Outlander S4 E12: Providence

The title card for this episode is a Native man drinking what appears to be liquor out of large carved spoon.

When we open Roger has just walked between two lines of Mohawk warriors where he is beaten with sticks, staffs and fists.

He collapses and a man tells him that he will remain a captive.

We cut to Fergus who is telling the other Regulators that Murtagh was captured and is likely to be hanged. The men vow to get him back.

Now we’re at River Run. Lord John approaches Bree and tells her Stephen Bonnet has been captured. He informs her that Bonnet is being charged with smuggling, piracy and murder.

“I suppose it’s too late to add what he did to me to that list?” Bree asks.

“It would only bring shame upon you,” Lord John says. He tells her that Bonnet will hang the following week.

Bree goes to leave the room, looking ill, and then stops and tells Lord John “I want to see him.”

Lord John tells her that he’s sympathetic to her feelings, but he thinks that watching an execution will be too stressful for her and the baby.

She reminds him, “You don’t know what my feelings are. I don’t want to watch him die. I want to talk to him. ”

Lord John protests and Bree hands him a letter that Jamie wrote her, advising her to give up her desire for vengeance and embrace forgiveness for the sake of her own peace. He says that Bonnet will pay for his crimes one way or another, and that hatred will eat Bree alive.

“If I can say my peace, maybe I can be free of him,” Bree says.

Lord John agrees to help her, but he isn’t happy about it.

Just then Bree feels the baby kick, and she lets Lord John touch her stomach and feel it as well.

We cut to the Mohawk village of Shadow Lake. Roger’s arm is in a sling, and a woman orders him to carry wood to a longhouse. He does as he’s told, although he’s clearly in a great deal of pain.

A woman, Johiehon, holding an infant stops him and speaks to him in French. She hands him a bunch of herbs and tells him to chew them for the pain.

He thanks the woman, and then asks her to help him escape. She refuses.

A man named Kaheroton warns Johiehon not to trust Roger. She says he doesn’t look dangerous. Kaheroton says that Roger must be trouble if his own people sold him. He shoes Roger away and then gives Johiehon a gift. Best as I could tell, it appears to be a bracelet.

In Wilmington, Bree and Lord John arrive in a carriage.

“Being here is harder than I thought I would be,” Bree says.

She says that she misses her mother, and hopes she’ll arrive before the baby comes.

Lord John reassures her that her parents will do anything to bring Roger back to her, and that he knows they’ll succeed. He offers Bree his arm.

“You’re impossible not to like,” she says.

We cut back to Shadow Lake. Roger is limping around, distributing firewood.

Kaheroton gives him an order and he interrupts. Kaheroton stands up to punish him, but Johiehon stops him. She tells him that Roger doesn’t know their ways, and doesn’t understand that speaking when another is speaking is an offense.

Kaheroton shoves him onto the ground anyway. He tells Roger to get up, but Roger remains on the ground.

An older man who is clearly of some importance approaches. Roger says, “Please, I’m hurt.”

The man tells Kaheroton to put Roger in the hut, and says that Kaheroton has learned nothing.

As Kaheroton drags Roger to the hut he asks Roger how he became an outcast. Roger says it was a mistake. He warns Roger not to smile at Johiehon again. He throws Roger into the hut, and he groans in pain. He pulls the herbs that Johiehon gave him out of his sling and chews them.

There is another man in the hut, Father Alexandre Ferigault.

“You are the man they have christened Dog Face,” Father Ferigault says. It’s a reference to Roger’s beard.

He tells Roger that they are in New York. Roger asks him how he came to the village and Father Ferigault says, “I fell in love.”

Now we’re back with Marsali and Fergus. Fergus has laid out several household items on the table to make a map of how they’ll break Murtagh out of jail. Marsali is immediately involved in the plan.

“It’s a dangerous endeavor,” Fergus says.

“You can do it,” Marsali says.

They both admit that they wish Jamie and Claire were with them. Marsali tells him that she wants to be involved in the plan. They agree that after the rescue, they will leave Wilmington and go to Fraser’s Ridge.

Back at Shadow Lake, Ferigault tells Roger that he came to the village to preach and convert members of the tribe. He became sick with a fever and a woman nursed him back to health. When he recovered he found he felt an impure, unholy desire for the woman. They had an affair which produced a child.

Ferigault admits that the tribe welcomed his relationship with the woman and the child with open arms, but that they expected him to baptize the baby to save it’s soul, but he couldn’t because he was not in a state of grace as he had broken his vows.

Roger is clearly like DUDE YOU PISSED EVERYONE OFF OVER THIS? I WOULD BAPTIZE THAT KID FOR TWO TYLENOL RIGHT NOW.

“I know that I am damned. I will not also damn this child with the false blessing of a fallen priest,” he tells Roger.

Roger asks if the child’s mother is Johiehon, and Ferigault confirms. Ferigault says he’s prayed to stop loving her, but that his prayers have gone unanswered.

The door to the hut opens, and two men enter. They tell Ferigault that due to his dishonor, he will go naked before the Lord. They strip him and he says, “Pray for me, Roger.”

Once alone, Roger finds a scoop for water and starts trying to dig his way out of the hut.

Later that evening we hear Ferigault yelling, and Roger is still digging. Ferigault is returned to the hut, still naked, moaning in pain. He’s bleeding from the head. Roger cleans the wound and it appears that Ferigault’s ear has been cut off. Roger puts his hand on the priest’s shoulder and prays out loud for him.

When he recovers a bit, Ferigault tells Roger that he was given another chance to baptize his child, but he refused. He has been told that if he refuses again, he will be bound with his feet put in flames, until the pain overcomes him and his body fails. He says he saw the same punishment inflicted on another man and it took him three days to die.

Roger tells him that he doesn’t need to perform the sacrament, that he can say a Hail Mary, and no one will understand the difference.

Ferigault tells him that this is his punishment for sinning.

So then Roger, probably still dreaming of Tylenol, tells the priest how he’s an idiot, and Roger knows that because he’s an idiot too (FINALLY WE AGREE ON SOMETHING). He says that he fell in love with a woman and followed her through time and on the night they were handfast they fought and he walked away to go home, except he didn’t, and then her dad beat him up real bad and sold him to the Mohawk, and then he escaped and he had a chance to go back through time again, but he didn’t, and look where he is now.

I’m assuming Father Ferigault accepts all of this because he’s hurting too much to be like “Wait, go back to the time travel part?”

“There’s a saying where I’m 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 says in the SHITTIEST PEP TALK EVER.

Roger goes back to digging. Father Ferigault helps him.

By dawn they still haven’t made enough progress to squeeze out. Ferigault tells him to continue the work when he’s gone.

“I’m staying,” Ferigault says.

They hide their hole, and Kaheroton comes for the priest. Ferigault says he will not baptize the child and he is pulled from the hut. Roger goes back to digging.

We cut back to Wilmington where Bree and Lord John are approaching the jail.

Bonnet is chained to the wall and Bree tells Lord John that she’ll speak to him alone. He agrees to wait outside the cell.

Meanwhile Marsali, Fergus and the Regulators are planning to break Murtagh out of the jail. We see a bunch of men converge in what totally isn’t a suspicious way at all.

Bree approaches Bonnet. He acts like he doesn’t recognize her at first, then points out he never asked or cared what her name was.

“I remember your face. And a few other things,” he says with a leer.

She tells him that her parents saved his life, and he robbed them. Bonnet clearly doesn’t care at all. He taunts her.

WHY CAN’T HE BE SLOWLY BURNED TO DEATH?

The Regulators approach the jail guards and hold them at gunpoint.

Okay, back to inside the jail. Bree tells Bonnet she’ll rest easier once he’s dead. Bonnet laughs at her. “Well what do you want from me then?” he asks.

“I came here to give you something,” she tells him. “I came here to forgive you.”

Bonnet is unimpressed. Bree tells him she’s pregnant.

“My baby will never know your name, never even know you existed,” she tells him. “While you rot in the ground I will raise my child to be a good person. To be nothing like you.”

Bonnet reaches into his mouth and pulls out a gemstone that he gives Bree for the child’s maintenance.

Lord John is still waiting outside when the Regulators break in. Murtagh is released from his cell and notices Bree and Bonnet.

Lord John and Murtagh exchange some words over who will protect Bree and ultimately Murtagh agrees she’s safer with Lord John. They flee but in the process drop the keys to the cell which Bonnet is able to reach with his toe.

As they run out of the building black powder that the Regulators have laid down explodes. Murtagh climbs into the wagon Marsali is driving and they escape.

Back at Shadow Lake, Roger is able to squeeze out from under the hut in the hole he’s dug. He hears screams as runs away.

Cut to Wilmington. The militia approaches Lord John and Bree and asks if they are hurt. They say they will find Murtagh, as the governor won’t let the escape go unpunished.

Back to Shadow Lake. Roger is still running. There is still horrible screaming. Roger is clearly struggling with the sound of Ferigault’s agony.

“Ah fucking hell,” he mutters and runs back for the village.

Everyone is gathered around Ferigault who is tied to a stake. A low fire is burning around his legs. He screams. Johiehon cries and rocks their baby.

Roger runs into frame and throws what is either a pot of oil or liquor on the fire which consumes Ferigault, ending his pain. We see Johiehon set her baby down, then run to the flames and throw herself in, ending her life as well.

Kaheroton looks at the pyre with horror, then turns around picks up her baby. Other members of the tribe haul Roger away. “That’s it lads, take me back to the idiot hut,” he mutters.

…

And that awfulness is where we end this episode. We got nothing of Jamie or Claire, which was interesting although I guess they’re supposed to be spending two months riding north which means there isn’t a ton for us to see.

I knew Bonnet would escape because God forbid he just die and not hang around to torment everyone more. I am curious to see if the gemstone he gave Bree has any significance with regards to traveling through the stones.

The violence and angst were really ramped up in this episode so it wasn’t my favorite. I am curious to see where they close out the season next Sunday, and I’m back to wondering if I should read the rest of the books.

Are you watching? What did you think?