Settling Down, Surprises, Shock Endings – Outlander This Week is Back on Track.
CONTAINS SPOILERS

This week’s episode opens with Jamie (Sam Heughan) signing a deal with the British government to be the proud owner of 10,000 acres of land. All things considered, it’s a rather generous land grant though it remains to be seen what the people whose land it really is – the Native Americans – think about it.

As Jamie and Claire (Caitriona Balfe) prepare to set off to their 10,000 acres, we catch a glimpse of Marsali (Lauren Lyle) and Fergus (César Domboy). Fergus has been commandeered by Jamie to find settlers, preferably Highlanders and men from Ardsmuir (please let this be the cue for Murtagh’s return) while Marsali and Claire do some unexpected bonding over Marsali’s pregnancy.  It turns out that the pregnancy, besides making Marsali lose her appetite, has also made her want her mother, L‎aoghaire. Considering no one ever wants Laoghaire around, this sudden desire by Marsali for her mother is proof, if proof is needed, that pregnancy makes some women want unbelievably crazy things.  It does, however, make Claire think about Brianna (Sophie Skelton) and whether she made the right decision in leaving her behind, and for the first time we really get to see the pain that this decision has cost her.  Thankfully, Jamie is there in understanding mode, to offer words of comfort.

Once Jamie, Claire and Ian (John Bell) arrive at Fraser’s Ridge, they lose no time in building a home for themselves. However, it doesn’t take long before the local native Americans show up and it would be fair to say they don’t seem particularly happy about the Frasers being there; Ian finds some kind of stone on the land (I presume this will be of significance at some point) while in 1970s Oxford, Roger (Richard Rankin) is pining for Brianna. Glancing through a book on Scottish Settlers in Colonial America which Brianna gave him, Roger happens to stumble upon – yes, you guessed it – an entry on Fraser’s Ridge. Roger writes off to the author of said book to find out if Fraser Ridge belongs to you know who. I mean what are the chances? (It’s Outlander so the chances are incredibly high).

Once equipped with the knowledge that it was Brianna’s parents who settled there, Roger uses the information as an excuse to call Brianna and in a lovely little scene, Roger and Brianna talk without either of them saying what they really want to say to each other. Roger does that British reserve think; Brianna tries to break the ice but is unable to though she is clearly touched that Roger has discovered that her mother did reunite with Jamie after all. Roger, of course, is frustrated that the call didn’t patch things up between them, little realising the chain of events he’s inadvertently set off.

Back in Colonial America, the Frasers not only have the local Cherokee to contend with but it would seem a marauding bear. Both the horse Finley and John Quincy Myers (Kyle Rees) fall victim to its claws and Jamie, as Jamie does, sets off in the middle of the night to hunt the predator down. And this is where we encounter one of the major problems when adapting a book for screen.

In books you can write anything and rely on a reader’s imagination to furnish the scene. A TV series doesn’t have that luxury. In the book Jamie fights off and kills an actual bear.  Yes I know, even in the book that’s a hard plotline to swallow but depicting it on screen would be an even harder ask of the viewer. I appreciate Jamie is a hardened Highland warrior but kill a bear???

Then there’s the small matter of how you would go about depicting it. I’m guessing allowing your leading man to play wrestle with an actual bear is out of the question. Then what? CGI? Ask Peter Jackson for advice?

In Season 1 the writers had a similar problem when in the book Claire fights off a wolf after leaving Wentworth Castle. (I know: Claire is a very impressive woman). Wisely, the writers chose to ignore that little episode and, to be fair, it wasn’t a necessary plotline. Unfortunately this time round they had to have some kind of scene with Jamie killing a bear as the Cherokee go on to give Jamie the name of Bear Killer (yes, yet another alias to add to his growing collection – Dunbonnet, MacDubh, Malcolm Alexander, Alexander MacKenzie) and so clearly Jamie has to kill something.

The writers thus decided to get round the problem by having Jamie not fight an actual bear at all but an outcast from the local Cherokee (thrown out of the village for raping his woman – good on them) who, shunned by his tribe, has gone mad and dresses as a bear.  You see what they did there? (Though one question: where in heaven’s name did he get those claws?).

Fortunately for Jamie the killing of the man/bear Tskili Yona (Flint Eagle) leads to a thawing in the relationship between the Frasers and the Cherokee. Claire meets a fellow healer, Adawehi, who also seems to be some kind of soothsayer, informing Claire that death is sent from the gods and ‘it won’t be her fault’. Claire is nonplussed by this, and it’s fair to say it’s not a particularly reassuring statement.

This episode packs a few surprises: firstly, besides the fact that Jamie is a dab hand at killing men with bear complexes, we also found out he can knit (is there nothing this man can do?) and that Fiona (Iona Claire) knew all along about Claire going back in time to reunite with Jamie.  Fiona also knows something Roger doesn’t know. She has a copy of an obituary from the 18^th century which relates how James MacKenzie Fraser and his wife died in a fire. Faced with this latest information about Brianna’s parents, Roger at first decides not to tell Brianna.  When he finally does he’s the one in for a shock: Brianna has left for Scotland to visit her mother!

This week’s episode saw Outlander back on track – a perfect mixture of action and human interest with a fab cliffhanger to boot. Is Brianna already back in 18^th century Scotland? Will Roger follow her? And will they get over to America in time to save Claire and Jamie from burning to death?  And of course most important of all: when is Murtagh going to show up?

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