Brianna departs, needing air as well as a break from her mother’s truth. Later, Claire wanders outdoors, contemplating her options, and comes across Marsali (Fergus’s wife), who is butchering a deer. Marsali shows talent with the butcher’s knife and a keen understanding of a deer’s anatomy as she cuts, slices, and dices.
As they arrive in town, Jamie, Lieutenant Knox, and the British troops run into Edmund Fanning, the man Claire operated on and saved from certain death and a strangulated hernia in season four. Fanning takes Jamie and Knox to meet one of the two men tarred and feathered. Looking at the man’s burnt and feather-embedded chest, Jamie is appalled. Jamie can’t imagine Murtagh was directly involved in such a hideous act.
Next, Jamie and Lieutenant Hamilton Knox head over to the jail to interrogate the captured Regulators. Jamie’s concern that one of the men is Murtagh is unfounded. But another problem comes to light – Murtagh led the men in their attack upon the tax collectors and their tar and feathering.
When the Lieutenant asks about the whereabouts of Murtagh, one prisoner says, “I am Murtagh Fitzgibbons” and then spits in Knox’s face. The Lieutenant loses control and stabs the man in the gut, killing him. It happens so quickly Jamie doesn’t have time to act, but he is stunned by Knox’s decision—execution without trial is nothing less than murder.
Roger and the Squirrel
At Fraser’s Ridge, Rodger is looking handsome, hunting rodents with fluffy tails (some call them squirrels). He can’t hit the side of a barn, as the saying goes, but Brianna is a crack shot. Roger also goes on and on about a Tufty Fluffytail, a red squirrel, instrumental in helping millions of children learn about road safety from the 1950s-1990s (I mean, seriously, I had to look it up:)!
Roger’s reminiscing leads Brianna to ask if he wants to go back to the future. Brianna doesn’t, and Roger does, but he’ll stay because she wants to stay, and she and Jemmy are his family. This will be an ongoing problem—the bridge between them, but more on that later.
Roger may not be able to shoot, but he can sing (and thank you, Richard Rankin, for having such a beautiful voice). He sings a few times in the episode. First, at the funeral for what turns out to be a box of rocks. Claire is still studying the remains of the dead man she could’ve saved.
But she’ll need help and brings Marsali in on her secret. It’s a dangerous decision by Claire, but she needs someone she can trust to assist her. Marsali’s reaction is precious. After a startled scream, that Claire stifles with a hand over her mouth, Marsali asks, “Was my mother right? Are you a witch?” But Marsali is a quick study and not squeamish. She’ll stitch up the body
like a seamstress, too.
Back in town, Jamie slips into the prison, where he releases the remaining Regulators. But he gets an earful questioning his loyalties. Is he for or against them?
On Fraser’s Ridge, it’s candle making day, and the women of the community are dipping rings of candles into huge containers. Claire is eavesdropping as one woman discusses a child with a burn on his hand. The woman is using St. James Powder on the injury, also reportedly used by King George himself she points out proudly. Claire tells her that St. James Powder is a poison. The woman says, the king’s doctors wouldn’t poison the king. (And of course, King George III was poisoned by his doctors—love the historical tidbits).
The woman’s blind trust of male doctors gives Claire an idea. She writes up recommendations by a Dr. Rawlings (the former owner of the medical bag Jamie got for her). Her goal is to stop the primitive use of herbs, blood-letting, and other powders and remedies that do more harm than good.
Roger Gets an Eye Exam
Roger’s inability to shoot has nothing to do with his eyesight, Claire confirms. Something else may be interfering with Roger’s inability to hit where he aims. Claire pushes, and Roger admits Brianna is happy at Fraser’s Ridge. Claire also claims to know that Roger isn’t and would return to the future. Roger says they can’t leave until they confirm that their son can hear the stones—which may happen next week, next year, or never.