Recap / Outlander S 5 E 1 The Fiery Cross

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Recap of Outlander
Season 5, Episode 1:

The Fiery Cross

The residents of Fraser's Ridge gather to celebrate the nuptials of Brianna and Roger. However, the mood is dampened by the presence of Governor Tryon and his troops, demanding Jamie lead a militia to neutralize the threat of Murtagh Fitzgibbons and the Regulators. Additionally, Lord John has to deliver unfortunate news about Stephen Bonnet.

Tropes

• Adaptation Dye-Job: In the books, baby Jemmy's paternity is in question because he is the spitting image of Brianna and Jamie with red hair and blue eyes, leaving no doubt that he's a Fraser, but not particularly favoring either Roger or Stephen Bonnet. The show has chosen to give Jemmy blond hair and blue eyes, while Brianna has red hair/brown eyes and Roger has brown hair/green eyes. In a time before recessive genes were common knowledge, Jemmy's features make it much easier to speculate on his parentage, especially with Bonnet being blond.
• Alone Among the Couples: After a montage of Brianna and Roger, Murtagh and Jocasta, and Jamie and Claire, who've gone to their quarters to take advantage of the romance of the night, and with the assurance that Marsali and Fergus are holed up somewhere together, the camera pans to Lord John staring bemusedly into the campfire as he sits between two passed out partygoers. Because of his sexuality, Lord John can't even hope to pick up a one-night stand at the festivities without risk.
• Appeal to Tradition: When Jamie wants to secure the loyalty of the men, he dons his old Fraser Clan tartan and lights fire to a Celtic cross. He then gives a speech invoking the highland war chief traditions and speaking of clan loyalty. He asks the residents to help him build a clan by swearing fealty to him and he will do likewise to them in return. The men are moved and use the traditional oath to swear fealty to Jamie.
• Bawdy Song: Invoked. Marsali warns the group that her tongue twister is a bit improper for a lady as it could result in quite a bit of cursing if she gets tongue tied.
• Blood Oath: Roger swears a blood oath, claiming Jeremiah as his son.
• Bookends: The episode begins with a flashback to the day Murtagh pledged his loyalty, swearing to always protect Jamie and go wherever Jamie goes. The episode ends with Jamie releasing Murtagh from that Oath and asking him to please go far away where Jamie and his Crown-appointed troops won't be able to find him.
• Break His Heart to Save Him: Jamie breaks down sobbing after he has to send Murtagh away, knowing that he may never see his godfather again. Murtagh likewise is choking back tears as he leaves.
• But I Read a Book About It: Roger's training as a historian makes him theoretically knowledgable about the time period, but useless in practice. He is dependent on Jamie to provide for the entire family, having to admit that he doesn't know how to farm, build or do any of the other necessary tasks to feed and house a family in the 18th century.
• Chekhov's Gun: Jamie builds a large celtic cross pyre and places it on a hill visible across the Ridge. He tells the residents it will only be lit in case of dire emergency, but should it be lit, it will mean every able bodied man of fighting age is needed without delay. The beacon is lit in the season finale when Claire is kidnapped. The men of the Ridge gladly report for duty.
• Continuity Nod: In season 4, Fergus told Marsali that Jamie has always seen him as a whole man despite his handicap and never hesitates to include Fergus in whatever he's doing. Sure enough, Fergus is the second person Jamie asks to come forward in the oath swearing ceremony, only behind Roger who by tradition is the second-in-command by virtue of being married to Jamie's natural child.
• Culturally Sensitive Adaptation: The cross that Jamie lights on fire in the show is a Celtic style cross. In the books, it's a normal t-style crucifix cross. However, burning crosses in a yard is strongly associated with the Ku Klux Klan in the United States, particularly in the American South, and would have greatly distracted from the gravitas of Jamie's speech.
• Dangerously Close Shave: Invoked by Roger when Jamie has to help him shave since Roger doesn't know how to use a straight razor.
• Dating What Daddy Hates: Played with. Jamie doesn't flat out hate Roger, but he doesn't think Roger is good enough for Bree. In addition to being a Protestant, Roger has no marketable skills to support Brianna and Jemmy.
• December–December Romance: Jacosta and Murtagh, who are both in their late 60s and have been flirting around with the idea of a more formal relationship for years.
• Drinking Game: The wedding guests make a challenge of saying tongue twisters without flubbing the lines. Anyone who messes up has to drink from the fresh whisky ladle (unaged whisky being a very rough drink). Marsali is surprisingly good at it; Lord John is surprisingly bad.
• Everyone Meets Everyone: The excuse of the wedding allows interactions among characters who are important Fraser-MacKenzie family friends that have never had occasion to meet. One such example is British officer Lord John Grey and frontier huntsman John Quincy Meyers, who are part of a drinking game at the wedding reception.
• Flashback Cut: As Brianna and Roger are reciting their vows, Claire and Jamie have flickers of flashbacks to their own wedding from season 1. Although it's not visibly shown, Marsali and Fergus also seem to be remembering their season 3 wedding.
• Freudian Slip: Josiah and Lizzie are discussing the animals Josiah hunts. When Jamie appears on the porch, a flustered Josiah blurt that they'd been talking about skin then hastily corrects himself to say they'd been discussing pelts.
• Frontier Doctor: Claire has set up a clinic in the Fraser home. Ridge residents line up outside of her office for the chance to have their ailments treated.
• Give Away the Bride: Jamie is saddened that Brianna's time under his care is coming to an end, but very please that he's getting to be part of Brianna's wedding, a celebration he never imagined he'd get to see, let alone be a part of.
• Good Luck Charm: Jamie prepares the charms for Brianna's wedding, observing her modern tradition of Old, New, Borrowed and Blue as well as providing her with a silver sixpence for her shoe, a tradition from Scotland.
• Hunter Trapper: Josiah is considered a highly skilled hunter.
• Innocently Insensitive: Wee Germain tells Roger not to touch his hair because Grandpere (Jamie) says Roger has hair ticks. Germain doesn't realize that Roger will understand the true message: Jamie (a Catholic) believes Roger (a presbyterian) is a heretic.
• I Don't Know Mortal Kombat: Despite being an esteemed historian, Roger's encyclopedic knowledge of history does not have any practical applications in the 18th century. Much of Roger's season 5 arc is trying to figure out how to fit in with the men when he has none of the skills expected of an 18th century man, even needing Jamie to help him shave because he's unfamiliar with a straight edge razor.
• Insistent Terminology: Jamie consistently refers to germs and bacteria as "wee beasties". Claire always jokingly corrects him but in good humor, never taking offense.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Murtagh tells Jocasta he won't stand in the way of her marrying another man since he can't be with her because of his fugitive status.
• Law of Inverse Paternity: Brianna has always known there was a chance that Jeremiah is Bonnet's biological son, but it's never been important because Bonnet was presumed dead. Now, she finds out that Bonnet is alive, and there's the fact that Jeremiah looks more and more like Bonnet each day, with blond hair, rather than red-headed like Brianna or brunet like Roger.
• Love Makes You Dumb: Invoked by Jamie. When Claire insists that Roger loves Brianna, Jamie says that is what he's afraid of because love gives you courage, but not sense to go along with it.
• Magnetic Hero: While everyone who meets Jamie Fraser quickly recognizes him as a charming man and a natural-born leader, his speech and the subsequent oaths of fealty the men of the Ridge willingly vow to him publicly demonstrates his ability to quickly command loyalty among those he leads and leaves a thorough impression on Lieutenant Knox and the other Redcoats.
• Manly Tears: Both Jamie and Murtagh struggle to hold back their emotions over having to part ways once again.
• Mark of Shame: Josiah Beardsley is branding with a T on the back of his hand to mark him as a thief. While Claire is worried what he might get up to if invited to the Ridge, Jamie values the boy's ability to hunt and the fact that he's too young to be added to the militia rolls. Additionally, he notes that he himself was a cattle rustler in his youth and it didn't mean he was a bad person.
• Moment Killer: Governor Tryon pulls Jamie from Brianna's wedding celebration to demand that Jamie discuss what he's doing to catch Murtagh Fitzgibbons. The next day, the governor goes on about how he wants to draw and quarter Fitzgibbon as an example to the populace, not realizing that he's ranting and raving about killing Jamie's godfather and lifelong friend.
• Musical Nod: The music that plays as Jamie breaks out his old kilt and dirk prior to addressing the men of the Ridge is the same music that played back in season 2's Je Suis Pres as Jamie and Murtagh worked to prepare the men of the Fraser Clan for war.
• Old, New, Borrowed and Blue: Jamie prepares the traditional items for Brianna, gathering his mother's pearls (old), a flash of fresh whisky (new), and a bundle of blue bonnets (borrowed and blue).
• Releasing from the Promise: Jamie releases Murtagh from the promise he made to Jamie's mother to always be by his side. It visibly hurts both men to have to do this and Jamie breaks down crying once Murtagh is out of sight.
• Sadistic Choice: Jamie either has to hunt down his godfather, Murtagh Fitzgibbons, for execution as a rebel or defy the order, be evicted from his lands along with dozens of his tenants, and branded a traitor to the Crown while someone else takes up the hunt for Murtagh.
• Secret Test of Character: Jocasta proposes bequeathing Jeremiah with her vast property in hopes of giving Roger a reason to take care of a child that may not be his flesh and blood. Roger is appalled at the idea that he would have to be bribed to care for Jeremiah who he has sworn to love and raise as his own. He reads Jocasta the riot act, telling her that Jeremiah is his son and he will love the little boy unconditionally, so she can stick her money where the sun doesn't shine. He then storms off. Cue Jocasta and Ulysses chucklingly to themselves, please that Roger has proved he's not just in it for financial gain and that money and property left to the little boy would be safe until he's old enough to claim it.
• Serenade Your Lover: Roger sings Nat King Cole's L-O-V-E. His song then transitions into being a sound track for the various couples who are feeling amorous after a day of celebrating marriage.
• Sex Montage: After the wedding, there's cuts of Brianna and Roger, Murtagh and Jocasta, Jamie and Claire, and presumedly Fergus and Marsali, all retiring to their quarters to take advantage of the amorous atmosphere. The montage ends with Lord John sitting alone, staring into the fire, surrounded by partygoers who have passed out drunk.
• Taught by Experience: Knowing that the American Revolution is coming and how quickly divided loyalties can doom an army, Jamie moves to make sure the men of the Ridge are loyal to him personally and not to Governor Tryon or the Crown.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Jamie surprises Roger by asking him to be the first to pledge his loyalty. It's generally understood that Roger lacks the military preparation to be a soldier, a point of shame for Roger. Jamie is essentially giving Roger his personal stamp of approval. Roger then shocks Jamie by not needing to be fed the proper words, already knowing the words of the fealty oath by heart, verbatim.
• Trauma Button: Brianna is rendered stunned when she overhears Lord John informing Jamie that Stephen Bonnet is still alive.
• Undying Loyalty: After the death of Ellen MacKenzie's death, Murtagh swore to always be by Jamie's side, guarding his back whenever he needs it. Throughout the series, he is shown to have taken that promise very seriously, always there when Jamie needs him.
• Wedding Episode: The Fraser, MacKenzies, family, and friend are gathered for Roger and Brianna's wedding. The ceremony is attended by most of the guest characters who have appeared in the last three seasons, including Governor Tryon, Lord John Grey, John Quincy Meyers, Aunt Jocasta, and Ulysses.
• When It All Began: The episode begins with a flashback to shortly after Jamie's mother died in childbirth. Murtagh tells Young Jamie what happened and gives his oath that he will always be there to take care of Jamie and look out for him. This is the beginning of Murtagh backing Jamie, no matter what.