Outlander episode 10 traps Claire on a typhoid ship while Jamie unravels

This recap contains spoilers for OutlanderSeason 3, episode 10, titled "Heaven and Earth." To refresh your memory of where we left off, check out our episode 9 recap.

After enduring five episodes of separation between Claire and Jamie at the beginning of this season, you'd be forgiven for screaming at your TV when the Porpoise absconded with Claire at the end of Outlanderepisode 9.

"It's a wilder season than last season, and they are kept apart," executive producer Toni Graphia recently told Mashable. "I'm sure the fans will go crazy, like, 'Ah, they just got back together.' But that's in the book, so they'll be expecting it."

While fans of Diana Gabaldon's novels will know how Claire and Jamie find their way back together after this latest setback, viewers who haven't read the books can rest assured that it's not "too long of a parting," according to Graphia.

In Gabaldon's Voyager, the POV sticks with Claire during her time on board the Porpoise, so we have no frame of reference for what Jamie's up to while Claire's tending to the sick sailors, but in adapting the novel, the writers chose to fill in Jamie's side of the story in an undeniably fascinating way.

"We came up with a story for Fergus which is not in the book -- it becomes a strong Fergus/Jamie story that we thought was a good opportunity to portray," Graphia explained. While Claire was busy in doctor mode, capably whipping a crew of convalescing seamen into shape, Jamie was completely unraveling at the reality of being separated from his wife again so soon after being reunited -- something that audience members can likely relate to.

This allowed Fergus to step up and prove his love for both Jamie and his bride, Marsali, preventing his surrogate father from launching a suicidal mutiny that would likely have ended up with both men in the brig (if not tossed overboard) and the Artemis no closer to rescuing Claire. While Jamie has never been a man content to sit idle when those he loves are in danger, Fergus proved himself an honorable leader in his own right, prepared to stand his ground even when Jamie tried every dirty trick in the book -- from emotional blackmail to bribery -- to sway his sidekick into stealing the keys to his dingy cell.

While Jamie didn't come off looking particularly heroic in "Heaven and Earth," that's an important side of our "King of Men" to portray -- nobody's perfect, and desperation can make a person do surprising things, no matter how noble or honorable they are. Showing the lengths that Jamie is willing to go to for Claire, forsaking all rhyme and reason, is one of the reasons we love him, even when he's acting against his own best interests.

But Claire's journey was even more tumultuous this week; we didn't get an opportunity to see much of her as a surgeon in Boston, but here she kept a cool head in the most stressful of circumstances -- with men dying, threatening her, and plotting against her husband -- and even dared to jump off the ship into unknown waters on the off chance that she might be able to warn Jamie that the British are plotting to arrest him as soon as they get to Jamaica.

"Her going on the typhoid ship is really also a follow up to her operating on the man who attacked her in 307 because she's been to Harvard medical school now, and has been a surgeon for 15 years back in the future," Graphia explained. "A lot of people questioned, why did she work on this guy who attacked her? But she's been back one day and she spent 15 years all day long saving people, and she's not just gonna go, 'Oh, that guy attacked me, so let him die.' She's gonna try to save him and worry about justice later. We felt that would be true to her character."

Despite the risks -- like a shipful of unknown men who could attack her (since she can barely go a day without some scoundrel harassing her, let's be honest) -- Graphia pointed out that helping people is Claire's default instinct.

"Jamie knows that's who she is. He doesn't want her to go, but she's like, 'I have to go.' He doesn't want to lose her again after just getting her back, but that's part of what's great about their relationship; he never stops her from being who she is. And she doesn't stop him. If he says, 'I have to fight this battle,' she kisses him and sends him off to battle because that's who he is. She can't say, 'I don't want you to get killed,' and Jamie can't say, 'I don't want you to get kidnapped, or killed, or be on this dangerous ship,' because there's no stopping Claire or Jamie Fraser, and each of them let each other be themselves no matter how much danger [there] is."

True love, indeed.

Outlanderairs Sundays at 8 p.m. on Starz.

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