Outlander – S4E7 – Down the Rabbit Hole

Previously on Outlander, “Blood of My Blood”

Welp, she did it-Brianna is through the stones and is trudging around the snowy moors of Scotland with only a dirt road to indicate that she’s not in modern times anymore. She seems sensibly dressed enough, with a wool cloak and big stomping boots, although she packs a lunch like a 7-year-old running away from home. Five steps in on this new adventure and she falls down a hill, doing some damage to her ankle. One time I went on a 5-day vacation and lost a contact in the first half day we were there, so I can empathize with this ruining her whole trip before she’s barely started. Then again, she’s just traveled to a somewhat primeval time and place; if she’s going to make it more than fifteen feet, she’s going to have to suck it up, buttercup.

There’s no telling where she’s going, but according to the map she brought she’s got a long quarter of a page to walk on her bum ankle. She passes out on the side of the road from the sheer slight discomfort of it and wakes up in a warm, snuggly bed, being served breakfast by Laoghaire. That’s right, Laoghaire-Claire’s nemesis, Jamie’s ex-wife, Marseli’s mother. The one who likes to get people burned at the stake. This could get real awkward real quick, except that neither of them knows who the other is. But it’s actually quite charming watching Laoghaire be so hospitable and warm towards Brianna, and in turn Brianna bonding with Joanie over growing up in a broken home.

All this talk of Papa Frank gives Brianna the flashbacks: Frank, too drunk to stand, having just received the Fraser obituary that Roger will find however many years later. As much as he wants to, it’s too hard to explain to Brianna just how her mom will come to die in a colonial house fire. But bigger than that: it also means that Frank knows that Claire is going to go back through the stones years before she even knew it! When he finally left Claire, he only did it because he couldn’t ignore the proof that Claire was going to choose Jamie over him. The night he and Claire have that last big blowup is the same night he asks Bri to move overseas with him; it’s also the same night he dies in Claire’s ER. Somehow shocked at the news that her parents are divorcing, Bri turns down his offer not knowing she’d never see Frank again.

Brianna’s got a soft spot for Laoghaire, who just like Frank loved a person that could never love them as much in return. Things settle in to an easy pace while Brianna’s ankle heals, although you can see the cracks starting to show as Laoghaire realizes that Brianna is Claire and Jamie’s daughter. She talks shit about Jamie never wanting Brianna, which of course Brianna believes from this person that she’s just met, and then all of a sudden things blows up around them in the most spectacular fashion. Brianna finally puts it together that Laoghaire is the conniving little brat who tried to have her mother killed, and if she’d been about 2.5 minutes faster on the uptake she wouldn’t have gotten locked in her bedroom while Laoghaire calls the Highland Police. Joannie saves the day by sneaking Brianna out and getting her to Lollybrach.

Uncle Ian immediately believes Brianna’s story, because why the hell wouldn’t this be the daughter of his long-lost-and-found-again sister-in-law? She does have red hair, so it must true. He sets her up with a bag of change, Claire’s trunk of old clothes, and a ride to the closest Greyhound Station to catch a boat for the new world. She picks up a stray, Lizzie, who needs to get out of dodge before she gets purchased as a concubine, and with Frank’s ghostly blessing and her very own ladies’ maid, Bri is headed back to America.

Roger also goes through the stones, with the help of one very supportive-of-all-this-time-travel-business Fiona, and for some reason he had to shave his beard and wear short pants to do it. He makes his way to whatever port town is closest and talks his way into becoming a crew member on a ship headed to Wilmington; a ship captained by none other than known pirate and Fraser-robber Stephen Bonnet! It’s too much to believe that Bonnet’s gone respectable in six short episodes; Roger’s going to have to watch his back around this one.

It’s not long before Roger and Bonnet have their first come to Jesus meeting-smallpox has come onboard the ship, and Bonnet is throwing people overboard left and right to keep it contained. Roger takes offense to this, which is all very nice except that Bonnet is a) right and b) the Captain, and also c) still right. A small contained ship is no place for a super contagious deadly disease to run rampant. He defies his orders to round up any other infected passengers and instead helps a woman and her grumpy, teething baby hide away so they won’t be mistaken for the sick. Fun twist: the woman and her baby are also Mackenzies, so in some weirdly pruned family tree this could very well be a relative of his.

It’s hard to hide a person on a ship, let alone a screaming baby, so it really shouldn’t be a surprise to Roger when Bonnet finds them stowed away in the cargo hold. He drones on and on about power and rations and suffering-Bonnet loves to hear himself talk-and oh my God he’s still going on about almost being a child sacrifice and how he became Two Face. He finally shuts up, and with a flip of his coin decides that Roger and the other two Mackenzies won’t be thrown overboard… today.