Malva Continues Outlander’s Worst Story That Began With Black Jack Randall

Warning! Spoilers Ahead for Outlander season 6 and A Breath of Snow and Ashes, and also includes discussions of sexual violence.

It has been several seasons since Outlander showed the death of its premiere villain, Black Jack Randall, and yet he lives on—if not in person, in idea—creating a dark legacy for the series seen currently in young Malva Christie’s story. An adaptation of Diana Gabaldon’s best-selling book series, Outlander season 6 debuted on Starz and brings to screen Gabaldon’s sixth Outlander book, A Breath of Snow and Ashes. Longtime readers of the book series already know that Malva’s story is a tragic one, but it is not massively surprising for the show based on the TV series’ history.

Returning to Fraser’s Ridge, Outlander season 6 sees the arrival of staunch Protestant Tom Christie and his children Allan and Malva. In Outlander season 6, viewers have already seen Malva become Claire’s apprentice, unbeknownst to Malva’s father. Malva, for her part, proves herself a bright and capable student, looking to Claire as not only a teacher, but as a maternal figure as well, despite the repercussions it is likely to bring upon her by way of her father who frequently enacts corporal punishment upon her.

Malva Christie’s story, as it is detailed in Gabaldon’s A Breath of Snow and Ashes, has only just begun to unfold in Outlander season 6. Malva’s character, who routinely withstands the degradation of being told to “lift her skirts” to receive her father’s lashings, is also being—and has been for many years—sexually abused by her half-brother Allan. When she becomes pregnant with Allan’s child, he devises a plan to claim the baby as Jamie’s and, when Malva refuses, Allan murders her. However, while Malva’s story is tragic, it should come as no surprise in Outlander, a series that has relied on the sexual abuse of its characters for its storytelling in an ongoing trend since its very inception.

The presence of sexual assault in Outlander begins early when Black Jack Randall sexually assaults Claire immediately following her arrival in the 18^th century. In this very first instance, the assault took place suddenly and was explained as necessary as part of moving the plot forward. Showrunner Ronald D. Moore claims to ensure that this is the case when approaching sex scenes in Outlander. In an interview with Variety Moore says he always asks himself and his team, “Why are we going to do this? What’s the story reason? What’s the character reason? What does this mean to the story?” And while this first instance of sexual assault in Outlander may adhere to his concept, it is far from a singular occurrence with Season 1 portraying nearly half a dozen instances of sexual assault followed by seasons 2 and 3 which included three instances each. Season 4 saw Brianna’s assault by Stephen Bonnet and Outlander season 5 ended with Claire’s repeated, sickening assault by Lionel Brown and his men. Now, with Malva’s storyline in Outlander season 6, the pattern continues totaling nearly twenty counts of sexual assault in Outlander to date.

Every season of the show has relied on graphic sexual assault in what has become an unrealistic narrative, not to mention an unnecessary and irresponsible furthering of the psychological damage done by such acts to readers and viewers. When accounts are rendered, every member of the Fraser family has been sexually assaulted, children as young as 10 years old have been graphically sexually abused on the show, and Claire has been sexually assaulted on the show more times than there are seasons. Now, with Malva’s storyline, Outlander runs the risk of creating a legacy built not around the captivating love story of Claire and Jamie, but on the gross level of sexual assault in the show that began with Black Jack Randall.

New episodes of Outlander debut on Starz on Sunday nights.

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