Written by Diana Gabaldon, Ronald D. Moore, and Ira Steven Behr
Directed by Philip John

This is an episode that is very interesting in terms of who people choose to follow. The Scots are firmly behind Prince Charles, believing that his father should sit on the British throne. However, Prince Charles sees himself as an emissary to all the British people. He is clueless as to the acrimony between the Scottish and the English. It’s almost as if the blind faith the Scots seem to place in Prince Charles is starting to break.

Jamie (Sam Heughan) is among the advisors to Prince Charles (Andrew Gower) as the army assembles in Scotland. There is infighting among the advisors as to what they should do. Some want to attack the British Army while others prefer to wait. The Prince thinks he can offer the opposing General terms of surrender, and he will accept, thinking they are all of the same mind. He sees all of them as his subjects, while there is acrimony on all sides.

With the men sitting around waiting, there is tension among the ranks. The McKenzies and the men from Lallybroch are sparring over insignificant things when Jamie returns from his meeting with the Prince and his advisors to talk to Dougal (Graham McTavish). There is a marsh between their men and the British that Jamie isn’t sure would support an infantry. Dougal volunteers to check it out on horseback.

The Prince watches as Dougal advances across the marsh. When the British soldiers begin shooting, Dougal’s horse freezes and won’t move out of the mud. The bullets are landing a little too close for comfort. Eventually, he gets out of the marsh and returns, with a nick on his head to show for his efforts.

A local turns up and tells them there is another way to sneak up on the British. Claire prepares the other women to help her as medics. Fergus (Romann Berrux) is supposed to stay with her, but he sneaks off to follow Jamie and the army.

The battle is fought, and you’d think the British with their rifles would rule the day over the highlanders and their more primitive weaponry, but the element of surprise helped a great deal. Angus (Stephen Walters) brings Rupert (Grant O’Rourke) into Claire’s infirmary with a deep wound in his chest. She manages to close the wound and save him. All the while, Angus is the one who took a mortal wound.

Prince Charles is in the infirmary, talking to the men, when Dougal arrives back. He is angry that Claire is treating British soldiers, and Prince Charles orders him removed from the muster. Jamie suggests promoting him instead, and his suggestion helps Dougal save face.

Claire and Jamie have always been skeptical of Prince Charles’s deserving the devotion of the Scottish people, and here the cracks start to appear among the Scottish supporters as well. They believe he would be their champion on the throne, but he’s already starting to distance himself from that notion, and the battles haven’t been fought. Dougal is especially determined to curry the Prince’s favor, yet every step seems to drive home the point to the Prince that the Scots are about as close to barbarians as you can get.

The battle scenes are well-choreographed and scripted. It’s brutal, not shirking from showing the confusion and brutality of the battle. The Highlanders, armed only with swords and their mettle, are going up against the British, who possess guns and cannon. The element of surprise is with them, but that’s the only reason they are victorious. Had it been a straight-on battle, the British would have crushed them.

Claire’s ways of treating the wounded are met with skepticism by the other women, who question her and roll their eyes at her instructions. In this environment, what she’s asking them to do is basic first aid, but they don’t see the correlation between things like supplying the wounded with honey water to keep their blood pressure up and increase the probability of survival.

Dougal has a conversation with a British soldier whom we met earlier in the series. The fact that Dougal is still so intent on killing as many British as he can, even while they are down and wounded, demonstrates the depth of the anger the Highlanders have against the English. Dougal might be extreme, but it serves to show just how out of touch Prince Charles is with the men of the Army. He doesn’t begin to understand the acrimony between them, and his followers begin to sense there is a problem, especially Dougal. Yet, he will still demonstrate a single-minded devotion to Prince Charles before this season is over.

The devoted friendship between Rupert and Angus comes to a tragic ending. These two men couldn’t have cared for each other more had they been brothers. They have been the comic relief for much of the first two seasons, the lovable sidekicks in many ways. The battle, however, demonstrates how fast things can change. The world of Outlander will never be the same after this.

Prestonpans is a very good look at what the Jacobite rebellion was up against. It also shows that the Highlanders really had no idea what they were fighting for. They thought they were fighting for revenge against the British by placing the true king on the throne, when in actuality, it was trading one despot for another.

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