Outlander – S4E13 – Man of Worth

Previously on Outlander, “Providence”

It’s hard to sneak into a Mohawk village; if they don’t see you coming, they’ll hear all the metal gifts you brought for them to trade for your accidentally sold almost son-in-law. It is known. The possibility of trading Dog Face for a bag of pots and pans is looking pretty promising until the tribe catches sight of Claire’s big ass opal necklace. They instantly recognize it as Otter Tooth’s, and the Frasers are politely shuffled out of the village and asked to never come back.

Well, that was a confusing reaction, and it’s certainly going to make it harder to get Roger back. It’s a good thing a rogue band of villagers follow them back to their camp, and after a tense start, the story of Otter Tooth unfolds. He appeared out of nowhere one day, preaching violence against the white man before their way of life was completely destroyed by the new settlers. He got a lot of the warriors all riled up about it before he was ultimately banished, but even then the elders knew they were going to have to kill him to quell the uprising. Still, some of them bought what Otter Tooth had been selling, and that his opal was the source of his knowledge. Since both his bones and his necklace were exported way down to South Carolina, it’s probably a hell of a surprise to see it around this white lady’s neck. Claire wasn’t willing to turn it over to the Chief as she was being shuffled out of town, but she’ll be happy to exchange it for a little inside help in getting Roger back.

If their plan was to sneak into the village, get caught, try to fight their way out and lose spectacularly, then mission accomplished. Roger is found relatively whole, at least, but the Mohawk aren’t going to just let their Dog Face walk away for free. They will take a trade, though, and Jamie has no choice but to Katniss himself to save Roger. It almost breaks Claire, who seems to be stuck in this “travel back in time but continually be separated from Jamie” loop, but as they’re saying their goodbyes Young Ian renegotiates the trade and offers himself instead. He out-Katnissed Jamie! Ian’s been obsessed with the native culture since he arrived in America, he’s probably going to fit in just fine; he even figures out the gauntlet is a test and makes it through to the end (ahem, Roger). Instead of being the renamed Horse Face, Young Ian is going to be a ginger brave! Still, New York is a long way from North Carolina; is he ever going to get to see his family again? And who is going to tell Jenny?

Now that Roger is relatively safe, he has a few bones to pick with Jamie. He sorts out his differences with Jamie’s face, but eventually they have to sit him down and drop a few bombs about what Brianna has been up to. She’s pregnant (boom!), and that baby might not be his (boom!) because she was raped (BOOM!) by his former boss Stephen Bonnet (straight up mushroom cloud). It’s a lot to lay on a man all at once, so his request for a little time to process seems pretty reasonable—although from the looks on Claire and Jamie’s faces, they don’t seem to fully agree.

Down in the southlands, everything is more or less going according to plan. Murtaugh makes it safely to River Run, I guess on his way to Fraser’s Ridge, and takes time from his law evasion to check in on Brianna. Allegedly… because the way he and Jocasta are flirting, Brianna and that roast beef platter may not be the only reasons he stopped by. Things get particularly heated one night as he and Jocasta argue over Brianna’s upcoming Redcoat wedding, and that glass of whiskey she tosses in face must be one weird fetish of his, because they sure do wake up in bed together the next morning. Get it, old people!

Brianna is about to pop, and not a missing husband or absent fiancé is going to keep that from happening. She gets herself a new baby boy, and unfortunately it’s still too early to know if he’s going to be a blonde or a brunette. Another two months pass before Claire finally walks up the road to River Run, and when Brianna hears she rushes to find only that there are only two people coming up the drive. WHERE. THE. HELL. IS. ROGER?

It’s a real let down of a family reunion. As glad as Jamie and Claire are to see their daughter, she doesn’t have nearly the same interest level in them. It’s probably because they came home without her husband. It’s not until Claire promises Bri a quiet family life up on Fraser’s Ridge that she starts to return to the land of the living, and then as they’re packing up to head home a figure appears on the road. Bri instantly knows it’s Roger and runs the half mile down the drive to meet him. It’s all very Gone With the Wind, albeit with way more kissing, but the important thing is that Roger is back and he loves Brianna and he wants to see his son. His son. Roger is totally redeemed.

And then, because who wants to end on a happy note?, Bri and Roger almost get run over by a troop of Red Coats galloping up the driveway. The house goes on high alert, what with the fugitive they’ve been harboring, and Murtaugh gets squirreled away into hiding just as the soldiers bang on the door. It’s worse than anyone could have expected, though: they’re not looking for Murtaugh, they’re looking for Jamie. Governor Tryon is calling in his favor for that 10,000 acres, and the soldiers have brought Jamie his first mission from the Governor—to hunt down and kill the criminal Murtaugh Fitzgibbons.