Warning: This article contains spoilers for Outlander Season 5, Episode 4, “The Company We Keep.”
So last episode was a special episode of Outlander where Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire (Caitriona Balfe) entered a scary-ass house. It was sort of like the horror movie Seven, except thankfully Gwyneth Paltrow’s head didn’t end up in a box. We left off with Jamie, Claire and their new baby. Here are my takeaways from this episode.
Roger, Roger, Roger
Roger (Richard Rankin) is trying to sign up more men for Jamie’s army to fight the regulators. It doesn’t go well. All of a sudden, Roger and the gang find themselves under fire. Roger: Oh great, a shootout. F this sh*t, give me a book, and a shower, and the 1960s.
A very angry dad with a gun, Lionel Brown, yells to Roger that they want Morton, one of Jamie’s men. Roger and Fergus are perplexed. Why do they want Isaiah Morton? But then a girl runs out and says, “Hi, I’m sleeping with him, please don’t hurt him.” She’s got no chill. An older woman is unhappy with her, slaps her and yammers something about shame. Roger is displeased, “Damn it Morton, you slut.” But then he decides to give them Morton, and tells Fergus to get some whisky. Well, Roger… You had me at whisky.
Bree’s Nightmare Gets Closer
Back at the Ridge, Bree (Sophie Skelton) has returned from 18th century Costco with supplies, and Izzie enthusiastically greets her. I’m never clear on what their relationship is. Does Bree own Izzie? I remember Izzie’s Dad gave Bree money, and Izzie’s been mucking sh*t up ever since. (Izzie wrongly told Jamie, Roger was the man who assaulted Bree, and it caused a whole lot of problems, aka Season 4).
Bree finds a coin in Jemmy’s carrier. Her nanny says, “Oh, some nice man left it and asked if the baby looked more like his mother or father.” WRONG NANNY. Not a nice man. Bree is unnerved. She asks what the man looked like, but nanny is wholly unhelpful and can’t remember. It is SO CLEARLY creepy, terrible Bonnet.
RUH ROH, ROGER
Roger offers the angry dad with a gun a drink. Wait, stop. Where are Jamie and Claire? We are 7 minutes into the episode and they haven’t appeared. Then again, last we left them, they had a baby, so perhaps they’re dealing with newborn problems.
Angry dad tells Roger he had arranged a marriage for his daughter Alycia (the girl who got slapped), with a nice dowry it seems, and Isiah Morton ruined that by bedding her. Roger says, “Cool, why doesn’t your daughter marry Morton?” But angry dad says, “Nope, she’s a harlot, he ruined her.” Eye roll. 18th century chauvinism is cool. Then angry dad tells Roger, Morton is staying with them. Roger: Crap.
Oh Baby…
Ahhh, finally. Jamie and Claire are with their new baby by a river. Jamie watches Claire with the baby, and we’re reminded again how bittersweet this couple’s relationship has been and how Jamie never got to raise Brianna. They discuss what they should do with the baby. A newborn on a road to war isn’t super convenient, but the way they’re looking at that baby…
Jamie & Claire Rejoin the Group
Jamie and Claire arrive and Jamie wrongly thinks Roger has won the men over. Why? Because Roger is singing! Again. (Roger has sung no less than six times this season, and we’re only on episode 4). Richard Rankin has a very nice voice. This is not a criticism of him. This is a request for Roger to not sing. And I’m not alone.
Roger sees Jamie and is like, oh sh*t, but he keeps on singing! Claire and Jamie tell Josiah and his brother that they’re free and invites them to live on the Ridge. Roger is still singing. For like four minutes straight. Fergus sees Claire, Jamie and the baby and is like “Congrats! And high five my Lord, you work fast,” to Jamie. Claire gives him a proper mom eye roll.
Fergus fills Jamie in on everything. Jamie immediately goes to speak to Roger, who then explains to Jamie the origin of the word “courage.” Jamie’s not interested in Roger Mac facts and asks where his men are and Roger is like, ooops I did it again. Jamie yells at Roger, “Do you know what Captain means?!” (Remember Jamie made him a Captain).
Jamie finds Morton and says, “Listen you and your little Morton have gotten us into this, so you must marry this girl,” and Morton is like, “About that, I have a wife already.” Ugh Morton. You know what Jamie Fraser has no patience for? Infidelity. Now I know what some of you may be thinking, um Jamie, didn’t you marry Laoghaire when you were still married to Claire? That was different, Jamie and Claire were on a 20- or 200-year break in which they each thought the other was dead. So this is not a Ross and Rachel situation. (Team Rachel for the record). Jamie tells Morton to go and never return.
Paging Dr. Rawlings…
Claire finds a nursing mom for the baby. As she explains how she got the baby, Claire spills her drink on a piece of paper. But not just any piece of paper! It’s Claire’s “Dr. Rawlings medical advice!” Apparently, it has been printed and circulated. Uh oh.
Oh God, Roger is singing again. Roger. “Sing me a song of a Roger that’s gone…” Now that’s a song I could get on board with. (If you’re not singing that to the tune of the Outlander theme, you are my Roger.)
Jamie, who’s wearing his tiny glasses, is mad at Roger. Claire defends him saying people make mistakes. She then shows him the Dr. Rawlings paper and he asks, “Who’s Dr. Rawlings,” and Claire’s like, “It me.”
Claire explains she wrote up medical advice for the Ridge, but has no idea how it’s been spread around. Jamie asks Fergus if the paper he got printed had writing on the other side? Fergus says, “Yup it did!” FERGUS, YOU HAD ONE JOB.
Jamie’s amused by Claire’s new name Dr. Rawlings. He jokes about how many names she’s had: “Beauchamp, Randall, Fraser, Rawlings, do you have another husband?” Coming from a guy with five names — pot, kettle, JAMMF. Claire is concerned it might cause trouble. I think we all know it will.
The Browns discover Morton is gone! Roger stops singing. Lionel is pissed. Jamie stands up to him and tells him they will be traitors to the crown. All of a sudden, lots of guns are pointed at Jamie. (Roger, trying singing now… see how that goes). But Lionel’s brother stops the chaos and says he’s going to talk to Colonel Fraser.
Cut to Jamie, Claire, angry dad and his brother in a tense situation room. You know what’s great about this show? Claire and Jamie are both in this discussion. Most shows would send the woman out of the room, but Claire continues to be Jamie’s equal in every episode since this show began. Last episode, Claire told Jamie, “If you’re going to war, I’m going to war with you.” Happy International Women’s Day, Claire for President. Jamie will be a great First Husband.
Lionel’s brother tells Jamie they’ll ride with them. They shake on it, but not before Jamie asserts his Jamieness and basically tells them he’s the captain now. Somewhere Roger is thinking, “I thought I was captain?”
Jemmy Goes Missing
Back at the big house, Bree goes out in the dark to get firewood. She hears a woman scream, runs back inside and realizes Jemmy is missing! Marsali (Lauren Lyle) asks her son where Jemmy went. He points to the door, and says, “Ball.” Helpful. Phew, Jemmy is there. He was just looking for his ball as boys like to do. Marsali sees how shaken Bree is and is like meet me in the kitchen for whisky batch. How many kids do Fergus and Marsali have? 400? Marsali uses some reverse psychology to help Bree. Maybe Marsali and Bree will murder Bonnet together. Even though you know who I want to murder him.
Dr. Claire Gets More Patients
The lady of the house, who slapped Aly, tells Claire they will take care of the baby. She says Lucinda, who nursed the baby, had just recently lost her newborn. Aly then sneaks in to tell Claire to tell Jamie to tell Isaiah she will go with him wherever. Claire’s like listen little sis, your boy is married. Aly looks devastated. Oh crap. Aly is pregnant. Claire in mom-mode is a mood.
Claire figures out that Josiah’s twin Kesiah has tonsillitis just like his brother, who Claire diagnosed earlier. She tells Jamie the twins will need surgery and penicillin, which she’s close to figuring out. Jamie says she should go back to the Ridge to work on her penicillin. NO. Listen. I DO NOT CARE about these boys’ tonsils. Tonsillitis is now about to separate Jamie and Claire, again. Unacceptable.
Jamie tells Roger to bring Claire bear and the twins back to the Ridge. Roger is disappointed so he starts to explain what “captain” means in Latin and Jamie’s like please shut up and tells him, “Lead my wife home.” Roger whines to Claire that Jamie doesn’t have faith in him, and Claire points out, “He just trusted you with the one thing he loves most in the world.” Claire: Me.
JAMIE. FRASER. DANCES.
We get a full 10 minutes of pure joy with Jamie and Claire at a party, where everyone is dancing, including Claire. Lucinda and her husband tell Claire they want the baby. Claire says she’ll talk to Jamie.
All of a sudden, Jamie’s pushed into the dance circle. Stop everything. James Alexander Malcolm McKenzie Fraser is about to do a dance solo. He bows to Claire then does a dance that can only be likened to “I’m a little teapot, Scott and hot….”
Claire watches in amusement and is probably thinking, “Wow, he’s really good at sex, but man he can’t dance.” (Side note: Something tells me Claire’s laughter is actually Caitriona Balfe laughing at Sam Heughan).
Jamie & Claire Get Drunk
Claire and Jamie then have a nice drunken walk in the woods. Drunk Jamie and Claire might be the best. They play a game called, “Who’s more drunk,” where Claire challenges Jamie to recite the alphabet backwards. He replies, “English or Greek?” Claire’s like whatever, “I’m drunker.”
Hold up. Why are they not concerned that Bonnet might go after Bree? Did they not know Bree told Bonnet she was pregnant?
Back to drunk Mom and Dad. Jamie asks Claire if she wants to keep the baby. He expresses regret he didn’t see her with Bree as a baby, and tells her “this might be our last chance to raise a child together.” Claire tells him Lucinda has offered to take her. Jamie looks sad and tells Claire he wanted to give her a baby, one that she wouldn’t have to suffer carrying.
Claire says while she also regrets they weren’t parents together, she’s happy with their life and then she brings up their obituary. Ugh, a reminder to everyone that Claire and Jamie do die, we just don’t know when. We’re also reminded that Claire and Jamie got duped out of being parents together. They lost their first child, Faith, then Claire had to time travel because of that damn battle and raised Bree, their second child, with Frank. She tells Jamie, “I am grateful for every day we have.” Eek, that’s probably an omen.
So Jamie has led Claire into the woods for what he thinks, she thinks, and quite frankly, we thinks, is gonna be woodsy quickie, but, of course, a gunshot interrupts them. Because this is Outlander. And everything interrupts them: Culloden, their grandson, Murtagh knocking on the door (hi, Season 1, Episode 10, yes that scene).
They find Aly trying to kill herself. She missed and shot herself in the arm. Claire brings her back to their room to mend her arm. Claire tells Jamie to find whisky. One funny thing about Claire is she’s a doctor from a time before everyone knew drinking and pregnancy didn’t mix. I love how she thinks, “This girl is pregnant and shot. She needs a whisky.” Classic Claire.
Morton suddenly reappears and pulls a gun on Jamie and says he has to see Aly and doesn’t love his wife. Don’t be pointing guns at Jamie in the name of love. Aly and Isaiah are reunited and declare their love. Claire’s like this is sweet and all but they can’t stay here.
Jamie helps them escape by releasing the horses so the men can’t go after them. When the town realizes the horses are gone, Jamie brings a goat and blames it all on him. Literally, a scapegoat. Sly Jamie, showing that goat who’s the real G.O.A.T. The episode ends with Claire wondering about the consequences of their choices, hoping the good will outweigh the harm. Yeah, Outlander is about to turn dark people, buckle up. With Claire going back to Fraser’s Ridge, pretty sure Bonnet is about to turn that into Murder Ridge.
My final thoughts:
- Bree better tell her Mom about Bonnet. Your mom is smart AF Bree, you need her help.
- We need more Jamie-and-Claire-get-wasted scenes. Without interruption.
- Roger Mac, shhhh. I actually think Roger could be a great character. On mute.
Overall, this was a good episode and Outlander is listening to us in keeping Claire and Jamie the focus. This episode could have focused less on peripheral characters. If Jamie and Claire are going to be separated for another stint of time, some of the scenes (like singing Rog) could have been used for them.
NEXT EPISODE: *Spoiler: Roger finds the gem Bonnet gave to Bree and confronts her. Claire performs surgery and Marsali is all, “Scalpel!” And Jamie looks like he’s about to have a run in with some Red Coats.
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