Rankin Gets to Shine, Original Motifs and the Return of an Old Favourite
Fortunately for all the Richard Rankin fans out there, Roger survives the hanging. How, you might ask? The TV series seems to suggest it was thanks to Roger getting a hand between his neck and the rope but that’s by the by. Luckily for Roger, superhealer Claire (Caitriona Balfe) is at hand to ensure he stays alive. This particular storyline allows Rankin to show off his acting chops which he does superbly. So much so that despite it being an hour-long episode where nothing much happens, it still proves to be an hour of engaging TV.
In an original move, the Outlander creative team decided to depict Roger’s view of the hanging as a black and white film with accompanying subtitles and the sound effects of a film going through a projector. At first, I found it rather jarring but as this motif continues throughout the episode it makes more and more sense. Roger viewing this traumatic event as some kind of out-of-body experience and neatly separating the relived trauma from the events surrounding him.
However, this did mean that at the start to this episode we were treated to another clunky flash forward to the 1960s with Roger in Oxford don mode discussing famous last words and getting in the fact that he was a fan of black and white movies.
As for life at the Ridge, months after the hanging, Roger is still traumatised, refusing to speak or socialise, cocooned in his own pain and fear, haunted by what has happened to him; the final twist being that it was his own ancestor who put him in harm’s way in the first place. As the episode unfolds, there is the first of two poignant scenes between Brianna (Sophie Skelton) and Roger where she begs Roger to fight for their relationship. It brought tears to this old cynic’s eyes and was beautifully acted by Skelton and Rankin.
Lord John Grey (David Berry) makes a welcome if brief appearance. It’s a shame he doesn’t feature more in the original storyline as he’s a great character, beautifully played by Berry. However, I appreciate the scriptwriters trying to crowbar him into the action whenever they can.
Fortunately, Lord John isn’t the only one who makes a welcome return. Ian (John Bell) and Rollo turn up just in time for Ian to save Jamie (Sam Heughan) from having to fight a wild boar with a knife. Mind you, knowing Jamie, the boar wouldn’t have stood a chance.
Ian is a very different young man from the happy-go-lucky boy the Frasers left with the Mohawk. It’s clear from the offset that he has experienced trauma of his own but, like Roger, is unable to talk to his family about it, even to Jamie. The depth of Ian’s pain is underlined when Roger stops Ian just in the nick of time from committing suicide. Faced with Ian’s pain, Roger begins his own fight back, and he starts to speak. Intriguingly, we’re still not any the wiser as to what has happened to Ian’s wife apart from the fact she isn’t dead, but is somehow ‘lost’ to him.
Following his epiphany, Roger returns to Brianna and the episode ends with another poignant scene between them. Roger admits he’s a changed man but that the one thing that is constant is his love for Brianna. The episode ends with a rather novel approach, having as it does, both Roger and Brianna singing together over the credits.
In short, nothing much happens this week but unlike some of the previous episodes it never comes across as filler. You become really engaged with what Roger is going through and full marks to Richard Rankin for his sensitive portrayal of a man who has faced death and whose former certainties about life must have been shaken to the core. The use of the black and white motif was definitely novel and also ensured that the action immediately following on from the hanging, i.e. Claire saving Roger, was dealt with in as economical fashion as possible. It is also refreshing to see Roger and Brianna’s relationship given space to deepen. Lastly, the litmus test of how successfully engaging an episode it must be is when Jamie and Claire hardly feature in it and you’re fine about it!
