Roger and Brianna fall into old patterns in a punitive, gratuitously violent Outlander
“Wilmington” highlights—in the most horrifying of ways—Outlander’s persistent Brianna problem. The show has never quite figured out how Brianna fits into its narrative, at times using her and Roger to parallel Claire and Jamie but at others seemingly doing the exact opposite and evoking a dynamic that is increasingly and yet unwittingly abusive. Outlander leans into the romance with Brianna and Roger and then snaps out of it with whiplash-inducing force. And maybe that would work if it seemed like the point of their story, but it doesn’t.
In bringing Roger and Brianna to the past, Outlander seems more concerned with checking off plot boxes than with showing us the stuff that really matters and allowing these characters to fully come into their own as dynamic, compelling players in the show’s increasingly sprawling narrative. This is most evidenced by Roger and Brianna’s wildly abrupt, rushed reunion. The writers seem to have forgotten entirely the argument that first split Roger and Brianna apart, because Brianna forgets it, too. All it takes is seeing Roger once to get her to change her mind about the whole marriage-before-sex thing. We’ve seen nothing to make us believe that Brianna is suddenly ready to marry him, and the notion that she would be moved by his supposed romantic gesture to travel back in time for her isn’t in line with anything we’ve learned about the character. Or maybe it is. Because the real problem is that Brianna’s personality and motivations change at the whims of the plot.
So Roger and Brianna end up in bed together, and Outlander takes its time with this and the rushed quasi-marriage ceremony between the two, lingering on their bodies and steeping in their carnal chemistry in an intimate style meant to evoke steamy romance. They’re generous lovers in bed, and they’re madly in love, too. But post-coital, things get off-kilter. Brianna slips into some virginal persona typical of mediocre romance tales where women worry that they didn’t satisfy the sexually seasoned men they sleep with (it was a lot more interesting when Outlander gender-flipped that convention and made Claire the more sexually experienced mentor to Jamie’s sex newbie status).
And then Outlander just replays the exact same rift between the two in a way that shows neither of them have changed or grown and merely reiterates just how unconvincing it was for Brianna to rapidly change her mind about marrying Roger earlier in the episode. Roger wants the concept of Brianna, and any time she shows any kind of agency, he freaks out. That was the case when he first asked her to marry him, and it’s the case here, too. He accidentally reveals that he also found out about her parents’ death and failed to warn her about it. He tries to defend his actions by saying that it isn’t up to them to alter history and decide who lives and who dies, but even he seems to know that’s a weak argument that strips her of the freedom to choose. When she accuses him of wanting her to be blissful for his own personal gain, he pretty immediately cops to it.