If you haven’t seen “Never My Love”, the finale episode of Season 5, please turn back now.
Trish Biggar took the helm for Season 5 on costumes and has done a marvelous job of blending the colors of the landscape of New England for the colonial inhabitants and their abodes of Fraser’s Ridge and beyond. The colors have been rich and reflective of fall in New England. We have even been treated to some fabric dying and quite a lot of colonial homespun.
But truth be told, much of the fabrics used at the time may have been produced as raw goods, shipped to England, then made into cloth, and sold back to the colonists at much higher prices. Some did weave on small looms if available, and some fabric creation with wool knitting might be local, the forced resale of finished material products contributed to the colonial strife along with many other taxed goods, such as tea.
For the finale, we have a dream escape sequence where Claire (Caitriona Balfe) is in a part of her mind trying to survive her horrendous ordeal, she isolates and creates a world where she and Jamie are young again, and many of the people in her life from the 18th-century are brought into the 20th. In this sequence, we are treated to a menagerie of objects as Easter Eggs from all 5 seasons, and the pallet of the 1960s/early 70s colors with a fall theme as Claire is welcoming people from her past to a Thanksgiving feast in a 1960s house. And the feast is echoed in the costumes for the sequence. Reds, golds, that blue that Jon Gary Steel has had in many sets for the past 4 seasons. Colors of fall and accents from past episodes.
Oh, and I died over that gold and crazy plaid trousers Duncan Lacroix rocked as Murtagh! And Maria in those colors. Check out the dragonfly she holds, one of the many Easter Eggs. And yes, we know Duncan wanted to take that suit home! So here it is in all its glory.
Read the interview with Town & Country on dressing Season 5 finale
Photography by Aimee Spinks.
For the Town and Country Interview with Trisha Biggar Look Here.
Sadly, conventions have been canceled due to COVID19. However, Wizard World is getting them online! Join two Wizard World Outlander events live online. You can purchase personal videos and autographs. Some open sessions are free. Go to the Wizard World Website for details.
From Wizard World:
During each session, the celebrities will participate in a FREE live moderated video Q&A, followed by one-on-one video chats, recorded videos, and autographs. Sessions are accessible to virtual attendees on their computers and mobile devices via http://wizd.me/virtual.
Purchase a recorded video from each star specifying the message if desired
Purchase an autograph on an 8”x10” photo
Pricing begins at $65 for the individual chat, video, and autographs, and vary by item, available on the Website.
Virtual Experience Outlander April 30, 2020
Seasons 1 and 2 cast Stephan Cree, Lotte Verbeek, Grant O’Rourke, Nell Hudson, Stephan Walters, Annette Badland.
Virtual Experience Outlander May 5, 2020
Yes, @duncan.lacroix (Murtagh), @rikrankin (Roger MacKenzie), @johnhunterbell (Young Ian Murray) Ed Speleers(Stephan Bonnet), @colinmcfarlaneactor (Ulysses) and @timdownie1 (Gov. Tryon). Ahem, where are the ladies? Not that we mind, but fair is fair.
After a two week hiatus, we return to Outlander Season 5 with Famous Last Words. It is a reference with an opening scene were Roger Mac is back at Oxford, lecturing in his Socratic way, to a group of his students in the English University way of Tutor and students around a big table. Brianna slips in through the door, Roger tries to not be distracted, fails a bit, and goes on to juggle “heids” about the famous last words of historic figures, and what they really may have said, or meant.
“Will those really be your last words?”
So begins a very dark and brooding episode in the aftermath of the loss of Murtagh Fitzgibbons Fraser at Alamance. It is an episode with three brooding men ( Roger, Jamie and the return of a prodigal son) dealing with darkly, difficult emotions. To set the mood, for Rogers’s storyline, this episode references Roger’s and Brianna’s fondness of going to silent classic movie film festivals and uses that style of storytelling to reflect on the darkness and silence of Roger’s survival of hanging and rescue by Claire, Jamie, and Brianna.
Dark Matters
Roger (Richard Rankin) sure has gotten the raw end of the character plotlines in season 4 and 5. Not that he fared any better in Diana Gabaldon’s books. The process of Roger’s hanging and rescue was much more drawn out. Roger’s ordeal of being beaten and sold to the Mowhawk by Young Ian and Jamie created a very long and angry introduction to the yes, you are a historian but had no clue as to how brutal it really was to live in those times lessons for Roger. Now, as if nothing could get worse, Roger has full-on PTSD about being hung and surviving.
“People live and die by words.”
Roger has been despondent for months about his ordeal, struggling daily with everyone on eggshells or overly encouraging him to come back to life. For as Brianna (Sofie Skelton) is constantly reminding him, that she feels like he is dead, not living as he does not speak. Claire (Caitriona Balfe) has assured all that he should be able to speak after her emergency surgery on his throat to deal with the crushed windpipe. About that. The cliff hanger last episode.
We come to a series of flashbacks told in silent movie sepia tint style, with cards and showing the silence and despair of Roger being hung and rescued, Claire’s field operation on him. He has a series of reoccurring sepia PTSD moments using the silent film inserts to emphasize his lack of speech and darkest moments.
The first in silent film mode scenes show the Frasers, Jamie, Claire, and Brianna, trying to rescue Roger from the tree hanging scene we left off with at the end of episode 507. Roger is hanging and Jamie and the others are trying to cut him down. Claire discovers he is barely alive and goes into emergency cricothyroidotomy mode, using the stem of a smoking pipe to keep an airway available to him. After he comes out of the PTSD flashback, Claire is examining him and talking about how it has healed nicely and he should have most of his voice back. Brianna is trying to coax Roger to say something, anything. Brianna is losing patience with him, he is traumatized and shutting her and Jemmy out. There is a great deal of stony tension. Roger’s silence is self-imposed.
Lord John Gray (David Berry) has traveled great distances again to visit, there is an invitation to dine at the big house. Roger declines, grimacing. Flashbacks intercede again with his many times Great Granddad Buckleigh MacKenzie (Graham McTavish) and friends handing Roger over to Tryon’s men as a traitor. It’s traumatizing to be hung at all, but by your many time great Grandad, it’s a bit much.
Brianna and Claire discuss Roger’s behavior. Brianna talks to Claire about her old college roommate and how her boyfriend came back from Vietnam. He had not been seriously injured, but he had a thousand-yard stare about him. She says she sees that look in Roger and feels she has lost him. Claire tells her about combat stress, and what it does to people. She reassures her that he will come back, it will take time.
After the dinner with Lord John Gray, they read through a letter he has brought giving Brianna five thousand acres in the backcountry. Claire remarks that it is in exchange for the loss of her husband and Brianna is angered. She doesn’t want land, she wants her husband back. Brianna leaves the table and rushes outside. Lord John follows carefully and tries to distract her. He gives her an astrolabe, used for gauging time and distance at sea. She marvels at it and calculates time, off by half an hour as Lord John corrects her. He tells her to have patience, that things generally have a way of working out.
Jamie (Sam Heughan) has been struggling with the loss of Murtagh, his Godfather. He tries to help Roger and Brianna with their troubles, however, he is struggling under his own weight. Aunt Jocasta (Maria Doyle Kennedy) and Ulysses (Colin McFarlane) visit to pay respects to Murtagh’s cairn and burial place near the big house. Jocasta in her take-charge fashion, trying to not really show her own grief, states she could have paid for a headstone, even though she and Murtagh were not husband and wife. Jamie points out that the feelings are still valid. They agreed that Murtagh was loyal above all else.
Roger trying to keep busy, and playing guitar and singing is a painful reminder turns to stay busy and improve his woodworking skills. He tries to build the sleeping loft for the cabin. In the process of building, he is reminded by rope and canvas of the hanging, the sacking put over his head, everything said by Tryon and his officers.
Claire and Jamie bring dinner to the cabin. Little Jemmy reaches for a steaming hot kettle and Roger cries out in a very guttural “No!” and Jemmy starts crying. He is embarrassed after rescuing the child. Jamie and Claire take charge of Jemmy. Later, Brianna has been singing “Clementine” to Jemmy as Roger has not sung in months. She keeps hoping to get some interaction from Roger, who is trying to get woodcut and formed for building a loft in the cabin.
Later, Claire and Jamie are playing with young Jemmy as proud grandparents do. They play a game of hide-and-seek, then Jamie comes upon a wild boar, telling claire carefully to get Jemmy out of harm’s way. Just as the Boar charges Jamie, and we prepare ourselves for another set of Jamie scars, and arrow is shot with great precision into the boar. Jamie and Claire look up, and it is Ian Murray (John Hunter Bell), the younger, dressed in his Mohawk garb and hair adornment. He looks dark and broody. He comes back to the Ridge with Claire, Jamie, and Jemmy. When Roger and Brianna are at their cabin, there is a tense moment as Roger and Ian just stare at one another, they have a guy hug. When last we saw the two, Ian sacrificed himself for Roger with the Mohawk tribe to make up for selling him to them and get him back to Brianna. Brianna hugs her cousin, however, Roger retreats. Ian seems to pick up on the sentiment.
After Brianna and Claire seem to not be able to do anything with Roger, and now find they have both Jamie and Ian’s murky waters as well, Marsali (Lauren Lyle) decides to take a hand. Of course, she can’t do it easily, she pulls out a tarot deck and starts laying out Roger’s cards. Of course, we all know how bad this is going to be. Marsali kept pulling The Hanged Man each time she tries to read Roger, and he in disgust dumps all the cards on the floor. Brianna comes in when Marsali is running about picking up cards and asks what the matter is. After Marsali begs off, Brianna lays it in thick on Roger. She relates to her dealings with Bonnet, that she knows about how hard it is to come back from a dark place. She barks that she needs to know that he is not gone and lost forever.
And again that night, Marsali is determined to uproot everyone. She pushes poor Ian who is very quiet and not the fun-loving lad that left them. She and Fergus (César Domboy) want to know everything about living with the Mohawk. Ian is not adjusting to being inside, eating at a table, being around his family. Jamie tries to take control over all the grief going on with the men, being that fatherly laird type he is. He suggests that Ian go and survey the acreage that has been given to Brianna, to stake out the lines. Later Ian ends up sleeping on the porch as he had stared at a bed for some time and tells everyone he is more comfortable sleeping on the ground.
Roger and Ian make up a surveying team. In Brianna’s farewell, she folds Roger a paper airplane. It is their first wedding anniversary, the gift of paper. He takes the plane folded with him on the trip. Over time he and Ian form a bond, each of them struggling. Ian tries to get Roger to talk. He lashes out, how can Roger be this way, he has his whole family. We get more hints of what has happened to Ian with the Mohawk.
Claire later runs out of her surgery calling for Marsali. She has a jar of Water Hemlock, asking if Marsali has prescribed any. There is only one root left. She questions whether Roger may have taken it contemplating suicide.
Later, Ian asks Roger about his dreams. This is, of course, a very touchy subject, but Ian is deeply troubled. He shows Ian the paper airplane, of course, Ian not being from his time doesn’t know what it is. Roger shows him a bit of it flying. Ian makes a remark about birds. While surveying, Roger walks to a precipice and looks down. The mood changes, he has another flash, however, starts seeing color again when he thinks about the paper airplane. He throws it off the cliff and it flies well, and Roger is lifted with the flight. In time, he sees that he is alive.
Later we come upon Rollo, tied up with a rope. This is very unlike Ian to do this, and Rollo is very worried. Ian goes about ritualistically burying his Tomahawk in the leaves. He then recites some Mohawk words while boiling water. He brings out the Hemlock roots to brew a tea, he wants to end his sorrow. Roger comes and kicks the roots and the fire in one sweep. They start brawling. Ian demands it is his right to end the pain. Ian accuses Roger of buying his weapon, his voice. Roger tries to get Ian to come back, fight for family. Their whole family. After tense moments and the physical guy thing, they return, and Roger finally begins to use his voice. It is still not right, but it is something.
Thoughts
Jocasta seemingly let Murtagh go, and Jamie tried to shake her back into reality. Will we see that she really did love him and misses him?
We’ve had an episode where we barely heard of Bonnet. So, since he knows where Jemmy is, will he try to come to get what he thinks is his son? Will he be the monster? Check out the preview below.
Is it just me, or is Fergus not really saying much this season? He has very few lines.
And why is Jemmy not sprouting that flame-red hair he has in the books?
Only a few episodes left, what other events may get moved up from A Breath of Snow and Ashes, book 6?
Next, episode 509 Monsters and Heros. Catch it Saturday, April 18 at Midnight on the Starz® APP, Sunday at 8:05 pm EST and 5:05pm PST on Starz®, and Monday, April 20 on Amazon Prime in the UK and Ireland.
Asses and armpits, we miss Murtagh and Duncan so much. If you want more Lacroix check out his showreel below from O’Sullivan The Actor’s Agent in Dublin, Ireland. Like pictures, here’s my collection on Pinterest Just Lacroix. Here’s hoping that some new roles will pop up soon after this shut-in. Stay tuned Saturday at Midnight for Murtagh’s memorial.
It is with deep sadness that I write this. If you haven’t guessed it, or seen episode 507 The Ballad of Roger Mac, please turn back. Now.
Like many of you, I started out watching that debut episode of Season 1, Sassenach and was captured off guard by the odd, filthy, curmudgeon of a character Murtagh Fitzgibbons Fraser. Over the course of that split first season, he entranced me more. I love a good supporting character, especially one with a sad past, difficulty in showing true feelings, however loyal to a fault. Duncan Lacroix got me hook, line, and sinker. Oh, and those madcap scenes and his scheming with bombs and cattle herd rescues endeared him even more. Who couldn’t love the old gruff cynic, the man who distrusted everyone other than Jamie Fraser and never seemed to know how to smile, unless there was revenge involved? The one who was so unlucky in love. Honestly, all the man wanted was a bit of respect.
Sadly, this character in the Outlander books by Diana Gabaldon, was fated to die on Culloden Moor. Everyone it seemed had fallen for this crusty Scotsman. I was not alone in my love for this fabulous character, as thousands of fans began writing to the show, “Save Murtagh!” and turning up at Outlander themed conventions with signs begging the writers not to kill him off. Luckily, the writers room had developed a bit of a crush on Murtagh too. In the second season, as we saw his character flesh out and develop, even more, he became that third wheel in Jamie and Claire’s relationship. Accompanying them to France, being their conscience when they thought to change history the first time with the upcoming battle of Culloden. Wearing fancy attire and having to comb his beard. Getting a bit of it on the side. Assisting in the intrigue as Jamie and Claire set out to sabotage Bonnie Prince Charlie’s dream of uniting Scotland. If they had only listened to him more.
This waking up after watching episode 507, still in shock, I really did not sleep well. So this condition, this loss of a favorite character, it’s very real. You think you are used to it. After all, if you survived to be a fan of a show like Game of Thrones, you should be used to it. Characters are after all fiction. However, for many of us, they are living, sentient beings. Friends we don’t see often enough. For years we have had favorites in series, and somehow we have to live through the grief when they are gone. It’s very real, there have even been academic papers written about it. Yes, you really are grieving. You have that right.
We are all parasocial to some degree. I think since we as humans grew with oral traditions of stories in our cultures, heroes, then moved on to the written characters in the books that replaced them, there will always be a fondness or obsession for a character that you root for. We need to feel that we have a kinship with our most beloved character. With media being so realistic to us, and our being so demanding of a television series to fulfill our every emotional need while we escape, we look for heroes at many levels. With me, It may not be the lead character. It’s the always the underdogs, the murky strange ones you like for being different but true to their beliefs, and they are heroes just the same. Damn you Lacroix, you got me again. I swear the man has it in for me.
I have been in a weird state. I have spent the last 6 years waiting for a chance to see Murtagh again and following Duncan’s antics during Droughtlander. I am not alone in mourning the death of a fictional character that touched me deeply, I know this. It’s become a habit. NOT one I want to break. He sucker-punched us all with that final scene. Love hurts. Of course, we all have been trying to prepare ourselves for it. It was inevitable that it would come. Better it was in battle, and that he and Jamie saw each other at the end.
Keeping back that salty moisture from my eyes, I’ve reworded this several times. If you have seen all the media frenzy since Sunday morning, the #DuncanLacroix Twitter feed is awash with sorrows and epitaphs. This Murtagh Monday has become an unofficial holiday. Since the airing of this episode, Duncan’s Instagram account has been quiet. In interviews, he revealed it had been a really emotional scene that had to be shot over two days. He had not expected he would become so emotional between cuts. Even though he has had months to secretly mourn his own character, I suspect he is feeling a bit of it again now. Will it be 48 or 72 hours before we get an interesting picture on his feed, with his gruff off the cuff commentary. We’re waiting, mate.
The timing of Outlander Season 5 has been interesting, to say the least. We have a current health crisis that is affecting us globally and making us look deep inside. Luckily we have a great performance to make us feel the deep emotions, to distract us from the cares of the world. Perhaps getting some of that pent up emotion out of us. We were so lucky to have an actor portray the character of Murtagh Fitzgibbons Fraser for 6 years, one that he stepped into and wore with such conviction and emotional depth. One that the writers of the series realize they had a really good thing and allowed it to grow organically, allowing Duncan a chance to grow this very deep and murky character. Duncan Lacroix was a little known actor on this side of the pond, an English actor who took a different path from his fellow actors and took to studying theatre in Ireland. Who mostly had stage roles, but knew he had to find that character to break out and throw his soul into. He had almost given up acting when he got that fateful phone call. He found that character that all actors dream of, the one he could mold and capture hearts with. It’s a part of him now as he works on new roles. Hopefully, the production of Graham McTavish’s This Guest of Summer film will not be bumped back too much further due to productions being shut down. It will be a wonderful experience for Duncan Lacroix to create another intense, engaging character for us to love.
Duncan, thank you for wrenching my heart in this, your last portrayal of Murtagh Fitzgibbons Fraser. We are crossing our fingers for a surprise time travel back, perhaps Murtagh’s ghost will be at Jamie’s side when he battles the American Revolution in seasons to come. I mean, after all, the spark of the American Revolution was his fault. And please, when we get to have a Wondercon again on the West Coast, I hope you will come! I, of course, wouldn’t know what to say to you, other than thank you infinitely for your intrepid performances.
Search for that perfect Luckenbooth Brooch pin to remind you or your favorite murky man, Murtagh Fitzgibbons Frazer. I am. Support artisans in these trying times.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
For a look at Duncan Lacroix’s portrayal of Murtagh over the past 6 seasons and interviews, look here:
If you haven’t seen this episode, seriously turn back now.
Hillsborough May 1771
We open with Roger Mac (Richard Rankin) singing Clementine, a very tragic song, to young Jemmy. Brianna (Sophie Skelton) and Roger discuss leave-taking, how he is going off to fight. Brianna and Jemmy are staying with a family acquainted with Aunt Jocasta. History is discussed a bit. Roger reluctantly leaves, he is already running very late.
Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire (Caitriona Balfe) are encamped with the militia near Alamance Creek. It is the morning of his 50th Birthday. He and Claire discuss taking stock of one’s life. He muses that he has lived longer than his father, his parts seem to still be working. They also discuss Culloden, that fateful morning when Jamie and Claire kill his uncle Dougal. Remember Dougal? Claire sings “Happy Birthday To You,” very Marilyn Monroe like, while peeling off her Cutty Sark, and creates a morning seduction as only Claire can.
Governor Tryon (Time Downie) readies the troops and militia to get ready to fight with commanding officer Captain Bullox. They have cannon and close to a thousand men, and as Jamie tries to deter and talk Tryon out of conflict, remember another glorified leader needing to be dissuaded, yes, there are many likenesses to the battle for Culloden in this episode. The king’s forces were outnumbered but had military might with cannon and calvary. Jamie tried to pressure Prince Charlie to not fight. History is repeating again. Captain MacKenzie is late to the call, as noted by Jamie and the men. It appears Roger is always late.
Jamie gives the men a yellow cockade to help identify them as militia, as the red armbands were not readily seen. He emphasizes that this is important as fighting in this terrain would make it difficult to know who your enemy or comrade was. The militiamen were not wearing a uniform and looked just like the Regulators. Isiah Morton turns up at the last, angering the Browns who are always a powderkeg waiting to go off. They threaten to kill him. The news comes the rebels have ambushed the munitions carts, angering Tryon and the Captain.
The minister Rev. Cauldwell turns up with a grievance letter from the Regulators, he urges to try to settle the matter without bloodshed. Tryon takes it as an insult that the Regulators are asking for Parlez. Jamie tries to get Tryon to Parlez back. Anything to stop the bloodshed. Remember Jamie’s reasonings with Bonnie Prince Charlie?
Historic Niggling
In Hillsborough, Brianna is being entertained by the Sherston’s (Matthew Cole and Charlotte Asprey). Hugh shares that he has heard that the Regulators have made camp at Alamance Creek. Brianna is bothered by a trace of memory. That name. The next day she is racing on horseback to the camp to worn her Da. She finds Jamie, Claire, and Roger discuss the battle to come. She tells them that her professor had said the Battle of Alamance was considered the spark of the American Revolution.
Jamie seeks to warn Murtagh, to get him to lead his men away as the Regulators will be defeated, shades of Culloden again. Brianna argues they cannot change history, if they do, the American Revolution may not happen. Jamie is desperate to save his people, the militia, and Murtagh from bloodshed. Roger offers to go warn Murtagh to leave if he cannot persuade his men to follow. Poor Roger, he always seems to find trouble. Jamie gives him a white kerchief to use as a truce, to wave as a banner, and to show the cockade should the fighting begin. Roger leaves that night and heads to the Regulator Camp.
A Man With Nothing to Lose
Murtagh is whipping up the fervor of the men in his camp. They outnumber the Troops and Militia. But as when Roger turns up in the camp and talks to Murtagh, they talk in a tent as Roger tries to lay down the facts. Murtagh argues they have numbers, he argues that they do not have calvary and the cannon power that the groups have. He delivers the message from Brianna, Murtagh knows they are from the future and have prior knowledge of history. Murtagh does start to come around, maybe he has learned from Culloden. He tells Roger he cannot stop the men, they are determined. Roger begs him to leave, save himself for Jamie’s sake. Roger waits in camp with Murtagh to hear the response to the Treaty they have sent. The next morning delivers the Governor’s reply and Murtagh reads out the response. The governor wants a fight. Roger leaves the camp to head back.
“His blood will soak this ground!”
As Roger’s luck will always have it, he bumps into his many times Great Gran Morag MacKenzie, who he had first met on Stephan Bonnet’s fateful ship. She remembers him and he is set to try to convince her to get her family away, they are all in danger. She points out they have nothing to go back to. Roger on impulse hugs Morag. Then, we hear a familiar voice, one demanding that Roger step away from his wife. It’s none other than William Buccleigh MacKenzie (Yes, Graham McTavish), Dougal’s illegitimate son by Geillis Duncan, his ancestor. He sees that Roger has a yellow cockade and will not let him return to the militia despite protests that Roger aided Morag on the ship and was also a MacKenzie. Roger is knocked out with a rifle butt and taken hostage.
Red Tunics and Oaths
Back at the militia camp, Tryon insists that Jamie don the red tunic of an officer. Jamie is of course taken aback, and forced to wear it or betray his true allegiance. Jamie is faced with finding Roger Mac who has not returned and must warn Murtagh if Roger failed. He fights with himself as he dons the red begrudgingly. He kisses Claire goodbye, and she is the only one who truly understands how distasteful the wearing of that red is to Jamie, what it stands for.
Claire and Brianna ready the field hospital tent. Brianna is distressed, there has been no word of Roger. Jamie readies his men, telling them to keep an eye out for Captain Mac, he has not returned. The troops spread into a formation to fight, against a single line of Regulators. It’s definitely a trap and ambush tactic, Jamie recognizes it. There is an exchange of fire and Tryon takes the bait, advancing. In the charge, young Isiah Morton (Jon Tarcy) is shot in the back. Jamie tells the men to fight hand to hand as their combatants are doing, it’s highland fighting style, and to show mercy and take captives.
Back at the hospital text, Brianna gets more aggravated at Roger’s absence. Isiah Morton is brought in with his wound, the Morton’s are in the hospital and tell Claire not to treat him. She checks his wounds and finds he’s been shot in the back while running to the conflict. She accuses the Browns of shooting him.
Jamie gets cornered and almost shot by a Regulator until Murtagh arrives and intercedes. Their eyes meet briefly and Murtagh lets down his guard and is shot by one of the militia. Jamie races to catch him and takes him to a tree, begging for help. The following performance by Sam Heughan and Duncan Lacroix will leave you reeling. Murtagh tells Jamie that it is not painful to die. Jamie is overcome and begs Murtagh, saying he takes it back, he does not release him from his oath to protect him sworn to his mother. Desperate, Jamie begs help from John Quincy Myers (Kyle Rees) and others to drag Murtagh back to Claire. Claire can save anyone.
Murtagh is brought to the hospital tent, and Jamie is desperately telling Claire how she has to save the man. She feels for a pulse and Claire steps away from the body with that knowing look. There’s no saving Murtagh, he is gone. Jamie is in disbelief, confronted with the reality that he has truly fought on the other side from his kinsman, who was really a father to him. Murtagh’s last sight of him was in British military uniform. He is reeling and leaves the tent. Jamie loses control of himself in his grief. Tryon shows up and Jamie now can vent. Tryon in his usual annoying smugness argues back. Jamie points out that it was an unjust fight and that the Governor has harmed his constituents in a massacre. Tryon brings up duty, Jamie throws down the uniform and tells Tryon he is no longer beholden to him. He has fulfilled his part of the bargain for Fraser’s Ridge.
As he looks around, he sees Brianna in distress. Still no Roger. Claire, Brianna, and Jamie begin questioning all in the militia and troops if they have seen Roger Mac. They finally come upon a hanging tree, where Tryon had ordered some of the captured rebels to be hung as an example. Hanging from the tree is a man with a sack over his head, and a white kerchief hanging from his pocket. Is it Roger Mac? Fade to black.
Thoughts
Somehow in all of this, no one has informed Tryon that the number one wanted man in North Carolina is dead in the hospital tent.
We have lost one of the best characters in the series. I am so deeply disturbed by this and loved the amazing performances by Lacroix and Heughan together. Their last scene together, unless we are treated to more flashbacks as they have done with Frank.
Next, episode 508 Famous Last Words. Catch it Saturday, April 11 at Midnight on the Starz® APP, Sunday at 8:05 pm EST and 5:05pm PST on Starz®, and Monday, April 13 on Amazon Prime in the UK and Ireland. We have a mini Droughtlander with a two-week break. On April 4, Starz® is having a mini-marathon of Season 5.
I was concerned about how late this article was hitting the blog. With our current international situation, I have had to try to sit and actually watch this episode several times, as I always do. However this time, I really wanted to have a think about it. We’ve come through the halfway point of season 5 of Outlander, and with the current situation in the world, there may be a delay again for filming production on this show. How timely some of the themes of episode 506, Better to Marry Than Burn, hit us now as we face isolation and survival.
Epilogue
We begin with the backstory to Jocasta’s (Maria Doyle Kennedy) past. As you probably have guessed by now, my main character’s favorite is Murtagh. Being both a book reader and a series fan, I was so happy to see how this character was broken out into a character that has survived the dismal death at Culloden. I was not too pleased about how the whole Murcasta thing came about. I know, the series and the books are absolutely different animals and should be accepted as such. I have praised much of the decisions that had to be made. It is extremely difficult to translate what is in a book, and what grows with a series on television. Some things just don’t translate. Bring in the fact that you rescue a favorite series only character (yes, Murtagh doesn’t survive Culloden in the books), and great acting by Duncan Lacroix to create such a figure that breaks our hearts, and partner him with the formidable Jocasta Cameron. Well, that’s fire and damnation. And finally, we see why Jocasta is as Jocasta does.
It’s hard to see how Jocasta came to be as she is, a wealthy woman who has already gone through 3-4 husbands and is now going on the 5th? Despite her affliction of blindness, she still sees everything. Unfortunately, this becomes quite painful for her. On the eve before her wedding to Duncan Innes (Alastair Findlay), a book character that has been pushed aside for the Murcasta relationship, she reflects on a painful memory of the past. Her decision to wed is a compromise she must make to keep River Run from being controlled by a man who would not respect the nuances of how the plantation is run. Jocasta is experienced in how marriages go, as well as wealth and the world of things in the 18th century. A woman must find a way to be safe and in control. The only way is through marriage to someone who wants her happiness, not a cause.
We open the episode on a moor with a carriage speeding as fast at horses can carry, careening away from Culloden. A younger Jocasta and her husband, Hector Cameron (Christopher Bowen), with their youngest daughter Morna, are fleeing the ruin of Culloden. They are stopped by a couple of the King’s Dragoons. While they and the youngest daughter are asked to exit the coach and be interrogated, one of the Dragoons spots a chest with a lock hidden under the carriage. He pulls it out and breaks it open. To Jocasta and Morna’s surprise, it’s a chest of French gold. Hector had stolen it as it was destined for Bonnie Prince Charlie to help fight the Jacobite cause. As Jocasta realizes that they have been put in danger because of Hector’s political sympathies, and altercation occurs, and the two Dragoons end up dead, as well as young Morna, who is but 16, left to rot by the roadside as Hector drags Jocasta on in the coach to flee with the gold. It is this painful memory that Jocasta carries on the eve of her next wedding.
Marriage As a Convenience
We come to the present. Jocasta, feeling the blue ribbon run through her fingers that she had saved from Morna’s hair. She is thinking about her past. How she got to be mistress of River Run, and how Hector had made her leave the daughter behind. She is about to embark on her 4th or 5th marriage, for in the world of the 18th-century, women could not be in charge of their destiny. She was readying to marry a man who would allow her to run River Run, and be a shield against a male-dominated society. She hoped at least he would only want her happiness and had no political ambitions. He brings her a lavender-filled pillow to soothe her the night before. Duncan expresses the knowledge that they do not really love each other, but maybe with time, there can be affection. Jocasta is rather brusque with him. The pillow is embroidered with the MacKenzie clan motto, ” I shine, not burn”.
Ulysses enters and glares as Duncan leaves. Jocasta remarks on his being unkind when she herself has been brusque with him. He brings Jocasta to Jamie and Gerald Forbes, the spurned suitor of Brianna. Jocasta is formally placing River Run in trust for Jeremiah MacKenzie. Remember this.
Trouble seems to always brew at weddings. The Frasers are beset by another trial on their relationship on the eve of Jocasta’s Wedding. Jamie and Claire must entertain Governor Tryon and his wife. Claire and Her Excellency part from the annoying political convo of the men, and we find we really do like H.E. as she is very sympathetic and not at all like her husband. The sensible of the two. Sadly a cursed soul from Claire’s past, Mr. Wiley is spied by H.E. and she moves to intercept. Claire stalls next to some ladies discussing Dr. Rawlings suggestions that women do not let their husbands sleep in their bed chambers during certain days of the month. Claire can’t help but chirp in some reasoning, and of course is ostracized by the ladies, turns and splashes Mr. Wiley, fop extraordinaire and cad-about-town, with enough powder on to empty a flour sack. We all know he has lusted after Claire for some time. H.E returns just in time to save Claire briefly, but he will not be put aside.
Wiley Catches Claire back up and she then starts a fiendish plan of subterfuge when Wiley spins tales of being able to procure anything she desires with the help of a certain Irish captain smuggler type. Yep, it’s him (Bonnet). Claire uses her guile to talk Wiley into tasting some of Jamie’s Fraser’s Ridge less than 3-year-old whiskey and suggests that maybe this Irish captain can broker business for them. After sinking her hook in a bit, she foolishly follows him out to the stables to meet his prized possession, Lukas, a stunning Fresian horse. Of course, Wiley makes a play for Claire and she knocks him soundly into the horse dung on his oh so pretty frock coat. (You think she would have learned with the Minister of Finance and the red shoes back in season two) Jamie arrives finally, pulling a knife. Claire reminds him it would be very bad to kill a man on the eve of Jocasta’s wedding. After Wiley is gone, she fills him in on her plot to deliver Stephan Bonnet in a way that justice can be served.
Jamie leaves to challenge Wiley to a high stakes game of Whist. However, to enter the game he must use Claire’s two wedding rings as collateral for his stake. Of course, Claire gets very upset that he would gamble with her gold ring, which she knows Wiley is causing her pain over. She is upset at Jamie’s willingness to gamble with Frank’s ring, so she gives him both rings.
Jocasta is still composing herself after dealing with guests and in her chambers, Ulysses announces another guest has come to give her a present. She dismisses it until she hears Murtagh’s voice. She chastises him on many fronts. Why has he come when the Governor was downstairs? He gives her a Luckenbooth brooch with a ribbon as a gift and demands of her why is she marrying a man she doesna care for. The two barb at each other, as always.
However, when she finally makes her statements of why, other than the obvious that Murtagh is a wanted criminal, she can’t risk the loss of River Run, the real reason behind it all is her painful experiences at the loss of her daughters after Culloden, and because a husband who believed in the Jacobite cause was willing to risk all their lives. Murtagh states that there will be a way for them. She tells him the tales of her losses, the death of her children. That she just wants to have a life of happiness. She takes her blindness as punishment for the fact that stolen gold built River Run after the deaths of her daughters. She spurns Murtagh, she cannot love a man who would believe in political causes that endanger her again and tells him to leave.
It is at this point that the two star-crossed lovers break apart and Murtagh finally declares that he loves her, something he should have said long before. Duncan Lacroix and Maria Doyle Kennedy give us another tumultuous dance of passion and loss. Murtagh leaves struggling to keep all emotions from bursting out. He carefully leaves the brooch she has thrust back to him. We see Jocasta break down in her true pain. Murtagh is crushed and now has nothing but his fight to live for.
“I love you, Jocasta MacKenzie. This world may change, but that will never change,”
Meanwhile, Jamie arrives back at the stables where Claire is asking the horse if he is worth it. He is drunk. He has won the bet and traded the horse back to Wiley for brokering a whiskey deal with Bonnet. Claire is still bristling and declares that Bonnet has cost them again, he has torn at their trust of each other. Of course, this ends up with Claire wanting to play a rough game with Jamie which always seems to lead into a roll into the hay with these two.
Later Jamie strolls into Governor Tryon’s Pavillion while he is being fitted for a new red tunic. He declares that it looks like they will get their war after all. He had hoped to avoid it while he hopes to take the Governorship of the colony of New York. Jamie knowingly takes the news of the Regulator leaders not taking Tryon up on the pardons. He gives that look that he’s thinking how he is going to warn Murtagh and his compatriots before Tryon is upon them.
Well, really, he is just the cutest little harbinger of doom, isn’t he? Back on the Ridge, wee Adso finds a large bug that turns out to be a locust and drops is at Roger and Brianna’s feet. The pair soon discover that all the settlers will be engulfed in a Biblical plague. Roger, sarcastically declares he thought it would just be a few cows going astray. But don’t kick a mushy icky bug gift.
Rogers remembers stories of locust plagues and how smoke was used to drive and divert the swarms from crops. He sets about getting all of Fraser’s Ridge farmers together and at first, they doubt him, being stubborn Scots that they are. He has had trouble getting anyone to trust his judgment, first Jamie and now the farmers. Luckily his ingenuity with creating smudge pots and burning very greenwood at the edges of the fields help to deter the swarm down to a few manageable leftover locust critters to swat at. Roger proves himself to the Ridge.
In closing the episode, we see that slime lawyer Forbes at a coffee house. Unnervingly he is meeting with none other than Stephan Bonnet (Ed Speelers), who is always prickly and quick to slash out at anyone. He informs Bonnet that his son is now master of River Run. Revenge.
Questions
Where the heck is Phaedra? Why would she not be present at Jocasta’s wedding? Could it be that like the character of Jenny, played by Laura Donnelly, other commitments came up in filming? I couldn’t find anything published as to the actor’s whereabouts.
Oh, and yes there were a few real locusts used for filming. However, the ones used for close up were bred to be sterile and wrangled safely.
Next week, after working so hard on the Ridge, we have episode 507, The Ballad of Roger Mac.
Catch it Saturday, March 28 at Midnight on the Starz® APP, Sunday at 8:05 pm EST and 5:05pm PST on Starz®, and Monday 30th of March on Amazon Prime in the UK and Ireland.
All you lucky Mid-west and Easties got to have the lovely Caitriona Balfe, Duncan Lacroix, and Richard Rankin at Wizard World Cleveland March 6-8. Fun was had by all. It looks like Richard Rankin is thoroughly addicted to the Wizard World Con circuit and Duncan Lacroix is picking up a few cons going into spring. Fingers crossed they will come West Coast way later this Con season.
Sadly Colin McFarlane had to cancel due to illness.
WE hope that doesn’t mean that we lose Murtagh at the end of season 5 as we get into the heated conflict with The Regulators. Since the production is taking up filming at the end of April, and Duncan is slated for a new con at the end of that month.
Speaking of Duncan, he seems to have not gone home since the holidays and his 50th birthday. He has been hanging in LA with friends for a couple of months now. Mayhaps he is doing the Hollywood audition circuit, and may even venture into Hollywood North, otherwise known as Vancouver B.C.
Catch Caitriona’s panel here, part 1 and 2
and part 2, Duncan and Richard show up, and Richard is a handful…
It is with great trepidation, I think that’s the right word, caution, taking one’s time, that I finally get around to this recap of Outlander S502, Between Two Fires episode. I usually get these done on Sunday, trying not to rush too much as some of you may still have not seen the episode. I must admit that even though I, like you, rewatch for details a few times, I had to watch this episode 3 times and gather three sets of notes to even see where to go. I usually keep my viewing of other recaps to a minimum as I want to keep my opinions and oppressions not tainted, or I look at them well after. This time I was finding I was peeking around at others as I was trying to figure out how I really felt about the episode. Apparently, all fan feeds and reviews are all over the place in this episode. It may be down to having two very different writers, who have worked on several scripts for the series (Toni Graphia and Luke Schelhaas). There are two separate stories with a third arc. All of the main characters will play with the fire in one way or another in this episode.
With that being said, where else could this have gone after that gut-wrenching farewell between Jamie and Murtagh at the end of the season opener? We knew it would be Murtagh Fitzgibbons (Duncan Lacroix) going full-throttle into his new clan, The Regulators. Our darkly moving waters, always on Jamie’s right man and God-Father, is without a purpose other than to fight for these men and what injustices they have had. Murtagh has never really left the battlefield at Culloden and the injustices that the King’s Red Tunics bring. He has lived with the oppression of his people and lost his beloved Scotland. So it is with a great fierce force that we see Murtagh step away from that “play fair now” attitude in season one’s Jinty match, he’s tired of being patient about it. It’s all a vengeance that is his now instead of for those he loves. He becomes embroiled in the War of Regulation.
We open on Hillsborough, North Carolina and a mob scene with Edmund Fanning being accosted and other officials being tar and feathered. Murtagh pronounces a sentence on them, they are corrupt and will not allow for due process of law for the common people. As we see later in the episode, while tarring and feathering is seen as a humiliation, it is a very real threat to the body of a person. It is torture. It is vengeance. So begins Murtagh’s fight for the right to fair representation.
To understand a little more about what the movement was about, and what sparked it, and why many believe it leads to the start of the American Revolution, read below.
Jamie (Sam Heughan) has been sending dispatches to Governor Tryon elaborating his search for the outlaw Fitzgibbons (Note that neither Jamie or Murtagh mention the Fraser part of that name) and bring him to justice. Of course, Jamie has done all he can to hide the relationship he has with the man, so he begins a very precarious dance with Lieutenant Hamilton Knox (Michael Xavier). He enters into the conversation in subterfuge, dancing the line of truth and honor, which both men find they have a conviction for, but we learn to have different ways of showing it.
“I admire a man who puts duty and honor above all else,” Lt. Knox
As always, Jamie is being the diplomat that he is, shows his compassion for those who cannot feed themselves. However, we have warning moments of the zealous nature of Lt. Knox’s purpose. He reveals a desire to acquire favor with the Governor, perhaps gain lands of his own if he brings Murtagh Fitzgibbons to hang in New Bern. Jamie proceeds with caution and works hard to show that he intends to follow his oath to crown that he swore.
“Then you’d admire the man who chooses to starve rather than betray his conscience?” Jamie responds.
They arrive at Hillsborough after the riot and are greeted by Edmund Fanning, the Lawyer that Claire (Catriona Balfe) operated on in Season 4 at the theatre. He tells them of the tragedies that have transpired, the tar and feathering and injured parties, one near death. They also have three fugitives. Jamie asks if one is Murtagh Fitzgibbons.
Lt. Knox confronts the three prisoners, who turn out to be some of the men that Jamie tried to offer land on the Ridge to, Ethan, Lee Withers, and Bryan Cranna. Jamie rushes to cover his association tracks with Murtagh and gives a hint that he is really trying to protect Murtagh by going along with the Crown. The men are interrogated by Knox at sword point. When pressed where the whereabouts of Murtagh, Ethan declares that he is Murtagh Fitzgibbons. In the heat of the moment, Knox loses control and runs the man through. Jamie declares that he has just killed a man without trial. Jamie returns to free the men, as we know he would. Of course, after several tense moments of trying to get the not so bright Bryan and Lee to realize he is trying to help Murtagh and to not lead Knox right to him, he tells them to not make it so easy for them to find Murtagh.
Later at the Regulator’s encampment, Bryan and Lee return and tell Murtagh and Herman Husband of their ordeal, and Bryan confronts Murtagh about his allegiances. He criticizes Jamie Fraser. That Fraser is an agent of the Crown now. Murtagh tries to deflect in a nostalgic realization.
“No, he stands with his people, I stand wi’ mine.”
Hauntings and The Rise of The Mrs’s Burke and Hare
Brianna (Sophie Skelton) is still haunted by her rape at the hands of Stephen Bonnet. After hearing on her wedding night that he is indeed not dead and back in the colonies, she has been sketching disturbing drawings of Bonnet. She really cannot talk to anyone about what she’s heard, she keeps it all inside. She is broken out of this trance by a sudden emergency in Claire’s surgery. Rushing to help Claire, she becomes her mother’s conscience and shows an aversion to blood and guts.
A Fraser’s Ridge settler is brought in by his wife with stomach pain and trauma. Claire is asking the wife about what she used as a treatment, she used purging and bleeding, both common barbaric practices in the 18th century, on him. She gave him a Mercury based purgative, sadly Claire backs away and says she can do nothing for him. Brianna assists her as best she can, but we see that she struggles with it, she knows Mercury to be a poison. She is also struggling with the blood. What was clearly the Appendix burst symptoms to Claire, and should have been a simple matter, she cannot do anything. Claire is appalled by the fact that she cannot do what she could have done if she had antibiotics, a simple thing in her time. That and the knowledge to not give people poisons in the first place.
After a conversation with several women making candles at the Big House, Claire offers her 20th-century knowledge about poisons, and the women scoff. She decides that she must use a bit of subterfuge to help enlighten people enough so they can take care of patients. After Claire enlists the help of Roger to create a fake burial of the man, she uses him for an autopsy. Brianna confronts her about using her 20th-century practices in the 18th-century, how it could possibly change space and time if she brought things like penicillin forward in time. Claire points out they have already altered time by coming through the stones, and that Brianna came to warn them about the fire that might kill them. How was that not altering time?
Roger also gets some modern medicine when Claire checks his eye vision after his unsuccessful hunting with Brianna. And let’s just go back there for a moment, Brianna shoots a turkey, blood involved. She lets Roger pick it up. But back to Roger, who other than a bit of normal short-sightedness in one eye, is fine. As Roger concedes, he’s just a bad shot. A philosophic discussion around Roger wanting to go back to his own time, and Claire suggesting that they should, it would be safer for the three of them. Roger points out that they don’t know if wee Jemmy can travel. That was your foreshadowing moment, folks.
Let’s not forget that Claire also realizes Brianna is having doubts about working with the dead. So she enlists the help of Marsali (Laren Lyle), who has fine butchering skills. If she can refine that into helping by stitching up patients and assisting at surgeries, Marsali with her tough Scottish resolve could help to ease people’s fears over seeking help. We’re in for a treat as the 18th-century version of Burke and Hare start up their own side series.
So Claire tries her hand at some preventative medicine, by using the name of the doctor who’s medicine box she has, to write informative treatments coming from a male doctor of the 18th-century. Clever girl.
Okay, so I have to let this one go I suppose, but put it out there for you. Many book fans have been dying to see the Big House. Of course, we love Jon Gary Steels’ amazing design work, however, such a house would not have been feasible in those times, only if you were a wealthy merchant in a large city perhaps. I guess it’s lucky for the Frasers that the 1798 Window/Glass Tax hadn’t hit yet. Let alone, where they would get all that glass? And window glass was not as refined as it is today. Just another thought I suppose. I guess that wild whisky that Jamie is crafting is getting some serious barter going on. Tell us your thoughts on the Big House.
And let’s not forget Claires experiments with penicillin fishing. Back to the glass thing. Glass bell jars we used to protect plants and create a greenhouse. People had just started keeping specimen plants. If you are trying to catch spores, they cannot go through the glass, so I hope that she remembers what every good doctor knows, that air is the transport for microbes and dust, where spores like to float.
Stay tuned for Free Will Episode 503 next Saturday, February 29 at midnight on the Starz App, Starz Channel Sunday, March 1 at 5:05 pm ET 8:05 PT, UK Monday on Amazon Prime.
In just under three hours you will be glad to see the backside of the “Tryin’ One”. This week we became sadly reacquainted with Governor Tryon (Tim Downie). We knew it was coming after he sent that dispatch to Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan) ordering the pursuit and execution of one Murtagh Fitzgibbons Fraser (Duncan Lacroix) in the final moments of Outlander S4. We’ve had a good long year to get ready for the eventual tear rendering Season 5 opener. We still weren’t ready.
If that wasn’t bad enough, and we thought he wasn’t a bad enough villain, or as Tim Downie, who plays Tryon himself put it, “The Devil incarnate!”. This is all very sad since I have experienced nothing but kindness and a responsive actor, who learned to make fabulous cakes, self-taught, that features mermaids for his young daughters. But he left Jamie with obKnoxious!
Murtagh gets more embroiled in the Regulator Cause. Claire (Caitriona Balfe) gets frustrated with treating the sick and injured without modern amenities. Do we get to see this Duncan Inness after his being kept from the storyline for three seasons? Bonnet (Ed Speelers) will surely rear his mug at some point soon because the Frasers can’t deal with just one villain at a time, they must have three or four.
And where the heck is wee Adso!
Stay tuned for Between Two Fires Episode 502 Saturday, 22nd of February at midnight on the Starz App, Starz Channel Sunday, 23rd of February at 5:05 pm ET 8:05 PT, Canada on W Network at 9:00. UK Monday on Amazon Prime.
If you haven’t seen “Never My Love”, the finale episode of Season 5, please turn back now.
And again that night, Marsali is determined to uproot everyone. She pushes poor Ian who is very quiet and not the fun-loving lad that left them. She and Fergus (César Domboy) want to know everything about living with the Mohawk. Ian is not adjusting to being inside, eating at a table, being around his family. Jamie tries to take control over all the grief going on with the men, being that fatherly laird type he is. He suggests that Ian go and survey the acreage that has been given to Brianna, to stake out the lines. Later Ian ends up sleeping on the porch as he had stared at a bed for some time and tells everyone he is more comfortable sleeping on the ground.
It is with deep sadness that I write this. If you haven’t guessed it, or seen episode 507 The Ballad of Roger Mac, please turn back. Now.
If you haven’t seen this episode, seriously turn back now.
We come to the present. Jocasta, feeling the blue ribbon run through her fingers that she had saved from Morna’s hair. She is thinking about her past. How she got to be mistress of River Run, and how Hector had made her leave the daughter behind. She is about to embark on her 4th or 5th marriage, for in the world of the 18th-century, women could not be in charge of their destiny. She was readying to marry a man who would allow her to run River Run, and be a shield against a male-dominated society. She hoped at least he would only want her happiness and had no political ambitions. He brings her a lavender-filled pillow to soothe her the night before. Duncan expresses the knowledge that they do not really love each other, but maybe with time, there can be affection. Jocasta is rather brusque with him. The pillow is embroidered with the MacKenzie clan motto, ” I shine, not burn”.
An Outlander Muse 