8. Episode 3: Giving Beardsley the choice
The Beardsley homestead is a dark and scary place. Beardsley was left paralyzed after suffering a stroke, which meant people would always have to look after him. That was definitely going to have to be the case when Claire would have to amputate his legs due to infection.
The other choice was killing him. Jamie made a note that it would be something he’d do for a dog. Why not a human? In Jamie’s mind, it was being humane, even though Beardsley may not have deserved it.
But Jamie wasn’t just going to kill the man. He wanted to give Beardsley the choice. It continues to show the level of humanity Jamie has, even to terrible people. There’s even a moment that Jamie offers Beardsley a chance to pray for forgiveness, which is turned down. It’s haunting and dark, but important for Jamie.
7. Episode 10: Allowing Roger to kill Bonnet
Throughout Outlander Season 5, we’d seen Jamie and Roger not manage to get along well. It wasn’t until after Alamance and the time with the snake that Jamie really saw a side to Roger that he respected and liked. And it all led to this moment on Episode 10.
Jamie, Roger, and Young Ian set a trap for Stephen Bonnet. As they waited, Roger made it clear that he wanted to be the one to kill Bonnet. Sure, Roger had never killed a man and he definitely wasn’t a great shot, but this was something Roger needed to do for Brianna. It was his kill.
Jamie respected that. And we saw it later in the episode when he went to Bree while Roger chased after Bonnet. Jamie knew that Roger needed to do this and was proud when Roger went through with knocking Bonnet out—leaving the kill to Brianna.