Recap of Outlander
Season 5, Episode 6:
Better to Marry Than Burn
While visiting River Run for Jocasta's wedding, Jamie and Claire discover a potential lead to Stephen Bonnet. Back at Fraser's Ridge, Roger, Brianna, and the rest of the Ridge residents work to defend their harvest against a swarm of locusts.
Tropes
- Abhorrent Admirer: Phillip Wiley. He is obsessed with Claire, not caring that she's married. She views him as an idiot dandy, avoiding his attentions. But much like with Laoghaire and Geneva for Jamie, Phillip refuses to take no and quickly becomes a much larger problem that finally has to be resolved by a firm rebuke from Jamie.
- Adapted Out: Duncan Inness is very minor character in the episode who played a much larger role in the book. However, when Murtagh was Spared by the Adaptation, Duncan's story arc were replaced by Murtagh's Regulator arc. In addition to be Jamie's confidant, the book features a plot about Duncan being impotent and whether that disqualified him from marry Jocasta as well as an ongoing plot of someone resorting to trickery and murder to keep interrupt Jocasta and Duncan's nuptials.
- Anything but That!: Claire is furious that Jamie would ask her to risk Frank's wedding ring in a high stakes game of Whist, reminding Jamie that she literally swallowed that ring to keep it safe from Stephen Bonnet. After an intense argument, she slaps both of her wedding rings in his hand and storms off barely holding back tears.
- Backstory of the Day: In season 4, Jocasta is introduced as having been married and widowed three times with no surviving children but no explanation as to what happened to her family. This episode opens with a flashback to the days after Culloden with Jocasta, her husband Hector, and their daughter Morna attempting to flee the Highlands to safety.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: After Brownsville, Roger is upset because he sees being sent home as a sign of Jamie's lack of faith in him. Claire and Brianna both reassure him it's the exact opposite; Jamie trusts Roger to look after the women and children in his stead. Roger stil wants to prove himself to Jamie and the men of the Ridge, but when he finds himself suddenly in charge of the fate of Fraser's Ridge he finds himself wishing Jamie was there to take charge.Roger: [To Brianna] You know, when your father left me in charge, I thought I might have to mend a fence, wrangle the odd runaway cow. But, no, I get a biblical plague.
- Blaming the Victim: Wiley attempts to accost Claire only for her to shove him into a pile of manure. Furious, he moves to attack her only to be intercepted by Jamie. In the face of her bigger, strong, angrier husband, Wiley begins to plead his case, claiming that Claire had wantonly led him on.
- Call-Back: When Jamie asks for her gold ring from Frank to use as gambling stakes, Claire reminds him that the ring is so valuable to her she literally swallowed it during Stephen Bonnet's robbery to keep it from being stolen.
- Casanova Wannabe: Phillip Wiley believes himself to be an irresistible ladies' man, but ladies actually find him abrasive and skeevy, laughing at him behind his back.
- Collateral Damage: Jocasta's story of the day after Culloden highlights the damage done to those who weren't on the battle field, particular women and children, a viewpoint that hadn't been explored as Jamie, Claire, and Murtagh were directly involved in the campaign. Jocasta describes how the Redcoats were drunk with bloodlust and any one within walking or riding distance of the battlefield was at risk of being murdered.
- Continuity Nod:
- The gold that Jocasta is talking about is the same Frenchman's gold Lord John Grey was searching for in season 3.
- Governor Tryon mentions the death of Lieutenant Knox, who Jamie killed in the previous episode.
- The Dandy: Phillip Wylie is comically foppish with his fine clothes, rice powdered face, and stylized beauty mark. He enjoys dramatic entrances and believes himself irresistibly attractive.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Jocasta reveals that her former husband was so obsessed with the Frenchman's gold that he allowed all three of her daughters to be killed in order to retain it. He unintentionally killed Morna, their youngest child, and refused to go to the estates of their two older daughters, unwilling to risk capture himself, even though it meant their daughters would be tortured and murdered by marauding Redcoats. When they arrived in the colonies, Hector used the gold to by River Run and forbade Jocasta to speak of their deceased children. Jocasta feels she lives in the lap of luxury but it was paid for with the blood of her daughters.
- Death by Origin Story: The opening flashback reveals the death of Jocasta's youngest daughter. Her later explanation further reveals the fates of her other two daughters and why she's now childless and heirless.
- Due to the Dead: Averted. Jocasta feels eternally guilty because she was not able to properly bury any of her children, particularly Morna whose death she personally witness but was forced to leave her dead body sprawled on the roadside.
- If Only You Knew: Governor Tryon crows about his legal prowess in passing a Riot Act type law that prohibits the gathering of more than ten men in a single place without government permission, making it harder for rebels to meet up and plan. In reality, these types of laws actually hastened the Revolutionary War and led to the Right to Assemble being enshrined in the US Constitution.
- It's a Small World, After All: Invoked by Claire when they realize that Phillip Wylie is the connection they need to get to Stephen Bonnet.
- I Will Wait for You: Averted. Murtagh changes his mind and asks Jocasta if she will wait for him to resolve his troubles as the leader of the Regulators. Jocasta refuses. She loves Murtagh and wants to be with him, but after surviving the destruction of her life by Hector Cameron, a fervent Jacobite, she can't bear to risk the rest of her life and happiness on a rebel.
- Karmic Nod: Jocasta believes that her blindness is her karmic repayment for not making Hector go to the estates of their other daughters before attempting their escape from Scotland. Because she sat by and watched then, she can no longer see anything now.
- Manipulative Bastard: Governor Tryon issued pardons to the leaders of the Regulators then passed a new law against assembly that can be applied retroactively and used to indict and hang those same men. Again, this is the type of behavior which will eventually be prohibited by US law.
- Marriage of Convenience: Jocasta is not in love with Duncan Inness, but rather needs a husband in order to better operate her plantation in a time period where women have limited legal recourse or maneuverability in business matters.
- Meanwhile, Back at the…: Ridge. Roger and Brianna stayed home from the wedding ceremony because baby Jemmy was sick. They find themselves finding an incoming swarm of locust who threaten to destroy their crops which will wipe out their food supplies and income for the year.
- Memento MacGuffin: Jocasta still keeps the ribbon her daughter Morna was wearing the day she died.
- The Mole: Gerald Forbes, Jocasta's lawyer, is revealed to be colluding with Stephen Bonnet to use Jemmy's paternity to steal River Run from the Fraser-MacKenzie family.
- Nazi Gold: The Frenchman's gold, sent by King Louis to his cousin, Prince Charlie, to support the Jacobite rebellion.
- No-Respect Guy: Since Jamie named Roger his second in charge, Roger is suddenly in command of the fate of Fraser's Ridge when locust threatens to wipe out their entire harvest. However, the homesteaders view him as a
Poor Man's Substitute for Jamie himself, believing that he's only second in command because he's Jamie's son-in-law. As far as they know, Roger can't shoot, he can't farm, he can't build things, and he was inexplicably sent home from the militia with Claire and the Beardsley twins when Jamie had already declared he needed all able bodied men with him on the road. Roger's inability to quickly determine a plan of action nearly causes a mutiny. - Slap-Slap-Kiss: Jamie and Claire's way of making up after arguing over her rings.
- They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: Governor Tryon corrects Claire when she refers to him as "Your Excellency" but his wife as Mistress Tryon. His wife diffuses the tension by granting Claire Friendly Address Privileges, joking that she only insists on the title "Her Excellency" to remind Tryon that she is his equal.
- Unwanted Harem: Lord John Grey's good looks, wealth, high social status, and the time since his wife's passing makes him a Chick Magnet at the wedding as the single women look to connect with the best possible suitor. His look of relief is nearly comical when he spots the Frasers and is able to excuse himself from dancing with the eligible women. He remarks that he's probably danced with every single woman in the province.
- Wedding Episode: This episode features Jocasta's wedding as the background event of the A-plot.
- Wrong Assumption: Phillip Wylie is continually wrong footed with the Frasers. He assumes that Claire's willingness to be in a room alone with him is consent for sexual overtures when she's actually merely tolerating his presence while pumping him for information about Stephen Bonnet. He takes the fact that Claire still wears Frank's wedding ring as a sign that Jamie is a pushover who will tolerate attention from other men towards Claire. He couldn't be more wrong.
