‘Outlander’ recap: Pawns in a larger game

This isn’t the “Outlander” you signed up for.

Stillborn babies and political intrigue and convoluted wars are a far cry from the epic romance that the series presented itself as in its first season and yet with each episode in the show’s second season, “Outlander” opens itself up as a show capable not just of displaying the breadth of love, but the complexity of living.

In “Prestonpans” the Jacobite troops are finally engaging in the war they’ve been spoiling for all season and the reality isn’t pretty. War in 1700s Scotland, it turns out, is not so far removed from combat as we now know it, consisting of soldiers just trying to survive combat for stakes that are far above their pay grade.

Much as Bonnie Prince Charles may think his father the rightful king and as much as the average Scotsman may believe in his cause, it’s not ultimately their battle. Even Charles Stuart doesn’t value them as much as the British soldiers, telling Jamie to instruct Claire to treat the British prisoners first, over the wounded Jacobites. Despite their willingness, the Jacobite army is but a pawn in a larger game.

But perhaps the most impressive thing “Prestonpans” manages is how effortlessly it deconstructs toxic masculinity.

Dougal MacKenzie is nothing if not the poster child for unchecked testosterone, a trait that can manifest itself positively, as when he fearlessly volunteers to test the bog to see if it is possible for the Jacobites to traverse it and attack the nearby British forces, or negatively, like when he gleefully slaughtered injured British soldiers in the aftermath of the battle.

Both extreme manifestations of Dougal’s masculinity are criticized in their own way. The first, in displaying that, while brave, Dougal’s actions were brazen and needlessly careless, in a way that only put him in greater danger than necessary. The latter, evidencing the ugly and cruel way his ego reveled in the spoils of war.

But even better than displaying explicit criticism of Dougal’s actions is the way “Outlander” provided preferable masculine relationships as a counterpoint to Dougal.

Throughout “Prestonpans,” Jamie and his troops exhibit a certain reluctance toward the battle to come. While they’re certainly anxious to do something beyond sitting and waiting for orders, there are few soldiers actively anticipating a fight against a better-equipped British army.

Characters whom we know to be fierce warriors, like Murtagh, express concern over participating in a battle larger than that between clans and wonder to Jamie how many men must die to make a death matter in a skirmish such as the one they’re facing.

Rupert and Angus, effectively the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of “Outlander,” speak on the eve of battle of what happens if one of them were to die. Angus initiates the heartfelt, if slightly ridiculous, conversation, while Rupert tries anxiously to avoid it, not because he’s uncomfortable with the expression of such bald-faced emotions, but because he thinks to have such conversations invites the devil’s notice upon them, cursing them.

For the most part, the Jacobite soldiers aren’t afraid of expressing their emotions, their love, their fear, their dread. They may be uneasy with the war they fight or the thought of a meaningless death or with taking a life but they do not fear love or expressions of it.

When Angus dies, after saving Rupert’s life on the battlefield and bringing him back to Claire for tending, it’s a tragic, senseless loss that shakes our cast of players to their core. They want to celebrate their unlikely victory over the British, to revel in the bit of good news before the inevitable bad to follow, but war, like life, has casualties.

What “Outlander” understands and continues to display as its second season unfurls is that life is a battle that each individual has been conscripted in. Each of us weathers the battles, whether victories or defeats, even as our only assurance is that no one will survive the war.

All the characters of “Outlander” can do, all any of us can do, is fight valiantly, as well as we can, for as long as we can. To look out for our friends and to express our love and to hope with all that is in us that we live to fight another day.

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