【erotice affixiation】

This recap contains spoilers for Outlander Season 3,erotice affixiation episode 2, titled "Surrender."

If the OutlanderSeason 3 premiere focused on the isolation that Claire and Jamie felt following their separation, episode 2 reminds us of the connections that keep them tethered to their new lives -- albeit reluctantly, in Jamie's case.

After returning to Lallybroch in the final minutes of episode 301, we find Jamie eking out a solitary existence in a cave somewhere in the woods on the estate, hiding out from the English soldiers who continue to patrol the area and who seem to spend an inordinate amount of time harassing Jenny and Ian for their suspected Jacobite sympathies. Jamie returns periodically to deliver game he's caught and check in on his sister, and he's often visited by Fergus, but he's clearly no longer the warrior he once was, refusing to teach his young protege how to shoot to try and protect him from the wrath of the English.

"He can't be Jamie Fraser and also doesn't want to be, because he's lost everything that he wants and has lived for," Sam Heughan tells Mashable. "It's probably the most shut down we see him. He's really a shadow of a man."

Then three pivotal things happen that bring everything into perspective for our tortured hero; Ian is arrested, leaving Jenny struggling to run the household and the estate alone, especially with tenants who are falling into hard times under the yoke of the English; she gives birth to another son, Young Ian, under the most stressful circumstances imaginable; and Fergus loses his hand after goading the English soldiers. (All of which is STRESSFUL AF.)

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"He has to fight to save Jenny -- one of the only people that he's got left -- and Fergus, and that gives him something to fight for and a new spirit in him," Heughan explains of Jamie's plan to surrender himself to the English, using Jenny to tip them off so that she can collect the sizeable reward on his head.

"However," he adds, "he's still not fully come to terms with the fact that Claire's dead," which is demonstrated by the visions he has of her.

That loneliness and guilt clearly weighs heavily on him when Mary McNab offers him her body on the eve of his surrender, and while there's obviously no love between them, it's heartbreaking to see how deeply he's affected by a tender touch after six years of solitary confinement.

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Back in the future, Claire is making good on her promise to try and make things work with Frank following Brianna's birth. The easy intimacy of their earlier marriage may be gone, but they're much more affectionate now, and Claire even initiates sex, even though she's obviously thinking of Jamie the whole time.

(There are a few steamy moments this week, come to think of it. For the fans who complained about the lack of sex in Season 2, be careful what you wish for, I guess?)

Menzies says he appreciated that "there wasn't always the dynamic of Frank chasing and Claire being chased." Using the example of their lovemaking by the fire, he reveals, "Originally in the script it was kind of driven by him, and making it her that seduces him ... even though, yes, she has huge feelings for Jamie, she's still actively trying to make this marriage work."

But the real turning point for Claire comes when she decides to enroll in medical school; she's the only woman in the class, of course, which leads to another round of Claire's adventures in Mansplaining, but at least she's not the only outcast -- she immediately forges a connection with Joe Abernathy, the only black student, and a lifelong friendship is born.

Both literally and figuratively, episode 2 tackles the idea of phantom limbs; the things we lose that we continue to carry with us. Fergus and Ian have to deal with the physical reality of that loss -- the ache of something that isn't there -- but for Jamie, losing his heart seems to be a disfigurement that he can never come back from, at least until he's given a new purpose.

But the most fascinating aspect of "Surrender" is the way that it deals with confinement. Fergus becomes trapped by his own defiance -- he may put a brave face on it, but for a pickpocket to lose a hand is the cruelest and most poetic of ironies. Jenny is fenced in by her gender, helpless to protect her brother or her husband, and furious that the only way to improve the family's circumstances is to surrender one of them to the enemy.

Jamie is in a prison of his own making, emotionally and physically, while Claire is once again constricted by the expectations of the time and society she finds herself in. None of them have any way out, so the question becomes how do they reconcile themselves with their surroundings?

Claire tries to make the best of it -- a slightly easier prospect since she believes that Jamie is dead -- and be productive, while Jamie prefers to wallow in his grief and repress the parts of himself that were most potent with Claire: his courage and passion and rebelliousness. Seeing him so diminished is a testament to the bond between them, but we all know that if she could see the state he's in, she would tell him to pull himself together and get on with his life, which makes his misery even more gut-wrenching.

Still, he takes one step closer towards his old self by sacrificing himself for his family (and shaving off that epic beard) because at his core, Jamie Fraser will always be a leader, no matter how much he tries to deny those instincts. He might be headed back to prison, but while he's a long way from being fixed, it's clear that he refuses to be broken again.

Outlanderairs Sundays at 8 p.m. on Starz.

Watch: 'Outlander' Season 3 explores Claire and Jamie's parallel lives