‘Outlander’ recap: The table is set with blood and broken promises

As overused a concept as it may be to describe an episode of television as setting the table for events to come, it’s difficult to view “Best Laid Schemes…” as anything other than an hour-long table-setting exhibition.

It’s a struggle that shows often encounter in penultimate episodes of a season, where there’s a lot of story to dispense with in order to set the stage for the finale and that’s precisely the feel that “Schemes…” has as the episode unspools.

And for good reason. In a 13-episode season, the seventh episode, which airs next week for “Outlander,” often serves as an mini-finale, pivoting the show from its first half to its second. Which means that this week’s episode, for better or worse, is responsible for all of the heavy lifting sure to pay off in next week’s “Faith.”

Here’s what we know when the episode begins:

As established in the season two premiere, we know that Claire eventually returns to her own time and to Frank. Two years have passed and when she arrives she is lightly pregnant with Jamie’s child. Besides her fetus, she returns to her time alone.

Here’s what we learn:

During a conversation between the pair, Jamie makes Claire promise that if their attempts to change the future don’t pan out, that she will return with their child to Frank, where he can be confident they will be safe and loved.

Claire has been experiencing late-term bleeding and goes into painful labor while heavily pregnant.

Jamie reneges on his promise to Claire and ends up embroiled in a duel with Captain Randall. The fight is ended when Jamie catches Randall in the crotch with the tip of his sword, a fitting injury to a would-be serial rapist and all around masochist. As Claire asks her servant to deliver her to Mother Hildegarde at the hospital, Jamie is arrested for unlawful dueling.

Here’s what we don’t know:

What spurred Jamie’s change of heart?
What happened to Fergus at the brothel?
What exactly is this weird black magic subplot?
Is Murtagh ever coming back?

Here’s what we can safely surmise in the wake of the episode:

Claire’s labor is likely not going to end well. When she returned to Frank in the season premiere, she seemed distraught by the loss of Jamie, though not at the idea that she’d left a child behind. Likely, this is because there is no child left behind.

Randall is probably going to live because, as mentioned before, Frank exists in the future and it was of the utmost important to Claire to try to preserve his existence by protecting Captain Randall’s life.

Something happens at the brothel to spur Jamie’s duel with Randall. It feels safe to assume it involves Fergus in some form, as the boy is nowhere to be seen, either at the duel itself or at the house when Claire returns to it before discovering Jamie’s transgression.

As interesting as all of that is and as many questions as the audience aches to have answered heading into next week, none of it translates into anything particularly interesting for “Best Laid Schemes…” itself.

The bulk of the episode is given over to Jamie, Claire and Murtagh trying to scheme a way into defunding Charles Stuart’s uprising by first faking a smallpox outbreak, then staging a robbery, which results in Murtagh having to steal away with the wine, with no set return. Coming where it does in the season, their efforts seem plodding, weighed down by the Stuart storyline that has never been as interesting as it should have.

The trio make a plan, execute the plan, rinse and repeat and by the time all is said and done, it feels like the ultimate goal of this had little to do with the plot at hand and everything to do with making sure that Murtagh isn’t around when Jamie ends up dueling with Randall.

Which is to say nothing of the weird black magic storyline happening, in which the King is looking to round up purveyors of magic and spurs Claire to inform Master Raymond that he’s in danger. It’s not that the plot isn’t interesting, necessarily, but more that it seems to have no place in the season as a whole.

“Best Laid Schemes…” isn’t a bad episode of television. “Outlander,” for the most part, doesn’t produce many clunkers. But it is a strangely airless and perfunctory affair, with even big moments -- like Jamie’s admission that he was sparing Frank’s life only so Claire has someone to return to, and Murtagh finally learning the truth of Claire’s time-traveling origins -- both landing with a fraction of the emotion that such moments should have spurred.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with an episode of table-setting. But there’s also a reason that dinner parties don’t seat the guests before the table is set. If you’re going to make people sit around and watch you work, you better make sure your flatware is fascinating. “Best Laid Schemes…” just wasn’t.

More:

“Outlander” recap: Claire and Jamie play God, poorly

“Outlander” showrunner Ron Moore discusses “unflinching” rape scene and Season 2 reset

How “Outlander” star Sam Heughan gets ready for all those shirtless scenes

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