TV Review: OUTLANDER: Season 5, Episode 2: Between Two Fires [Starz]

Outlander Between Two Fires Review

Outlander: Season 5, Episode 2: Between Two Fires is the episode where a peaceful resolution between The Regulators and the British army dies. The hot tarring and feathering of colonial civilians is a step too far, a move that destroys the very sympathy The Regulators were hoping to engender to their cause. Lieutenant Hamilton Knox (Michael D. Xavier)’s actions during Between Two Fires serves to deepen that divide.

The Killing and the Justification

Lieutenant Knox’s killing of Scottish rebel Ethan Mackinnon (Josh Whitelaw) in prison was an unfortunate, rash event but his eventual rationale for the killing is startling.

Knox says earlier that “it’s only civility that keeps us from killing one another” then as the embodiment of a civilized society, he kills a defenseless man with his sword. Knox is a walking, talking contradiction. At least for a moment, he recognizes this fact and regrets his actions. There is still hope for Knox, unlike for Stephen Bonnet.

Many notable killers and leaders in history have rationalized the non-litigious killing of citizens: because it was for the public good, the ones killed had it coming, because their kind is evil, etc. In Lieutenant Knox’s case, he says he gave Ethan something that he didn’t deserve, a soldier’s death. That he, in effect, gave Ethan a high honor. That sentiment, that rationalization, will allow Knox to sleep at night.

Vilifying your enemy so that you can do all manner of horrific things to them is a classic theme in warfare and it has begun to play its familiar tune this season on Outlander.

This mindset is one of the ingredients that may lead to the American Revolution.

Murtagh Pledging to Fight

Murtagh Fitzgibbons Fraser (Duncan Lacroix) pledging to fight against the British, including James “Jamie” MacKenzie Fraser (Sam Heughan), is eventually going to push these two men to make a hard choice. Murtagh has the fate of all the people that depend on him to worry about. Jamie has the same but even more so. Jamie has his immediate family, his extended family, and all the families that settled on Fraser’s Ridge to keep safe. All of latter’s safety and contentment will be taken from Jamie if he is seen as playing both sides or having betrayed his oath to the British flag.

Up to this point, Jamie has been able to walk the tightrope. The non-litigious killing of Ethan pushed Jamie toward openly siding with his countrymen for a brief moment (then covertly). The further actions of the British against the Scottish, personified by Lieutenant Knox, will most-likely push Jamie’s loyalty to its breaking point. Jamie Fraser takes pride in his word and in keeping it. His deeper obligation, however, is to his keen-folk. When it comes time to choose one or the other, Jamie is going to choose his keen, with all of the ramifications that act brings down on his head, those he cares about, and those he is responsible for.

Jamie is smart enough to disguise his betrayal but the question is whether his opponents, the British, will be clever enough to detect it. Governor Tryon has already shown an uncanny ability to sniff out Jamie’s legerdemain. Tryon will be the rubicon that Jamie’s betrayal will eventually have to pass.

Marsali The Apprentice

Marsali MacKimmie Fraser (Lauren Lyle) bringing up her mother, with all of the memories attached to her, and the word “witch” being invoked is one of the more humorous moments in Between Two Fires. Dr. Claire Fraser (Caitriona Balfe) is wise to begin the training of Marsali in the medical arts. War is coming and that region of America is going to need as many people as they can get that can medically treat people. That area (and many others) is also going to need someone with a strong stomach that can conduct amputations. My guess is that Marsali will handle the minor injuries, lowering the workload on Clare, and Clare will handle the major injuries.

My question is that if things get really bad, the danger so prevalent, will Clare take her immediate family and leave for the safety of the future, abandoning Marsali to deal with the wounded and those in need, or will Clare take Marsali and her family with her?

Bonnet’s Reemergence

Stephen Bonnet (Ed Speleers) is a plucky individual. He doesn’t even bother in Between Two Fires to go by a pseudonym after his prison escape. I know Bonnet rates high on the psychopathy scale but having low empathy (amongst other things) doesn’t mean that you are stupid. Bonnet using his real name in the precarious situation that he is in is absolutely asinine. Is he foolhardy or will the people that he is surrounded by keep his secret because of the under-the-table services he provides?

It has to be the latter. This time period doesn’t have a vast array of news publications and information dissemination – no orator in robes with his hand up, speaking of the day’s news in the town square à la Rome – but they certainly have word-of-mouth.

If some in the fight’s audience does know Bonnet is a wanted fugitive, would they really excuse the presence of a man sought for rape, theft, and murder simply to line their pockets?

From the bare-knuckle brawl, its attendees, and the betting going on, along with the allusions to ongoing and future scoffing of tax laws, I’m forced to conclude that some of them are aware, at least in passing, of Bonnet’s ‘problems’ and don’t care. His benefit to them outweighs his potential detriment i.e. they’ll just say that Bonnet is lying and that they don’t know him if Bonnet is ever captured and implicates them in some way.

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