‘Outlander’ Season 4 Episode 13 Recap: “Man of Worth”

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LRShive
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Outlander Season 4 Episode 13 Recap
John Bell and Sam Heughan in ‘Outlander’ season 4 episode 13 (Photo Credit: Starz)

Have your box of Kleenex handy for Outlander season four episode 13, you are gonna need it. Yes, even if you read the book…

Our first images of the Outlander season four finale, “Man of Worth,” are the title card screens. They tend to give us a preview of things to come in the episode, and this one is particularly interesting. A young mother with two boys on Halloween are in the park. The boys are dressed up as a cowboy and Indian. Pretty common costumes for the 1950s-1970s, given some of the local black and white TV shows of the era. We see a Native American sitting nearby, and the look on his face shows clear contempt for the scene before him. He’s wearing the large blue stone that Claire (Caitriona Balfe) found earlier in the season and now wears about her neck.

The episode opens with a beautiful shot of the river by the Shadow Lake Mohawk village. We find Roger (Richard Rankin) still stuck in the ‘idiot hut’ as the rest of the village goes about its business. Jamie (Sam Heughan) covertly approaches the village, using a spyglass to attempt to find Roger. Jamie has no success in seeing Roger, so he returns to where Claire and Ian (John Bell) are a little distance away.

Unknown to Jamie and the others, there’s a Mohawk brave watching them as well. The trio make their way, along with Rollo, and as they get closer to the village more of the Mohawk braves make their presence known and encircle the group. Rather tense moments ensue, as you might imagine.

Jamie exhausts his language skills with a couple of words meaning peace and greetings. Ian knows a bit more, so Jamie has him translate their wishes as they’re taken into the village. He explains they’re looking for a man, and Jamie pulls out Bree’s (Sophie Skelton) picture of Roger. Ian’s encouraged that they recognize the man pictured.

Kaheroton (Braeden Clarke) makes his way through the crowd and Ian recognizes him immediately as the man to whom he sold Roger. Kaheroton says they should take the matter to Tehwahsehwkwe (Tom Jackson), the village chief. As the chief approaches, our trio bow in respect. Jamie and Claire are showing their wears to the tribe, as Ian explains what they brought to trade for Roger.

The elders are considering the request but are stopped in their deliberation after Claire pulls off a scarf to show a child and the stone around her neck is exposed. This revelation stops all proceedings and causes Tehwahsehwkwe to expel them from the village without further debate. In the book, the stone was only shown to the women of the tribe. The story came out over a series of weeks of Claire trying to get more information from the women about why the tribe was so wary of the stone. In the book, the group had to earn a level of trust with the tribe before they would open up about Roger or anything to do with him.

Murtagh (Duncan Lacroix) arrives at River Run, still very much a fugitive. Naturally, being fed is the first order of business. Jocasta (Maria Doyle Kennedy) converses with Murtagh as he enjoys a roast large enough to feed an entire clan. Jocasta’s cheeky retort about expressing her understanding that Murtagh must be hungry after he escaped from jail just before it blew up sets Murtagh on the defensive.

As Murtagh eyes Ulysses (Colin McFarlane), forever in Jocasta’s shadow, he admits that what Brianna told Jocasta was true; he was there. Murtagh also admits why he was there in the first place. Bonnet and sedition against the crown are pretty good reasons to be locked up, though he doesn’t put it just that way. Jocasta’s forced to ask him to keep his visit short. The topic changes to Brianna as the purpose for Murtagh’s visit, he was just checking in on her. Jocasta admits that Bree’s spirits are very low, especially after Lord John Grey (David Berry) was called back to Virginia. Murtagh is upset about hearing that Bree and Lord John are engaged. Understandable, given Lord John was once his captor.

He spars with Jocasta about the marriage enough to cause her to leave the room, with Ulysses being a little short with Murtagh as an extension of Jocasta’s aggravation. Two Scots fussing is nothing new to River Run. You can’t squash or change Murtagh’s surly nature, and Jocasta is just as independent as our Claire…sparks flying is inevitable.

Outlander Season 4 Episode 13
Sophie Skelton and Natalie Simpson in ‘Outlander’ season 4 episode 13 (Photo: Starz)

Upstairs in Brianna’s room, Phaedre (Natalie Simpson) is checking on the baby’s progress and preparation for birth. Phaedre confirms she’s delivered several babies and tries to lay Bree’s fears to rest about the baby and the birth.

As Claire, Jamie, and Ian are beginning to make camp a little distance away from the village, Jamie suddenly tells Claire not to move. A split second later a Mohawk brave bounds around a tree just as Jamie’s ready for the attack. He’s fighting with the brave as Ian and Claire are surrounded by others. The leader, a female Mohawk native (Carmen Moore), walks up and demands the stone from Claire. Claire offers it freely, in exchange for Roger.

Eventually, the story of the stone and Otter Tooth (Trevor Carroll) is revealed. The show and the book explain the time traveler much in the same way. However, there’s one key difference. In the show, they reveal that Otter Tooth did tell them he was from the future. But in the book, he does not reveal this key point for much the same reason Claire always kept it secret. Otter Tooth was so determined to change the past that he got increasingly aggressive with the Mohawk tribe until they expelled him. He carried on until they eventually killed him, took his head off, and buried it where Claire eventually found it and the stone.

In the book, there were a few who attempted to go through the stones with Otter Tooth, but he was the only one that made the passage to the past. The situation with Otter Tooth drove a wedge in the tribe. The group who came to get the stone from Claire believed Otter Tooth’s message and agreed with it.

At River Run, Murtagh’s finally getting to sit down with Bree and ask her about the engagement news Jocasta relayed. He’s very relieved to hear it was all a ruse. It was simply an attempt to get Jocasta off her back about getting married before the baby came or Roger could return. The next item on the agenda is to ask Bree why she was at the jail to see Bonnet. Bree informs him she needed to find forgiveness about the rape. She admits she has come as close to it as possible, so Murtagh asks if she can find forgiveness for Jamie as well. Bree confesses she has already forgiven him.

The Mohawk warriors and our trio take canoes across the river to approach the village from another direction in the hope of getting to Roger undetected. The group arrive at the ‘idiot hut’ from behind and manage to get Roger out of the hut, but not out of the village without being seen. The entire group’s stopped, after some rather extensive heroics by everyone, and brought before the chief.


Jamie sees that the only way to get Roger out of the village is to trade himself. He commands Ian to translate the request for the chief. Claire’s understandably against the scheme. While Ian’s conversing with the tribal elders, Jamie and Claire say their good-byes. Tissues ready? Here we go… The tribe accepts the request of a trade for Roger. In a shocking move, Ian reveals he gave himself over in Roger’s place. He makes Jamie promise to leave and not return for him; it is his choice to remain and become a member of the tribe.

In the book, there’s an additional female member of the tribe who’s an incentive for his desire to stay. Everyone’s tears are just gut-wrenching, but they leave Ian and Rollo behind as they take Roger to their camp a short distance away. To Jamie in particular, it is almost as if he’s leaving a son behind. I cannot do the emotions justice, so I won’t even try. You’ll just have to watch it for yourself. {sniff, sniff}

At River Run, Jocasta and Murtagh are enjoying a wee dram of whiskey. Slainte Mhath! She opens the proceedings by asking Murtagh what his next move is. Murtagh admits he plans to return to the Regulators and the fight building against the English. That declaration doesn’t sit well, and the pair get into an inevitable back and forth about the wisdom of the ’cause.’

Murtagh admits he wouldn’t expect Jocasta to take up arms but she could use her influence in other ways. She then accuses him of coming to River Run just to try to get her to involve herself in his plans. Murtagh tries to flatly deny any such intention, but she calls him on all his historic behavior in comparison to the current efforts. She calls him a schemer and he calls her a lunatic. She gets up to leave and Murtagh grabs her arm. She demands he let go of her and when he doesn’t, she throws the whiskey from her glass in his face. Good aim for a blind woman!

With passions thusly stirred, I am not surprised to see the next morning that Murtagh is laying in Jocasta’s bed as she gets dressed for breakfast. Jocasta asks him if he must leave; she obviously wants him to stay. He doesn’t want to bring her trouble. She says that IF trouble comes, they will deal with it at that time. He begs her to return to bed, so she happily obliges his request. Obviously, neither of them is too old for a new relationship. I sort of saw this coming given the future path of things and how they had to modify the show from the book, but I’m glad to see it nevertheless. We’ll see if Jamie is pleased with his aunt and godfather upon finding out.

Jamie and Claire are back at their camp with Roger. Jamie and Claire are talking about how he’s possibly going to tell Jenny about this turn of events when Roger walks up and punches Jamie in the face. Claire tries to stop him, but Jamie has her stand back and let Roger alone. Jamie knew it would be coming and will allow Roger to throw him a beating, just as Jamie had done to Roger.

While this beating is occurring, the Mohawk tribe have Ian run the gauntlet to determine his worthiness to join the tribe as a brave or captive, just as they had given Roger the opportunity that he failed. Ian’s not aware of what’s going on but figures things out pretty quickly. He’s more familiar with Native ways than Roger was, so he understands the goal of the activities. He fights back when appropriate and dodges blows when he can before touching the chief’s foot in success. He’s welcomed into the tribe with shouts and whoops from the braves.

Roger wears himself out on punching Jamie and finally collapses into Jamie’s arms. After Roger calms down enough to ask why he was beaten and sold into slavery, everything comes out. Claire, and less nicely Jamie, tell Roger about the rape of Bree by Bonnet as the reason for his beating. Jamie mistook Roger for the man who did it. Roger knew how terrible and dangerous he was, given his trip across the ocean with Bonnet and his crew. Jamie was angry that Roger even left Brianna alone which gave Bonnet the opportunity to attack Bree.

Roger explains he wouldn’t have left but it was Bree’s own desire for him to leave her alone that had him leave her that night. He admits to returning the next day but was drug away by Bonnet and the crew to sail up the coast before he could get back to Bree. Roger also admits he took two gems from him to see Bree safely back through the stone circle. He informs Claire and Jamie there’s a stone circle right there in the New World, between Fraser’s Ridge and where they were right then near the Mohawk village.

The next bit of news about Bree will make the plan to take Brianna back through the stones impossible. They must tell Roger of the pregnancy. Roger takes offense at Jamie suggesting he could go back alone. Roger immediately declares he won’t leave Brianna and that she’s his wife because they were handfast.

Initially, Roger doesn’t put two and two together that the baby might be Bonnet’s. Jamie puts it all on Roger’s shoulders as the reason she was raped and calls him out about standing by her or leaving her to go back alone. Claire calls Jamie off his tirade so Roger can even think for a second. Jamie stepped back but as Roger says he needs time to think, Jamie pounces again and calls him a coward. Jamie continues to press forward but Claire steps between them and suggests Roger be sure of his decision.

At River Run, the delivery day has arrived and Brianna is surrounded by Jocasta, Phaedre, and Lizzie (Caitlin O’Ryan) helping to bring the bairn into the world. In the book, Claire is there to help Bree, but naturally the distance is too far away for them to get back in time on the show.

Murtagh waits impatiently outside the door. After Phaedre cleans up the lad, she brings him in to see his mother. Such a precious little angel, no matter the male who sired him.

Two months later, Brianna runs out on the porch holding the bairn after receiving the news that her mother has been seen approaching the house. As Bree comes out the door, she sees but two figures at the end of the walk – her parents. Roger is not with them and Bree is immediately heartbroken by his absence. She thinks he’s abandoned her and the baby to return to the future. (More Kleenex is needed here.)

Claire and Jamie admit that Roger is alive and they told him everything. They get the first glimpse of their grandson but the absence of Roger casts a noticeable cloud over the joyous occasion. Claire heads upstairs to check on Brianna after they talk to Jocasta for a few minutes, and it gives Jamie time to ask Murtagh about Bonnet. Murtagh admits he had him and briefly explains the situation with the jail and his own captivity. Murtagh believes Bonnet died in the jail’s explosion and is sorry Jamie didn’t get the chance to kill him personally.

Upstairs Claire says she wants to take Brianna and the baby back to Fraser’s Ridge…home. Bree agrees. That night at dinner, everyone’s silently eating at the table minus Bree. She comes in eventually and it lightens the room a bit.

The next day the wagon’s being packed for the Frasers to depart. As Bree’s packing upstairs, she looks out the window to see a man riding toward the house. Without a word she runs downstairs and out onto the front lawn. She runs as fast as she can toward the rider and he eventually dismounts and runs toward her. Roger and Bree collide with all the love, fear, pain, and excitement the moment demands of them. They embrace, kiss, confess they love each other as we all pull another Kleenex.

Roger asks about the bairn and Bree says he’s a boy. Roger wants her to take him to see HIS son. As the pair are walking back toward the house, British soldiers come riding up behind them. Roger hasn’t met our beloved godfather yet, but Bree’s first thought is of Murtagh, given he’s a wanted fugitive. The soldiers pass them and head to the front door of River Run.

Phaedre announces soldiers are coming and Murtagh reaches for Jocasta. She tells him he must hide in the slave quarters as they touch foreheads. Jamie’s rather confused by the embrace, but there’s no time to ask questions. Ulysses leads Murtagh out the back to hide him.

Jamie heads to the front door to receive the soldiers. They surprise everyone by asking for Jamie, not Murtagh. The soldiers deliver a letter to Jamie from the Governor. The soldiers depart immediately as Jamie opens the letter to read it. The Governor has charged Jamie to muster a militia together to fight the Regulators, with the first task being to hunt down and kill Murtagh Fitzgibbons. And with that decree we are back into Droughtlander!

The book ended at a clan gathering, but we will see if they do any of that next season or if it is just right into the military unrest brewing in the colonies. We have to wait till next season to find out, but we can at least rest assured there is another season – as well as a sixth. Tulach Ard… Je Suis Prest!

Slainte Math till then!




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