Happy New Year, y’all! 🍾🎆🥂🎊🎇🎉
Let’s jump right into this bad boy…so, we pick up where we left off last week; a traumatized Brianna enters her room, clearly assaulted. Lizzie asks if she was with “that man,” and Bree just answers yes, wasting little time changing out of her bloody clothes and washing herself. Lizzie sees the blood on her undergarments and the bruises all over Bree’s back, not to mention the bloody nose she has from Bonnet hitting her. She tells Bree that if she wants to talk, she’s willing to listen, but Brianna isn’t trying to discuss the subject at all.
The next morning, against Lizzie’s advice, Brianna gets up to continue her search for Jamie and Claire. Before Bree woke up, Roger came back to the tavern looking for her. Instead, he comes across evil ass Stephen Bonnet, who pretty much forces him to accompany his crew back on his ship to sail to Philly. Roger reminds Bonnet that he only needed passage to Wilmington, and Bonnet reminds Roger that he agreed to join Bonnet’s crew to all ports of call, and Wilmington was just one of the ones on the way. If Roger refuses, Bonnet’s friends onshore will make sure that he loses a limb. What an ass.
Bree comes downstairs a few hours later, and the barkeep informs her that Roger was there and he was looking for, but he boarded a ship. By the time Bree goes to the docks, Bonnet’s ship is gone. Bree’s clearly upset until Lizzie tells her that she heard some people talking about a woman at a play in town that opened up a man—as a surgeon would—and saved his life. Brianna automatically knows she’s talking about Claire. Lizzie also lets it be known that the woman’s husband, Jamie Fraser, is in town as well.
Bree rushes to the location Jamie is rumored to be. She asks a man standing around if he’s happened to see a tall, red-headed Scotsman, and he says that he’s in the back. Dun-dun-DUNNNNNNN!!!
Sure enough, Brianna finds Jamie in the back of the building…peeing.
Gross, but real. Jamie senses someone watching him do his business, so he asks the young girl what she wants. Bree mentions she wants him, and he’s quick to let her know he’s married. I doggone love Jamie! Anyway, Bree asks if he’s Jamie Fraser, because if so, she’s looking for him. Before he can walk off, Bree puts her hand on him, and it seems to me that she not only wanted to stop him, but she wanted to touch him to make sure he was real. Jamie reiterates that he’s married, and asks if she has a message for him. Brianna lets him know that she’s his daughter.
The two of them share a tearful first meeting with hugs and sweet words in Gaelic (Jamie already has a special name for Brianna!). A few moments later, Jamie takes Bree to see Claire, who’s somewhere in town picking up supplies, and they’re happily reunited. Afterward, Brianna informs Claire and Jamie about the fire and meets Young Ian for the first time. Claire later suggests that for the next decade, they don’t spend any time in the cabin on January 21st (remember, they don’t know what year the fire takes place, because the date was smudged). Jamie reminds Claire that they haven’t had much luck changing the future before. Lord, don’t I know it (Culloden, anyone?)!
The Fraser/Murray clan make their way back to Fraser’s Ridge, and during the commute we learn that Lizzie has a little crush on Ian, and Brianna finds out from her little cousin that Stephen Bonnet’s evil ass came across Claire’s wedding ring after he robbed them and killed Jamie’s friend from Ardsmuir. Ian also tells Bree that Jamie felt guilty enough for what happened considering that Bonnet conned him and Claire into helping him avoid the authorities. As a result, Bree stays silent about the rape and keeps Claire’s original Lallybroch wedding ring to herself. Bree does tell Claire about breaking up with Roger, but Claire can sense something else is bothering her.
When the family gets back to the house, they’re greeted by none other than my boy Murtagh! They spend the night having dinner and exchanging embarrassing stories about Jamie’s childhood (Lizzie was MIA due to being sick). Brianna excuses herself after a while and goes to bed, her mood suddenly wavering. The next morning, she and Claire are wrapping up herbs, and Bree admits that Frank knew that Claire would return to Jamie someday and die in that fire (in the “Down the Rabbit Hole” episode, we see a flashback where Brianna finds Frank reading the obit a few while slurping down some brown liquor. Bree didn’t know what the document was at the time). While talking, she accidentally knocks over some of the bags of herbs and gets upset. Claire assures Bree that they can talk about what happened with Roger, but Brianna tells her what’s done is done.
Over the next few weeks, Jamie and Brianna get to know each other. Sometimes Brianna’s happy and smiling, and sometimes she’s sad and sullen. Claire suggests that Brianna and Jamie spend some quality time together hunting, and Jamie agrees. When he goes to wake up her up that morning, he notices that she smiles in her sleep, just like he does. Interesting enough, Bree and Jamie go in the mountains to hunt bees. Jamie explains to Bree that they’ll retrieve the hive and release the bees closer to their house so they can cultivate the honey nearby. Bree asks if the bees will okay, and Jamie tells her they’ll be content in their new home, obviously alluding to Brianna being with him in the 1700’s. Bree replies that she has a home, and Jamie tells her he has no intention of replacing her father. Bree also brings up the fact that she learned her nickname means “disturbance” in Gaelic (Jamie and Murtagh had a discussion about her nickname sometime earlier. Jamie didn’t want to tell Bree so he wouldn’t hurt her feelings, but Murtagh spilled the beans). Jamie tells her that although she and mother were disturbances, they were welcome ones, so he’ll continue to call her Bree. Bree’s not sure what to call him; he insists she call him “Da,” if she wants. Later, they go home and enjoy the honey from the bee hive.
While in bed, Jamie laments to Claire he dreads Bree going back to the 20th century one day. Claire tells him she must go back, considering that the 1970s are the time period that she knows and belongs in. I mean, let’s face it, ever since Bree came to the 18th century, she’s been threatened and raped. A day or two later, Claire and Brianna are out harvesting herbs, and Claire asks her to tell what’s really going on. Claire goes on to ask the million dollar question…“How far along are you?”
Bree confirms she’s about two months along, and she also confesses that the baby might not be Roger’s. It’s only then that Bree reveals that she was raped, but she still doesn’t mention who the man was or finding Claire’s original wedding ring. Claire asks when Bree was raped, and she tells Claire that it happened the same night she lost her virginity to Roger. Later that night, Claire tells Jamie what happened and about Bree being in the family way.
In the meantime, Roger’s slavery—I mean, employ—on Bonnet’s ship finally comes to an end. When it’s time for Bonnet to pay Roger, the latter asks for one of Bonnet’s rubies as compensation instead (you have to have a gemstone to pass through the stone. By the way, I’m certain those rubies Bonnet had are more of Claire and Jamie’s stolen merchandise). Bonnet agrees and Roger walks away with one of the tiniest stones. I’m surprised his dirty, greedy ass let him have one. Roger makes his way back to North Cakalacky and guess who spots him? Lizzie. She immediately thinks that Roger is the rapist and she goes to tell Jamie the news. After Jamie hears everything, he orders Ian to take Lizzie home while he gets ready to raise all hell. He also orders Lizzie not to breathe a word of this to Claire or Brianna.
Back at the house, Claire finds her original wedding ring in Brianna’s clothes. When she confronts Bree about it, she puts two and two together and realizes that Stephen Bonnet is the one that raped Bree. Brianna makes Claire promise not to tell Jamie for fear of upsetting him further and of what might happen if he encounters Bonnet again. After all, the man is evil incarnate. A little ways from the house, Jamie finds Roger in no time, and as Roger proceeds to politely ask him where Fraser’s Ridge is, Jamie proceeds to give Roger a down home country-Scottish ass whuppin’. Ian and Jamie put Roger’s bloody pulp of a body on a horse to…anywhere. Jamie basically says he doesn’t give a damn where Roger goes as long as he’s out of his sight. DAYUM!
And that’s how the story ends.
I tell y’all what, this season of Outlander is just getting better and better with each episode! Brianna is really growing on me, and my heart seriously went out to her this week. She had to be going through a serious emotional roller coaster. She finally met her estranged biological father and reunited with her mother, but the night before she lost her man and was later raped by a psychopath. Then, to make matters worse, she ended up pregnant and has no idea if the father of her child is the love of her life or the physical manifestation of pure evil himself. As for what happened towards the end, this is the end result when folks keep secrets. I know Bree’s going through a lot right now, but I wish she had been truthful about the person that hurt her. I also wish that Jamie had been forthcoming about what Lizzie told him. Because of all this, poor Roger got his ass royally whupped for nothing, and I mean royally whupped. That’s no way to introduce yourself to your son-in-law, Jamie. Next week, it looks like Roger’s going to be in the company of some of the Native Americans nearby, tied to a horse…but even that won’t stop him from trying to get to his lady love. Jamie and Lizzie won’t be too happy about that. Bree’s going to have to fess up. Oh yeah, and Brianna and Claire are going to discuss her options. Y’all know what I mean. Once again, great episode! I can’t wait for next week!
—-Written by Nadiya
So what did y’all think about “The Birds and the Bees”? Were you happy to see Bree’s first meeting with Jamie? Did you feel bad for Bree throughout the episode given what she was going through internally? What about Roger? Do you think Brianna and Jamie were right about keeping the truth about everything, or do you think they did the right thing? What’s your opinion on Lizzie falsely accusing Roger of Brianna’s rape? Do you think the season is getting better as it progresses? Let me know in the comments section!
Insights from a Southern Girl 