drink later, and Claire discovers that Roger is adopted. He is of the MacKenzie line. Roger asks Claire how to get over the death of “that one person you loved most in all the world,” presumably referencing Frank, who has died. Claire says she doesn’t have much advice. You just have to go on living because that’s what they would want.

Roger and Bree
Roger and Bree

Roger decides to be a tour guide for Brianna in “Outlander” Season 2, episode 13. Photo: Starz

Roger takes Brianna out to explore Scotland a bit. He brings her to Fort William, and she doesn’t know why she gets the chills upon seeing where Jamie was once flogged.

Brianna asks Roger what he remembers about her parents’ stay with his family. Roger recalls Frank losing his temper and smashing things, but he didn’t have detailed memories about it. Brianna apparently found a letter from Reverend to her father referencing some sort of big incident between Claire and Frank, and she is determined to find out what happened.

Meanwhile, Claire goes off to Lallybroch, which is now abandoned, to reminisce. She goes to look at the records of Lallybroch and sees the deed that she and Jamie signed. When she returns, Brianna asks Claire if she ever loved Frank. Claire is offended but says she did love her first husband.

Brianna goes with Roger to the college, where she sees Geillis (who is now going by Gillian) giving a speech about how different Scotland would be if the Battle of Culloden had gone a different way. Eventually, Roger takes Brianna to see the Reverend’s diaries. They find a letter from Frank telling the Reverend to stop researching Black Jack.

Geillis
Geillis

A younger version of Geillis is shown in the “Outlander” finale. Photo: Starz

While Roger and Brianna research, Claire goes to a museum and sees a Battle of Culloden display. She is irritated that Prince Charles has been made a hero. She also sees her and Jamie’s dragonfly in amber sitting in one of the artifact displays.

Claire visits the Clan Fraser stone at the Battlefield of Culloden. She tells Jamie about Brianna. She admits she was angry with Jamie for quite a while but he was right. Brianna is safer here. Finally, she says goodbye to him.

Her day visiting that battlefield only gets worse when Brianna finds the newspaper clippings about Claire being found after disappearing for three years. She confronts her mother, asking what she’s been up to the past couple of days. Brianna believes her mother had an affair and thinks she might be seeing the mystery man again.

Outlander
Outlander

Claire visits the Battlefield of Culloden in 1968 in the second season finale of “Outlander.” Photo: Starz

Claire says that Frank wanted to raise her as his own, and they moved to America for a fresh start. Claire says her real father is dead, but she’s ready to tell her and Roger about him. She says Jamie would’ve raised her if it wasn’t for the Battle of Culloden.

Brianna doesn’t buy the story Claire tells. She says it’s too bad Frank died instead of her and storms out. Roger takes Brianna to a pub, and he seems to find Claire’s story less outrageous.

While they’re gone, Claire finds Brianna’s pamphlet with Geillis’ photo on it. She knows that this is the year Geillis will go through the stones. She goes to see her but instead finds her husband drinking during the day. He reveals that Gillian, as he calls her, has been gone for weeks.

Claire sees Geillis’ notebooks and realizes that they’re about the stones. She steals them and brings them home. The writings reveal that Geillis believed human sacrifices and gem stones would be needed to get through the stones.

Later, Brianna and Roger tell Claire that they just saw Geillis in the pub, and she said she was leaving town. Claire knows she is going through the stones tonight and wants to stop her. However, she tells Roger that Geillis is his ancestor. Stopping her could stop his existence.

Outlander
Outlander

Roger and Bree reveal some important information to Claire in the “Outlander” Season 2 finale. Photo: Starz

Roger offers to take Claire and Brianna to Craigh na Dun. He thinks that they might force Claire to confront her delusions. They get to the stones and all three hear an intense buzzing. They’re just in time to see Geillis burning a body and disappearing through the stones. Brianna realizes her mother isn’t crazy after all.

Brianna tells Roger to tell her mother what they found. The Reverend was doing research for Frank, and he learned that Jamie escaped execution after the Battle of Culloden. Upon realizing that Jamie wasn’t killed on the battlefield, Claire realizes she must go back.

Season 3

When the series returns, Claire’s storyline won’t pick up right where she left off. The premiere will show her pregnant with Brianna and adjusting to life in Boston with Frank. Meanwhile, Jamie will be on the battlefield fighting some familiar foes.

“Outlander” Season 3 premieres Sunday, Sept. 10 at 8 p.m. EDT on Starz.

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