It's fitting that this episode marks the on-screen return of Captain Jack Randall, because the episode is really about inner darkness. Really, the center of this episode relates to a major theme that the showrunners began to put forward at the end of season 1, how far are you willing to go; what are you willing to do to protect the ones you love. Much of the end of the first season was centered around those sacrifices, the most notable being Jaime literally sacrificing his body up to Randall to save Claire. You can't watch season 2 without this question being on the back of your mind, but up to now it was mostly in the periphery. In episode 1, Jaime and Claire discuss the possibility of losing their souls by engaging in a web of lies and deceptions to change the future. In episode 4, Claire asks whether they are bad people, for setting up Charles to fail at the dinner party, recognizing that bad people almost always believe they are doing the bad things for the right reason. Yet Untimely Resurrection is almost exclusively about this question, about how far Jaime and Claire are willing to go to either change the future, in Jaime's case, or preserve the future in Claire's case. While's Jaime's story gets some attention, notably his sickening partnership with St. Germain, Claire's story is the one to focus on.
The episode is so brilliantly crafted by the showrunners because it subverts your expectations. I think this is one of the reasons why I don't see Claire's relationships with Frank and Jaime as a love triangle. There is no winner, or loser. Claire doesn't choose to love one and not the other. She loves both, in a different ways, and in this episode you its chilling to see how Claire's love of Frank brings her into the darkness in a way you haven't seen before and jeopardizes her relationship with Jaime.
Claire has made her share of bad decisions, foolish decision, sometimes even selfish decisions in the past, but never like you see in this episode. She seriously contemplates the prospect of letting Alex Randall rot in prison for a rape he didn't commit to ensure Frank's existence. While she doesn't do this, she does completely betray her friend Mary by going to Alex in secret and convincing him to leave Mary in Paris. How does she do this? By weaponizing Alex's love for Mary against him, convincing him that he will bring her misery if he stays with her. After Randall and Jaime agree to duel, Claire gets Randall locked up (not that he doesn't deserve to be) by simply lying and claiming that he attacked Mary and she on the streets of Paris. Yet that's not all, as Claire commits her worst atrocity in this episode by completely betraying Jaime and getting him to agree to wait a year to kill Randall. How does she do this? By convincing her husband that its the right thing to do for Frank's sake in a loving, heartfelt scene with Jaime? Wrong answer; she does this by weaponizing Jaime's sense of honor of loyalty by saying he owes her a life for saving him from and after the events at Wentworth Prison.
It should be obvious why I think this episode is so masterful, because in this episode, Claire is Black Jack Randall. Claire embraces a darkness, and evil that you haven't seen before, she is a bad person in this episode, justifying the bad things she's doing behind a good reason (sparing Frank's existence). Claire has always had an ability to manipulate situations in her favor and get people to act the way she has wanted, but all of those situations up to now have been in confrontations where Claire has been at a power disadvantage. When she drops Sandringham's name in Fort William, it's a way to obtain power in a situation where Randall clearly has superior power to her. When Claire used Sandringham's sympathies to the Jacobites against him, it is clear that going into the meeting, the Duke of Sandringham is significantly more powerful than she is.
It's much different in this episode. Claire has an authority, a maturity over Mary and Alex that puts her in a much more powerful position when she meets with them. In her confrontation with Jaime, she weaponizes his emotional torment at Randall's hands for her own gain. Uses the very actions she was praised for in bringing Jaime out of the darkness to use against him here.
The episode is so well done because we've seen the type of person Claire is, we know that she is a healer at heart, someone who is often the one bringing people out of the darkness than embracing it herself. It's just so heartbreaking to see the heroine betray those closest to her, and especially betray individuals who are in vulnerable emotional positions. It is another reminder of the nature of darkness, the nature of evil and how easy it can be for good people with good intentions to fall victim to it.
The episode is so brilliantly crafted by the showrunners because it subverts your expectations. I think this is one of the reasons why I don't see Claire's relationships with Frank and Jaime as a love triangle. There is no winner, or loser. Claire doesn't choose to love one and not the other. She loves both, in a different ways, and in this episode you its chilling to see how Claire's love of Frank brings her into the darkness in a way you haven't seen before and jeopardizes her relationship with Jaime.
Claire has made her share of bad decisions, foolish decision, sometimes even selfish decisions in the past, but never like you see in this episode. She seriously contemplates the prospect of letting Alex Randall rot in prison for a rape he didn't commit to ensure Frank's existence. While she doesn't do this, she does completely betray her friend Mary by going to Alex in secret and convincing him to leave Mary in Paris. How does she do this? By weaponizing Alex's love for Mary against him, convincing him that he will bring her misery if he stays with her. After Randall and Jaime agree to duel, Claire gets Randall locked up (not that he doesn't deserve to be) by simply lying and claiming that he attacked Mary and she on the streets of Paris. Yet that's not all, as Claire commits her worst atrocity in this episode by completely betraying Jaime and getting him to agree to wait a year to kill Randall. How does she do this? By convincing her husband that its the right thing to do for Frank's sake in a loving, heartfelt scene with Jaime? Wrong answer; she does this by weaponizing Jaime's sense of honor of loyalty by saying he owes her a life for saving him from and after the events at Wentworth Prison.
It should be obvious why I think this episode is so masterful, because in this episode, Claire is Black Jack Randall. Claire embraces a darkness, and evil that you haven't seen before, she is a bad person in this episode, justifying the bad things she's doing behind a good reason (sparing Frank's existence). Claire has always had an ability to manipulate situations in her favor and get people to act the way she has wanted, but all of those situations up to now have been in confrontations where Claire has been at a power disadvantage. When she drops Sandringham's name in Fort William, it's a way to obtain power in a situation where Randall clearly has superior power to her. When Claire used Sandringham's sympathies to the Jacobites against him, it is clear that going into the meeting, the Duke of Sandringham is significantly more powerful than she is.
It's much different in this episode. Claire has an authority, a maturity over Mary and Alex that puts her in a much more powerful position when she meets with them. In her confrontation with Jaime, she weaponizes his emotional torment at Randall's hands for her own gain. Uses the very actions she was praised for in bringing Jaime out of the darkness to use against him here.
The episode is so well done because we've seen the type of person Claire is, we know that she is a healer at heart, someone who is often the one bringing people out of the darkness than embracing it herself. It's just so heartbreaking to see the heroine betray those closest to her, and especially betray individuals who are in vulnerable emotional positions. It is another reminder of the nature of darkness, the nature of evil and how easy it can be for good people with good intentions to fall victim to it.