Outlander Season Premiere Review: The Fiery Cross (Season 5 Episode 1)

Where one Draughtlander ends, a wedding begins.

Outlander Season 5 Episode 1, “The Fiery Cross,” gives us the perfect excuse to celebrate this bonny cast of characters as they are with little to no interruptions.

But this is in no way history repeating itself. Outlander allows Brianna and Roger a wedding ceremony separate from the parallels of Jamie and Claire’s — yet can’t help making one very special call back to the moment our favourite Fraser’s tied the knot.

And really, can we blame them? Jamie and Claire ARE adorable.

There’s something fiery about the way Outlander quietly and confidently grabs ahold of this season by the shoulders. Claire and Jamie saunter back into our lives with their heads held high and their gazes set on being anything but unsure of this season’s direction.

Outlander may have years of source material ahead, but that doesn’t mean this series is immune to the difficulties of a sophomore TV show. Five seasons is a great accomplishment, but it is also an important turning point for this series as it bocks at what many other series would consider the finish line.

It is incredibly rare to see a show be this sure of itself after years of fighting, muddling, and cuddling its way through the highs and lows of a time-travelling love story.

And yet here Outlander stands once again, at the top of Fraser’s Ridge looking pretty darn smug.

Some of us may still be wary of Brianna and Roger rushing into marriage after a less than flattering dating experience. None the less, their wedding is brimming with many wonderful moments worth celebrating.

Not only do these newlyweds infuses fun aspects of time-travel into this traditional celebration with their modern-day slang and dance, but they show us a much stronger unified couple than the one we were introduced to last season.

Roger will have an interesting arc this season as he struggles to find a way to provide for his family in a world he is not meant to survive in. But it is Brianna and the lingering damage of being raped by Bonnet that shows the most potential for this series going forward.

Thankfully Brianna’s strong performance as a woman dealing silently with her PTSD is mirrored beautifully by supportive scenes between her and her parents on a day they have all dreamed of, but never thought would happen.

In many ways, this ceremony marks the passing of torches from our core couple to the next generation of characters.

Despite much of this episode revolving around the festivities of Brianna and Roger’s wedding, “The Fiery Cross” does not lose sight of the importance of our original protagonists, Claire and Jamie.

The biggest fault of Outlander’s fourth season was its inability to keep track of the couple in this new world. This time around, Jamie and Claire are front and center as they find peace in knowing they have found a home they are prepared to fight for.

There is lots of promising content coming our way this season too in the form of Claire’s walk-in clinic and Jamie’s determination to make Roger a man of the 18th century — even if he is a protestant.

It’s not often we get to see what characters get up to after the happily ever after, but Claire and Jamie’s story now very much hinges on the reality of their relationship after the fact. This is precisely why I am excited to see this couple, confident in their love for each other, conquer the world as the two headstrong grandparents they are.

Claire and Jamie are the two standing stones for which this entire series revolves around and this premiere solidifies that by giving us back the most passionate parts of their dynamic.

This is not the first time Murtagh and Jamie have emotionally gutted us, and it certainly won’t be the last time. Outlander has made sure of that by putting Jamie on the wrong side of a war he must help win.

Jamie’s decision to send Murtagh away before he is forced to do the unspeakable is a powerful move that extracts all the right emotions from the audience and covers up the beginnings of a much larger misstep.

The flashback to a younger Murtagh swearing an oath to never leave Jamie’s side does its job well and ensures us that this diversion from the source material has always had a clear path to success — even when it clearly did not.

The idea of having Murtagh as an occasional guest star is one I can get behind if it means he is safe from a stumbling narrative. However, one has to hope Outlander didn’t go to all this trouble to keep our favourite Scot around just to have him meet the same fate later on — and at the hands of Jamie no less.

The thought of gathering everyone in one place for a celebration could easily have been a recipe for disaster. Instead, this character-heavy premiere showcases the best of this ensemble cast.

Jocasta may not have her sight, but she still has all the sass she needs to be the MVP of this episode. From breaking hearts to playing integrate mind games, this woman does it all with careful footing and a secret passion for drama you can’t help but admire.

Marsali rightfully declares herself the queen of drinking games and Lord John Grey couldn’t be more relatable if he tried as he spends his night by the fire with the happy drunks while everyone else is off fornicating.

That’s not including all the promising character teases this episode slips in for Lizzie and the twins, along with the band of fresh-faced soldiers flocking to Jamie’s side. A whole new cast of characters is coming our way and Outlander is once again prepared to make us fall in love with each and every one of them.

This momentous premiere does everything it can to showcase the scene we’ve all been waiting for — the return of Jamie’s kilt. Oh sorry, I mean the wedding…

But let’s be honest with ourselves. Jamie, king of men and of kilts, has returned to his rightful place next to that fiery cross.

Outlander welcomes us back into the Frasers’ lives with class, charisma, and a lavish wedding for the ages. These grand festivities mark the first time these outlanders don’t feel out of place in their story or on our screens. No, they feel right at home this time around.

If only every series could look as good as Outlander does rising from the ashes of that fiery cross to claim its rightful spot at the top.

What did you think of this episode of Outlander? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Outlander airs Sundays at 9/8c on Starz.

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