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 21^st (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 20^th 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 18^th 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!

Hey, y’all!  Merry Christmas!  🎅🎅

Before I get started, allow me to give all my loyal readers an apology.  I’ve been notoriously lagging behind with these Outlander recaps, and it was seriously unfair to all of you.  Also, due to me having to play catch up, my Outlander recaps are the only thing I’ve been posting about as of late, and there’s other topics I’ve wanted to speak on, believe it or not.  So, in order to catch up, I had to skip the past two episodes and go straight into the recap for this week.  Once again, I’m sorry.

I wish I could tell y’all that nothing special happened in the last two weeks in the world of Outlander, but if I did, I’d be lying through my country teeth.  Very briefly, in the “Blood of My Blood” episode, Lord John Grey and Jamie’s illegitimate son William paid The Frasers a visit; John came down with measles, which allowed Jamie and Willie to have some bonding time (although the boy still isn’t aware of his true parentage), and it allowed John to show his entire ass while Claire was taking care of him.  Lord Grey even managed to piss off Murtagh, who was still visiting with the family himself.  Claire and John later patched things up, and thankfully, he survived his bout with measles.  Later Jamie gifted Claire with a new wedding ring and they made sweet lurrrve.

In “Down the Rabbit Hole,” Claire and Jamie took a backseat and the story focused solely on Brianna and Roger, who have now both traveled back to the 1700’s and managed to come across the most nefarious people in the show:  Laoghaire and Stephen Bonnet.  Crazy ass Laoghaire went from caring for Brianna after she found her near dead in the woods, to trying to frame the girl for witchcraft the minute she found out Brianna is Claire’s daughter.  Evil ass Bonnet allowed Roger to tag along to the Colonies as a crew member on his ship, and along the way, the young Scot witnessed certain atrocities such as Bonnet throwing women and children overboard that may be sick with smallpox, and him threatening to kill Roger for providing a young mother and her baby with food.  Bonnet took the Anton Chigurh route and decided Roger’s fate with the flip of a coin.  Luckily, it was heads and Roger lived.  All that brings us to this week, which was even more of a trip.  Let’s do this!

The episode takes places in Wilmington, NC (hence the title), which is just a mere 2 hrs. away from where I live!  Anyway, Roger is in town still searching for Brianna.  He even manages to come across Fergus, who truthfully tells him that he hasn’t seen Brianna at all.  Sadly enough, Roger managed to miss Claire and Jamie, who are also in town visiting Fergus and Marsali, who’s already given birth to their baby boy, which they named Germain.  Why they named that sweet child after St. Germain aka TFF, I’ll never know (see season two for the reference).  It turns out there’s another reason Claire and Jamie are in town.  The governor invited them both to a play, and when Governor Tryon extends an “invitation,” apparently declining it isn’t an option, especially given the fact that the gov wants Jamie to meet his right hand man.

Marsali and Claire break away to fix lunch for the fellas, and Claire asks the new young mother how she’s coping with Germain.  Marsali admits she loves the baby to death, but she’s scared to death of him being hurt in any kind of way, and would run onto a blade to stop him from going through any type of pain.  Claire tells her that’s how it is when it comes to parenthood, and unfortunately, you can’t be with your kids every second of the day and can’t stop them from being hurt.  Oh, the irony.

Roger continues to search for Brianna, and by a stroke of luck, he finds her in a tavern looking for passage to Cross Creek.  Their reunion is a tender one, but it soon turns into an argument when Bree mentions that Roger following her wasn’t part of her plan.  Brianna’s servant girl, Lizzie (oh, yeah…Lizzie’s father begged Bree to take her on as a servant to save her from being a concubine), witnesses this exchange from a distance and immediately thinks the worst of Roger.  In all actuality, the argument dies down quickly when Bree tells Roger the reason she didn’t tell him what she was doing is because she didn’t know how to tell him that she loved him and she knew he’d try to stop her.  They run off and start making out, and we all know what’s coming next.

Before we get to the panties flying off, Brianna asks Roger if it’s still important to him that they be married—or at least engaged—before they do the do.  Roger calms his hormones down enough to admit that it is still important, and this time, Bree agrees to marry him.  After all, he traveled across time to find her.  Roger suggests they have a handfasting ceremony, where two people can be married to each other without a priest to preside over the nuptials.  Bree is enthralled by that idea.  Later that night, they have the ceremony, and two seconds after they’ve said “I do,” they make lurrrve for the first time.  I have to say, the scene was pretty hot.  Not as hot as Claire and Jamie’s wedding night, but hot.  Lizzie asks for Brianna later that night, and the barkeep informs her that Bree’s still with the man she saw earlier.  Lizzie asks if it’s the same man with the loose morals, and the barkeep confirms that’s the one.  This won’t bode well for Roger later.

Across town, Claire and Jamie are at the play the governor invited them to.  When he introduces them to his right hand man, Claire notices that he’s in a great deal of pain, and he’s constantly holding the left side of his body.  Claire offers to examine him further, but she’s quickly dismissed by Governor Tryon.  The governor and Jamie leave to discuss men’s matters, and allow the ladies to meet with the other wives.  What fun.  However, Claire is in for a little treat…Tryon’s wife introduces her to none other than George and Martha Washington.  Yes, that George Washington.  Of course, he’s not the president yet, but Claire is still psyched to meet the father of the country and the man that whupped the British in the Revolutionary War.  Claire tells Jamie all about him, and says that if Bree were there, she’d have a million questions for him.  Bree’s too busy gettin’ her freak on.

Before the play starts, Governor Tryon tells Jamie that he set up a trap to arrest a group of Regulators that plan to rob a carriage carrying tax monies.  Jamie asks how he could possibly know what the Regulators have planned, and Tryon admits that there’s a traitor amongst them.  Jamie goes on to ask if he knows who the Regulators are, and Tryon—who doesn’t know how to shut the hell up—gives the name of the leader, Murtagh Fitzgibbons.

Jamie knows he has to warn Murtagh somehow.  First he offers to ride out with the men, but the governor refuses, telling him to enjoy the play.  Jamie watches the play for a while—although I don’t see how he could possibly enjoy it with the audience constantly running their mouths, which apparently was custom back then—and notices that Tryon’s right hand is in even more pain than he was when they first got there.  Jamie gives the poor man a quick elbow in the side, putting him in even more distress.  When the man starts to scream in pain, Jamie interrupts the play to get Claire.  He tells her what’s going on with Murtagh and that he has to warn him.  Claire says she’ll buy him as much time as she can and demands to operate on the sick gentleman ASAP.  Of course, Tryon acts a fool, but Claire’s not taking no for an answer, especially given that she’s just diagnosed the man as having a hernia.  To add insult to injury, his intestines have moved, and possibly cut off his blood flow.

Outside, Jamie runs into The Washingtons.  They’re heading home, due to the fact that the play sucked.  Jamie lies and says that he’s going to get Claire’s surgical tools, and future President Washington offers him a ride.  Jamie is very keen to that idea.  Back in the theatre, Claire is operating on the right hand, who has the misfortune of going through surgery without anesthesia.  Ouch!  Tryon is still asking around for a damn surgeon, even though Claire has mentioned time and doggone time again that she is a surgeon!  Claire goes through with the surgery, and advises Tryon to speak to the man to keep him calm.  Tryon promises the man a fine house as Claire pushes the intestines back in and closes the surgical opening.  Of course, when the poor man passes back out, Tyron hopes that the right hand won’t remember a word he said.  The gentleman’s regular surgeon finally arrives as Claire’s stitching the man up, and says, “You butchered him!  All he needed was some smoke up his butt!”  Indeed.  Tryon finally wises up and lets the surgeon know that Claire has everything under control.  Jamie comes back just in time after Claire finishes closing the wound.

Somewhere across town, Murtagh and his crew about to rob the coach full of redcoats when Fergus appears, telling him that it’s a set up and there’s a spy in his camp.  Murtagh is a bit peeved that Jamie didn’t come and tell him himself, but Fergus informs him that Jamie was sort of stuck at the theatre.  Murtagh still happy to see Fergus anyway.  Keep in mind that Fergus was a 10 yr. old child the last time Murtagh saw him.  Now he’s a happily married father.  Man, time flies!  When Jamie leaves the theatre with Tryon, the governor’s pouting that he didn’t get his man.  He figures someone alerted Murtagh ahead of time, and the little man riding with them mentions that Colonel Washington (he was a Colonel back then) left earlier with his wife.  Washington, the little man, and Jamie were the only ones that knew about the set up.  Thankfully, no one saw Jamie leave with the Washingtons, but although Jamie’s in the clear, now the future president is now on the governor’s radar.

Brianna and Roger are basking in the afterglow as they discuss Claire and Jamie’s obit.  Brianna hates that the year of her parents’ death is smudged on the obituary, and Roger agrees that the smudged date is extremely frustrating.  That’s when Brianna realizes that Roger had to have known about Claire and Jamie dying in that fire as well.  Roger admits that he found out about the fire before she left, but didn’t tell her.  That pisses Brianna off, and she gets even more pissed off after Roger tells her that he told Fi and not her.  They start arguing, and Bree eventually throws Roger out and tells him to go back to the 20th century.  Roger foolishly leaves Bree alone, a mistake that will seriously come back to haunt him.

Brianna goes back to the tavern and runs into none other than Stephen Bonnet, who’s gambling Claire’s stolen wedding ring in a card game (the original Lallybroch ring).  He grabs Brianna by the hand and asks her to blow on the ring for luck.  Bree recognizes the ring and asks where he got it, seeing as her mother had one exactly like it.  Bonnet tells Brianna that if she wants the ring back, they can come to an arrangement.  Brianna agrees.  *Sigh*  Sure enough, Bonnet lures her into a room off of the tavern and proceeds to beat and rape her.  What’s worse is that the people in the tavern hear Brianna crying and screaming for help, but they sit there going about their business like everything is everything.  God, I’m so glad I was born in 1981.  After the jackass is done assaulting Brianna, he mocks her for not being a virgin and gives her the ring, stating that he’s “an honest man that pays his debts.”  Before Brianna leaves, he tells her to give her mother his regards.  Poor Brianna walks up to her room, completely traumatized.  Wow.  Claire and Jamie really should’ve let his evil ass die.

This episode was really good, but it was also pretty dark.  To be honest, this entire season has been dark.  So far, we’ve dealt with racism, robbery, hate crimes, murder and rape, and there’s still five episodes left!  This is America!  Don’t catch you slippin’ up!  Brianna’s character is growing on me.  True, she’s still a bit bratty, but I’m starting to like her now.  I hate she had to go through what she went through.  The writers mentioned that they decided to have Brianna live the best and worst day of her life on the same night so the audience can feel the roller coaster of emotions she must’ve felt.  Let’s just say that crap worked.  The end of the episode was pretty damn depressing.  Once again, Bree and Roger’s story line this time around was more interesting than Claire and Jamie’s (God only knows what that doggone play was supposed to be about).  I remember when Bree and Roger’s scenes were good times for me to use the bathroom or get a drink of water, but no longer.  They’re getting more juicy, and I’m here for it!  The writers also pointed out that everyone was in Wilmington during this episode:  Claire, Jamie, Bree, Roger, Fergus, Marsali and Murtagh.  Unfortunately, everyone kept missing each other due to some type of circumstance.  I’d love to see an episode where everyone is together and they can all meet.  During Bree and Roger’s stand alone episode last week, Brianna was able to meet her Uncle Ian, and it was really sweet to see them together.  My only gripe is that Jenny wasn’t there.  Touching on the subject of Murtagh and Jamie, I can’t help but notice that Jamie’s affiliation with the governor and Lord John is making Murtagh see him in a new light.  I really hope this doesn’t destroy their relationship.  Anyway, this was a great—yet bleak—episode!  Keep ’em comin’!  Next week, I believe Jamie and Bree will finally meet!

By the way…guess who’s finally caught up?  This chick!  Again, I wish y’all a safe and merry Christmas!  🎄🎁

—Written by Nadiya

So what did you think about “Wilmington”?  Was it a good episode, or was it not one of your faves?  Was the ending too dark for you?  Was Bree wrong to be mad at Roger?  Was Roger wrong for not telling Bree about what happened to her parents?  Do you hate Stephen Bonnet?  Who do you believe is worse, Bonnet or Black Jack?  Do you want all the characters to meet?  Do you think Murtagh and Jamie’s relationship will be strained due to his relationship with the governor?  Do you think that Bree and Roger’s scenes are more interesting that Claire and Jamie’s?  Let me know in the comments section! 

Hey, y’all!  I know I’m still behind, but I’m trying to catch up, so let’s jump right into this review, shall we?

The 1700’s

We start off with Jamie meeting with the governor of North Carolina, signing his deed to Fraser’s Ridge, which is a whopping 10,000 acres of land!  I looked it up; that’s 15 square miles!  I failed to mention this before, but it was discussed in “America the Beautiful” that Jamie making this land deal with the governor could prove to be detrimental.  When the American Revolution comes in the next few years—and it will come—the governor may consider Jamie to be on the side of the British since he accepted this deed, which means he’ll have to fight for them when the war starts.  As we all know, the British lose the war, and the folks that were British sympathizers ended up losing the land they had…if they even survived.

The governor asks Jamie if he’ll has any other settlers coming to the property, and Jamie tells him he has his best man (Fergus) putting out the word.  The governor warns Jamie to be careful who he lets on his land, considering that there’s “regulators” protesting against the tax collectors, and even some of the lawmen are stealing the tax dollars when policing the radicals.  I have a feeling this will be an important piece of info later on.

Before setting back out to Fraser’s Ridge, Claire goes to get some provisions.  Marsali tells her that she would’ve packed some food for Claire herself, but thanks to her morning sickness, she can’t even think about anything edible.  Marsali appears to be sad, and Claire asks her what’s wrong.  It turns out that she misses her crazy ass mama.  I have to be honest, even though I can’t stand Laoghaire’s nasty ass, I totally get where Marsali is coming from.  I’m damn near 40 myself, but whenever I feel sick, it’s so comforting to have my mom nearby.  Claire comforts Marsali, and tells Jamie that when she was pregnant with Brianna, she desperately wanted her mother there with her.  Claire worries about Brianna and sometimes wonders if she should’ve stayed with her.  Jamie tells Claire that when they were separated, he held on to her memory to keep him going.  He says that Brianna will do the same thing.

The family leaves for Fraser’s Ridge and starts setting up posts around the property boundaries.  While doing so, Jamie steps in some animal poo (gross), and Ian wonders what creatures may be roaming in their neck of the woods.  Claire informs him of the mountain lions and bears that might be in the area.  Just then, the Fraser/Murray family receives a visit from the Native Americans themselves…some smokin’ hot Native Americans at that.

Jamie, never letting his guard down, drops his knife and shows them that he’s all about peace.  They men ride off, but they return a few days later, saying something to him and the others in Cherokee.  I’m sure it was something along the lines of, “Get off our land!  We were here first!”  Later that night, Claire confesses to Jamie that she feels like the Native American ghost she saw a few nights before may have been warning her that they’re not supposed to be on that land.  Jamie insists that the ghost brought them to the area and that the mountain spoke to him.  They’re right where they’re supposed to be.  He just wishes he could communicate with the Cherokee to let them know that they mean them no harm.  Claire suggests making a gesture of goodwill to them.  Jamie agrees and and says that he’ll talk with Mr. Meyers in the morning.

When they go to sleep that night, they hear some rustling in the woods.  At first, they think it’s the Cherokee coming back, but when their horse returns seriously wounded with scratches, Claire deduces that it’s a bear.  Jamie sees Mr. Meyers the next day and tells him what happened.  Mr. Meyers says that the Cherokee have been talking about tskili yona (pronounced “scheely yonah”) for the last few weeks, which is Cherokee for a bear that’s a bit more than the average bear.

Old heads like me understand that reference.  😉😉

Some time later, the Cherokee are meeting for some type of ritual.  Nearby, the Fraser/Murray clan is turning in for the night, when they hear yet again another noise outside.  When they head outside to check it out, they see Mr. Meyers outside, mauled by a bear and hanging on by a thread.  The only thing the poor man is able to do is repeat the words tskili yona.  Claire rushes him in their makeshift hut, shifting instantly in doctor mode.  Jamie goes out to find the bear.  Meanwhile, the Cherokee ritual shows a medicine woman smoking a peace pipe and reciting a type of chant, while the others dance as if they were bears.

While Claire’s trying to save Mr. Meyers, she notices a bite on his neck and realizes that what’s been harassing them all this time wasn’t a bear at all.  At that same moment, Jamie is attacked by the true culprit:  a man dressed as a bear.  Jamie and the man fight, and thanks to the fact that he disarms Jamie right away and is armed himself with a knife and fake claws, he has the upper hand right off the bat.  As they’re fighting, Jamie notices one of his property posts nearby, and he manages to run from the dude just long enough to get to the post and pry it from the ground.  As expected, the bear-guy rushes Jamie and falls on the sharp end, which impales him through the chest.  Ouch.

Jamie takes the body to the Cherokee and greets them as Mr. Meyers instructed.  The hottest one out of the tribe—I’ll just call him Hot Guy—asks Jamie in English if he killed the faux bear.  Jamie tells them that he did, and the dude wasn’t some type of mystical bear; he was just a man.  Hot Guy replies that they knew he was just a man.  A while back, he raped his wife and that’s against Cherokee custom, so they banned him from their village.  The dude’s harassed them ever since, and basically lost his everlovin’ mind in the process.  Jamie asks if there’ll be anymore trouble from the tribe.  Hot Guy tells Jamie that death follows white men.  Jamie assures him that his family has come in peace.

Thankfully, Mr. Meyers survives his attack, and the Cherokee people visit the Fraser/Murray family to let it be known that they can co-exist in peace.  They’ve even bestowed the name “Bear Killer” to Jamie (Ian got a kick out of that!).  I swear, this man has too many doggone names.  Jamie invites the Cherokee to eat and the medicine woman tells Claire that she had a dream about her, and that Claire will grow to be a wise healer, with a great deal of medicine to cure the sick.  She also tells Claire that death comes from the gods and “it” will not be her fault.  Claire is understandably confused.

Later on, Jamie, Claire and Young Ian continue working on Fraser’s Ridge, as well as their new home.  In a very sweet scene, Jamie carries Claire over the threshold of their unfinished house, describing how the finished product will look, blissfully unaware of the tragedy that will befall them.

The 1970’s

A year has passed, and Roger is still sulking over his botched proposal to Brianna.  In a moment of nostalgia, he pulls out the drawing that an artist sketched of himself and Brianna while at the Scottish Festival, and he also reads a bit of the book Bree gave him a as gift.  The book is about Scottish people that settled in North Carolina during the early colonial days, and in it, there’s a passage that gives some information about Fraser’s Ridge.  Roger hits up the author, and within a few weeks, she provides him with documents detailing Claire and Jamie’s time together on their land.  Roger decides to call Bree with his newfound info.

Brianna, who’s still in Boston (with a foxy black roommate with the perfect ’70s ‘fro), is happy to hear from Roger (apparently, she’s told her roommate all about him, too…proof that Brianna has strong feelings for him…although he wants to act a damn fool), and she’s even more psyched to learn that her mother found her biological father.  However, when Roger gives the news to his childhood friend Fi—who knew about Claire traveling through time all along—she gives Roger other documents revealing that Claire and Jamie die in a tragic fire on Fraser’s Ridge a few years after they find each other!!!

Roger tries to make another phone call to Brianna to give her the bad news, but her roommate, Gail, drops a bomb on him.  Brianna traveled to Scotland to “visit” her mother.  Sorry y’all, but I have to post another GIF for this revelation.

Yep, that ’bout sums it up.

This episode was…decent.  The first time I watched it, it didn’t really hold my interest until the “bear” started wreaking havoc on the family.  The second time around, I found myself slightly more invested in the story, but it’s still not exactly hooking me into it.  However, we’re coming up on episode five now (once again, I know I’m behind), and Ms. Brianna decided to walk her rump through those stones and enter an era she’s not familiar with (reading about something and experiencing it firsthand are two different things), so things should start to pick up very soon.

I can’t wait to see Jamie’s finished house.  They show a glimpse of it in the opening credits, so I know it’s going to be nice, but I want a full tour.  I also can’t wait for Brianna to be reunited with her mom and meet her father for the first time.  That’s really gonna be interesting.  From what I’ve heard, Roger will go through the stones himself to find his woman, so these next few episodes should be chock full of drama, and hopefully I won’t feel like I’m watching a TV series as an assignment for my history class.  By the way, I’m really feelin’ those Native American men.  Be still, my beating heart.  ❤️❤️

—Written by Nadiya

How did y’all feel about “Common Ground”?  Was it a great episode, or just average?  Do you think Jamie will be able to keep Fraser’s Ridge?  Will Brianna and Roger find them in the 1700’s and save them from the fire?  What do you think about Brianna going back in time?  Do you believe The Frasers and the Native Americans can truly live in peace?  Are you psyched to see Jamie’s new house?  Let me know in the comments section!

What’s up, y’all!  I told you I’d do my Outlander recaps this season, didn’t I?  Yes, I know I’m late as all hell, as usual (and yes, I’m aware I’m still an episode behind), but better late than never!  I was wrong about one thing, though.  Instead of doing one mini-recap, I have to do two before going into what happened in last week’s episode.  Not much is happening this season so far so the recaps won’t be too drawn out.  Here we go!

Episode 1 – “America the Beautiful”

“America the Beautiful” starts off with Claire and Jamie in North Carolina, awaiting their friend’s execution for basically defending himself against a pissed off husband that tried to murder the poor man after finding him with his lyin’ ass wife.  Jamie suggests causing a distraction to free his friend (whose name I can’t remember at the time, and I’m not going out of my way to find out, considering the guy was a peripheral character at best), but his buddy refuses and accepts his fate.  We see that Jamie’s friend isn’t the only person about to be hung on the scaffold.  There’s also a dude named Stephen Bonnet that’s about to be strung up as well for the crime of piracy.  Long story short, Jamie’s friend dies, a commotion is caused by someone else in the crowd right afterward and Bonnet escapes.

The Frasers consider taking a ship back to Scotland to take Young Ian back to Jenny and Ian, Sr., but they soon decide to stay in America, because…reasons.  Fergus and Marsali decide to stay for a more legit reason:  Marsali’s pregnant, which means Claire, Jamie and nutty ass Laoghaire will be grandparents!  While finding a spot to officially bury Jamie’s friend later that night, they find Stephen Bonnet hiding in their wagon, and he begs them to help him escape the authorities.  Claire and Jamie’s hearts are made of gold, so they help the dude out.  Big mistake.  When they travel with Young Ian down the river to go to Jamie’s aunt’s plantation, Bonnet catches up to them and thanks them for their kindness by robbing them blind and killing Jamie’s other friend from prison, with Ray Charles’s “America the Beautiful” playing in the background.  This is America.  Don’t catch you slippin’ up.

Episode 2 – “Do No Harm”

*Sigh*  This episode’s story line pissed me off so much, I thought I’d need a damn drink afterward.  After Jamie and Claire are robbed by murderous pirates, they finally make it to Jamie’s Aunt Jocasta’s house.  Jamie’s Aunt Jocasta has a beautiful plantation right on the river (as a matter of fact, the property is known as River Run), that’s chock full of slaves.  Claire, of course, is not here for the foolishness, so you can imagine her reaction when she finds out that Jocasta left the plantation to Jamie when she dies.  Jamie figures he can take the property and free all the slaves, but he soon finds out in order to do so he’d have to go through a ridiculous amount of red tape that I won’t even try to break down, because it’s all bullshit.  So much for slavery being a choice.

To add insult to injury, Jamie is later summoned to be a witness “to ensure that justice is done” after a slave has injured an overseer near River Run.  However, when Jamie gets to the location, he sees the slave with a hook in his side and a noose around his neck.  The overseer, injured though he may be, is the one stringing the man up.  Guess he wasn’t hurtin’ too damn bad.  Neither Claire nor Jamie is up for this shit, and Jamie orders the man off the noose.  Oh, that pissed off the townspeople plenty.  Claire takes the slave, Rufus (the young man admitted to Claire later that he was taken from Africa, so there’s no telling what his real name is), and performs surgery.  Jocasta warns that they’re making a grave mistake and they must turn Rufus in to the authorities as mandated by the law.  They basically give Jamie until 12:00 AM to hand Rufus over.  Needless to say, the bloodthirsty racist ass mob shows up at River Run around 10:45.

Jamie suggests to Claire that they should euthanize Rufus instead of delivering him into the hands of the mob, where he’ll undoubtedly face a long, agonizing death.  Claire agrees and puts some poison in a tea and allows Rufus to drink it.  After Rufus recalls his happier times in Africa with his sister to Claire, he passes away.  Jamie delivers Rufus’s dead body to the River Run chapter of the KKK and they proceed to string him up on the nearest tree as Jamie, Claire and Young Ian watch in horror.  Welcome to the dirty south.

The Current Show!

North Carolina, the 1700’s

This brings us to the present, so to speak.  After the Fraser/Murray family personally witness a live retelling of Roots, they wisely decide not to spend any more time at River Run.  Jamie’s Aunt Jocasta isn’t too happy about that, especially when she hears Jamie’s plans to live out his days as a printer, but she’s just SOL.  They’re going.  Jocasta makes sure to give Claire an earful before they head about about how Jamie is squandering his birthright and how he should have been a laird, and yadda-yadda-yadda.  Yeah, Claire.  How dare you?  Being a slave master isn’t that bad!  It’s perfectly fine to snatch up an entire race of people just because they’re a different color than you, debase them, split up their families, force them to change their culture and religion and have them work for you day and night…for free!  What’s even better is that Jamie can get freaky with the slave girls, knock them up and either sell the babies for profit or utilize them for even more labor!  What’s even better is that this practice will go on for another hundred or years!  Jamie had the perfect chance to carry on the practice of systematic racism and oppression.  Damn you Claire, you selfish ho.

Right before Jamie and Claire leave Jocasta to her foolery, Ian lets it be known that he’s staying in America with them and not returning to Scotland.  Jamie tries to convince Ian that he’s not old enough to be on his own, but Ian reminds his uncle that he’s been attacked by pirates twice, gone through a hurricane, kidnapped and thrown in a dungeon (not to mention he’s been sexually assaulted and witnessed a hate crime).  After all he’s been through, he’s basically grown from a boy to a man in the past few months.  I had to agree with Ian after hearing that, and Jamie does too.  Jamie relents and goes to write Jenny and Ian Sr., but Young Ian tells his uncle that he’s a man now, and a man can write his own letters.  You go, young man.

The Fraser/Murray family set out with the family dog, Rollo, and Mr. John Quincy Meyers, a local guide.  Ian, who has become pretty close with Mr. Meyers (they started to bond in the previous episode when Mr. Meyers helped Ian wash Rollo after the pup had an encounter with a skunk), breaks away from Claire and Jamie with his new friend to trade tobacco with the nearby Native Americans.  While the Frasers have some time to themselves, they chat about Brianna, and how in her time, women can be anything they want to be.  Claire admits that Brianna hadn’t quite found her way when she left (we learn during this episode that Brianna began studying engineering at MIT sometime after Claire went back through the stones).  Jamie assures Claire that Brianna is a smart young lady, and she’ll eventually find her purpose.  Claire later asks Jamie if he was making decisions about his life just for her sake, and if being a printer would really be enough for him.  I guess Jocasta’s foolery got under Claire’s skin after all.  Jamie tells her that although he enjoyed living the life of an outlaw, he’ll gladly give that all up for her, Ian, Fergus and Marsali.  Just then, they hear thunder from an oncoming storm, and their mule runs off.  Hardheaded Claire runs off after the mule although Jamie tells her to stay there.  You can imagine Jamie’s surprise when the mule returns, but Claire doesn’t.  It turns out when Claire runs off to find the mule, she ends up lost in the process.  Learn to listen, Claire.

To make matters worse, while Claire’s trying to find her way back to Jamie, lightning strikes a nearby tree and spooks her horse, causing her to fall off it and hit her head.  *Sigh*  By the time Claire wakes up, the storm is in full force, and she has to find shelter.  She camps out under a large tree and uncovers a human skull as well as a jewel.  Claire seems to be intrigued by what she finds (I’d be creeped out by that doggone skull), and she notices someone carrying a torch nearby.  At first, she figures it’s Jamie coming to save her, but it turns out to be a Native American man walking towards her.  Now here’s the kicker:  each time the lightning flashes, the man disappears, but he reappears once the lightning stops.  I’d really be freaked out by this point.

When Claire wakes up the next morning, she finds her boots gone, but there’s fresh footprints in the ground.  The footprints seem to match her boots, so she follows them.  They lead to a stream, and not only does Claire find her boots near the water, she finds Jamie, too.  Yay!  It turns out Jamie followed the footprints to the stream as well, and he asks why Claire walked to the stream in her stocking feet.  Claire tells him that although her boots are there, she’s never been to that stream before.  Sometime later, she’s washing her newfound skull by the water and notices that there’s a silver filling in the skull’s teeth.  It doesn’t sound too farfetched to us, but fillings aren’t invented for another hundred years or so.  Come to think of it, toothbrushes and toothpaste didn’t come around for another hundred years, either.  I bet everyone had breath bad enough to singe somebody’s nose hairs.

After Claire makes her revelation, she and Jamie look out over the land and see how beautiful it is.  Jamie’s smitten by the location, and he decides that he and Claire will make a life there in that very spot.  Jamie decides to call it Fraser’s Ridge.  Awww…

North Carolina, the 1970’s

The series has gone back to giving us Roger and Brianna’s storyline along with Claire and Jamie’s (yay?), and we see that two years have passed since we last saw the budding couple.  They’ve never officially said they were together, and Roger admits that they haven’t really had a chance to hang out in the last few months due to their schedules—and the distance they have apart, I’m sure—but Roger is committed enough to leave Scotland, fly out to Boston and drive with Brianna to North Carolina to attend a Scottish festival with her.  The ludicrous notion is mentioned by other characters within the show, and I’m glad it is.  That’s like me leaving South Carolina, flying to Philadelphia then driving to Syracuse to attend their version of the Egg Scramble Jamboree (South Carolinians—namely ones in the Pee Dee region—know what the Egg Scramble Jamboree is.  The rest of y’all Google it).

Roger and Brianna start off having a great time together, on the drive to North Carolina and at the festival itself.  It’s obvious they’re both falling in love with each other, and Brianna decides to take the relationship to the next level, and by next level, I mean actually telling people that Roger is her boyfriend.  Plus, the entire trip, Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles could see that Brianna really, really REALLY wants a piece of that Scottish strudel.

When nightfall arrives, Roger performs a few songs with his guitar as he promised, and even sings a beautiful solo.  By this time, Brianna has to damn near be hosed down.  Brianna invites him to her room for drinks, and doesn’t waste anytime making her move.  Roger decides he wants everything to be “perfect” before they do the do, though.  Basically, that translates to him completely ruining everything in 3…2…1!  This fool proposes marriage!  Of course, Brianna is shocked, and informs him that he’s moving way too fast.  After all, she just started introducing him as her boyfriend that afternoon.  Roger doesn’t care.  He wants the wife, the house, the white picket fence, the four kids, etc.  Brianna stops him in his tracks.  She doesn’t want to get married—at least not at the moment.

Roger has the audacity to get pissed, and reaches the highest point of pissivity when Brianna continues to try to kiss him.  “You won’t marry me, but you’ll fuck me!?”  Wow.  Roger goes on to slut shame Brianna, and she reminds him that it’s 1970, not 1870.  He damn sure ain’t no virgin, and there’s precious few women still saving themselves for marriage.  Roger figures that Brianna just doesn’t love him, but she assures him that that’s not the case.  Roger isn’t trying to hear it.  Later, Brianna meets up with Roger again during the stag burning ceremony (if anyone knows the official name for this ceremony, let me know in the comments) and tries to talk to him.  When he asks if she’s changed her mind, she tells him she hasn’t…but she does want to be with him.  Roger tells her that either she’ll love all of him or none of him.  Roger goes to burn the ceremonial stag in the name of the MacKenzie clan (no disrespect, but this scene put me in the mind of The Wicker Man a bit.  The original, not the wack Nicolas Cage remake) and Brianna leaves, ending the show.  *Sigh*

So far, this season of Outlander has been pretty ho-hum, and this episode was no exception.  It’s not quite as sleep inducing as the first half of season two featuring the Frasers in France (God, that was awful), but it’s not grabbing me as of yet.  You know it’s a sad day when Roger and Brianna bring more drama and a tad more interest to the screen than Jamie and Claire.

While I’m on the subject of Roger and Brianna, let me just say that although Brianna isn’t my favorite character on the show (that honor is bestowed on her daddy), I agreed with her wholeheartedly on this.  Some folks might say this is why I don’t have a man, and hell, maybe it is why, but I believe Roger was actin’ a damn fool in this episode.  Like I said before, they weren’t even officially calling themselves a couple until that very same afternoon, and before he left for America, he wasn’t even sure what their status was.  But yet you went out and spent God knows how much on a ring?  Boy, bye!

Plus, Brianna is what, 22?  She hasn’t even finished school yet (she mentions this herself)!  I can’t blame her for not wanting to jump the broom before really experiencing life just yet!  Personally, I can’t stand when men take it to the extreme over the least little thing!  I remember when I was 18, I met a cute dude at the Eckerd drug store (telling my age again).  I gave him my number, and everyday, multiple times a day, starting at 9:00 AM sharp, he would call me and tell me that he missed me.  He missed me!?  I just met the dude!  See how ridiculous that is?  Roger really needs to pump his brakes.

The recap for the next episode is gonna be late is all hell too, but I’m on it.  Stay tuned!

—Written by Nadiya

So what did you think about “The False Bride”?  Was it interesting, or mostly dull?  What about Roger and Brianna’s storyline?  Was Roger right to propose marriage so soon, or did he jump the gun?  What do you think about the Native American man Claire saw?  Was he a ghost?  Do you believe Jamie is wasting his ambition and birthright not taking his aunt’s plantation?  Let me know in the comments section!