Written by Diana Gabaldon, Ronald D. Moore, and Matthew B. Roberts
Directed by Metin Hüseyin

The second season is building to a pivotal event, both in the lives of Jamie and Claire as well as in their efforts to stop the upcoming Jacobite Rebellion in Scotland. This season has done a terrific job of setting the stage for the events to come.

This episode picks up when Jamie (Sam Heughan) tells Murtagh (Duncan Lacroix) he’s not going to duel with Jack Randall (Tobias Menzies) and withdraws the challenge. Murtagh asks for the reason for this, but Jamie won’t tell him. Claire (Caitriona Balfe) is not home that morning, she is already out working at the charity hospital.

At the hospital, M. Forez (Niall Greig Fulton) asks Claire to help him prepare a body for burial. Forez also serves as the King’s Executioner and has been called to the palace for an execution involving several men who are accused of practicing the Dark Arts. His rather graphic description of what’s involved leaves Claire nervous. Is it a warning? It would appear so when he also brings up the name of M. Raymond (Dominique Pinon). Claire goes to warn him.

When she returns home, Jamie discusses his decision to back out of the duel. This is when he tells her that if anything happens to him, she needs to try to return to Frank, so at least he knows she will be in the care of someone who loves her. In exchange for his promise not to kill Jack Randall right now, he asks Claire to promise to go back through the Standing Stones should anything happen to him.

Claire tests out a concoction on Jamie meant to simulate a case of smallpox. Murtagh argues they should just kill Prince Charles and be done with it, but Claire argues this would make him a martyr. Unlike in the book, where they plot to basically steal the shipment, here they are plotting to destroy it. Murtagh is still angry with Jamie. He tells Claire they need to tell Murtagh the truth about everything. The only thing he’s upset about after hearing it all is that they didn’t tell him from the beginning.

Jamie and Fergus (Romann Berrux) head off to sabotage the shipment of wine from Portugal. In the book, this was done much later, after future events. Murtagh stays behind and talks to Claire about what she knows of the Jacobite uprising. In Le Havre, Jamie spikes some wine from the shipment with Claire’s concoction, knowing that the crew will consume damaged bottles. Fergus also applies nettle juice to the men’s clothes that are hanging in the crew quarters.

If anyone can deliver pestilence and disease, it’s us.

• Jamie Fraser

Jamie is summoned by Prince Charles (Andrew Gower), who informs him of the disaster in Le Havre. The Comte St. Germain (Stanley Weber) and the Prince want him to transport the wine immediately, before the illness can be diagnosed and the shipment destroyed. Jamie is reluctant but eventually agrees to go to Le Havre. The Comte insists on going with him. Jamie brings Murtagh with him.

While they are on their way back with the shipment, they are set upon by highwaymen who steal the shipment. Claire is with Louise (Claire Sermonne) and some other women of the Court, but she’s not enjoying the conversation. As they are cackling, Claire asks if they have any concerns about how the poor of the city are treated. Louise’s answer is to have the gendarmes remove the poor to the less-desirable parts of the city. Claire leaves the gathering to go to the hospital instead. There. Mother Hildegard (Frances de la Tour) forces her to rest. She can see that something is wrong with her, although it is getting close enough to the end of her pregnancy that she just believes it is the baby moving around.

Jamie is with the Prince and the Comte at Madame Elise’s as they lament their misfortune. The Comte is suspicious that they were targeted, but Jamie has convinced the Prince that it was just bad luck. Jamie returns home to find Claire stayed at the hospital. The Prince is causing an incident at Madame Elise’s and Jamie returns there with Fergus. Fergus is up to his usual tricks when he comes across a Red Coat hanging up…

Claire arrives home and learns Jamie got into a fight with an English officer at Maison Elise. Her maid informs her of the gossip she’d heard. Claire finds a note from Jamie and knows he has gone to duel with Jack Randall. Claire rushes after him, although she has started to feel pain in her abdomen. She’s upset by Jamie breaking his promise to her. She arrives as they are dueling with swords and cannot interrupt. Just as Jamie sticks it to Randall in a very bad place, Claire collapses in a pool of blood. She directs the footman to take her to Mother Hildegard as Jamie is being arrested.

I must say, the duel scenes are excellent. Randall is no aristocrat fighting. He’s as scrappy as Jamie is. It’s choreographed very well as they parry back and forth, both having a degree of emotion on their side. The scene is cut with Claire watching them and what’s happening to her as she stands there, afraid to say anything while at the same time in some obvious pain and distress.

I do think the events flowed better in the book than the way it’s changed for the series. Having Jamie and Murtagh have to leave after the duel and the events that take place gives Claire and Jamie a little space at a time when they need it. I’ll talk more about that in regard to the next episode. Here, it seems to happen rather quickly. Instead of Jamie and Murtagh contriving to get the shipment off-loaded at another port and disposing of the wine themselves, the wine makes it to LeHavre which is close enough to Paris for The Comte and the Prince to contrive to deliver the wine before the illness among the sailors can be diagnosed. Yes, we know that it is Murtagh leading the band of highwaymen that steal the shipment, but even not knowing that, the number of disasters that seem to befall this shipment is suspicious.

There was a good contrast between Claire and the other high society ladies as well. Claire did not grow up wealthy and has lived in a world where there is more equality between the classes than at this time. It’s appalling to her that the poor are not seen as human beings, something we are in great danger of returning to at this time. These ladies don’t see anything wrong with their perceptions of society, which is indicative of just why the French Revolution happened.

The decision to open up to Murtagh about who Claire is and where she’s from feels like Claire and Jamie made it a bigger deal than it turned out to be. He has questions about the future that Claire can’t answer, but they do discuss the upcoming political upheavals that will happen across the world.

Best Laid Schemes is a solid episode that leaves viewers with a cliffhanger about what will happen to Jamie, Claire, and Jack Randall. I would have preferred they stick to the book in regard to hijacking the Prince’s wine shipment as I thought that version of events was much stronger, but this works overall in the story, if it feels a bit rushed in this episode. The characters from much of the ongoing story make an appearance here, which makes for a crowded canvas, but it works in its own way.

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