Outlander season 5: How could Stephen Bonnet come back?

For this particular Outlander season 5 piece, we’re talking about an important subject, but not necessarily a popular one — Stephen Bonnet. Ed Speleers’ character is the cockroach for the series in some ways — you may want him gone, but you can’t get rid of him and nothing seems to kill him off. He’s a loathsome figure, and the credit must go to Speleers himself for doing such a brilliant job. He makes him so vile, and it was always the intention for him to be the most notorious Outlander villain since Black Jack Randall perished at the start of season 3.

If you missed our most-recent Outlander video… – Take a look at the bottom of this article for some more thoughts about how Jamie can be used moving forward! For more subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube, and be sure to check out our Outlander playlist. You don’t want to miss any of our updates.

When thinking about the return of Bonnet moving forward, the series is in a somewhat-interesting spot. While we may not be a book reader, we’ve done enough research to know that the end of his story in Drums of Autumn is rather different than what it was in season 4. Within the series, his fate is a little bit more ambiguous. (Book spoilers ahead.) We know that Stephen does stick around in the books for some time, so the presumption is that you find a way to bring that character back on season 5 or beyond. The question that goes along with that, though, is simply this: When do you do this? When do you throw these characters back into darkness?

If we were an Outlander writer, we wouldn’t have him rear his head, much to the horror or everyone, too soon. Brianna and Roger just were reunited, and presumably, they’re going to have a little bit of time to be together and happy. They have issues to work through (they really haven’t been together for an extended period of time), but they should have an opportunity to do just that. We also don’t know why Bonnet would want to seek them out at first, given that he has to realize that most everyone around Bree wants him dead. There would need to be a special circumstance for it to happen, and it would need to be a return that makes a certain degree of sense.

When would we reintroduce the character?

Not until episode 4 of season 5, at the earliest. We understand that bringing him back could be essential to the story, and that many epic stories do need their villains. We’re just not the sort of person who wants to see the story driven entirely by Brianna forced into a traumatic position. There are victories and brief moments to smile she should have. She should get an opportunity to learn a little bit more about herself and how to live in this world.

So of course, bring back Bonnet to keep this story going — plus, we do want to see this guy get consequences and we don’t think that escaping from prison is a worthy fate for him. Just don’t rush it when we all need a bit of an emotional break.

Check out some recent Outlander perspectives results

Check out the link here to see where storyline fans of the show wanted to see a little bit more of. Remember, season 5 probably won’t premiere until 2020, but it’s too early to know this for sure.

When would you throw Stephen Bonnet back into the Outlander world? Be sure to share now in the comments. (Photo: Starz.)