Outlander's Sophie Skelton and Richard Rankin have very different views on Roger’s ‘hesitation’
The two actors have reflected on Roger and Brianna's relationship ahead of Outlander season five
Outlander season four caused more than a bit of controversy when Roger (Richard Rankin) didn't return immediately to Brianna (Sophie Skelton) - and it turns out the cast are as equally divided...
In the show Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and Jamie (Sam Heughan) finally managed to catch up with Roger, who'd been captured by the Mohawk tribe. After eventually freeing him, they revealed that Brianna was pregnant - but that there could be no way to tell whether the baby was his or Stephen Bonnet's, who had raped Bree.
Roger told them he needed time, and they left without him, before later he finally turned up at Fraser's Ridge, ready to commit to his new family - but fans weren't happy about Roger making Brianna wait.
Speaking to RadioTimes.com, Sophie Skelton revealed that when she first read the season four scripts, she wasn't happy with Roger either.
"As Brianna I read it and like, wow Roger, that's really not cool," she said. "But I do also think she's an understanding person and think she has given Roger the opportunity to not come back. She has told her parents, please tell him so that he can make an educated informed decision as to whether he wants to be with me or not."
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She continued: "It's brutal really because the rape wasn't her fault, and their argument before it really depends - not that there's a side, they're both right and wrong... I don't think there's particularly a blame from Bree in terms of Roger leaving that night, but it did come from them kind of parting ways again and obviously then she ran into Bonnet that night, so for him to not even come back just to see if Bree's OK, for me is a little bit brutal. But at the same time I understand that, for him, that is a huge commitment and a huge thing."
However, Richard Rankin, who plays Roger in the time-travelling drama series, revealed that he is completely on his character's side, adding that some fans have taken his decision "the wrong way".
Speaking to RadioTimes.com about many viewers' anger towards Roger, he said he "did a lot of work on justifying the reasons for Roger's hesitation on coming back to the ridge".
"There was a portion of the fans that maybe took that [Roger's hesitation] the wrong way," he said. "And it wasn't really about deciding whether or not he loves Brianna, or deciding whether or not he's gonna come back to Brianna, he always was, it was always gonna happen, but a lot has changed.
"They've been separated for months, they've both been through a lot of trauma, he's just found out that she's been raped by Bonnet, he's just come out of being basically a prisoner of the Mohawk, and a lot of what happened and a lot of the catalyst for where they ended up, directly or indirectly, they'd had an effect on each other.
He continued: "There's been so much separation, they aren't gonna be the same people anymore. They aren't the same people anymore. So I think that hesitation of Roger's was probably misinterpreted in season four, but for me it was just him evaluating everything."
Outlander season 5 is set to air on Starz from Sunday 16th February, with each episode airing on Amazon Prime in the UK the day after its US release
