‘Outlander’ 4×07 ‘Down the Rabbit Hole’ review: As luck would have it

 

week’s episode of Outlander gives us a bit of a reprieve of life in the colonies with Claire and Jamie and instead allows us to catch up with Brianna, Roger, and a few other familiar faces!

As much as we love seeing snapshots of Claire and Jamie’s domestic life out in Fraser’s Ridge, there’s no denying we were especially excited to check back in on both Brianna and Roger.

The last we saw of Brianna, she was making her way through the stones and back in time.

Episode 7 wastes no time in letting us know that she’s made it safely back to Jamie’s time. Just like Claire, she’s come prepared with a few necessities from home. (And we couldn’t help but notice she seems to be wearing the bracelet Roger gave her the night they fell out!)

For as much as Brianna clearly tried to prepare, it all goes belly up when she trips and twists her ankle.

Brianna may be determined to carry on despite her twisted ankle, but it soon becomes clear she’s no match for the elements — especially not with an injury.

Brianna passes out, but as luck would have it, she’s rescued off the side of the road by none other than Laogharie!

Laogharie is a pretty gracious host and insists that Brianna stay until she’s well enough to continue on her journey. It’s kind of nice to see a softer side of Laogharie — especially given that Claire specifically seems to bring out the worst in her.

Things between the two ladies don’t stay civil for long, though, because this is Outlander and the truth always comes out eventually.

Laogharie doesn’t take it well when she discovers exactly who Brianna is and all that bonding the pair have done thus far is quickly thrown out the window.

Shortly after she puts the pieces together, Laogharie decides to lock Brianna up with the intention of turning her over to the authorities on grounds of witchcraft. Guess if she couldn’t do away with Claire, doing away with Claire and Jamie’s daughter is the next best thing in Laogharie’s mind.

Lucky for Brianna, Laogharie isn’t the only one she’s been bonding with during her time with Jamie’s other family. Laogharie’s daughter, Joan, has taken a liking to Brianna during her time there and helps her escape to Lollybrach where she finally gets to properly meet Uncle Ian.

One person Brianna doesn’t get to meet, however, is her Aunt Jenny. It’s quite a shame that she’s away delivering a baby, as it would have been fun to see the pair interact!

Of course, Brianna doesn’t have too much time to get to know her ancestors. The clock is ticking and she’s on a mission to save her parents. Thankfully, with the help of Uncle Ian, she’s able to buy passage on a ship setting sail for the Colonies.

It also doesn’t go unnoticed that Uncle Ian advises her to ask for her Aunt Jocasta as soon as she arrives — does this mean Brianna may be making a pitstop in River Run before setting out to find her parents? Guess only time will tell!

One of my favorite parts of Brianna’s story over the course of this week’s episode of Outlander is the way it integrates flashbacks featuring her special bond with Frank.

Outlander fans flipped earlier this summer when a trailer for season 4 showed Brianna passing through the stones accompanied by the voice of Frank Randall.

We’ve always known that Brianna was closer to Frank than she was to Claire growing up. Though the show has highlighted their bond in the past, it was nice to get an even better feel for their special father-daughter connection over the course of episode 7.

It was also a really clever way of bringing actor Tobias Menzies back for season 4.

Menzies was an integral part of the first few seasons given his dual role of Frank and Black Jack. Both characters have since been killed off, but it was nice to see the series bring Menzies back in a way that really makes sense in terms of where the story is heading.

Presumably, if things go in Brianna’s favor, she’ll reach North Carolina in time and reunite with both Claire and Jamie.

With Brianna likely well on her way to meeting her biological father for the first time, it’s nice to have a better understanding of both her relationship with the man who raised her as his own, and how she’s been handling the death of Frank in the time that’s passed since he died.

Brianna isn’t the only one passing through the stones this episode. Roger follows right behind her — intent on finding the love of his life before any harm comes her way.

It’s safe to say he has his own stroke of bad luck as soon as he arrives at the nearest port, although it’s not necessarily apparent to him from the get-go.

As luck would have it, the ship Roger is hellbent on boarding in an effort to set sail to the Colonies belongs to none other than Stephen Bonnet.

Bonnet left a sour taste in the mouths of Outlander fans far and wide thanks to his explosive introduction during this season’s first episode.

Though we haven’t seen this season’s villain pop up again since the season 4 premiere, we’d do well to remember what actor Sam Heughan had to say about Bonnet when we caught up with him just before the hit series made its grand return to the small screen.

“[Stephen Bonnet] affects the whole Fraser family,” Heughan told Hypable when we caught up with the actor in L.A. this past November. “He has some dealings with all of them and becomes a real villain.” 

It seems as though Roger is next in line to get a taste for just how villainous Bonnet can be.

Things may start out all right for Roger as part of the crew, but Bonnet’s true colors come shining through not long after the ship sets sail.

Bonnet orders Roger to throw a child overboard when he realizes she has small pox. When Roger refuses, Bonnet does it himself.

Things between Roger and Bonnet really come to a head later in the episode after Roger helps a mother and her infant child hide deep in the bowels of the ship. When Bonnet finds out, he decides to let a coin toss decide Roger’s fate: heads he lives, tales he dies.

Lucky for Roger, the coin lands on heads and he lives to see another day. He’s also learned an incredibly valuable lesson: Bonnet is not to be messed with.

Unfortunately for Roger, it’ll be a while before the ship docks at the first port of its journey, so it’ll be interesting to find out if Roger decides to press his luck and stay on Bonnet’s ship, or if he decides to take a gamble and seek passage to the Colonies another way.

One thing we do know, however, is that Bonnet likely isn’t done wreaking havoc on Roger or the Frasers. The question now lies in when and how we’ll see him terrorize the rest of our favorite characters as the series goes on.

If Outlander the television show decides to stick to what happens in the books when it comes to Bonnet, it’s safe to say the worst is yet to come.