On Outlander, Roger and Bree come to a crossroad in their relationship while Jamie and Claire find home. Here’s our review of “The False Bride”.
It’s absolutely no secret that I’m a very big fan of Roger and Bree, so I enjoyed this episode immensely! It’s also no secret that I’m not good with angst, so it broke my heart a little, too.
“The False Bride” follows Roger and Bree as they take a road trip to North Carolina for a Scottish festival that Roger is playing at, and it follows Jamie and Claire as they leave River Run to settle on their own. All the while, the two stories intersect as both couple travel through North Carolina two hundred years apart.
At the start of the episode, Roger has sold his family home and is preparing to head to America to visit Bree and attend a Scottish festival where he’ll play his guitar.
Before he leaves, his friend tells him that he really needs to let Brianna know how he feels about her, and this sets up the issue for the episode between Bree and Roger.
Bree picks him up from the airport, and they begin their roadtrip from Boston to North Carolina. They’re playing a game where she gives him an American word, and he has to replace it with the Scottish equivalent. It’s adorable and sweet.
During this, Bree tells Roger that he’s pretty. That doesn’t sit exactly well with him and offers other adjectives like handsome to describe himself. Bree kisses him and almost makes him go off the road.
They arrive at the Festival, and it’s a bright, full of life event. They go dancing, have their portrait drawn, and attend the concert that Roger plays at that night.
It’s the portrait that’s very important. In the credits, we see a drawing of Bree in someone’s hand. That drawing is the same one that’s in the past, so how does it get there?
After the concert that night, Bree tells Roger that she got him a book on Scottish families in America. Since he knows all the ones in Scotland, he needs to know the ones here, too. I have a feeling this will be super important soon.
She also gets him some moonshine and invites him back to her room. This is where my shipper heart melted and then broke. Bree takes off her blouse and they start kissing, but Roger stops them. He says he wants this to be perfect so he goes and retrieves a gift he brought for her.
It’s a silver bracelet with a French nursery rhyme engraved inside.
“I love you a little. I love you a lot. I love you none at all.”
This is when Roger totally puts himself out there to Bree. He confesses his love to her and then asks her to marry him. Roger wants her to have his name and stand with him at the bonfire the following night as a future MacKenzie. He wants children with her.
I won’t lie. The romantic part of me was swooning, but the part that knows Bree and Claire was like SLOW DOWN. STOP. TOO MUCH.
Bree, very kindly, lets him know that it’s too soon for that. Then Roger does a dick thing and questions her about wanting to sleep with him.
“If you don’t care enough to marry me, then I don’t care enough to have ye in my bed.”
This fires up Bree because he can’t spring a proposal on her and mention having babies together when she still has school and her own life. Roger wants to know why she’d want to sleep with him if she had no intention of marrying him.
When she calls him out on that, he tells her that this is different because he never loved those women.
“I love you, damn it. But you don’t love me.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
The next night, Bree isn’t there when the ceremony starts, but she does go and sit beside him before it’s his turn. When he asks if she’s changed her mind, she tells him no and takes his hand.
The conversation that follows gets to the bottom of Bree’s hesitation, but shows us that Roger isn’t really considering her point-of-view at all. I don’t blame Bree for making sure a hard decision and walking away from him.
“My mother married the man she loved, but later found her true soul mate.”
“So, what, you’re waiting for someone better to come along? Is that it?”
“No. That’s not what I’m saying.”
“What are you saying?”
“That maybe I don’t believe in marriage at all. Roger?”
“Brianna, I’ll have you all or not at all.”
Bree tries to give him the bracelet back, but he tells her it was a gift. I’m pretty sure this is the bracelet that is focused on in the opening credits as well, and I need to know how that gets back in time, too!
In the end, Bree leaves as Roger lights the wooden stag on fire.
I don’t think Roger handled this situation well at all. I’m really disappointed in his behavior toward Bree, and I hope he’s able to fix things with her.
Only time will tell, though.
Back in the 1700s, Jamie and Claire make their intentions known early that they won’t be staying at River Run, and Jamie won’t be taking over for Auntie Jocasta. She’s not thrilled about this at all, but she still gives Jamie the money she had before and his mother’s candlesticks. Jamie is visibly moved by this gesture and tells her that he’ll treasure them.
When Claire goes to say goodbye, Auntie Jocasta calls her out for holding Jamie back.
“You’re doing him a great disservice, ye ken.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“You’re his reason he wouldna accept my offer. You’ve a good deal of influence on him, and he’s blinded by his passion for you. If you truly loved Jamie as much as ye say ye do, you’d want him to be the man he was born to be, to have the things he lost in Scotland, the chance to be a laird.”
Claire tells Jocasta that she hasn’t seen Jamie since he was a boy, and she doesn’t know a thing about their marriage. Jocasta tells her that Jamie is wasting his talents behind a printers desk.
Even though Claire is upset and even wondering if Jocasta is right, she tells her thank you again and leaves.
Through all this, Ian approaches Jamie and tells him that he won’t be going back to Scotland. Ian intends to stay in America. When Jamie argues, Ian tells him that since he was kidnapped so long ago, he’s grown up. He’s a man now and can make his own decisions. When Jamie tells Ian that he’ll write to Jenny so they don’t worry, Ian tells his uncle that he can write his own letter.
Look at this baby cinnamon roll growing up with his pet wolf dog!
In the end, Jamie and Claire leave River Run with Ian and John Quincy Myers within ten minutes of the episode’s opening.
While they’re on the road, Myers tells them about the Cherokee that inhabit the forest. He explains that they’re fearsome warriors, but they’re only fighting because their land is being encroached upon. He even goes on to explain the liberal nature of the their social structure in how a woman can decide who she marries and who she beds.
This part really makes Ian happy that he’s staying in America.
That night while they’re all gathered around the campfire, Myers tells Jamie that he’ll be going north to trade with the Cherokee the next day, and Ian says that he’ll be going with him.
You can tell that Jamie wants to tell him no, but he respects Ian’s decision. Myers tells them that the Native Americans he’ll be trading with are quite civil so they have no need for worry. They’ll take the wagon and leave Jamie and Claire with two horses and the mule before meeting up with them again at Woolam’s Creek.
This is the end destination for Jamie and Claire, and it’s a Scottish settlement. This is me low-key hoping we run into Murtagh here. I miss him! Jamie does ask Claire if she’d rather go to Boston, but she tells him she wants to make a place that’s theirs.
The following day, Jamie and Claire are riding through the woods and discussing Brianna.
Claire worries about her and the path she’s decided to take. She tells Jamie that Bree was very close with Frank and initially chose to study history because that was Frank’s subject of choice.
It must be so hard as a mother to not know how Bree is doing or if she’s okay. I think that’s something that Claire struggles with more than she lets on.
Before long, Jamie’s horse throws a shoe, and they have to stop and replace it. A storm is blowing in and time is of the essence, but Claire using this as an opportunity to question Jamie about his decision to pick up printing again.
“A man should be settled at my age, you know? Besides, I thought you said ye wanted to live in a town in the backcountry? Ye said we’d be safer.”
“I did. I just don’t want you making this decision because you think it’s what I want.”
She tells him about the “pursuit of happiness” and how it becomes an important phrase in America. She wants him to be happy, too.
“You dinna think I can be happy unless I’m a criminal? I was an outlaw when first we met, and an outlaw when you returned. If it was only me, I would live as one again. And when I was old, I would lie under a tree and let the wolves gnaw at my bones.”
He goes on to tell her that it’s not just him anymore. It’s her, Ian, Fergus, and Marsali. He can’t be an outlaw if he’s to take care of them.
“I would lay the world at your feet, Claire, but I have nothing to give you.”
JAMMF, I cannot with him during this scene. It’s perfect.
The storm comes in and the mule runs off when a crash of thunder startles him. Claire gets on her horse and goes after him. While she’s out looking, a bolt of lightning strikes a tree in front of her and causes her horse to rear up and knock her off.
She hits her head pretty soundly, and when she wakes up again, it’s darker and raining harder. She hauls herself under a tree to protect herself from the rain.
There she finds a skull and a pretty crystal. The skull has a long crack in it where it was hit with something. A little while later, she sees a torch coming her way, so she comes out of hiding and yells for Jamie.
This is when she realizes it’s actually a Native American man. With each strike of lightning, he appears and disappears until he’s standing in front of Claire. She asks him what he wants, but he turns and walks away.
That’s when we see the same would on his head as with the skull Claire had before. The next morning, Claire wakes up and finds her shoes are gone. She takes the skull and the crystal, and follows footprints through the woods to Jamie.
He’s waiting at a creek because that’s where Claire’s shoes were. As Claire is looking at the skull more closely, she realizes that it has silver fillings, and we have another time traveler on our hands!
In a just bit longer, they find the place that they’ll call home. It has strawberries on the ridge, a emblem of the Fraser clan. It isn’t in a backcountry town, but in the middle of nowhere…
It’s Fraser’s Ridge.
What did you think of “The False Bride”?
Let us know in the comments, and be sure to check out our WSN Reviews Outlander series on Youtube each Sunday after the episode airs!