Spoilers ahead for Episode 2 of Outlander Season 6, called “Allegiance.”
Outlander hit the ground running with last week's Season 6 premiere, which set up a slew of new plots with the arrival of the Christies and looming Revolutionary War on top of the fallout from the end of Season 5. Claire, Brianna, and Roger having knowledge of the future has been a blessing and a curse, as Young Ian discovered in “Allegiance.” Still, Jamie made a choice not based on his best guess about what will happen with war brewing, but based on his family allegiance, and I can’t help but think that his approach is the family’s best shot at changing the future and surviving the revolution intact.
In his new role as Indian Agent, Jamie met with the leaders of the Cherokee and heard their requests for more guns, but didn’t promise to pass their request along to the British. Jamie in fact decided against it, to Young Ian’s dismay, which only worsened when he got a history lesson from Brianna about what fate awaits the Native Americans with the establishment of the United States of America. Ian decided that he needed to use his future knowledge to give the Cherokee every chance he could, considering what will happen to them.
This was not Jamie’s goal when he filled Ian in on why giving the Cherokee guns would be dangerous, citing the fact that none of them were sure if the tribe would side with the British in the Revolutionary War and turn any weapons on the Frasers and the rebels. Still, when Jamie overheard Ian telling Marsali about the child that he’d had with his Mohawk wife, he realized that the Native Americans were Ian’s kin as much as the Frasers. If Ian’s allegiance was going to be with helping them as much as possible, Jamie’s allegiance would be to his nephew, and he wrote to the governor to pass along the Cherokee request for guns.
There’s no saying at this point if that decision will or won’t backfire against the Frasers and the rest of their people at Fraser’s Ridge, but it was a major decision about the future that Jamie made without trying to figure out the best course of action for what is supposed to happen in history. The Frasers have certainly had mixed results when it comes to changing history, with Claire and Jamie’s failure to prevent Culloden despite exhaustive efforts as the biggest example. Bree’s knowledge of American history came in handy as well, although not in time for Murtagh to survive.
To contrast the ways that they haven’t changed history, Claire has made the point that she alters the timeline every time she saves somebody who should have died without her 20th century medical knowledge. With how the Frasers tend to fail at changing big events when they try – or arguably even make those big events happen the way that history recorded them – perhaps the best course of action is to ignore what Claire, Bree, and Roger know from their lives before time travel.
Their struggles at Fraser’s Ridge are on a much smaller scale than anything that the time travelers know from their studies of history in the 20th century, and focusing on those smaller specifics could benefit them the most in the long run. After all, there’s still that fire that’s supposed to kill Claire and Jamie on the way. Changing something smaller in the grand scheme of things with some careful moves might be possible; using future knowledge to make decisions about the present just hasn’t always worked well for the Frasers. Perhaps following their hearts and their instincts over the history books could be the way to get them through the war.
For now, fans can only wait and find out what happens for Jamie now that he decided to show his allegiance to Young Ian. “Allegiance” was an eventful episode all around, particularly with Marsali’s struggles giving birth to her newest baby, who was rejected by Fergus almost immediately upon the discovery of his dwarfism. Marsali fortunately survived, and is just happy that her son is healthy, but Fergus is once again nowhere to be seen.
Find out what happens next with new episodes of Season 6 of Outlander on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on Starz in the 2022 TV schedule. Starz dropped its price with a special offer timed to the long-awaited release of Season 6, so there’s no better time to check the show out!
