Recap of Outlander
Season 5, Episode 3:
Free Will
While attempting to muster troops for a militia, Jamie and Claire discover the truth of Josiah Beardsley's home life. While attempting to help Josiah and his brother, Jamie and Claire find themselves in a deeply unsettling situation.
Tropes
- And I Must Scream: Jamie and Claire discover that after Aaron Beardsley suffered a stroke that left him completely paralyzed, his wife Fanny has been keeping him alive and torturing to pay him back for kidnapping her, forcing her into marriage, and raping and beating her. Despite his crippled body, his mind is alert and conscious of everything happening around him.
- Asshole Victim: Mr. Beardsley. He looks pitiful post-stroke but pre-stroke, he was hell on wheels. He's buried four wives (who Fanny believes he beat to death after they couldn't produce him an heir) and he kidnapped her from her family. He routinely beat Josiah and Kezziah and was in the act of trying to beat Fanny when he had his debilitating stroke.
- Breeding Slave: Fanny tells Claire and Jamie that Beardsley kept taking wives in an attempt to get a son. It's heavily implied that rather than believing that he himself was sterile, he would kill a wife and replace her after she was unable to get pregnant after a given amount of time.
- Call-Back: After putting Mr. Beardsley out of his misery, Jamie talks to Claire about his father, Brian, who also died of apoplexy. Jamie had always believed that it killed a person right away but now worries that his father may have suffered.
- Chekhov's Gun: Fergus grabs a piece of paper off the desk where Claire has been writing her healthcare recommendations for the Ridge residence, using the blank side to write the note Jamie wants delivered to the printer. Unsure which side was the intended message, the printer prints and distributes both sides throughout the colony. This medical advice will incite Lionel Brown and his gang to abduct and rape Claire, believing that she is inciting ungodly behaviors in their womenfolk.
- Chocolate Baby: Fanny's baby is visibly mixed race, sired by an escaped slave. Fanny is pleased as this means there is no chance of the baby being Beardsley's.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Josiah and Keziah are revealed to have been sold into 30 years of indentured servitude to pay for their family's fare from their home country to the colonies after their parents died in route. The Beardsleys, who bought the boys' contracts, starved and beat them so often that it caused Keziah to go deaf from repeated trauma to his ears. Josiah ran away but could not take his brother, as Keziah's inability to hear made him to vulnerable for a life as a runaway bondservant.
- Foreshadowing: After witnessing Mr. Beardsley's ordeal, Jamie makes Claire swear that if he is ever similarly incapacitated, she will mercy kill him rather than prolonging his suffering in hopes of curing him. In episode 5, this comes up once again when Jamie falls deathly ill after being bitten by a venomous snake.
- Identical Twin ID Tag: Despite being identical, it's fairly easy to tell Josiah and Keziah Beardsley apart. Josiah can hear and wears his hair bound back. Keziah is deaf and wears his hair loose.
- Identical Twin Mistake: The Fraser Ridge militia initially think the camp intruder is Josiah and are confused as to why he is stealing from them and refusing to answer their questions. Roger realizes that the thief couldn't be Josiah when he notices that this boy doesn't have a thief's brand on his hand as Josiah does.
- Impairment Shot: We are given one scene that shows Jamie from Mr. Beardsley's bleary eyed POV.
- Inconvenient Hippocratic Oath: Despite thinking that Beasley is probably a terrible person, Claire feels obligated to try to help him.
- I Regret Nothing: Beardsley refuses to express any remorse for the life he has lived or the pain he has caused others.
- Jump Scare: The Beardsley residence is loaded with them.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Averted. Fanny's baby is definitively not Aaron Beardsley's and she couldn't be happier.
- Mercy Kill: As they can not help him and there is no one to care for him, Jamie uses the blink system to get Beardsley's permission to end his suffering.
- Not Quite Dead: Mr. Beardsley looks putrified and is covered in flies, but he's still alive.
- Oh, Crap!: Jamie and Claire's reaction when Fanny's water breaks after Jamie accidentally slings her into a wall.
- Ominous Knocking: As Claire and Jamie are waiting for Mrs. Beardsley to locate Josiah and Kezziah's indenture papers, an ominous banging begins from the inside of a latched door. Given the dilapidated state of the place and the overwhelming stench, the Frasers have no idea what might be locked inside the closet. Jamie draws his gun and ignores Fanny's warning to stay away from the closet. He unlatches it only to reveal a billy goat that's trying to break free.
- Once for Yes, Twice for No: Jamie and Claire have to rely on eye blinks to communicate with Beasley.
- Out-of-Genre Experience: Jamie and Claire's time at the Beasley Residence drops them into a horror episode as they try to discover the truth of what has happened to Mr. Beardsley.
- Parental Abandonment: Fanny believes the best thing she can do for her baby is to disappear and leave her with Jamie and Claire. After Mr. Beardsley dies, they have to take the baby with them.
- Plot Parallel: Fanny and her baby leads Claire to confessing to Jamie that she wants Brianna, Roger, and Jemmy to return to the 20th century where it's safer.
- Politically Correct History: When trying to decide what to do with the abandoned Beardsley baby, Jamie and Claire don't discuss the fact that the child is half Black in a slaveholding state. The child was born free, but there's no guarantee she'll stay that way. In the books, that's exactly what happened to Jocasta's manservant, Ulysses.
- Smells of Death: As a doctor, Claire recognizes the smell of decaying body. She is horrified to discover that Mr. Beardsley's body is in fact decaying but he is still alive.
- Surprise Pregnancy: Fanny Beardsley is a heavy set woman and there is no indication she is pregnant until her water breaks after Jamie unintentionally knocks her into a wall. Claire then has to shift into midwife mode to help Fanny deliver her baby.
- Tally Marks on the Prison Wall: Claire notices tally marks on the door frame. It's revealed to be marks made by Beardsley's previous wives, marking how long they've been held captive.
- Travel Montage: The first act shows the trials and tribulations of traveling across the county to muster men.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Fergus grabbing a random piece of paper off Claire's work desk leads to the dramatic and traumatizing events of the season finale. Fergus would've never intentionally done something to hurt Milady.
- Vulgar Humor: The men commiserate about the cold by joking about how it's affecting certain parts of their anatomy.John Quincy Meyers: This is the coldest spring I can remember. I can barely feel my bollocks.Jamie: Aye, I went for a piss but I couldna find it!
- Would Hit a Girl: Played with. While Jamie would normally be too honorable to manhandle a woman, he does wrestle Fanny away from her husband when she attempts to strangle the man.
- Why Won't You Die?: When Fanny realizes that Claire is trying to save her husband, she attempt to strangle him with a rope while their backs are turned.
- Would Hurt a Child: Mr. Beardsley routinely beat Josiah and Kezziah to the point that Keziah lost his hearing at age five due to repeated blows to the head. When Claire examines his ears, she sees that his ears still haven't healed, indicating that the abuse to them has not stopped long enough for them to heal.
