Outlander Season 4 Episode 12 Review: Providence
Carissa Pavlica
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When you plan a prison break, please be sure to keep track of the keys.
Everything on Outlander Season 4 Episode 12 was going swimmingly (well, except for a severe case of burning love) until Fergus and the gang managed to put a damper on Brianna's future just when she managed to make peace with it.
It was the typical soap opera twist that opened a lot of discussion points for what will come for Brianna and her child, and we haven't even begun to think about Roger yet!
It is such a pity Lord John plays for the other team. A pity for Brianna that is (and me), not for those he chooses to date!
Crush time on Lord John continues as he stood by Brianna when she decided she needed to see Stephen Bonnet after his capture.
Your father entrusted me to look after you. I'm not sure that encompassed taking afternoon tea with a murderer.
Lord John
Of course, Jamie's words of wisdom about forgiveness helped the cause, but even without reading Jamie's letter to Brianna himself, Lord John would have probably been on board. He's not only an honorable man but a compassionate and reasonable one.
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Didn't you love the way "My betrothed" rolled off of his tongue when he and Brianna reached the jail together? It's so easy for him to arrange things with his position, and he gets done what he sets out to do.
He was also unwilling to go too far away from Brianna when she went in to speak directly with Bonnet just in case she might need him along the way.
Brianna was quite steadfast in her dealing with Bonnet, though. She must have rehearsed what she had to say to him over and over again on their trip to Wilmington because she didn't hesitate in delivering her message.
But addressing her attacker as Brianna did couldn't have been an easy feat. Not only did she maintain her cool while he talked to her in his sarcastic tones, but she barely flinched even when she got heated in her comeback about the baby.
Brianna: You are going to die, to hang by the neck until you are dead, and if it makes dying easier for you to know there is something of you left on this earth, then you are welcome to the knowledge
Bonnet: So I'll soon be gone but not forgotten.
Brianna: I have no choice but to live with what you have done to me, but you will be forgotten. My baby will never know your name, will never even know that you existed. While you rot in the ground, I will raise my child to be a good person, to be nothing like you.
The biggest surprise was that Brianna really appeared to have moved Bonnet. That's part of what makes Bonnet such a terrific villain, as was BlackJack Randall before him. Even if he can only do it for a second or two, Bonnet had a moment of humanity when he realized someone like Brianna was having his child.
Ed Speelers can say a lot with the looks on his face, and the border between humanity and vile nastiness is very thin. The glint in his eye, though, and the curve of his brows suggested he was feeling vulnerable and not putting on an act for Brianna.
That's why his good fortune at getting the keys to most assuredly survive the blast planted by Fergus and the regulators (it sounds like a band!) to create a diversion for Murtagh's escape is so worrisome.
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Will Bonnet be able to stay away from Brianna and the baby? Unless she goes through the stones, it seems highly unlikely. She's going to have to pair with a vicious man to keep her safe from the likes of Stephen Bonnet.
Does Roger have that in him? I wouldn't have imagined Lord John to have it in him, but he growled pretty good at Fergus when their attack first began.
The animosity between Lord John and Murtagh was cause for high alert. They're going to have to find a place of peace if they're both to remain friends with the same group.
Murtagh wasn't thinking clearly at all if he thought he was going to leave the jail and go about business as usual. There was no way he could have escorted Brianna back to River Run without putting her in grave danger.
Maybe Murtagh would soften a bit if he knew how Lord John lied to protect all of Brianna and Jamie's friends. And who didn't love Brianna and Lord John's conversation about missing Claire? Sorry. That was another Lord John diversion.
Where will Murtagh go now that he's a wanted man in Scotland, England, and on the Eastern seaboard? He has virtually no place left to run and hide.
Maybe he can take up where Roger would like to leave off with the Mohawk. They'd probably get a real kick out of Murtagh, and he's a man they wouldn't put on the ground for long.
I got the impression of Roger hadn't landed on the ground while walking between the two lines of Mohawk when he first arrived at the camp; he could have become something other than a captive.
After all, it was only when he fell and stayed down that they declared he would remain a captive.
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And after hearing Father Alexander's story of acceptance up to the point he would have, in his mind, harmed his child with false promises of a god he wasn't properly serving any longer, there was no reason to believe Roger couldn't have been one of the tribe.
Meeting Father Alexander allowed Roger to examine his feelings about Brianna as well as coming to terms with his current fate. It's awful that Roger had gone all that way only to realize he'd changed for the worse as a result of everything he'd encountered over the past year or so.
There's from where I come from, "Look out for number one." Well, from now on, that's me. And if you're smart, you'll do the same. Turn your back on love and take your freedom. Save yourself because if you don't, no one ever will.
Roger
It's easy to see where he was coming from and why he'd want to stop feeling like a doormat, but it also sucks to think Roger was so negatively affected by his cordial demeanor.
It's better to wind up hurt and displaced than it is to hurt and displace another. Still, Roger caught on that the man who beat him was probably Jamie, and it would be hard to reconcile why he had such disdain for Roger given the actual circumstances of Roger's life with Brianna.
Getting to know Father Alexander, an idiot for love even more idiotic than himself was supposed to help Roger realize he's just a good guy. But damn, burning at the stake was a little much for the Father to suffer for his sins, wasn't it?
Roger tried to get him to see that the only way to go was to fake it to make it and find a priest to absolve him of his sin of faking sacraments to stay alive or just to run away from the cloth altogether and make a life with his love and their child.
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The good Father was even more confused than Roger because he both continued to love the woman and wanted to stay true to the sacraments of the priesthood. This lapsed Catholic didn't quite get it, but it made for a hell of an ending.
Thank Goodness Jamie and Claire are on their way because after ruining the Mohawk's torture of Father Alexander and getting his love to walk up with him even sooner than she might have otherwise (if at all), Roger's in a heap of trouble. Again.
Can you believe that scene? The woman walking right on to the fire to burn with her love?
Roger had to see there is something pretty special about loving so profoundly and perhaps regrets telling Father Alexander he was an idiot for following Brianna across space and time to prove to the universe that they were made to love each other.
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Even if your life ends in the pursuit of a love that great, it has to be worth something to believe in it so madly and deeply.
You can't change your stars, Roger MacKenzie. You're a good guy, and it means you're going to suffer the consequences.
For now, that means he's remaining a captive of the Mohawk. Maybe they're building another pyre for him, too.
The finale is coming, and it's going to feature his rescue attempt or success as Jamie, Claire, and Young Ian finally arrive at the Mohawk village. They are sure to be outnumbered, so how will they make it out alive and with Roger in tow?
What's up next for Brianna and Lord John? Will we learn where Murtagh is heading? This is book-free material, now.
And where does Outlander Season 4 end? Is there a wicked cliffhanger coming our way? You guys know, don't you? Hit the comments and share all your thoughts!
Carissa Pavlica is the managing editor and a staff writer and critic for TV Fanatic. She's a member of the Critic's Choice Association, enjoys mentoring writers, conversing with cats, and passionately discussing the nuances of television and film with anyone who will listen. Follow her on X and email her here at TV Fanatic.
