"Stephen Bonnet is alive."
Hello everyone!
We're checking in with the Frasers again this week, and by that I mean we are ACTUALLY tagging along with the main Fraser couple.
If you've been watching Outlander for at least a little while, you've seen there's a lot of characters to go around, and not always enough room to make everyone shine, which means that certain episodes are focused a bit more on this person or that, and then others on the rest.
It's understandable, given the sheer scope and size of the show at this point in time, not to mention the storyline which takes us into 18th century America right before the Revolution.
There's lots of room to fill, and boy, do these producers fill it!
But it's always a treat when we get to spend the majority of any episode with our very favourite couple who started it all. Claire and Jamie might work fantastically when doing their own independent tasks, but together, they're a force to be reckoned with.
It's a good thing, too, because in season 5 episode 3, Free Will, they need all that combined strength that they can get.
So if you remember, Colonel Fraser, aka Himself, aka our Jamie, needs to muster a militia and march back to Hillsborough where last week Lieutenant Knox killed a man without giving him proper trial, and the Regulators are still stirring up some trouble thereabouts.
And while his wife has been busy teaching Marsali all there is to know about good and bad mold so that she can HOPEFULLY culture penicillin and prevent some of the things that such a discovery might help (it should be noted that Claire is trying to push history forward faster, as penicillin isn't discovered until later on in the 20th century). However, for the time being, she isn't having much luck at all, and she's getting pretty frustrated.
Meanwhile, people around her think she might be a bit batty, but, you know, all in a day's work!
After the haunting opening they've concocted for this season, it's time for our main man to make his appearance, as Jamie rides up to the Ridge in the middle of the night, thankful to see the Big House still standing, and his wife safe and sound in their bed.
It should be noted at this point that it seems as though the door wasn't locked or latched (and people are nitpicking about it), but considering the amount of people on the Ridge in that moment, it may just be that Claire, the resident physician and healer, needs to be reachable at all times.
Also, who in their right mind would WANT to mess with Himself, even if he isn't around? Jamie would rain thunder on their heads!
Thanking God that he's returned once more to his Claire, Jamie then has a little chat with his wife about what he has to do, what the militia will mean, and what he hopes to achieve.
Aka, if he can gather enough men for a massive show of force, MAYBE they can prevent bloodshed for the moment, because the Regulators might back off.
Claire, looking absolutely adorable in what seems to be one of Jamie's long shirts that she pilfered to sleep in, tells her husband that, if he must ride off, she'll be going with him, too. Jamie puts up only a token of resistance - both of them have been separated enough times, and for long enough, to not want that again, but equally it makes sense because of her healing skills.
While needed on the homestead, they'll be particularly necessary on any potential battlefield, given her experiences.
So, Jamie sends Fergus off with a note to print and distribute through the homesteads that they would be riding through, and all able-bodied men between 16 and 60 must join up, by royal decree.
It's starting to sound serious.
Claire gives last-minute instructions to both Marsali and Brianna (to Marsali to continue practicing, and to Bree to help Marsali with her reading, all while I'm thinking Bree is taking fashion inspiration from what her mother USED to wear and making it her own), before mounting up and riding off with the men.
Also going is Captain Mackenzie, who as a scholar from the 20th century is about to witness just what exactly 18th century fighting means in real life. Yikes.
For the time being, Roger's acquitting himself well enough, and besides, Claire and Jamie have other worries.
Jamie receives a letter right before they ride out, and unfortunately it's what we all know: Bonnet has been spotted in Wilmington, and considering he's smuggling again, it's obvious he has some powerful patrons behind him. Both Claire and he have murder on half their minds, but at the moment nothing can be done about it, so they try and acclimate themselves once more with troops on the march.
Given that they've both done it before, numerous times, it's not surprising that Claire's sense of humour meshes a bit better with the men's than Roger's does, for now.
The relative tranquility is interrupted the next morning when not one, but TWO Beardsley boys are dragged over to Jamie. It turns out that Josiah, the hunter Jamie wants on the Ridge, has a deaf twin brother, and they're both indentured servants.
This presents a complication, as Jamie needs their papers so that nobody can come and take them away later.
Ergo, Claire and he hike up the horses and head off to the Beardsley homestead.
In case you're wondering, that's the resident house of horrors thereabouts. Why?
Mrs. Beardsley, wife number five, has been keeping her husband alive after he had a stroke, just enough so that she can torture him, day in and day out, for all the beating and torture she herself endured at his hands - and the other four wives he buried.
Claire can't leave a patient behind, no matter how much she might want to, not to mention that Mrs. Beardsley goes into labor during an altercation with Jamie (after she tries strangling her husband, natch), and she's still weak with an infant girl to boot.
The girl herself is a cutie, if not entirely white - she isn't Beardsley's at all, but she WILL inherit all the considerable property from the Indian trader after he passes.
The Frasers make a sort-of agreement to wait until the morning to see what can be done, discussing potentially moving Beardsley to Brownsville, but in the morning there's another surprise.
Mrs. Beardsley's gone.
She's left behind the deed to the house, the indenture papers ... and the baby.
Claire and Jamie now face a conundrum: what to do with the immobile Beardsley himself?
In the end, Jamie sends Claire out, and asks Beardsley if he wants the other man to end his suffering. Beardsley agrees, but dismisses Jamie's offer to pray for him - which either means that the man doesn't think he's done anything wrong, or that he doesn't deserve saving. It's a bit ambiguous, but in the end, the gunshot rings out, lifting a MILLION OR SO pigeons in the woods, and there's so many of them they literally cover the sky from above.
Now though, it's finally time for Mom and Dad to rejoin their kids and the militia, but Jamie takes the time to ask Claire one more thing:
with family history being what it is, and his father also dying of a stroke, he wants Claire to afford him the same mercy he just did to Beardsley, should it ever happen to him.
Claire says she'll do what must be done.
I'm pretty sure Jamie might have caught the fact she didn't actually promise - so it's basically whichever side the coin lands on, but he doesn't press the issue.
It's time to move on.
Darker, more cohesive in terms of location and characters, and very much focused just on our main couple as they deal with one situation after another, this episode takes us much further down the rabbit hole than a lot of those that have come before. It brings into focus the differences between what Claire feels her duties are, and what Jamie feels on the same topic.
This becomes more apparent as they discuss the fact that Claire and Roger want the young family of Mackenzies to travel back through the stones, to what's purportedly the safer time, something Jamie isn't quite in agreement with. They might be safer theoretically, but they wouldn't have their family.
So what now?
Now there's an impasse, but at least we can move on to greener pastures and out of the woods, sort of.
Before we go, just an honourary shout-out to Mrs. Beardsley, who thought Claire's name was Sassenach. She wasn't entirely wrong - a complete stranger listening to Jamie exclaim Sassenach this and Sassenach that would probably arrive at the very same confusing conclusion, but it was a funny little tidbit to throw in there.
When the days turn round again, we'll be checking in with Roger and Fergus as they continue on with the militia, and based on what we know from the books it's hopefully going to be a little bit more light-hearted, but we shall see. In any event, the kids are on their own until Himself gets there.
Until next week, clan!
xx
*images and video not mine
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