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Give Fergus and Marsali Their Own Show
We’ve talked about how their love story even though barely seen in this season is more believable than Roger and Brianna’s. Marsali is the wifey we all need in our corner. A doubting Fergus shares his plan (after Marsali susses it out, cause she’s no-one’s fool) of busting Murtagh out of jail, telling him you can do it, and then joins in on the plans. Marsali is not a woman to hide behind her petticoats in fear, Marsali is the woman who volunteers to drive the getaway wagon! Marsali played by Lauren Lyle along with Cesear Damboy as Fergus continue to provide us with some of the best acting and story lines in season 4 even when they’re relegated to approx 4 minutes screen time every other episode.
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XOXO, Jamie
In the only moment of the show featuring Jamie/Claire/Ian, we are reminded of Jamie’s shared trauma with Brianna and how she needs to forgive Bonnet for her own well-being and NOT pursue revenge. All of this is well and good because Da Jamie is on a crazy quest to exact revenge and right his own wrongs.
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Zaddy John
Fresh off his roll in the pantry, Lord John against his (and everyone watching’s) better judgement agrees to take a very pregnant Brianna on a trip to see Stephen Bonnet to “forgive” him aka rub it in his face that he got caught and will now hang for being an awful rapist bastard among other things. Upon rolling into town, Lord John Immediately knows why Brianna is reticent to go near the tavern, because he’s a perceptive gay man, and not a dense idiot who can comfort Brianna during a traumatic visit and delivers this comforting line: “babies are expected, memories are not.” Bless you Lord John.
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Here, chew on this!
Back over in Roger’s personal hell… we find slave Roger makes “friends” with Johiehon a woman with what is supposed to be a gorgeous mixed race baby, and instead looks like a gorgeous caucasian Scottish baby, interacts with Roger in French and gives him some herbs for his pain. And of course as luck would have it, Johiehon is actually the Father Alexander’s baby mama and he’s waiting in the prisoner’s long house/hut for Roger to be thrown.
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And now we enter the moderately adapted portion of the story…
Religious Idiots Deserve To Have Their Feet Burned At The Stake
I get that Father Alexander has “sinned” in his own eyes but for the sake of his life, his child, and Johiehon, he needs to accept one of the main tenants of Christianity that he preaches: forgiveness. Ask God for forgiveness, and assume your place back in the priesthood and BAPTIZE THE BABY, AND GET OUT OF MOHAWK JAIL FREE, YOU IDIOT. Both Roger and I are yelling essentially the same thing at Priest Alex, the dummy. Only one of us is actually a character in the show, and the other’s neighbors is worried about her because she yells at the tv about Outlander.
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Were all people in the 1700s this stubborn and selfishly pig-headed?Rik’s Emmy’s ‘For Your Consideration‘ speech must have worked on stupid Father Alex, because he joins Roger in digging a hole to freedom… a hold about the size of my arm. Good show guys, it really looks like you want to escape torture, maiming, and inevitable death. Also, come on Rik! Don’t stick your dirty hands in the only clean drinking water you have!
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The Regulators & Lord John Save The Day (Again)
Give me a jail break sequence EVERY week. Fergus and the gang breaking Murtagh out of jail at coincidentally the same time as Brianna and Lord John show up to chat with Stephen Bonnet is the most interesting and high stakes choice this show has made in… like, forever. And now for a brief interlude wherein I set this jail break to Beyonce’s Formation…
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Sure, there are like 587834534 things that are super dumb/unbelievable: would Fergus and Lord John have EVER met as adults? Leaving Stephen Bonnet’s jail cell open. Leaving the keys in front of said open cell door. BUT WHATEVER! Literally, I think we’re all willing to over look these things because this was actually interesting, it brought together important characters, and it handled a few story lines nicely. Could they have increased the stakes? HELL YES. But baby steps, I guess.
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Meanwhile back on the TeleNovella…
Roger breaks free and then has the lamest attack of his conscious and runs back to save Father Alex… but who knows what he thinks he’s going to do, because Father Alex is already done, you cannot save him! LEAVE ROGER! Listen to you own speech, look out for number one and turn the ef around! But no, Roger’s too good-hearted and this adaptation is kind of dumb in the fact that Roger most definitely would have been killed after trying to ‘save’ or lessen Father Alex’s suffering, not to mention getting a beating for that booze he wasted throwing on the fire. Let’s not even talk about the over wrought music they used over the entire scene. Yes, this is a great effect to use when the scene and characters can support it. This was not that moment. We know exactly shit about the lives of the Mohawk, nothing about their personal relationships or history are ever shown to us beyond the POV of the white man, Father Alex. Case in point, I had to IMDB these characters names to even be able to coherently reference Tawodi and Johiehon – are they related? Is there some sort of unrequited love situation? Other than the general awfulness of Johiehon throwing herself on the fire with her lover Father Alex, why is Tawodi so torn up about it?!?!?! THE SHOW DOESN’T SHOW US!!!
One of the best episodes of television in recent memory has to be Westworld’s “Kiksuya” (click on that link!) in Season 2. It is lauded as one of the most ground breaking portrayals of Native people on television, not to mention Emmy worthy in acting and storytelling. The reason being? Well, first you must know that like Outlander, the majority of the Native people are not the main characters on West World. The episode, however, centers around the story of the seemingly villain-esque Akecheta (played by the amazing Zahn McClarnon), who is a reoccurring and mysterious character on the show. He plays a very pivotal role in the story of another character (Maeve), but for reasons unknown to the audience before this episode. “Kiksuya” tells that story through flashback to show the history and love story of Akecheta and the Ghost Nation, who are until now background characters, and show us why we should care about their story. They take a full episode to weave the story of Akecheta and his history, along with the Ghost Nation and shows us the importance of how their collective stories merge with the show’s storyline as a whole. Oh, and the episode was shot and spoken almost entirely in Lakota, a Native language. And let’s not forget Julia Jones is in it cause #EGBTT. Anyway, I bring up this long aside to explain that Outlander could have made us care about these characters and maybe even cried during the Pyre scene, but they either didn’t care enough to do the work on page and screen, or they don’t know how to inform the narrative outside of the main storyline.
Don’t get me wrong, I was really excited to see changes happening to the storyline and characters in this episode, but it’s not ok for a show to crank up some Wagner-esque music and expect viewers to do the emotional work and leap frogging to make a story matter. We’re happy to invest as viewers (obviously, we’re still here after four seasons), we want to feel emotionally attached to characters and the outcome of the story, but this show needs to step up and meet us half way and stop expecting us to connect all the dots.
As the music was swelling, and Roger was being taken back to his shoddy, Lincoln Log jail I had a very scary realization: They’re definitely not wrapping up the entirety of book 4 in the next episode.
Starz: GOTCHA SUCKERS!! See you in a year!
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Soooo… how did we all find Providence? Sound off below and we’ll see you tomorrow for HangOutlander and next week for the FINALE of Season 4!!
