And Lo, There Shall Come a Finale: Outlander

So I finished off the finale of season 4 of Outlander earlier this week.  There was a lot of ground to cover in the final hour for this season.

 

Murtaugh is in trouble with the law again with his actions and reputation as a Regulator putting him the crosshairs of North Carolina’s Governor Tryon. After being busted out of jail last week by Fergus, he’s lying low at River Run with Jocasta.

 

Also, Murtaugh and Jocasta have sex. Yeah, that’s weird.

 

Also hanging out at River Run is Brianna, Claire and Jamie’s daughter, pensively awaiting the birth of her baby (or “wee bairn” to get all Scottish about it) as well as the return of her parents and, maybe, Roger.

 

Roger is still a “guest” of the Mohawk in New York. Let him rot there, for all I care. I don't like Roger. 

 

But Jamie, Claire and Young Ian are closing in on the Mohawk village. Efforts to engage in some sort of friendly trade to obtain Roger’s release go awry when a strange stone is spotted hanging around Claire’s neck. Suddenly, the whole tribe is skittish and can’t get these visitors out of there fast enough. And sorry, no Roger.


Well, I'm not sorry. I don't like Roger.

 

Claire found the stone along with a skull earlier in Season 4, a skull with silver fillings in its teeth. It’s a skull of someone from the 20h century, a time traveller like Claire.

 

A group from the tribe catch up to Jamie, Claire and Ian, intent on taking the stone. As far as our trio are concerned, they can have the damn thing but 1) why is it important and 2) can they still get Roger back?    

 

It seems the stone belonged to a Mohawk warrior known as Otter Tooth, a visitor who warned the tribe they needed to take up arms against the white man lest the Mohawk be defeated, wiped out and forgotten from history.  Like Geillis Duncan in previous seasons with a 20^th century mad on against 18th century grievances, it appears that Otter Tooth was determined to re-write the history of the Mohawk.  Like Geillis, Otter Tooth was a bit too crazy in his obsessions with righting the wrongs of history. The Mohawk had enough of this guy, took him away, killed him, cut off his head and dropped the head in a creek in North Carolina to be rid of him. 

 

Not everyone in the tribe is convinced of Otter Tooth’s insanity and think his visions of the future are rooted in truth.  They agree to help free Roger in exchange for Otter Tooth’s stone.

 

Sadly, the rescue mission is discovered and long simmering tensions between the pro-Otter Tooth and the anti-Otter Tooth tribe members flare up. In the end, the chief of the tribe tells the Otter Toothers to get the hell out. As for Jamie, Claire and Ian, they are free to go but without Roger.


Fine by me. I don't like Roger.

 

Then Jamie offers up a trade: his life for Roger’s. Since Ian speaks fluent Mohawk, Jamie has Ian work out the details with the chief as he says a tearful goodbye to Claire. Then Ian tells Jamie the chief agrees and the deal is done. Roger can go and Ian is staying. 

 

Ian changed the deal, trading himself instead of Jamie for Roger. 

 

Later, we see the Mohawks put Ian through the harrowing gauntlet that beat the crap out of Roger a few episodes back. But Ian endures the gauntlet as the cheering Mohawks welcome a smiling Ian as one of their own. 

 

Later, Jamie, Claire and Roger take a break on their long journey back to North Carolina when Roger starts slugging away at Jamie. And Jamie lets him, figuring he has it coming for the beating he gave Roger and subsequently selling him to the Mohawk.  Claire watches this, clearly pissed off at both of them but hell, it’s the 18^th century. What you gonna do? 

 

After awhile of Roger punching Jamie (and Jamie not looking that badly as a result), he settles down as Claire fills him in on the plot. Brianna sent Claire and Jamie to look for Roger. Brianna herself couldn’t come herself because she’s pregnant. And the father could be Roger or it could be Stephen Bonnet, the son of a bitch who raped her.

 

Roger has a decision to make.

 

I don’t like Roger.

 

Back at River Run, Brianna gives birth to her “wee bairn”, a big ol’ baby boy. Two months after giving birth, Brianna gets visitors: Claire and Jamie. No Roger.

 

Roger is a son of a bitch.

 

I don’t like Roger.

 

Brianna is bummed about this. As arrangements are made for Briana and the baby to join Jamie and Claire back at Fraser’s Ridge, another visitor arrives.

 

It’s Roger.

 

Brianna runs to greet Roger as the two embrace and kiss. Brianna tells Roger her baby is a boy.

 

Then Roger says, “Let’s go see my son.” 

 

OK, I don’t like Roger slightly less.

 

But still…

 

I really can’t get past the fact that Brianna getting raped by Stephen Bonnet is all Roger’s fault. Seriously, every action taken by Roger puts Brianna on a path where she winds up alone with that Bonnet bastard in an inn in Wilmington.

 

If Roger hadn’t left Brianna alone when he did, she would not returned alone to the inn at a late hour to be assaulted by Stephen Bonnet.

 

If Roger had stupidly argued with her, he wouldn’t have left her.

 

If Roger had not selfishly followed her through the stones in the first place in defiance of Brianna’s wishes, he would not have been in Wilmington when Brianna was there and he wouldn’t have been there to scurry off with her when she was looking to secure passage inland to get to Fraser’s Ridge.

 

Back in 1970, if Roger had not been a total dick to Brianna at the Scottish Highland festival, they may have remained a couple and worked together when Brianna decided to travel back to the 18^th century to save her mother and father.

 

If one of these stupid actions by Roger has been reversed, Brianna would not have been in that inn at the hour of the night alone to be raped by Stephen Bonnet.

 

I’m reversing my earlier re-assessment of Roger.

 

I still don’t like Roger.

 

I hope that season 5 sees some redemption for Roger’s character, that he can prove himself to Jamie and Claire as worthy of Brianna’s love.

 

He’s got a hell of a long way to prove himself worthy to me.


I don't like Roger.

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Coming up in a later post of And Lo, There Shall Come a Finale (sometime next week, I think, once I've actually made time to watch it), we bid goodbye to the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. It's not a season finale but a series finale.

I can't blame Roger for Kimmy Schmidt going away.

But I still don't like Roger. 

Here's young Ian with his faithful companion, Rollo. I liked Rollo. Rollo stayed with Ian with the Mohawk tribe. So we not only lost Ian, we also lost Rollo because of Roger.


I don't like Roger.