This is dysentery. Claire tells everyone that a contaminated water source most likely caused it, but after funeral upon funeral — the body count is high! — no one can seem to figure it out. And then Claire falls ill.
Malva, before her death, tells him that she made them sick. She'd collected parts of the dead Sin Eater and poisoned Claire and Tom. She wanted to get to Jamie, and getting Claire out of the way was the only way to do that. And it wasn't because Jamie had an affair.
To be more specific, it is amoebic dysentery, which Claire (Caitriona Balfe) confirms with her makeshift microscope. The disease can be spread through contaminated food or water, and Jamie (Sam Heughan) eventually learns that it was a dead elk lying in the water that the fisherfolk use that caused the disease.
The haircutting was part of the process. Malva wanted to make Claire undesirable. She wanted to make Jamie turn to her instead of to his wife. We can get a sense of that from the way Claire worried about Jamie seeing her with the short, jagged hair.
Director Brendan Maher told Vulture that while both Menzies and Heughan had stunt doubles for the physically demanding sequence, neither used them much. “We had people for safety, just in case, but the nature of the work is that you want the actors to do as much as they possibly can,” Maher said.
About half way through the book, the protagonist, Claire, is violently beaten by her lover/husband, Jamie, as punishment for endangering him and his clan.
When asked about the situation, Outlander author Diana Gabaldon confirmed that Claire did not use ether in the books. Fans described the nurse using the drug to sleep as "out of character" for her and questioned why STARZ decided to turn her into a drug user.
Jamie denies having slept with her, but the damage to his and to Claire's reputation is done—and the bond between the Frasers and Malva is severed, until just a few weeks later, when Claire finds Malva murdered in the garden. “It's like the peak of the tragedy, and it's so visceral.
Claire eventually realizes that Malva is lying because she knows her husband well enough. Tom seems to question Malva's story. You can see it in his face that he's trying to figure out if this story is true. And then there are the reactions at the funeral when Allan refuses to let Claire carry the baby's coffin out.
Jamie: "Claire, it was you. It's always been you, and it always will be. Get into bed and put the candle out.
Later, after Claire has returned to the Ridge, she is confessor to Allan Christie, who explains that he was the one that fathered Malva's child, and then murdered her.
The Rabbit
While laying on the battlefield, injured and hallucinating, Jamie also saw a rabbit on the grass not too far from him. In researching the symbolism of rabbits, I learned that in dreams they symbolize a stroke of good luck – both Claire and Jamie were saved shortly after seeing their respective rabbits.
Let's learn about the disease that robbed Jocasta Cameron of her eyesight: Glaucoma. Yep, that's the one. Glaucoma (glaw-koh-muh), is a word derived from the Greek glaukommatos meaning “gray-eyed.”
Fans are convinced Outlander heroine Claire will be poisoned by Malva after she was seen slicing off a finger of the dead Sin Eater (David Gant) who was introduced in episode two.
She is eager to learn more about medicine and surgery. Throughout the episode, she worked with Claire and learned how to use the ether. Then she questioned Claire about her book and what Claire writes in there.
Malva was first introduced at the beginning of the season as a new resident of the Ridge who admired Claire's medical skills. Behind her admiration was a darker side of blackmail, betraying Claire's trust, and stalking. She falsely claimed Jamie was the father of her unborn child.
When Jamie's negotiations with the governor for Claire's freedom fail, Tom Christie confesses to Malva's murder. In November 1776, Allan comes to Malva's grave and confesses to Claire about raping his sister, that he was the father of Malva's child, and that he killed her because she was going to tell the truth.
Lizzie says that she did attempt to talk to her the day Malva died, but the door to the surgery was locked. Those knocks were what Claire heard in her hallucination before she found Malva's body.
Tom and Claire unexpectedly meet each other with the preacher questioning whether Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan) was aware of his feelings. In the book, Claire confirms Jamie is well aware of Tom's unrequited feelings towards her and understands them as someone who is in love with her.
Additionally, Allan confirmed he took Malva's life because she was going to reveal the truth and he didn't want this. Allan planned to take his life with Claire trying to dissuade him but Young Ian (John Bell) killed him with an arrow.
As readers of Diana Gabaldon's books know, Jamie is not the father of the baby and it was all a ploy on Malva's part to hide the identity of the baby's real father.
It is believed that the actual purpose of Jamie's ghost being outside of Claire's window was to help steer her to his own time where they would meet. Since Claire's trip through the stones at Craigh Na Dun was completely accidental, she could have ended up at any time in the past.
"The ghost is Jamie–but as for how it fits into the story, All Will Be Explained—in the last book," Gabaldon writes in the FAQ section of her website. She's also revealed that the Outlander series will likely have ten books total, and the ninth, Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone, debuted in 2021.
Over the course of the first season, Claire and Jamie fell in love and married while Frank was back in the 20th Century. It quickly became clear Jamie's ghost was trying to find his beloved which is probably why he was watching Claire.
Season Finale! Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and Jamie (Sam Heughan) have endured through sickness, strife and the constant threat of war during Season 6, which concludes with “I Am Not Alone.” Richard Brown (Chris Larkin) and his Committee of Safety arrive to arrest Claire for murder.