Outlander S05E01 – Review – The Fiery Cross

Droughtlander is finally over! After one year Outlander is back with new episodes and the premiere is a light introduction of the drama to come.

As viewers may remember last season ended when Brianna and Roger reunited, after he was liberated by the Mohawks when Ian Murray took his place and as Jamie receives orders from Governor Tryon urging him to capture Murtagh Fitzgibbons (Jamie’s godfather), who’s leading the Regulators.

Season 5 premiere starts with Brianna and Roger’s wedding, celebrated at Fraser’s Ridge, which brings back a lot of familiar faces and introduces some new ones.

The episode has some really beautiful moments, especially between Jamie and Brianna, and also brings some season 1 nostalgia as Claire and Jamie reminiscence about their own wedding. Of course, it isn’t a proper Outlander episode without some drama, Governor Tryon keeps pushing Jamie to facet the Regulators and capture and kills Murtagh and Brianna finds out Stephen Bonnet, the man who raped her last season, is still alive. Brianna’s arc has been really hard to watch, as she has been through hell and back and now the knowledge that Bonnet is not dead is haunting her.

A great problem last season was Roger. Having read the books previously to the show, it seems somehow picked only the worst elements of this character, which made Roger a kind of unbearable character. One, of course, could claim it’s just a matter of time constraints and how you can’t fit everything from the books in a TV show but these decisions did not make Roger win fans’ favor. That being said, hopefully, this is something that will be amended in these new episodes.

Overall the premiere was a nice introduction to the new season, the major event and focus being the wedding, the next episodes will surely bring more drama.

Score: 7/10

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