Indeed, Jamie and his general arrive on the spot, but they get word that the prince's troops got LOST and so gave up and turned back. Jamie begs to do the ambush anyway, on the theory that the strength of surprise will makeup for their lack of manpower, but the general disagrees and they turn back. Murtagh bitterly vocalizes that this may have sealed their fate, and made history a reality. Jamie's last best chance is gone. CULLODEN AWAITS.

And the thing is... It's been a rough season, I think, albeit peppered with good moments and universally well-acted. But my instinct when the premiere aired was that TELLING us Culloden didn't work RIGHT in the first 30 seconds of the season made this less of a ride. Because as much as we non-book-readers might have suspected Gabaldon didn't totally alter history, it might have been nice to hold out hope that maybe they changed it SLIGHTLY and the battle happened elsewhere but ended the same way, or... I don't know. But dramatically, it was a bit unsatisfying to have that sewn up and then slog through 12 episodes of prescribed misery and repeated failure.

Still, the final 90 minutes await next week, so we will at LEAST get to find out -- I assume -- how dire Jamie's prospects really were when Claire zipped back through the stones. Culloden was only a part of the story, and as much as it's clearly not possible to have no more Jamie in this show, it WILL hopefully still be fun getting to how and why he sticks around. ONWARD TO THE FINALE.

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Fug the Show: Outlander recap, S2 E12, “The Hail Mary”

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