‘Outlander’ Season 6 Episode 5 Recap: “Give Me Liberty”

Guys and gals, we’re more than halfway through Outlander Season 6 and it’s about time for Shit to Get Real. To illustrate the fact that this is very much going to happen, we open Episode 5 with a bit of historical reenactment. It’s July 1746 and Flora MacDonald (Shana MacDonald) is shuffling along a beach, trying to smuggle Charles Edward Stuart out of the country and away from government troops after the Battle of Culloden. She succeeds by disguising him as an Irish maid (complete with women’s clothing!) named Betty Burke who was accompanying her to see her ill mother in Skye. It’s always fun to see how Outlander manages to weave its fictional characters into real historical events like this one, and they do a great job of it in “Give Me Liberty.”

While our introduction to Flora may seem a bit pointless at first, it soon becomes clear that 30 years later, she’s now emigrated to North Carolina and is a reformed Jacobite now preaching for loyalty to the British monarchy. We meet her again in Wilmington, where Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire (Caitriona Balfe) are attending an “event” she’s holding. It’s reminiscent of a modern political rally, meant to persuade those who support independence and free-thinking to give up the idea and instead maintain the status quo.

We also get a great scene featuring Claire, Flora, and Jocasta (Maria Doyle Kennedy — always a welcome sight!) getting drunk and high on hemp flowers in the back garden before Flora gives her speech. Claire’s not just a random pusher, of course — she only offered the good stuff because Jocasta’s eyes were hurting her and Flora was feeling a bit nervous. That should sort them both out!

Jamie, having only just resigned from his post as Indian agent (much to Governor Martin’s chagrin), is pretty stoked to see her as it’s been so many years. Claire seems to think that his enthusiasm implies a harmless crush, but Jamie insists that’s not true. In fact, he’s really there to show his face and to meet up with — historical figure klaxon! — Cornelius Harnett. Right now, Cornelius is a small-time revolutionary leader, though we know that in real life, he eventually becomes a Founding Father of the United States.

Cornelius and Jamie have a chat in the bar of the inn where they’re staying and Jamie makes an impassioned statement about wanting to do right by his conscious and do his duty to his brothers by embracing liberty and fraternity. That’s enough to convince Cornelius, who invites him along to a Sons of Liberty meeting that same night. Hilariously, Jamie notices the bollocks of Stephen Bonnett in a jar on the mantelpiece as he leaves the bar. Nice shout out!

We also get to be reunited with Lord John Gray (John Berry) in this episode, and it’s nice to see a familiar face. He likely wishes he could say the same of Jamie, for whom it’s clear he still carries a bit of a flame. It’s only these leftover feelings that keep John, a staunch red coat, from turning on Jamie when he discovers the Scot is now a revolutionary, but he does him a solid by holding off the troops when they discover the Sons of Liberty meeting plans at the Red Falcon. Thanks to John, by the time the Red Coats arrive, Jamie and Cornelius are harmlessly playing billiards.

Back at Fraser’s Ridge, there are a few different things going on. One of the big issues is that Roger (Richard Rankin) seems to be spending an awful lot of time at Amy McCallum’s house. You may remember her as the widowed mother of two small children who Roger vowed to help build a home. Her son, Aidan, has really taken a shine to Roger, but so has Amy herself, and Brianna (Sophie Skelton) is not feeling it.

Like any wife, Brianna feels like it’s a bit weird that her husband is spending hours a day singing and building chimneys on a house belonging to a woman that’s not her. Roger gets a bit tetchy about it, and while it almost seems as if it’s because he actually is tempted by Amy, he eventually comes to his senses and realizes that at home with Brianna and Jemmy is where he should be. But wait! It’s not just going to be the three of them. Brianna reveals that she’s pregnant again, which is pretty exciting — though not exciting enough for her to want to tell Claire just yet.

It’s not hard to see why — Brianna has a lot going on at the moment, especially since she has plans to build a water well to basically bring indoor plumbing to the 18th century. She takes Lizzie (Caitlyn O’Ryan), Marsali (Lauren Lyle), and Malva (Jessica Reynolds) on a scouting trip with her through the woods to find a good place to build a water wheel.

It’s clear the women can’t hang when it comes to hiking through woodlands, but they don’t have much time to think about it because they soon discover a fire pit with human finger bones inside. Marsali immediately identifies the spot as the place someone tried to cast a love spell, and it doesn’t take rocket science to know right away that it’s Malva who’s the guilty party. Who she wants to fall in love with her is anyone’s guess, but something tells me we’ll find out soon.

In the meantime, it seems watching Jamie and Claire get it on in the barn last week really got her mind spinning, because she gets caught by Roger about to have sex with some guy called Mr. Henderson in the church — er, meeting house — when they come to install a bell on the top of the building. Roger’s very close to telling her father, Tom Christie, but Malva threatens him, saying she’ll tell everyone she saw Roger kissing Amy McCallum. Well, that settles that.

By episode’s end, we’ve got a real cliffhanger on our hands. We learned earlier in the episode that Flora had been robbed of her emerald necklace and while it was eventually recovered and the thief put in prison, one of the three emeralds was never recovered. That’s because the prisoner — long, scraggly hair and a menacing hunch — still has it in his possession. Who could it be? The credits roll before he can fully turn around to show his face, so it seems we’ll have to wait until next week. Could it be that Bonnet isn’t dead after all?

Additional notes:

• Lizzie is feeling sick and Brianna seems to think it’s malaria. Hopefully she picks up soon, but luckily, she’s got Josiah and Kezzie to look after her in the meantime.
• Jocasta seems to have bought Fergus a printing press near her and Marsali and the kids are going to join him there. Jamie isn’t happy that Jocasta is using him to print her own agenda as it puts him in danger, but she assures him Fergus knows what he’s getting into.
• Speaking of Jocasta, she’s really struggling since Murtagh died and doesn’t seem to be herself. Her maid confides to Jamie that she sits by herself for hours since he died, muttering to herself about blood-stained money, her daughter Morna, and French gold. Is she losing her mind? Jamie doesn’t think so.
• Malva’s love of witchcraft, which she seems to get from her mother, seems like it’s going to get very out of hand and something bad is going to happen. If the show stays true to the books, I would say her days are numbered.

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Jennifer Still is a writer and editor from New York who cares too way much about fictional characters and spends her time writing about them.