‘Outlander’ Season 7 Episode 5 Recap: “Singapore”

Five episodes in feels like a really pivotal point in Outlander Season 7, and there’s definitely a lot happening here. That being said, it almost seems as if there are too many loose threads at the moment, and “Singapore” (Episode 5) is a great example of just how much is going on. 

We start off in 1980, when Jemmy and Mandy have been hanging out in the cemetery at Lallybroch. Brianna (Sophie Skelton) is unsurprisingly none too pleased about having her two small children hanging out in such a morbid place, but Jemmy says they go there to talk to “Granda.” Bri is horrified at the idea of finding Jamie’s grave there, and they haven’t yet, but it’s very possible he and Claire made it back to Scotland eventually. 

The discussion does lead Bri to break her promise of savoring the letters from her parents. She misses them, so she and Roger (Richard Rankin) decide to dig into one from June 18, 1777, where they discover that the Frasers are at Fort Ticonderoga, where Jamie (Sam Heughan) has been conscripted until July of that year and Claire (Caitriona Balfe) is working as a doctor (albeit a not very well-respected one, given that she’s a woman in the 18th century). 

Speaking of Fort Ticonderoga, Jamie tries to warn General St. Clair (Cameron Anderson) that Sugarloaf Hill is in danger of being attacked but he’s summarily dismissed on multiple occasions. He vents his frustrations about this to Claire, who recalls the Battle of Singapore when the English insisted the Japanese would never attack from the jungle. Spoiler alert: They did. 

Back in the 20th century, Bri is about to start her first day as a plant inspector. She’s apprehensive but excited when she’s driven out to the location where the men are replacing a turbine, and she has every right to be worried. None too pleased with a woman being their superior, they decide to haze her by locking her in a dark tunnel, which she doesn’t seem to be too fazed by. This is perhaps because she has matches on her (as you do), and manages to strike one to see the fuse box and turn on the electric lights. 

As she navigates the tunnels, she comes across something pretty weird: it’s what appears to be a time portal and it’s emitting a pretty terrible noise. How it got there and who else knows about it is anyone’s guess, but it’s pretty weird. Of course, it’s not the weirdest thing happening to the MacKenzie family — back at Lallybroch, Roger keeps finding food wrappings that the kids swear don’t belong to them. He’s also shocked when Mandy claims to have seen the same mythical nuckelavee as Jemmy. And while Roger doesn’t see it when he looks out, there’s something looking back at him. Who is it and why are they there? 

Anyway, I digress. You have to hand it to Bri for dealing with such intense sexism in the workplace — much like what her mom is experiencing 200 years in the past. However, instead of being cowed by the men’s behavior, she marches right on down to the pub where her subordinates Rob Cameron (the mastermind behind her torture, played by Chris Fulton), Craig Dowd, and Andy Pfeiffer are drinking. She gives them a good telling off and this seems to be enough to get them to respect her. Could it really be that simple? 

In addition to all of that, we still have to talk about Young Ian (John Bell), who not only awkwardly asks Claire to look at his sperm but then comes face to face with his ex, Emily/Wahionhaweh (Morgan Holmstrom), who has not just a son but a daughter too. Ian tries to be happy for her, but he really is happy when he meets Emily’s son and finds that the 5-year-old boy, Swiftest of Lizards, looks exactly like him. The boy happily reveals that his grandmother tells him that he’s the “child of Ian’s spirit” but that he can’t tell his father. Emily then invites Ian to give the boy an English name, and Ian flexes his creative thinking muscles by deciding on Ian James. 

Elsewhere, William (Charles Vandervaart) is traveling with Denzell (Joey Phillips) and Rachel (Izzy Meikle-Small) to Ticonderoga when they’re welcomed in by a good samaritan who… feeds them rat stew and then tries to murder them in their slip. William springs into action and kills the man before delivering a pretty impressive KO to his wife, but he struggles with the idea of killing someone for the first time and it seems to have made him question his loyalties. He eventually leaves the Hunters at Ticonderoga and continues north, so who knows what’s going to happen to him? 

Denzell’s arrival does appear to help Claire’s case, however, and together they successfully amputate the leg of a lovely fella named Walter who just wants to fulfill his service duty and get home to his wife. The two had a bit of a falling out and he wants to get back on the right track with her. Sadly, that seems unlikely as the fort is eventually attacked, as predicted, and everyone has to evacuate. That means leaving behind the wounded, though Claire does hook Walter up with a bottle of labdanum before they’re on their way. 

Outlander Season 7 Episode 5: A few thoughts…

• Nice close-up on the Land Rover logo on Brianna’s company truck. Is that product placement? It has to be, right? 
• Could the portal in the tunnels be something that could eventually bring the MacKenzies back to the Frasers? And more importantly, what does Rob Cameron know about it since it’s, as he described, “his project”? 
• I’m a little lost on what William’s role is this season, but that’s likely purposely done. Will he take after his birth father? Time will tell.

Jennifer Still is a writer and editor from New York who cares too way much about fictional characters and spends her time writing about them.