Outlander review: It’s the best of times and worst of times in ‘Wilmington’

Everyone descends on “Wilmington” and Outlander loses sight of itself in one muddled, decidedly un-merry episode.

Hey, Outlander: Stop trying to make “The Wedding” happen again. It’s not going to happen again.

A lot occurred in this week’s “Wilmington,” including sort-of nuptials, the Frasers meeting George Washington and a brutal rape (which we’ll get to in a bit). But, for me, the most memorable (in a bad way) parts of the episode were Brianna and Roger’s sex scenes. You know how Outlander continually deconstructs romance tropes from the feminist gaze? Well, “Wilmington” basically shrugged off that awesome precedent when Bree and Roger got hitched.

First of all, during Not Claire and Not Jamie’s handfasting ceremony, they pronounced themselves “man and wife” instead of “husband and wife.” Yes, they’re getting married in the 18th century but they’re both 20th-century natives. And Bree is Claire’s daughter — you’d think the two would be a bit more progressive in terms of gender equality.

Second, when they finally have sex, it’s normcore stuff from Romance Novels 101. Bree’s the virgin, Roger’s the Experienced, Sensitive Lover. A fire is burning. There are many looks of wonder and longing as they undress each other. He carries her to bed — or whatever blanket-covered spot they’ve designated the Sex Area of the shack they’re bunking down in. (Side note: What is Outlander‘s obsession with men carrying women to bed before sex? I, for one, could really do without that nonsense.)

The scene almost redeems itself when it shifts focus to Brianna’s pleasure, but then it throws ice water on everything by having Roger make a crass joke about her hair color. I literally yelled out loud when that happened.

Third, Brianna interrupts the afterglow by asking Roger if she did sex right. Yes, I’m 100 percent serious: she asked if it was good for him, too. Look, insecurity happens; I get that. But Outlander is supposed to be about confident, independent women schooling the men in their lives, not the other way around. I’m not saying the show shouldn’t have featured a love scene between a virgin woman and sex pro. It just didn’t have to be so paint-by-numbers about it.

Fourth, the chemistry between Brianna and Roger just sucks. Murtagh and Suzette the French maid from season 2 made for a more interesting couple.

The bottom line: Outlander was clearly trying to recapture the magic of Claire and Jamie’s wedding night in “Wilmington.” It failed because it seemed to forget exactly what made “The Wedding” so special in the first place. (I.e. a sexually confident woman showing a male virgin the ropes, depicting sex as romantic, pleasurable and intimate and exploring how sex informs characters and their relationships to each other.)

In any case, Bree seems to enjoy the sex and her wedding night tremendously until Roger lets slip he knew her parents are destined to die in a fire and didn’t tell her right away. (I thought that was what he was trying to do when he called her and found out she was in Scotland?) Roger, as per usual, is being an idiot and suggests Bree should just go along with whatever dumb decisions he makes because they’re married now. Things devolve from there and Brianna ends up sending Roger packing back to the 1970s.

This is the turn of what the producers and writers of “Wilmington” described as “the best and worst night” of Brianna’s life during the episode’s wrap-up discussion. Broken up with Roger once more, Bree returns to the pub she’s been staying at and runs into Stephen Bonnet. Everyone’s favorite sociopath since Black Jack Randall is about to bet her mother’s wedding ring in a game of poker. Bree recognizes it, and Bonnet offers to haggle a price with her in another room. He leads her away, beats and rapes her and gives her the ring to “pay for his pleasure.”

Outlander has deftly dealt with sexual assault many times before, and — while the Brianna-Bonnet development did feel a bit tacked-on — “Wilmington” is no exception. Instead of showing exactly what’s happening to Brianna, the camera traces the goings-on of the pub as we hear occasional screams, grunts and thumps from the back room. All the patrons know fully well what is happening, but do nothing to stop it. Some have a “What are you gonna do?” look on their faces, others grin enviously over Bonnet’s good time. One woman even picks up Bree’s boots and lines them up neatly outside the door.

It’s a harrowing scene, one that reminds us how violence against women was completely normalized and accepted in the 18th century. No one in that pub is going to punish Bonnet for what he’s done; at the most, they’re just going to feel a pang of sympathy for Bree for speaking to him to begin with. “What did she expect,” they’re probably thinking to themselves, “a nice young woman talking to a man in a pub?”

As we move into the final episodes of the season, I hope Outlander gives Brianna the story and screen time she deserves to process this event and contend with the related trauma (as they did with Jamie throughout season 2).

And, with any luck, her healing process will begin when she meets her father in next week’s episode.

Afterthoughts:

• Despite including a surgery and an almost-robbery, Claire and Jamie’s story is fairly minor in “Wilmington.” Jamie discovers the Governor is onto Murtagh and the other rebels, and plans to arrest them. Jamie goes off to warn Murtagh when Claire is performing an impromptu hernia operation. So, you know, it’s just another night at the theatre for the Frasers.
• They also meet George and Martha Washington (Simon Harrison and Elizabeth Appleby), who seem like a cool couple. Maybe Claire and Jamie will have them over for dinner sometime.
• When the Frasers visit Fergus and Marsali’s new baby, Claire unconvincingly pretends she doesn’t know what it’s like to be a mother. I wonder how Marsali will react when Bree appears and Claire is forced to own up to her lies? She is Laoghaire’s daughter after all…
• The Governor’s “never trust a Virginian” comment felt straight out of Hamilton.
• I don’t know why, but I loved Sam Heughan’s reading of “A man with many strings to his bow.”
• Okay, I know I went on about them ad nauseam before, but Bree and Roger are a baffling couple to me. Roger reiterates this episode that he wants to marry Bree or be done with her altogether — so why did he bother to follow her to the past in the first place? And Brianna’s decision to marry Ponytail Boy sure did seem abrupt. I guess she found his tracking her down romantic; I  mean, I would call that a little controlling, but that’s me.