Outlander Serves Up a Bear of an Episode with “Common Ground”

Watch our full video recap of this week’s Outlander in the clip below.

Another good week! I think Outlander is officially back on form.

Jamie has signed his allegiance to the Crown in exchange for 10,000 acres of land in North Carolina.

He is, again, not on the winning side of a revolution… But at least he has a homestead and a place to build his land.

Of course, that land has other claims: the Native Americans and, eventually, the United States government, after the American Revolution.

It’s odd to know that Claire and Jamie are well aware of these truths, yet they go ahead anyway. Carpe diem, I guess!

Back in the future, Roger is despondent and missing Bree. He just happens to see a listing for Fraser’s Ridge, and through further research finds that Jamie and Claire did end up together, so he calls to let Brianna know and she is thrilled. They talk, but not for long—and she never calls him back.

Ouch.

Claire is missing Brianna, too. Marsali is missing her mom during the end stages of her pregnancy and this makes Claire miss her own daughter. They can’t send a letter through time, but she goes on to Fraser’s Ridge with Jamie and Ian to start building their home.

This crew has an intense moment with the Cherokee pretty quickly after they settle, but it seems to resolve quickly and they go about their business, until a horse comes back with what looks like bear claws.

Jamie wants to make peace with the Native Americans and asks Meyers for help. He teaches him a phrase and offers to take a peace offering to the tribe in his name.

The family is now on high alert, but they continue living their lives, hunting, fishing, and shooting guns, things people still do in North Carolina… only nowadays, most people have access to indoor plumbing if they choose it!

But the fear of a bear attack on a person comes to fruition when Meyer comes back slashed to pieces. It is gruesome and awful. Thankfully, Claire is a doctor.

Then, Jamie gets his gun and goes after the bear that has almost killed his friend.

It’s very much like the first season when Dougal is out hunting and Geordie is killed by a wild boar. He does not rest until the boar is killed. It’s clear that this is a family tradition. Jamie gets into an altercation with the bear, but it turns out that the bear is a human dressed as a bear—and while he and Jamie are fighting, the episode cuts back to the tribe, and they appear to be involved in the killing somehow.

Jamie eventually kills the man in the bear costume with a stake to the heart. (Not a vampire. And also, wrong woods.)

He takes the body back to the tribe to let them know what happened, and they are pleased that Jamie killed this man who’d been kicked out of their tribe for rape and had subsequently lost his mind.

There is peace.

But Roger has no peace. He’s discovered that Bree’s parents die in a fire on Fraser’s Ridge. He wavers on whether to tell her the truth, but eventually calls her, only to find out that she has left Boston for Scotland to visit her parents. Two weeks ago.

That’s some kind of cliffhanger!

Keri is a professional chatterbox who loves watching TV & movies, reading about pop culture, and gawking at any craziness on the internet. You can follow Keri on Twitter.