‘Outlander’ 6×02 Review: ”Allegiance”

We’re back! Following on from the previous episode, Outlander 6×02 “Allegiance” delves into the change in Fergus as Henri Christian joins the family, while Jamie and Ian grapple with the issues of playing two sides and we praise Roger for the first time ever. Time for a review!

Here we go!

Jamie starts playing two sides in Outlander 6×02 “Allegiance.” On his first visit as an Indian Agent, his first dilemma comes in the form of the tribe’s requests for weapons, especially because with an imminent war on the horizon, Jamie fears arming a potential enemy. However, this is whole situation is difficult for Jamie.

He’s an honest man, who fights for what he believes in and is proud of it. Now, the circumstances are forcing him to lie to the face of honest and good people, the circumstances are forcing him to twist his principles and that is killing him from the inside out. He hates every second of it… but he has no other choice.

This isn’t easy for Jamie, who is clearly afraid of making a mistake. But he is not the only one. Ian is also at a crossroads. He loves his uncle and is clear that he will be by his side no matter what. But he spent time with a Mohawk tribe and considers himself part of them.

So, he’s offended that his uncle didn’t keep his word to speak with the Crown agent to get the weapons they requested. When Jamie explains it to him, he understands…but it still tears him in two. Ian intends to be by his uncle’s side, even though a part of him aches because it.

However, Ian’s loyalty is tested when he learns what will happen to the Native Americans in the future United States of America. He just can’t leave them unarmed, not knowing their fate. He feels like one of them and cannot betray them like that. He will do everything possible to provide them with weapons to defend themselves, not only because he is one them… but because his family is too.

To everyone’s surprise, Ian confesses to Marsali that he has a wife and son who are still living with the Mohawks. They’re his family and he is not going to allow them to be massacred without fighting for them. Although it hurts him to face his uncle and not be next to him. Even though a part of him, the part of him that loves his uncle and cannot conceive of facing him in any way, aches for it.

But things are easier than it seems. As soon as Jamie finds out about Ian’s secret, he knows what he has to do: protect Ian’s family. He may be arming a future enemy but it’s a risk he must take because, right now, he’s helping Ian’s family, his family, have a chance to survive what’s to come.

That’s the right decision… because you must fight tooth and nail for your family. And that’s something that makes Jamie feel like himself for the first time since he came back. It’s the first time that Jamie feels like he is not betraying his principles because he always protected, protects, and will protect his family above all else. That’s who he is. As for the future, Jamie will face whatever comes.

Je Suis Prest.

For her part, in Outlander 6×02 “Allegiance,” Claire tries to keep up with her day-to-day at the Ridge to get over her trauma. Sometimes, she can’t help but be reminded by a smell or a comment but she tries to hold on to her present so she doesn’t go back there.

She tries to put herself back together. And, as we already discussed, while we’re glad the show is showing this, Outlander has a lot to prove in this regard for us to say it’s doing well. As for Claire, healing the people of the Ridge helps, including the Christie family.

Malva flutters around her like a curious butterfly. She seems to take an interest in medicine, plants, and Claire’s methods of healing. It seems that Malva feels good when she is with Claire… but not everyone likes it. As we discussed last week, for her father (and her brother) she should be at home all day, attentive to their needs, everything that deviates from that is evil and deserves punishment.

Tom is capable of actually punishing his daughter for it… and we want to kill him right now for it. However, for our sanity, we prefer to focus on two details that caught our attention: Malva’s look after the punishment and the conversation she has with Claire about sex.

That look is a mixture of hatred, triumph, and contempt…but we also thought we saw some vileness, cruelty, and darkness in it. Eerie darkness…

Claire and Malva’s conversation about sex doesn’t seem to matter…but we think it does. Strangely, Malva is so shocked by the fact that sex can be related to pleasure and that someone wants to have sex. Don’t you think there’s something weird about that?

In this time period, unmarried women typically react with embarrassment and shame, even fear, when talking about sex and would have been shocked to see the scene between Fergus and Marsali. But Malva doesn’t react like that, she isn’t surprised, nor does she feel ashamed or embarrassed…she only feels surprised at the relationship between sex and pleasure. That’s something worth noting and something to watch out for in future episodes.

As for Tom, he uses the same iron hand with everyone. That means he doesn’t think much of Claire. To him, she meddles in “God’s will” and is something of a witch for it. His “suspicions” are confirmed when the old woman “comes back to life” before everyone’s eyes. Someone spreads a rumor that Claire is a witch and that rumor spreads like wildfire across the Ridge. Claire tries to brush it off, but Jamie knows she’s upset about it, and he knows who started the rumor, too.

That kind of rumor has Tom Christie’s signature printed on it. And he’s not going to let Tom disrespect his wife. And we think Jamie has never been hotter than he is in this moment. As a way to calm things down and for his dark purposes, Tom swallows his pride and asks Claire to perform the operation he needs.

However, all of this also feels strange. In the previous episode, we felt a spark from Tom in Claire’s presence. And we think that’s still there and this is just Tom’s twisted attempt to punish Claire for how he feels. And it’s just the beginning…we can’t imagine how all this is going to end.

As for Fergus, he is still a miserable, ungrateful, bad father, bad husband, and now, an abuser. Marsali doesn’t deserve this. She doesn’t deserve to put up with this alcoholic who used to be her husband and who now shows up when he shows up, drunk, humiliating her, embarrassing her in front of her family and he becomes more and more violent with her.

When Marsali has confessed to Claire everything, when Outlander 6×02 “Allegiance” showed us the parallel between the story of her parents and what Marsali is now experiencing, we just wanted to hug her and smother Fergus with a pillow. Everything at once.

Marsali deserves better. Her children deserve better. So for the first time ever, we gave Roger a standing ovation when he confronted Fergus Who is up to put an altar to Roger for this? Honestly, it’s the first time this character has had me here, praising him and thinking good things about him. With this, Roger didn’t earn a few points, he earned all the points and the jackpot. He only told Fergus the truth.

He is there, feeling sorry for himself and drowning in alcohol while his wife is raising their family, and, right now, she is welcoming a new member. Alone. Fergus should be ashamed of himself, he should crawl on his knees for Marsali and his children to forgive him and he should work to show them that he learned from his mistakes for the rest of his life. So, as we say in Spain, ¡olé!

It seems that these words penetrate the drunken and foggy mind of Fergus and he finally decides to try to return to being the man we know him to be. For Marsali. For their children. For his family. And for a moment, Fergus was our Fergus again. We felt it in his eyes as he helped Marsali in whatever way he could. She saw it too. That kiss that Fersali gives each other doesn’t mean that it’s all forgiven and forgotten, but it does mean that Marsali recognizes the man who looks into her eyes and that she is grateful that he is there, by her side, that he has returned.

But happiness is short-lived. Henri Christian joins the Fraser family and he is a beautiful, perfect, sweet boy and we all want to cuddle him in our arms. That’s exactly what Fergus was doing…until he realizes the boy has dwarfism and his reaction is…the most painful thing we’ve seen on this show in a while. Fergus barely speaks but the rejection and contempt of his silence are deafening. And it hurts like hell.

Fergus doesn’t have an excuse for this, though we can try to understand where he’s coming from. He knows that his son will suffer the scorn and ridicule of others for suffering dwarfism and he can only think of that when he sees him. That doesn’t excuse him at all, but we can put ourselves in Fergus’s shoes a bit by trying to understand where his reaction comes from.

In any case, we are ready – and armed – to protect Henri Christian.

Elsewhere, Brianna and Roger try to find their place at the Ridge in Outlander 6×02 “Allegiance.” It’s easier for Roger, he quickly found his place as the Ridge’s minister. Makes sense. He was raised by a Presbyterian minister and everyone comes to him for spiritual advice because they feel they can trust Roger to help them. But for Brianna it’s both different and difficult. 

For a woman it always is. For the society of the eighteenth century, Brianna only serves to give birth and raise her children. So everyone at the Ridge, except her family, from the beginning, looks at her with suspicion and mistrust when she starts looking for her place beyond that. Meanwhile, Brianna follows her mother’s advice and begins to do what she wants to do. She’s an engineer, she creates tools to improve the day-to-day at the Ridge. But her first try doesn’t go well.

Brianna was very excited to show her family what she had been working on. With her match, lighting a fire will no longer be a problem, it will be much easier. But her family doesn’t receive her invention as she expects. Her mother understands how the match works and its usefulness, but the rest of her family doesn’t get it… they were expecting something spectacular and this is… something they don’t understand and don’t see as useful.

You can feel Brianna’s disappointment down to your bones. We just wanted to hug her and tell her that everything is going to be okay. Her family will understand soon. And we want to see how everyone praises her for it, it’s what she deserves, especially after that dinner.

PS: The scene between Jamie and the tribe woman is one of the funniest scenes in the show. Seriously, I laugh out loud every time I watch it.

Outlander season 6 airs Sundays at 9PM ET on STARZ.

Agree? Disagree? Feel free to share with us in the comments below!