‘Outlander’ Recap: ‘The Company We Keep’ Finds Jamie and Claire Caught in Brown Family Drama

Andrea Reiher
·6 min read

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SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched the fourth episode of Season 5 of “Outlander,” entitled “The Company We Keep.”

After the horror show at the Beardsleys’ cabin in last week’s “Outlander” episode, Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and Jamie (Sam Heughan) found themselves heading out to rejoin the militia with an infant in tow. They caught up with Roger (Richard Rankin), Fergus (Cesar Domboy) and the rest of the men in Brownsville where all hell had broken loose.

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It all started because one of Jamie’s men, Isaiah Morton (Jon Tarcy), had an affair with Alicia Brown (Anna Burnett), the daughter of Lionel Brown (Ned Dennehy) and niece of Richard Brown (Chris Larkin), the men for whom Brownsville is named. Her father disapproved not only because Alicia and Isaiah weren’t married, but also because he lost out on the dowry her betrothed had promised the family.

So when Roger, Fergus, Isaiah and the militia came riding into town, Lionel and his men started shooting at them, demanding they turn Isaiah over for what he did to Lionel’s daughter. Roger tried to make peace by breaking out Jamie’s whiskey, but then he had to tell Lionel that his settlement was required to provide men to the militia. Lionel refused and said Roger was lucky his men hadn’t killed Isaiah for what he did.

So then Lionel refused to provide men to fight and still wanted to exact revenge on Isaiah, but Roger also managed to lose some of Jamie’s militia members in the process. They didn’t approve of him putting his weapon down and trying to reason with Lionel and they left. So things were in a fine state when Jamie and Claire finally arrived.

Roger filled Jamie in on what happened and Jamie wryly asked, “What were you going to do when the whiskey ran out?” Roger replied, “I was hoping you would arrive before then.”

Jamie gave Roger a bit of a dressing down at how he handled the situation, though it really seemed like Roger was doing his best. Anyway, Jamie insisted that Isaiah marry Alicia and that was when it came out that Isaiah was already married. Jamie dressed Isaiah down as well, but then he cut him loose and let him run off so that Lionel and his men wouldn’t kill him.

When Lionel’s men found out that Isaiah escaped, they wanted to hunt him down and kill him, but Jamie stopped them. He informed them that if they did find and kill Isaiah, Jamie and the militia would kill Lionel and his men as traitors to the Crown.

Eventually, Richard agreed to provide men for the militia and he and Jamie shook hands, but everything was very nearly derailed by Alicia and Isaiah once again.

Alicia confided to Claire that she was pregnant and Claire tried to reassure her that everything would be fine, but Alicia was so despondent at the loss of Isaiah and being with child that she tried to kill herself. Thankfully, she missed and only ended up shooting herself in the arm. Cue Isaiah’s return, where he told Jamie that he and his wife were so unhappy and he was in love with Alicia. Jamie brought Isaiah to her and the two of them ran away together in the wee hours of the morning while Jamie provided a distraction for Alicia’s family by turning their horses loose in the opposite direction from where Isaiah and Alicia fled.

While all this was going on with the Browns, Claire did manage to find a nursing mother, one of the Brown daughters named Lucinda (Muireann Brown), to help feed Fanny’s baby girl. As she recounted the story of how they came to have the baby, Claire found out that her “Dr. Rawling’s Guide” to basic hygiene and health care ended up getting published in the broadsheets. But hey, it couldn’t hurt to have more people be informed about safe medical practices.

Later, Alicia’s mother Meg (Sarah Belcher) informed Claire that Lucinda’s own baby was born premature and died, so she offered to have the Browns keep the baby and Claire agreed. But she swapped one problem for another when she found that Kezzie’s (Paul Gorman) tonsils were as infected as his brother’s tonsils were the previous week. He needed surgery, but Claire couldn’t perform it out in the field with no equipment or penicillin, so she and the twins set out to return to Fraser’s Ridge. Jamie told Roger he would be going with them as an escort.

Claire also had to tell Jamie about the arrangements she found for the baby. He was a little sad at first because this was his and Claire’s chance to raise a baby together, but he ultimately saw that leaving the baby with the Browns was the best solution.

Back at the Ridge, Brianna (Sophie Skelton) returned from a trip into town and found a coin inside Jemmy’s bassinet. Mrs. Bug (Sarah Collier) said it was an Irish man who came up and called Jemmy handsome, then gave him the coin. Bree’s visibly stiffened because she knew it was probably Stephen Bonnet (Ed Speleers) and she had everyone move into the big house so they would be safer while Jamie and Roger were away.

That night, Brianna couldn’t stop thinking about Bonnet. In a heart-stopping sequence, she went outside to get some wood and when she came back, Jemmy was gone. A panicked Bree ran around, calling for him, growing increasingly frightened and telling Marsali (Lauren Lyle) that “he took him.” Marsali, of course, had no idea who Bree was talking about and managed to find Jemmy hiding a cupboard.

She later asked Bree why she was so scared, telling Bree that she has heard Bree having nightmares at night. Bree tried to blow Marsali off at first, but Marsali opened up to her about how she used to pray every night that something terrible would happen to her father, who beat her and her mother and sister all the time. She felt like she killed him because she wished for it so hard to happen, but Brianna told her she didn’t kill him, which let Marsali turn around and say that thinking hard about something doesn’t make it true. It seemed to reassure Brianna, though Marsali didn’t really know the whole story here and Bree was probably right to be afraid of Bonnet.

“Outlander” airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on Starz.

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