Episode 3 of Starz’s Outlander Season 5 had people wondering if this would be the episode from the book series that featured the Beardsley’s.
Considering the trailer hinted at it, and one of the Beardsley boys had already made an appearance, there was no doubt that tonight’s episode would be a macabre event.
Jamie is off again
While Jamie (Sam Heughan) returns home, it is only temporary, and he is on his way once more, taking all available fighters with him because the Governor wants “a show of force to prevent war,” according to TV Line.
Of course, Jamie is worrying about Murtagh (Duncan Lacroix), but Claire (Caitriona Balfe) quickly points out that the whole Regulators’ rebellion is barely a boil on the backside of early American history.
As Jamie heads off, Claire tags along because of her expertise but this isn’t before Marsali (Lauren Lyle) is asking the hard questions about how her new teacher knows so much about mold and its healing properties.
Claire tells her that a good student will try and work out the answers for themselves, but I bet she is glad to be taking a field trip regardless.
Marsali just gave Boston its new city motto. #Outlander pic.twitter.com/iNgw4MeAqd
— Outlander (@Outlander_STARZ) March 2, 2020
Before they have been on the road long, trouble strikes. Jamie reveals that Stephen Bonnet (Ed Speleers) is still alive and Claire is glad that Brianna (Sophie Skelton) doesn’t know this.
However, the audience knows better and, judging by that conversation, I am wondering if Bonnet is just going to show up at Fraser’s Ridge in the near future to stir up further trouble.
And, this isn’t even the worst of it.
Shortly, the discovery is made that Josiah (Paul Gorman) has a twin brother, Keziah Beardsley (Paul Gorman). It turns out they have had a pretty rough time of it, and poor Keziah has been repeatedly cuffed around the ears until he became permanently deaf.
Jamie decides that he will purchase them from their owner and give the boys a much better life.
The Beardsley’s
So, taking Claire, it’s time for a side trip to find Master Beardsley and get those papers. However, nothing is ever easy in Outlander and as soon as they arrive, Claire is having a bad feeling about the place.
Of course, the fact that the farm is deserted, run-down and stinks to high heaves is probably enough to get her Spidey senses working.
Jamie perseveres, though, and manages to track down Fanny, Master Beardsley’s wife. She announces that he died and that they have the two boys. Once again, nothing suspicious at all here…
Jamie is thorough, though, and demands she search for the Indenture papers. Fanny does so but it means that Claire and Jamie have to stand around in the stinking hut and wait while she does so.
Claire notices a horrible dripping substance coming through the roof and deduces that perhaps that terrible stench is not goat after all.
Taking a candle, she searches the next level, and that’s when they make the discovery that Master Beardsley is still alive. Hanging on by a dear thread, but alive none the less.
We're just thankful Smell-O-Vision isn't a thing anymore. #Outlander pic.twitter.com/iyeUmgxNZS
— Outlander (@Outlander_STARZ) March 2, 2020
At first, Claire is horrified at the state of the man, who has been lying in his own filth for a month and had apparently suffered a stroke, rendering him unable to move but still relatively alert.
However, she knows that he had been violent to the boys, so she coaxes more information out of Fanny, who is also wife number five.
After the horrors of what Fanny once endured are revealed, she is still determined to finish the job, but Jamie being the honorable soul that he is, pushes her aside rather than let her continue to strangle the old coot. She hits the wall and her water breaks.
That’s right; the woman is pregnant.
Lucky that Claire came along. Although, the birth is a relatively easy one and Fanny is soon the mother of a baby that is very obviously not the daughter of Master Beardsley.
Once Fanny realizes this, she lets her husband know because, let’s face it, allowing maggots to fester and gangrene to set just isn’t quite enough torture for the man, and the knowledge that he is not a father is just one more wound she inflicts.
Claire has a little heart-to-heart with Fanny about how love is all you need, and Fanny, considering what’s she’s been through, does a pretty good job of not scoffing too loudly.
Round of applause for @bronwynjames41. ??? #Outlander https://t.co/HD6fFXKDQB
— Outlander (@Outlander_STARZ) March 2, 2020
Later, when everyone is sleeping, Fanny sneaks off, leaving behind the baby, the deed title, and the indenture papers, effectively making Claire a mother once more.
They are eager to leave now, but there is still the little problem of the husband.
Claire is not sure what to do about him because it’s likely doing to be a pretty horrible trip for him to the closest town and, really, who wants to heal a man who is so obviously irredeemable?
So, Jamie offers another solution. He insists Claire just go on outside and he’ll deal with it. Claire doesn’t even argue that hard.
Jamie then asks the man if he wants to live or die and Master Beardsley is totally done with being an invalid. He also doesn’t want forgiveness for all of the horrible things that he has done in the past, so Jamie puts him down like a dog.
Thus ending an episode that was fairly graphic as far as putrid wounds go and one I am glad is over because reading it in the books was hard enough already.
Outlander Season 5 returns with Episode 4 on Sunday, February 8, at 8 p.m. EST on Starz.