Outlander 4.09: The Birds & the Bees

TW: for discussions of rape

The title card for this episode is bee landing on a small white flower.

Bree returns to the room she’s sharing with Lizzie, who immediately notices that Bree is bleeding from her nose. Still shaking after being raped by Bonnet, Bree declines Lizzie’s offer of help and undresses herself slowly. There is a large bloodstain on the back of her skirt as well as bruises on her shoulder blades and ribs. She washes herself and then climbs into bed. Lizzie sets her hand next to Bree, offering to hold her hand if she needs.

The next morning Roger heads to the inn where he runs into Bonnet who is eating his breakfast and not being disemboweled by as I would prefer. He doesn’t even choke, the fucker.

Bonnet wants Roger to sail with them to Philadelphia, and Roger is like “um no, I gotta go find my girl.” Bonnet doesn’t appreciate that because he’s a giant sack of maggots and we hate him. Bonnet basically threatens Roger with violence and since Roger is, in my opinion, a slightly smaller sack of maggots, I really don’t care too much. Roger leaves instructions for someone to tell Bree he was there.

After noon, Bree wakes up and Lizzie is washing and folding her bloody clothing. Lizzie wants Bree to rest, but she wants to get to Cross Creek and her aunt. When she comes downstairs Bree learns that Roger has sailed away on The Glorianna.

I would like to pause here to point out the loveliness of Bree’s garter stitch, variegated cowl. Presumably this would be made with scraps of yarn versus a variegated colorway, but it’s chunky and gorgeous and I want it.

So then Lizzie hears some gossip about the wife of a Scotsman who performed emergency surgery on a dude, and hey! that Scotsman is still around! So Bree chases after Jamie who is peeing on a wall. He mistakes her for a prostitute.

Great first meeting with your pops!

She’s like “I’m your daughter!” They spend some time staring at each other with dramatic music in the background. They hug. Jamie takes her to Claire, and they hug even more. Lots of string music here, people. Bree explains that she came to warn them about the fire and that they don’t know the exact date the event will take place. Jamie grouses about sloppy printsmanship. They introduce her to Ian, and then everyone heads back to Fraser’s Ridge.

On the way to Fraser’s Ridge, Bree tells Claire about how Roger followed her through the stones and then turned out to be an asshole, and that Roger is headed back to Scotland. Lizzie clearly has a crush on Ian who is oblivious and thinks she just really likes his dog.

Later Ian recounts the story of Bonnet and how he attacked them, murdered Leslie, and stole Claire’s wedding ring. Bree immediately realizes that Bonnet was her rapist.

The next day they’re on horseback and Jamie is asking Claire about Roger; it’s pretty clear he’s pissed at Roger for abandoning Bree and leaving her broken hearted. He and Claire discuss how they can avoid the fire when it could occur any time in the next decade.

As she looks out over Fraser’s Ridge, Bree tells Jamie about Daniel Boone.

Murtagh is waiting at the cabin when they arrive. He jokes that Ian “has done well for himself, bringing home two lassies” (being Bree and Lizzie). Jamie introduces Bree as his time-traveling daughter from the future, and Murtagh just says, “what took you so long, lass?”

Over dinner, Murtagh shares embarrassing stories from Jamie’s childhood, but Bree is clearly distracted and asks to go to bed early.

The next morning, Claire worries that Lizzie who has been unwell, might have malaria. Bree is helping her dry herbs and admits that Frank knew that Claire went back in time. She tells Claire that Frank had the obituary on his desk years ago.

Bree knocks over a bowl of sachets and overacts. Claire thinks her anxiety is related to Roger leaving, not knowing that Bree was recently raped.

Then we cut to The Glorianna where Bonnet is counting out the crew’s pay. Roger notices some small red gemstones on his table and asks for those instead of gold. Bonnet agrees. Then a kraken rises up from the ocean and eats them. KIDDING BUT I WISH.

We get a montage of life at Fraser’s Ridge for Bree. She learns how to churn butter and makes friends with goats and fetches water. Honestly, I would happily watch 12 hours of rustic, family life at Fraser’s Ridge. Two of those hours could focus on the goat and I’d be delighted.

Bree and Jamie practice shooting, and he’s amazed at how good of a shot she is. She tells him that Frank taught her to shoot. Jamie is clearly a tad jealous, and that night Claire suggests that he take Bree hunting with him. Jamie reflects that Bree is still heartsick over Roger.

The following day Bree and Jamie depart on their hunting trip. He tells her that they’re hunting bees. We get some scenery pr0n and then a shot of a bald eagle. They follow a bee to a hive in a tree. Jamie explains he will stun the bees with smoke, then put the hive in a bag where they transplant back at their homestead.

Bree asks if the bees will know they’re in the wrong place, and Jamie makes a comment about home that’s a thinly veiled reference to Bree traveling back in time and living with him.

“I dinna wish to replace your father,” he tells her. “He was a good man.”

“I feel disloyal to him even being here with you,” Bree admits. SOMEBODY HAS SOME BAGGAGE RELATED TO HER PARENTS’ MARRIAGE. YEESH.

“I’m grateful to him. He raised you for your  mother’s sake, the child of another man, who he had no cause to love. He stood by you both, and he loved you, even though he dinna see himself in you,” Jamie replies.

They hug and Jamie suggests she call him “Da.”

Later they return home with a sack full of enraged bees, which seems like a bad plan to me, but hey. I get my honey from the store, I guess.

That night Jamie can’t sleep. He admits that he doesn’t want Bree to leave. Claire empathizes but says the future is safer and will hold more opportunities for their daughter. Jamie reflects that he even likes watching Bree sleep (THANKS EDWARD CULLEN) and tells Claire that their daughter is a gift.

The next morning Lizzie finds Bree and says she was crying out with nightmares in the night. Bree, wearing another great cowl, refuses to talk about it. The nightmares. Not the cowl.

Later Bree and Claire are picking herbs, and Claire says she knows something more than Roger has Bree upset.

“How far along are you?” Claire asks.

“About two months,” Bree admits.

Claire asks why they didn’t take precautions and Bree says, “I didn’t think I needed to pack condoms, Mama.”

Bree admits that the baby might not be Roger’s, and tells Claire about the rape.

“I didn’t fight him hard enough,” she sobs.

“It’s not your fault,” Claire tells her, devastated. “Oh my baby. My baby.”

They sob and hug.

Claire asks how certain she is that the baby isn’t Roger’s. Bree says that she and Roger used the withdrawal method, but that the rape occurred on the same night so there’s no way to be certain who the father is.

That night Claire tells Jamie that Bree was raped in Wilmington. She explains that Bree is pregnant leaving Jamie to conclude that the child could be her rapist’s or Roger’s.

Speaking of Roger, he comes galloping up the next day fresh from Philadelphia. Lizzie, who thinks Roger raped Bree (she never saw Bonnet, just Bree going off with Roger), tells Ian, “It’s him!”

Ian and Lizzie run to Jamie where Lizzie tells him that Roger was a man Bree met in Wilmington and that he was a brute. You can see where this is going.

Jamie says, “And you let her go with him?”

Oh fuck you, Jamie.

Lizzie tells him that Bree had blood on her petticoats when she returned and that she could semen on Bree.

Jamie tells Ian to take Lizzie back to Claire. He’s mad and he’s gotta beat someone up about it.

Meanwhile Claire is cleaning up Lizzie and Bree’s…uh…room I guess? and she finds the ring that Bonnet stole from her. Claire immediately realizes Bonnet was the rapist.

Bree makes her promise not tell Jamie because she’s afraid Jamie will go after Bonnet and Bonnet will kill Jamie.

Jamie walks up to Roger and beats the absolute shit out of him. He throws Roger, now unconscious, over his horse and tells Ian to get rid of him, but not to kill him. Honestly, I’m pretty shocked that Jamie didn’t kill Roger, thinking he was the rapist.

And that’s where the episode ends. It’s pretty traumatic and I’m super not thrilled with the Roger-as-Bonnet mixup I thought might be coming.

Are you still watching? How did this episode compare to the book?