Outlander season 4 episode 1 top actor: Ed Speleers’ terrifying debut
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For the premiere episode entitled “America the Beautiful,” we are steering in a direction that we did not expect here in Ed Speleers as Stephen Bonnet. Note that this is not the “Character We Would Most Like To Spend Time With” weekly article series. Bonnet is a despicable man and he’s shown that. Yet, a part of Speleers’ strength is making him so vile.
Entering this series, admittedly we did not have too much knowledge of Ed’s work beyond his time on Downton Abbey. It was hard to know if he would be able to bring this sinister figure to the scree, but he did so masterfully. The challenge with Bonnet is that he can make himself appear as though he is not malevolent at all — mostly misunderstood instead. He possesses that unique ability to alternate from one emotion to the next depending on who he was around. When he was with Claire and Jamie at Hayes’ grave-site, he was able to present himself as charming, introspective, and someone who was close to him and worthy of a chance. He made the Frasers want to believe in his good intentions. Speleers played those scenes perfectly in that for a split second, maybe you didn’t want to think that he was so awful. Even for someone who is aware of some of his future acts on this series, they want you to at least temporarily think that he’s someone different than he is.
Then, when you saw him at the end, his true nature came out — violent, brutal, terrible, and sadistic. This is not a man you want to be around, and the way in which he acted was utterly relentless and without remorse. He may not have killed Jamie and Claire, but he certainly devastated the two and left them without many of their sources of income.
With both his range and the way that he carried himself within this role, Speleers was spectacular. Every good hero needs a great villain, and Outlander season 4 is well on its way towards having one.
Related News – If you want to preview the next new episode of Outlander, you can see that over at the link here
Who did you think was the top performer from the Outlander season 4 premiere? Be sure to share right now in the attached comments. (Photo: Starz.)