Outlander bosses share surprising insight into Black Jack Randall 'humiliation' scene with Jamie Fraser
Outlander fans may be surprised to learn the reason why Captain 'Black Jack' Randall (played by Tobias Menzies) was hugely humiliated when he met King Louis XV (Lionel Lingelser) in Versailles.
The scene in question saw the evil Redcoat on the back foot during an encounter with the French monarch, Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire Fraser (Caitríona Balfe).
After making a comment to Claire about how serendipitous it was to have encountered the Frasers in Paris not long after brutally torturing and raping Jamie, he was very much humbled, reports the Express.
King Louis XV witnessed the tense moment between Claire and Black Jack as she warned the soldier to let go of her arm, before the royal and his fellow courtiers intervened.
Black Jack was mocked for his poor French pronunciation while Claire was complimented on her impeccable language skills.
Then Black Jack was forced to his knees and beg a favour of the king on behalf of his brother Alex Randall (Laurence Dobiesz), who was in the employ of the Duke of Sandringham (Simon Callow).
Black Jack wanted Alex's position reconsidered given his ailing health with the Randall sibling not long for this world.
On the orders of the monarch, the captain did kneel with Louis laughing in his face and declaring: 'You English are so literal.'
Black Jack was silently fuming but unable to retaliate given his position.
Previously addressing the scene on the show's official podcast, Outlander's executive producer Ronald D. Moore broke down the screen, which saw the power dynamic between Black Jack and the Frasers shifting.
Moore said: 'I came up with this idea of King Louis coming over, and Jack sort of having to talk to Jamie through Louis and Louis sort of forcing Jack to his knees and f***ing with him because he's a British officer at the French court.
'I like that and essentially France and Britain, yes, they are fighting a war somewhere else in Europe at this time in Austria or something.
'But it's not a total war that we think about. There's still this odd, to our mindsets, odd 18th century idea of warfare where these countries would be at war with each other but they would still sort of be polite to each other in other contexts.
Moore compared this quiet but fierce animosity to the Cold War, where the USA and the USSR were fighting in hot spots like Vietnam and Korea but continued with general civilities to each other on their home turf.
'So the idea of a British officer showing up in Versailles was not completely out of the question and I like the idea that when a British officer showed up at Versailles Louis would start to screw with them, to f*** with them.
'Once he picked up the idea that Claire and Jamie did not like Jack Randall, that he would try to find some way to humiliate him,' Moore said.
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