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Outlander Recap: “Between Two Fires”

By Rueben | February 24, 2020

“Jeremiah was a bullfrog
Was a good friend of mine
I never understood a single word he said
But I helped him a-drink his wine
And he always had some mighty fine wine.”

Those lyrics are from the classic 1970 single by Three Dog Night (written by Hoyt Axton), which was sung by Roger Mackenzie to his young son Jeremiah. That one scene in last night’s second episode of the fifth season of Outlander was the most calming moment out of a very stressful episode. [The runner-up scene would be when Brianna and Roger were practicing shooting their rifles and Roger explained to her about Tufty Fluffytail, the road safety mascot that is somewhat similar to our Smokey the Bear.]

Coming off the wedding of Brianna and Roger and the request by Jamie to Murtagh to “be hard to find,” the episode opened with a very harsh scene of Murtagh and the regulators taking over the small community of Hillsborough where they not only burned a redcoat uniform in effigy but also tarred and feathered two men who were enforcing the Governor’s taxes against the townspeople.

Things only progressed to get worse in Hillsborough once Jamie and Lieutenant Knox arrived in the small town after one of Jamie’s men reported the news of the regulators’ attack. Three of the regulators were captured, and subsequently questioned by Jamie and Lt. Knox. Two of those men, Bryan and Ethan, were men Jamie had approached last season about taking on some of the parcels of the land he was given by Governor Tryon. They refused the offer from Jamie, but obviously decided to take on the role of being one of Murtagh’s regulators. Unfortunately, after being angered, Lt. Knox took justice into his own hands, stabbing Ethan with his sword, killing him.

In an effort to not only stop any further killings but also to get a warning sent to Murtagh, Jamie broke Bryan and the other man – Lee – out of their cells, telling them to warn his godfather away from Hillsborough because the entire community was surrounded by redcoats.

Back at the big house on Fraser’s Ridge, Claire was dealing with an unexpected and unnecessary death of one of the settlers – Mr. Farrish. As it turned out, his appendix burst and he went into septic shock; but given the lack of medical knowledge at the time, his wife only made things worse by simply trying to save her husband. Mrs. Farrish used mercury and blood-letting – common practices for the 1770’s – that did nothing but lead to her husband’s demise.

Spurred on to save the people of the Ridge, Claire kept the body of Mr. Farrish (despite their being a funeral for the man – Claire and Roger actually filled his coffin with rocks and hid the cadaver in the cellar) in order to figure out what caused his initial illness. Claire also decided to show daughter-in-law Marsali the body, as she believed that Marsali would make a good apprentice. Marsali was, of course, initially unsettled – even asking Claire if her mother (you guys remember Laoghaire?!) was right: “I’m not a witch,” Claire exclaimed). In the end it seemed Marsali agreed to be Claire’s apprentice, if Claire’s later conversation with son-in-law Roger was any indication.

To add to the already complicated situation, Claire spent an entire night making loaf after loaf of bread much to the dismay of their housekeeper/cook Mrs. Bug. And Claire also employed Marsali to bring as many food scraps that would’ve ended up in the pig trough to her as Claire made the decision that she was going to somehow make penicillin. An antibiotic that wouldn’t be created for another 157 years, as Brianna reminded her mother. Naturally Brianna warned her mother not to play God (that’s the pot calling the kettle black since Bree did the exact same thing by coming back in time to warn her parents about the house fire that at some point would take their lives); but Claire said in order to protect the settler’s on Fraser’s Ridge, “time, space, history, be damned.”

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As the title of the episode clearly states, everyone is walking between two fires. Jamie is doing all he can to protect his people and Murtagh while holding Governor Tryon and the redcoats at bay. Murtagh is trying to honor the request made to him by Jamie while standing by his men (i.e., the Regulators). Claire is trying to protect the people of Fraser’s Ridge while employing her modern-day medical knowledge (she even created a list of recommendations from a Dr. Rawlings, the owner of the medical kit that holds her microscope, in the hopes that will help the people of the Ridge). Brianna is holding her memories of Stephen Bonnet at bay (those sketches of Bonnet that Roger found were unsettling, of course) while staying true to her husband and taking care of their son (who is now learning to walk). Roger is trying to accept the time period they are in (despite his overwhelming lack of usable skills for that time period) while desperately wanting to get his wife and son back to their own time.

What was most unsettling about the episode was the return of Stephen Bonnet at that secret fight between the two harlots that also brought Mr. Forbes (the man who almost proposed to Brianna while she waited at Run River for her parents to return from their search for Roger) back into the story. Bonnet was in Wilmington seemingly attempting to pass himself off as a presumed fancy dandy, who “helped” businessmen hide their merchandise from the King’s levies. Of course, his predilection for cruelty and violence won out, as he challenged a young man who stood up to him during the fight, claiming he knew who Bonnet really was. Bonnet not only sliced open one of the man’s legs but sliced the man straight across his eyes simply because the young man said, “damn your eyes.” He claimed to Mr. Turnbull – the man who introduced Bonnet to Forbes – that rather than kill the young man, he “must set a better example. I’m a father now.” Did those words send a shiver down anyone else’s spine?

What are your thoughts on the second episode of the fifth season of Outlander? What scene were you more unsettled by? Did you enjoy hearing Roger sing again? What do you think Murtagh and the Regulators will do next? Please share your thoughts below.