Outlander season 5 episode 8: Who was the surprise return?

Outlander season 5

Outlander season 5 episode 8 teased a surprise return in advance of it airing on Starz, and the end result was very satisfying.

We’ll admit that going into the episode, we had assumed that the surprise visit was going to be Lord John Grey, who arrived back in Fraser’s Ridge for the purpose of telling Brianna and Roger about the land offer. Consider this Governor Tryon trying to find a way to “apologize” for the guy being hanged and almost dying.

Yet, the big surprise came in the return of Young Ian Murray to the show, who came back after a long time at the Mohawk village. It was clear soon upon his arrival that this was not the same iteration of Young Ian that we’d seen in the past, as he had gone through a lot and was suffering. We didn’t find out until close to the end of the episode some of what he’d gone through. He’d loved a woman, but something happened along the way. He’s now gone from her, stranded from the Mohawk, and back at Fraser’s Ridge to stay.

Or … is it? There was an attempt upon his own life and with that, it was up to Roger to wake up from his own spell of silence in order to save him. This was a powerful moment in this episode, as it allowed Roger to understand more of his own place within the world. Beyond just that, it also gave us a prime opportunity to see how Ian is going to be going on his own journey through the next few episodes, one where we can get a little bit more information on what seems to be very much a broken love story.

In the end, there are reasons to hope for Young Ian, mostly because there are reasons to hope for everyone. We don’t think that Outlander is necessarily out to destroy Young Ian for good.

What did you think about the events of Outlander season 5 episode 8?

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Photo: Starz

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