Outlander season 7 episode 13 recap: One wedding and two rescues

NOTE: This post contains spoilers for Outlander season 7 episode 13, "Hello, Goodbye”.

Following the turmoil of “Carnal Knowledge”, Outlander season 7 plays catch up with Bree and Roger while also taking Ian and Rachel’s relationship to a whole new level. No William and very little Lord John in this new episode, but that does not mean there is any less drama going on.

Let’s recap the events of “Hello, Goodbye.”

Looking for all the Jeremiahs

Since Outlander’s previous episode did not feature Bree and Roger’s storylines, this one had to primarily put the focus on them, so it opened in 1739, as Buck and Roger continue their search for Jeremiah. When Buck observes that throughout the different timelines, the mountains of the Scottish Highlands remain unchanged, it gives Roger an idea. He realizes the location of the Loch Errochty Power Station, where Brianna works and has found what they call a "time portal" in 1980, is nearby. So perhaps in 1739, it still has standing stones that might be the ones his father traveled through when he came to the past. They decide to go there to see if they can retrace Jeremiah’s steps.

Meanwhile, in 1980, Bree is looking for her own Jeremiah and has locked Rob Cameron up in her cellar. As Jamie’s daughter would, she does not hesitate to beat him up, demanding to know where he took her son. He won't say however, so Bree decides to go to the police and takes Mandy with her hoping that she might “feel” Jemmy, as the siblings share a special connection that somehow links them through time and space. On the way to the police station, they play “hot and cold” as Mandy tries to locate her brother.

Before long, we find Jemmy crying for help in a very damp place. It turns out Cameron took him to the power station where he and Bree work, and Jemmy starts to find his way around the tunnels, remembering how his mother told him how she got out when she was stuck there herself (in the first half of season 7).

Back in the 1730s, Roger and Buck arrive at the future location of the dam and indeed find standing stones and the familiar buzzing sound associated with a time portal. And in the 1980s dam, Jemmy also stumbles upon the portal! For a moment, Outlander entertains the idea that perhaps father and son might be reunited through time as Roger calls Jeremiah’s name and on his side of the time portal, Jemmy hears him. They are not, however, and what Roger and Buck find is a farm boy hiding behind a bush, and Jemmy makes his way out of the dam, onto a road… and luckily runs into his mother as Mandy cries “Hot, Mommy!”

Happy Quaker wedding day

Back in Revolutionary time Philadelphia, it is Ian and Rachel’s wedding day! It is unclear how we got to this point when only last episode the two did not get Quaker approval to marry, but oh well! Ian chats with Jamie about how he is glad his uncle isn’t dead and will be able to see him marry Rachel, while he also hopes Denzell will be able to make it on time as he is Rachel’s only family.

Ian then shares his concerns with Jamie about his wedding night with his betrothed because it will be her first time. Jamie gives him advice, which is what Claire told him on their wedding night: go slow and be gentle. In the meantime, Claire helps Rachel get ready for the ceremony and the young woman thanks Mercy for hosting the wedding. They then talk about how Ian and Jamie will have to go back to the war soon, and Rachel wonders if it ever gets easier to watch the man you love march onto the battlefield. Spoiler alert: it doesn't.

As Claire shares additional wisdom about marriage with Rachel, Denzell arrives right on time for the wedding. He first runs into Henry Grey, who is doing much better, then he sees Jamie and asks if Lord John is back in town. When Jamie says he isn’t, Denzell explains what happened to John after Jamie left him with the Continental Army soldiers: how he was to be hanged and how Denzell helped him escape. But now, no one knows where he is and that concerns Jamie a bit.

The time comes for Ian and Rachel’s very solemn Quaker ceremony. It’s quiet as everyone involved is "waiting for the Spirit to move them". Claire seems a bit bored, and Rollo definitely is. Eventually, Jamie makes a speech about Ian and how proud he is of him. Then, Denzell talks about how he and Rachel were rejected by the Quaker community when he decided to get involved with the revolution, and he regrets having dragged Rachel into it. However, now seeing her with Ian by her side, he feels better because she has found love and a home.

As the wedding goes on, Mercy glances at Henry, because she still hopes they can be married. When Ian stands to say his piece, he explains how he has known darkness but Rachel brought him light. Her turn comes next and she vows to be by his side, a loving and faithful wife, as long as they both shall live.

Later on, Rachel and Ian's wedding night goes rather smoothly. They are both glad they have nice bums, and while Rachel is a virgin, she is definitely not a prude. She is a bit worried about doing the deed though, as she expects it to hurt the first time but Ian is gentle, as his uncle instructed, and the two share this intimate time in true Outlander fashion.

The concerns of James Fraser

Back at Lord John’s house (because apparently Claire and Jamie have an open invite to stay there even when Lord John is missing), Jamie sits in bed and wonders about John Grey. In fact, he is both concerned about what happened to him, and cannot help but think about how the room he and Claire are now sleeping in is the room where she and John had sex.

While Jamie still holds what happened against John, he doesn’t wish him dead and is upset that he was almost hanged on his account. Jamie then tells Claire he is also worried about William and feels bad because he vowed to do right by him and now has failed. She tells him he didn’t and adds that William might be angry at him for a while but in time he will understand that the reason he and John kept the truth from him was because they love him.

Speaking of Lord John, he is sleeping somewhere in the woods and is woken up by Reverend Peleg Woodsworth of the Sixteenth Pennsylvania militia who, seeing John is wearing chains, asks where he escaped from. Clever enough to make up a lie quickly, Lord John says his name is Armstrong and that he was taken by British officers who took him for a spy. He explains he hasn’t had a chance to join a company yet as he was captured by the British, and asks if Woodsworth and his men can help him.

No time for nonsense

Back in the future, Bree gets home with the police and Jemmy feels like he should have been braver, thinking if he had gotten away sooner, his father would not have had to travel through the stones. Bree tells him none of this is his fault, before leaving him and Mandy with a social worker while she goes inside to take the police to Rob Cameron. Unfortunately, when she opens the cellar, they find that Cameron is gone.

The police officers are immediately skeptical of Bree’s entire kidnapping story and start insinuating that maybe she had some sort of affair with Rob. It doesn’t help that she can’t exactly say that Cameron meant to use Jemmy to find a lost Jacobite treasure, or explain where her husband really is. The male cop goes as far as telling Bree there is no need to be “hysterical” about the situation and Bree really gets aggravated.

Back in the past, Roger and Buck question the farmboy about Jeremiah and he explains people in a nearby village are scared of him and are looking for him, and that he saw Jeremiah run into the woods. Looking for him, Roger and Buck talk about how neither of them ever knew their parents when all of a sudden, they find Jeremiah.

The poor man is confused to see two men who appear to know all about him, so Roger explains how he also is from the future. Helping Jeremiah with a small injury, Roger asks his father (who has no clue who Roger really is) if he has seen his son, also named Jeremiah, and Papa MacKenzie says he hasn’t but also has a son to get back to as well. Not missing the irony of the situation, Roger then asks how Jeremiah got here. His story about falling through a standing stone while he was on a World War 2 mission is cut short though, because the villagers who are after him arrive.

Roger decides to take his father back to the stones and gives him a gem so that he can travel back to his own time. He mentions Jeremiah’s wife by name, which confuses him even more, but does not reveal his identity. Roger only tells his dad that the Allies win the war before insisting that he goes. As Jeremiah disappears through the stones, Roger tells him he loves him before having a quick vision of his dad and himself as a child, hiding underground during the Blitz.

Preparing for a fight

Back in Philly, Ian and Rachel wake up the morning after their wedding and talk about the war. Conscious of her nonviolent principles, Ian promises his wife he will not kill anyone unless he has to, and adds that he will return to her every night. Over on Chestnut street, Jamie wears his general uniform and asks Claire if she understands why he has to be back to the war. She says she does and affirms she will be by his side. Both couples are getting ready for a return to the battlefield that promises to be challenging.

Meanwhile in the future, Bree seems to prepare for another kind of fight as she takes her children to Fiona so she can look after them while Bree gets the locks changed at Lallybroch. She doesn’t feel safe, but she has a gun and she’ll do whatever it takes to protect her family. When Fiona says that Roger will surely come back when he realizes Jemmy isn’t in the past, Bree shares her concern that Roger will never return without their son.

She isn’t wrong, but the thing is that Roger is starting to think his son may not be in the 1730s after all. He tells Buck about the image that popped in his mind when Jeremiah left and how he expected to see more of a life with his father, and explains how he wanted to give his dad a chance. Roger then adds that he now thinks the stones took them to this time to save his father, and if that is true then perhaps it means Jemmy isn’t there at all.

Roger and Buck gave their gemstone to Jeremiah though, so now they’ll have to find more if they want to travel through the stones again. There is still more to come for the MacKenzies and the Frasers, so tune in next week on Starz and MGM+ for a new episode of Outlander.