What’s Worth Watching: Great Bloody Scot

Matt Roush May 30, 2015, 3:00 am

Â©Sony Pictures Television

Outlander episode 16

Outlander, “To Ransom a Man’s Soul” (Saturday, May 30, 9/8c, Starz)

Never doubt that Outlander is Starz’s deluxe answer to Game of Thrones, not least when it comes to the department of cruelty. Recent events involving Jamie (Sam Heughan), and his sexual victimization while a captive of the obsessed and twisted Black Jack Randall (Tobias Menzies), are a clear indication that this show is just as adept at delivering the graphic goods when it needs to. The finale of an impressive first season subjects Claire (the terrific Caitriona Balfe) to her most grueling emotional ordeal to date. She must push her nurturing gifts to the limit, rescuing her soulmate from a physical and spiritual torment in a demonstration of unconditional love that is both brutally grueling yet, ultimately, soaringly romantic in its resolution. The second season can’t arrive soon enough.