Written by Diana Gabaldon, Ronald D. Moore, and Toni Graphia
Directed by Metin Hüseyin

This episode opens in Boston in 1954, as Claire (Caitriona Balfe) is showing a book of birds to a beautiful red-haired girl who calls her Mama. She tells the girl she once saw a Heron in Scotland, a long time ago.

Back in France in the 1700s, Claire is lying in the hospital under the care of Mother Hildegard (Frances de la Tour) and M. Forez (Niall Greig Fulton). There is a lot of blood. Claire awakens later to find out the baby was stillborn. Claire demands to see the baby. Mother Hildegard tells Claire that she baptized the baby and gave her the name “Faith” so she could be buried in hallowed ground. She also tells her that Claire has been desperately ill for several days and has called in a priest. Claire asks for her husband, but Mother Hildegard says there has been no word from him.

Later that night, M. Raymond (Dominique Pinon) sneaks in. He touches her body with his hands and she can feel the sickness leaving her. He is interrupted by one of the sisters. M. Raymond hides, then tells Claire to “have faith.” Mother Hildegarde arrives and tells Claire that Jamie (Sam Heughan) is in the Bastille, arrested for an illegal duel. Jack Randall (Tobias Menzies), was injured and sent back to England. The fact that he is still alive gives Claire hope that Frank will still be born.

Claire blames Jamie for the stillbirth. She thinks he chose revenge over his promise to her and the life of their child. She stays in the hospital for quite some time and finally returns home to Fergus’s (Romann Berrux) behest. One night Claire hears him crying, and she learns from him why Jamie ended up dueling with Jack Randall. Fergus blames himself. Claire decides she needs to meet with King Louis (Lionel Lingelser) and petition for Jamie’s release. Mother Hildegard cautions her that there is a price for such a request. Claire wants the audience, regardless.

At Versailles, Claire makes her petition for Jamie to be released. King Louis says he is inclined to mercy and asks Claire for a favor in return. She thinks it will be to share his bed. Instead, he hustles “La Dame Blanche” to another room. M. Forez is there. The Comte St. Germaine (Stanley Weber) and M. Raymond are brought in. They have been charged with sorcery and practicing the dark arts. King Louis wants Claire to look into their souls and see if there is darkness in them.

The Comte confesses to having been the one to try to poison Claire and accuses her of being a witch. Claire plays into it by saying she is a white witch who practices white magic, not the dark arts, and talks about the darkness that is in all men’s souls. Claire decides to have them both drink bitter cascara, hoping that the King will pardon them both. However, M. Raymond uses a sleight of hand to poison the drink as Claire turns to the Comte. M. Raymond is banished from France.

King Louis says he will honor Claire’s request, but he still expects to be paid, and by that, he means to lie with her. He will pardon Jamie and also arrange a pardon with the English crown so they can return to Scotland.

Jamie returns to the house in Paris. Claire tells him about the stillbirth as well as how she secured his release. He blames himself as much as Claire seems to, but she confesses that it likely wasn’t his fault; she had felt there was something wrong with the pregnancy for a while. They reunite and prepare to leave for Scotland.

There is so much emotion in this episode and it’s handled so well. Claire suffers through losing a child and is without the comfort of Jamie’s presence throughout it. In the state she was in, his presence likely would not have been comforting anyway, but with him in The Bastille she must suffer and recover on her own. Mother Hildegard and M. Raymond comfort her as best they can, and it is her dear friend Louise (Claire Sermonne) who is able to get through to Claire when she refuses to release the baby to be buried. As vapid as Louise was portrayed in the previous episode, she’s tender and caring to her friend here.

In the book, Claire is taken to Louise’s country estate to recover and is pampered by her friend and her servants. Jamie must hunt her down there. The main reason that Claire wants to get Jamie released from The Bastille is that they still haven’t completed their plan to stop Prince Charles from forming a Jacobite Rebellion in Scotland. That is what I meant in the previous review that things happen out of order. While this version gives a sense of Claire still loving Jamie and forgiving him for the duel, in the book her going to visit King Louis is about stopping the rebellion. It’s not until several months following the stillbirth that Jamie sees Claire for the first time at Louise’s country estate. Which story is better? I can’t say for sure as they both have their strong points. I’d lean a little into the book version, simply because it allows for more time to pass for Claire to gain perspective on what she’s feeling.

Claire playing into the “La Dame Blanche” figure as a way of trying to secure M. Raymond’s release is performed well. Caitriona Balfe has Claire a bit on edge, while at the same time trying to be brave. She knows she owes M. Raymond for saving her life following the stillbirth, and she’s not a murderer, no matter what the Comte St. Germain tried to do to her. She could maybe be excused for exacting revenge considering how soon after the stillbirth this happens and her emotional state. She doesn’t, however, and it’s M. Raymond who makes sure they all don’t pay for these unfortunate events. He does what Claire doesn’t have the stomach for in sentencing another human being to a brutal death.

Caitriona Balfe really carries this episode and does it well. She was given a Saturn Award for Best Actress in a Television Series, and it could have been based on her powerful performance in this episode alone this season. She should have garnered more. The devastation and numbness Claire feels following those events is conveyed so well, as well as her evolution to forgiving Jamie. Once the catalyst behind the duel is known, it makes sense that Jamie would disregard his promise, and that’s what helps Claire to forgive as well.

There’s still an issue with Frank existing in the future, although Claire muses that she still wears his ring, so doesn’t that mean that he has to? This then begs the question of how much she can change history by traveling to the past and attempting to alter events. This is something that should be a big clue to their efforts to thwart the Jacobite Rebellion, but for now Claire believes they have been successful in that endeavor.

Faith is a tremendous episode that does a great job with the material, even with a bit of it altered from the book. The emotional impact is driven home, as is the loss and the damage to the relationship between Claire and Jamie that must be repaired. It’s a terrific bit of television that handles a very emotional issue with delicacy and understanding while maintaining the series’ premise.

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