'Outlander' Season 5 Episode 10 sees Roger and Jamie bond over hunting Stephen Bonnet
If this week's episode made you break into a merry jig and sing "heigh, ho, the pirate is dead", you are not alone. Stephen Bonnet's (Ed Speelers) death was a long time coming and the added bonus was the death of Gerald Forbes (Billy Boyd), who was both Bonnet (Ed Speelers) and Jocasta's (Maria Doyle Kennedy) lawyer. He had been eyeing Jocasta's fortunes for a while, helping Bonnet to establish guardianship over baby Jemmy legally and plotting to take his cut after Bonnet took over River Run once he killed Jocasta and Duncan Innes (Alistair Findlay). Forbes jumped the gun when it came to the "killing Jocasta" part and paid for it with his life.
But even as the villains got their due, the best part of Episode 10 was Roger (Richard Rankin) and Jamie (Sam Heughan) bonding over hunting Stephen Bonnet. Now, it would be fair to say that Jamie only accepted Roger as his son-in-law because, one, Brianna loved him and two, he had to make up for nearly killing Roger the first time they met. However, Jamie wasn't exactly impressed by Roger and acknowledged him as family with some misgiving.
His daughter Brianna is a better shot than Roger, and Roger's safe profession, as a university professor, makes him unsuited to life in the 18th century. Jamie has always been a man of action and is also not afraid of a spot of violence to defend his own.
However, Roger is an avowed pacifist. Despite this Jamie has been giving Roger chances to prove himself as worthy and it is only in the last few episodes that Jamie has taken a shine to Roger. Roger, after his hanging ordeal, has toughened up a fair bit. Last week, even though it was not required, he volunteered to hunt Bonnet with Jamie.
In this episode, Roger tapped into his violent side, telling Jamie that Bonnet was his to kill to make him pay for what he did to Brianna. "She might be your daughter, but she is my wife," he tells Jamie. Jamie was pleasantly surprised to see him man up, so to speak.
He promised to avenge Roger should he die battling Bonnet. Roger too promised that he would avenge Jamie should he get shot in the skirmish. Jamie, usually the one making promises like that, got a little misty-eyed to have someone else -- his son-in-law no less -- promise to avenge him. It was exactly the kind of "men, manly men" clannish bonding Jamie had hoped for when he made Roger a captain in his militia in the season premiere.
Jamie also holds back when Roger has a knife fight with one of Bonnet's men because "he was doing so well" and grins happily when Roger strikes one of them down with a pole. When they go to rough up Philip Wylie to find out where Bonnet has gone with Brianna, it is again Roger who flings Wylie against the wall, with Jamie watching with quiet approval.
Then, Jamie handed Roger his knife so that he could make Wylie pee in his pants and make him talk. After the whole "we be gangsters together for our womenfolk" schtick, they catch up to Bonnet. Roger is the one who runs and catches him and then lands some well-aimed punches and blows, knocking Bonnet unconscious, as Jamie and Claire comfort Brianna.
The episode shows that Roger, the pacifist, is OK with violence when it is against people who harm the ones he loves. It is the ethos Jamie has always stuck by and the hunt for Bonnet has opened his eyes to the ways in which his son-in-law is like him, which is a giant leap forward in their relationship.
'Outlander' 'premieres new episodes on Sundays at 8 pm ET/PT on STARZ, the STARZ app, and STARZ On Demand.