Outlander recap: 'All Debts Paid' 

Caitriona Balfe, Sam Heughan, Gary Lewis, Graham McTavish, Tobias Menzies

Let’s pour out a cup of loose-leaf tea and eat a full English breakfast in honor of Tobias Menzies, who died not one but two deaths on

Outlander — first as villainous Jonathan “Black Jack” Randall and then as his descendant, historian Frank Randall. And while I always felt sympathetic for TV Show Frank (not so much Book Frank), that feeling began to wane during “All Debts Paid,” as we watched a man bruised and battered from years spent in a loveless marriage act out in hurtful ways.

It’s now 1956, and in a moment of amiability over breakfast, Claire invites Frank to go to the movies. Only problem: He’s seen them all already. And obviously not with Claire.

“We agreed we were free to…” Frank trails off. “I’m being discreet.”

“Yes, you are. Thank you,” Claire responds curtly.

But that discretion doesn’t last — later at Claire’s graduation party (or rather, Dr. Randall’s graduation party) the doorbell rings and it’s…Frank’s mistress. Apparently, Frank thought the festivities would be over by 6 p.m. (reader, they were not over by 6 p.m.). Claire ushers everyone out of the house early for their dinner reservation, but it isn’t quite enough to save face. That evening, she and Frank get into another tense row.

“You humiliated me in front of my new colleagues,” Claire storms.

When Claire asks if Frank and his historical-linguistics-student girlfriend have ever had sex in their bed, his reply is pure ice: “I think our bedroom is far too crowded already. Wouldn’t you agree?” Claire suggests divorce, but Frank rebuffs her. He doesn’t want to lose Brianna, who at this point is about 10 years old.

This scene makes his actions eight years later even more reprehensible. Eighteen and a high school graduate, Bri is now old enough to make her own decisions, and Frank is banking on the fact that she loves him more than she does Claire. He tells Claire that he’s been offered a very good position at Cambridge and plans to return to England. She misunderstands his intentions and explains that she can’t leave her hospital in Boston. But Frank doesn’t want Claire to come with him — just Bri. In fact, not only does he want a divorce, but he plans to marry his girlfriend, Sandy, as soon as the ink is dry on the paperwork.

“You’ve been waiting for the clock to run out!” exclaims Claire. “If you try to take Brianna away from me, I’ll have a thing or two to say about adultery, Frank!”

“I would like to live the rest of my life with a wife that truly loves me,” he says in a heartbreaking moment. “You couldn’t look at Brianna without seeing him, could you? Without that constant reminder. That’s why you haven’t forgotten him with time.”

“That amount of time doesn’t exist,” she says.

But the whole argument is a moot point. Claire, after a shift at the hospital, is delivered the tragic news by her friend Joe Abernathy: Frank has been in a car accident. She arrives at the morgue to find a cold, pale Frank on the slab.

“If you are still close enough to hear me, I did love you, very much,” she whispers to the corpse. “You’re my first love.” (Recap continues on page 2)

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