Outlander Season 4, Episode 11

I couldn’t wait and sure enough, Episode 11 didn’t disappoint!

This episode starts with a major fakeout, leading us to think (for about 5 seconds) that Roger has chosen to go back to the future through the stones he found at the very end of last episode. I have to admit, I was hoping he had just because it would be a drastic change from the book and that was exciting to think about. Alas, it was a ruse and instead we find Roger dreaming of a hot shower while he baths in a cold creek and is threatened not to run away again.

Back at Riverrun, I loved seeing Brianna handle an 18^th century dinner party as a very 20^th century liberated young woman. She knows she’s being set up and displayed in the hopes of pawning her off on a respectable suitor. Through some dinner party psychology and a feigned fainting episode, she turns the tables on pretty much everyone… and lands herself a feigned engagement with Lord John Grey.

It occurred to me while watching this episode that John Grey and Stephen Bonnet are similar in the way that they keep showing up at different points, for different reasons, to interact with different characters. It’s pretty unbelievable in both instances but since John looks like a soap star and is too sweet for words he doesn’t bother me one bit.  Bonnet, on the other hand…

This is a good time to take a moment and comment on some casting decisions that have been made.

·      Catriona Balfe (Claire) – such an expressive actor. She’s so beautiful but also conveys the grit and hardness needed for Claire. Claire can be a frustrating character but Balfe makes the best of it and always makes me feel like I’m right there with her, feeling the things that Claire feels. She’s described as being unable to hide any emotions in the book and Balfe manages to adhere to that without being cartoonish about it.

·      Sam Heughan (Jaime) – the very definition of Jaime! I haven’t seen him in anything else yet and I almost don’t want to since I love to think of him as actually being Jaime. I’ve also noticed that he pays attention to the small Jaime details, like tapping the fingers of his hand that were mangled by Jack Randall in Season 1, just as book Jaime is described as doing.

·      Sophie Skelton (Brianna) – physically I think she’s pretty true to the book but I feel like she got off to a rocky start and it took a while for her to click. Her delivery can seem stilted and the writers have given her some really awkward lines to deliver, particularly in her interactions with Roger. I think she’s actually done a lot better with the character now that Brianna is in the past and has some real stuff going on instead of just arguing with Claire and flirting with Roger.

·      Richard Rankin (Roger) – I HATED this actor when Roger was first introduced! I kept thinking “No, no, no! This is not Roger!” Book Roger is described as having dark hair, piercing green eyes, and being a 6’3” brick shithouse (just a tad smaller than Jaime, who is described as about 6’5”) who also happens to be a musician and educated man. He’s basically a ruggedly handsome and powerful yet soulful unicorn (meaning men like that just don’t exist. Ha!). I don’t want to bag on Richard Rankin but physically he just doesn’t fit the bill. In addition, he’s played Roger as a bit of a ponce. I have found myself utterly confused at some of his choices, for example, depicting his proposal to Brianna, and his reaction to her rejection, as childish and bratty instead of as a misplaced power play, which is how I read it. Roger’s a little old-fashioned, not always a “good guy” in the books, and I don’t think Rankin has conveyed that. All that said, I feel like he’s getting there since we see Roger start to harden during captivity with the Mohawk. I really hope he turns it around because (spoiler alert) Roger is in it for the long haul!

·      John Bell (Ian) – I wasn’t crazy about this casting at first either but he’s really grown on me. There was something a little cheesy and forced about the early performances but I think he’s grown into the role. Part of it might also be that like Brianna, Ian is a lot less interesting at first; it takes some time for his character to develop. Right now I’m re-reading The Drums of Autumn and remembering all that’s coming for Ian. His story is one of my absolute favorites and I’m really excited to see what this actor does with it.

·      Cesar Domboy (Fergus) – just perfect! The casting for Fergus as a child was amazing and they followed suit with grown Fergus. As with Ian, Fergus is a tertiary character who endures enough that he would probably be a leading man in any other novel. This actor gives a really understated performance but you can see the emotions simmering under the surface that are going to bubble up in future seasons. I really hope the show showcases Marsali’s and Fergus’ family to the same extent that the book does.

·      Duncan Lacroix (Murtaugh) – so good! It’s funny because when I was reading the books, I never really understood the relationship between Murtaugh and Jaime’s mom. He obviously loved her but it was either entirely unrequited or she dated him but dumped him for Jaime’s father (it’s kind of unclear which). Still, he gave her the special ivory bracelets as a wedding gift when she married Brian Fraser and agreed to be godfather to their son, Jaime. This doesn’t make sense to me. Usually when you leave a guy for someone else, he doesn’t want to hang around and bear witness to your new wonderful life with the man you dumped him for. Conversely, usually your new man wouldn’t want the old one hanging around your wife and your son FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE! Yet somehow, in this episode’s interaction between Murtaugh and Jocasta, Lacroix makes this seem perfectly normal and jovial. He should get an Oscar just for that!

But I digress… I also like this episode because of the conversation Claire and Jaime have over Jaime’s explosive fight with Brianna. Jaime is remorseful over horrible things he said to Brianna and is convinced that she will hate him forever and never forgive him because of the horrible things she said to him. Claire points out that this goes both ways – if Jaime is willing to acknowledge that he didn’t mean the things he said in anger, then he should be willing to acknowledge that Brianna probably didn’t either. It doesn’t mean that everything is going to be OK by the next episode but we can see how they might find their way to a father-daughter relationship again.

We end the episode with Roger getting a Mohawk beat-down as Jaime, Claire and Ian get closer in their pursuit. Next week is gonna be chock full ‘o action!