Do Revolutionary War buffs know that the 1777 Siege of Fort Ticonderoga could’ve been avoided if that one French dude got over himself and just listened to Jamie Fraser? Imagine!
While that’s not entirely, as they say, “accurate†— although others warned the Men in Charge about the British Army taking the high ground on Sugar Loaf — the gist of “Singapore†is very much “Jamie rules and General Brigadier Fermoy drools.†Jamie does seem to be the Continental Army’s only hope if people would just take this Highlander seriously!
We find Colonel Fraser several months into his conscription with the Continental Army at the New York–based stronghold, working with his men to reinforce the defenses of the fort and quickly pointing out that Sugar Loaf, a nearby hill-cliff situation, would make for a great spot for the Redcoats to drag some cannons to and take out Ticonderoga. His superior, Fermoy, refuses to hear it since Jamie is below him in rank and also, I guess, because he’s a Scot? He basically compares Highlanders to goats, so it seems that adds to Fermoy’s overall disgust of our dude. Once Jamie voices his concerns to Claire, though, she’s all like — oh no, this is exactly like World War II when the Japanese took Singapore. Claire’s knowledge retention knows no bounds. Sure, she lived through World War II, but I can barely remember what happened to me yesterday, let alone war strategies that took place what is now, what, like 30-plus years ago for Claire? Is she taking fish-oil pills or something?
Regardless, once Jamie hears this tale of the future and learns that the soldier leading the British troops nearby is his highly skilled second cousin Simon Fraser (a real general in the Revolutionary War, by the way), Jamie recognizes how dire this situation is. He takes matters into his own hands and instructs his men to pull a cannon up Sugar Loaf and demonstrate to Fermoy that this is an incredible vulnerability and they should definitely do something about it. He’s on a real “seeing is believing†kick. Unfortunately, the whole thing backfires: Jamie’s stunt only angers Fermoy more, and they definitely do not do anything about it.
Then, what do you know? A whole bunch of Redcoats are spotted getting situated atop Sugar Loaf. Major General St. Clair, leading the Continental Army’s efforts at Ticonderoga, is livid that they are so unprepared for this kind of attack. While Fermoy pretends that yes, it IS crazy that NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON thought about this sequence of events, at least he lets Jamie speak when he offers a quick evacuation-plan solution: Get the people in boats. Again, this is a real thing that happened, although the idea was not, unfortunately, the brainchild of a sexy colonel. Or maybe it was! Everyone’s a little sexier in their cute li’l Continental Army getups anyway.
The other part of this story that is very much true is also the most heartbreaking moment of this episode: The Continental Army did, in fact, have to leave behind several injured men during the evacuation. While Jamie’s been working on the fort’s defenses, Claire’s been spending her time in the medical tent with a lieutenant who refuses to take her seriously because she’s a woman. Thankfully, she is eventually joined by none other than Denny Hunter, fresh off his nightmare evening with the Johnsons. “Singapore†does briefly take a detour to check in with the Hunters and William on their journey to New York together, which turns into a mini horror show when the couple they bunk with feeds them rat stew and tries to murder them in their sleep. The story line is supposed to show us the turmoil William feels over killing someone for the first time, even though it was in self-defense, as well as his growing bond with Rachel. Sure, it’s necessary from the standpoint that Outlander seems to be bolstering William to give him more main-character energy, but still, this episode was chock-full of story lines needing more time to develop (they really are fast-forwarding some stuff, aren’t they?), and this one definitely felt a little out of nowhere. But we had to get the Hunters to Ticonderoga ahead of the evacuation! Once Denny’s on the scene, he makes it clear that he appreciates Claire’s help, and together the two have to perform a leg amputation on a very nice man named Walter, who just wants to survive the war so that he can go home and make amends with his wife. When Claire has to inform Walter that because his amputation is still healing, they’ll have to leave him behind and best-case scenario he gets taken as a prisoner of the British, she is gutted. The last time Claire was tending to soldiers back at Culloden, she had to battle a lot of resurfacing memories from her time as a nurse in World War II — I can’t believe this time around is any easier on her.
Another story line that seemed to come out of nowhere belongs to Ian. To be honest, I kind of forgot how torn up he was about his marriage to Wahionhaweh/Emily and the devastating miscarriage in which he lost his daughter. That’s on me, okay? I am no Claire Fraser. But once Ian, back at Ticonderoga, is ordered to go visit the Mohawk to persuade them to become Continental Army allies and he realizes he’ll definitely bump into Wahionhaweh, he stops Claire for a quick chat about the horrors of childbirth, fertility issues, and awkward ways to say the word sperm. I know this is supposed to be an emotional moment for Ian and a deep, bonding conversation between him and Claire, but I could not get past the fact that this was basically a nephew coming up to his aunt in the middle of the workday to ask if she would look at his sperm. Claire assures Ian that, as awful as his previous experience was, there’s no real proof that he won’t ever be able to father children. The kid just wanted a chance, so he’s comforted by the whole conversation, and I guess that’s reason enough to make us all watch it!
Outlander does not waste time: The first person Ian comes upon when he arrives is, in fact, Wahionhaweh. They share a warm hello, but when Ian brings up her son — she has a daughter now, too — she gets a little weird. Then we see why: Her 5-year-old son shows up and he is rocking strawberry-blond hair? And he tells Ian that his grandmother says he comes from Ian’s spirit and not his father’s? The book is much more ambiguous about whether or not Swiftest of Lizards is Ian’s biological son, but this seems pretty unambiguous, doesn’t it? I guess Ian is just happy to know he can, for sure, have children, but wouldn’t you think he’d be a little upset about this being kept from him? Wahionhaweh lets him give her son a name too — “for when he walks in [Ian’s] world,†she says, another confirmation — and he goes with Ian James. So, Young Ian is a dad now, I guess!
Meanwhile, in 1980, Bree has a little “like mother, like daughter†situation going on, even if she doesn’t know it exactly. It’s Bree’s first day at work and the men working under her at the dam are not exactly pleased about it. The leader of the group is Rob Cameron — a last name we’ve encountered before, so I’m on high alert — and he and his buddies “haze†Bree by locking her in one of the tunnels. She’s already studied all the tunnels, so it doesn’t take her long to find her way out — she also comes across what looks to be another time portal within the tunnels, but she doesn’t have time to think about what that means just yet — but she is still so pissed about it. After a little chat with Roger, who thankfully apologizes for not being as happy and excited about her new gig as he should’ve been, Bree decides she isn’t going to be intimidated by these guys. She shows up at their daily pub hangout and makes it known that she is both willing and able to be one of the gang, but also makes it clear to Rob that she won’t tolerate insubordination like that again. He honestly seems impressed.
That time portal, by the way, is only one of the strange things happening around the MacKenzies. Roger keeps finding a bunch of trash from food around the property, and Mandy swears she sees someone watching them from outside. She thinks it’s that nuckelavee again. When Roger goes out to investigate, he doesn’t see anyone, but someone definitely sees him. So, who is stalking the MacKenzies and what do they want? Show yourself!