WiC Watches: Outlander season 5

Outlander — Courtesy of STARZ

Episode 502: “Between Two Fires”

Our dear Jamie Fraser truly is walking between two fires this season, isn’t he? He’s smack dab in the middle of a conflict that pits his morality and beliefs against his loyalty to the Crown, to which he owes the land where his family is thriving. There’s no backing out of the oath he made to the Crown now, even if it means pretending to hunt down Murtagh, his own beloved godfather.

“Between Two Fires” is a rough episode for Jamie. With the happiness and excitement of Brianna’s wedding, he was able to put aside the Crown’s command to find and kill Murtagh. But things get real in a rough way this week, starting with watching Murtagh participate in a very barbaric, and somewhat true to life, ritual: tar and feathering, a torture/humiliation technique used once upon a time in England and its colonies. Hot tar would be thrown over a person, and then feathers plastered to their body. The purpose was to bring shame to the person for whatever crime they committed (or maybe didn’t commit but were being punished for regardless). This is what we see Murtagh and his men partaking in when the episode opens, and it’s jarring to think about why he would be doing something like this.

Outlander executive producer Matthew B. Roberts talked to Entertainment Weekly why it was important to have this scene in the episode. And I’m glad he did, because I was left wondering…why?

"So we needed this tar and feathering to happen for the sake of Murtagh. The horror is there for the residents of Hillsborough. So later in the story when Jamie sees it for the first time, he’s affected by it, like, ‘wow’ in the sense that Jamie has seen a lot, but… this isn’t a war in the sense of a man being shot with a musket. This is someone being tortured. Jamie knows that firsthand. It has an effect on him because I don’t think Jamie would do that to another man, so there’s an internal conflict for Jamie."

The look on Jamie’s face when he later realizes Murtagh was part of this is devastating. It almost makes me wonder if, by the end of this, he’ll be the one to kill Murtagh. I know, I know, it sounds crazy, but Murtagh’s behavior isn’t making things any easier, just saying.

And while Jamie is off learning about his godfather’s shenanigans, Claire is doing what she does best: practicing medicine. She is forced to deal with a jarring awakening while dealing with a man who was given mercury to help cure his ailment.

At this point in history, it’s not understood that mercury ingestion is a big no-no. As a surgeon, it’s difficult for Claire to feel so helpless and let people die, as this man does. So with the help of Roger, Marsali and a reluctant Bree, she decides to perform an autopsy, something no one in this time period had thought to do, in the hopes of figuring out what exactly had gone wrong.

If anyone had caught Claire doing this, it might have been the end of her and her practice. At the very least, she would have been talked about. Side note: It was hilarious that Marsali mentions to Claire that her mother might have been right about Claire being a witch.

Frustrated and backed up against a corner, Claire decides to do something bold: make penicillin. It’s not easy given the time they’re in, but she plans to do so using a mold of bread. Is she playing God? Brianna thinks so, and I’m thinking it’s going to end up disastrously with her trying to introduce this revolutionary invention over 150 years before it’s meant to be.

I saved the worst for last in this review, because it’s something I hate thinking about: the end of this episode confirmed that the horrendous Stephen Bonnet is indeed alive. We catch up with him at a women’s wrestling match (another strange but apparently accurate part of the episode) where he meets the man named Forbes, the very same that was trying to marry Brianna last season.

I’m not sure what Bonnet is up to, but he mentions being a father now, which spells trouble for the Fraser family in the days to come. Brianna is already struggling with the information that he’s likely alive. Now it seems like he’s going to try and find her.

Maybe Brianna should try and return to her and Roger’s time just as Roger is hoping. At least she would be away from the horrible Bonnet. The only question is: will Jemmy be able to cross the stones like his parents?

Tune in, folks. Tune in.