'Outlander' Season 5 Episode 3 sets up future plotlines involving the Beardsley twins and Stephen Bonnet
'Outlander' Episode 3 sets up quite a few future plotlines for this season. The small, personal choices the characters made in this installment will have repercussions down the line and feed into the larger events of this season. Here are some of the key storylines that this episode sets up:
Penicillin in the 1700s
At the start of the episode, Claire Frazer (Caitriona Balfe) is certainly trying to bend history to her will as she sets about trying to grow a usable mold of penicillin under Marsali's (Lauren Lyle) curious eyes and questions.
She knows that she wasn't able to change history significantly before, since larger events realigned themselves to how they had been recorded in history despite their interference. But, she seems to believe that her gamble to introduce modern antibiotics and surgical techniques in the New World won't have any repercussions.
The show sets the ball rolling for a future storyline about this by staging a weird happenstance. Jamie asks for scrap paper to write the notice about his recruitment drive to gather as many men as he can for his militia, to inform the residents of Frazer's Ridge that he will be riding through the area, visiting homes and properties from the 21st of the month to do so.
His lackey, in a hurry, takes a page where Claire has written about her experiments with trying to grow penicillin -- the first successful antibiotic. Since that page then goes to the printers, there might be unintended dissemination of Claire's future medical knowledge.
Stephen Bonnet could pose a threat to Brianna
When Jamie tells Claire about the gravity of the situation at Hillborough, she decides to delegate her mold experiments to Marsali and accompany him. She tells him, very reasonably, that he needs her because she will be the doctor who will take care of the wounded by his side in the war. She, Jamie, and the newly minted "Captain" Roger MacKenzie hit the road, leaving Brianna (Sophie Skelton) and Marsali alone at the plantation. This could mean that they could have to fight Stephen Bonnet off, on their own, if he decides to come visiting and asserting his rights as Jemmy's "father"
The Beardsley twins are introduced
Josiah and Keziah, the identical twins, played by Paul Gorman, are introduced more fully as characters in this episode. Josiah was briefly introduced before as Claire's tonsillectomy patient and Jamie's new tenant and estate hunter in the premiere episode.
When Keziah, his twin brother, is caught at the camp stealing provisions, Jamie, Claire and Roger think they have caught Josiah. But when they realize that the boy is deaf, starving and "not wearing his britches", Jamie realizes that he is not Josiah.
He drags Josiah to the gathering to do some explaining. Josiah tells him that he and his brother are "indentured" to a man named Beardsley, who is an abusive master. Beardsley is the one who boxed Keziah's ears and punctured his eardrums. The twins were sold to him when they were just two years old by a ship captain to pay off their parent's debts who died on the voyage to America.
After Josiah became Jamie's tenant and hunter, he had returned to the Beardsley property (very near to the Frazer camp) to rescue his twin brother and bring him to the camp. But his starving brother hadn't been able to resist when he saw the food provisions at the camp. Jamie and Claire are moved by their situation and decide to go buy their indenture papers from their master.
Fans of the books by Diana Gabaldon will know that Josiah and Keziah Beardsley will have a significant story arc with Lizzie Wemyss, Brianna's handmaiden who has also settled in Frazer's Ridge.
'Outlander' airs on Sundays at 8:00 pm ET/PT. The episode will be aired on STARZ, the STARZ app, and STARZ On Demand.