How Outlander season 4 is tackling Stephen Bonnet – Brianna scene
(Warning: There are book spoilers ahead.)
In the book Drums of Autumn one of the most important moments of it is Bonnet’s rape of Claire and Jamie Fraser’s daughter. Potentially as a result of this move Brianna then becomes pregnant, and his specter remains on the series even when he is not physically there. It is a grotesque, but necessary, moment in the story of Bree’s struggle and realization of the brutality of this world. Rape unfortunately remains prevalent in the 1960’s, but the era of the 18th century is even more lawless and often disrespectful towards women.
There are a number of important quotes worth reading over at The Hollywood Reporter that look to frame this particular scene within the Me Too era, but we don’t necessarily think that the presentation of it will be altogether different than anything that has been seen so far. The act of rape is horrible — the series has presented that before and will likely present that again. It is also deeply psychological and traumatic. There are few scenes where that is reflected more than in the final episodes of season 1 where Jamie is abused sexually by Black Jack Randall. These are all moments that, while gut-wrenching to watch, were played in the proper fashion on the show. They were garish and jarring, but they were also meant to be. They were not meant to be exploitative or for shock value; they were not heavily promoted or made out to be huge, shocking moments within the story. Outlander does not have to change much because, at least in our opinion, they have always tried to handle the delicate subject in the proper way. If they minimize the act they minimize its impact in life; luckily, they haven’t done that.
Maybe there is a case somewhere for changing the material so that some of the rougher moments are watered down, but that doesn’t feel as though you are doing right by the source material. If you want to properly understand the struggles of some of these characters you need to show it, for better or for worse. You need to show how horrifying the situation is — you don’t want to linger on it for so long that it becomes traumatic to watch, but it also cannot be pushed to the side.
There will probably be harsh reactions to the Brianna – Bonnet moment no matter how it is played on Outlander, but so long as they prepare for it as best they can, they should be prepared for whatever reaction comes their way.
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