Happy Castaversary: Why Richard Rankin makes such a great Roger

STARZ first announced that Richard Rankin would be playing Roger on Dec.14, 2015

Today we celebrate the five-year casting anniversary (“castaversary”) of Richard Rankin as Roger MacKenzie Wakefield on Outlander.  We think that Richard was the perfect choice for the role so we’re going to take a look at some of his best moments on the show.

Richard Rankin is a multi-talented guy.  He’s a great photographer.  He’s a gamer.  He sings and plays guitar, and he is one fine actor.

Roger has undergone a serious transformation since his debut in Outlander.  The reluctant warrior Roger Mac at the end of Season 5 is almost unrecognizable from the mild-mannered professor Roger Wakefield we met in Season 2, Episode 13.  Admittedly, the writers have not always been kind to Roger, especially in Season 4, but Richard has skillfully played what he’s been given and created a complex and nuanced character.

Richard Rankin makes Roger’s transformation believable and somewhat heart-breaking

When we first meet Roger Wakefield, he’s an unassuming history professor with puppy-dog eyes for Miss Brianna Randall.  He’s funny and charming and knows when to fetch a dram of whisky.  He’s a bit of a geek, but his intelligence is clear as he helps Claire to track down Jamie Fraser’s whereabouts after surviving the Battle of Culloden.  “He’s a good one,” Claire tells her daughter before leaving her to return to the past.

The early days of Roger and Bree’s relationship were condensed in the show, but his performance at the Scottish festival gives us a moment of calm before the storm to see Bree falling for him.  We get to see a more romantic side to him, and despite the crowd he only has eyes for Brianna.

After this he proposes, and they have a nasty fight.  He follows her through the stones, and they handfast but fight again.  Then, he’s beat up by Jamie and sold to the Mohawk by Young Ian.

“Providence” is one of Richard’s finest acting moments.  After all he’s been through, he’s a man at the end of his rope – more on that later.  He can see he’s been an idiot and is ready to give up on love.  He’s ready to focus on number one, but when he’s free again and comes to a point of decision, he can’t do it.  His selflessness drives him to turn back and put an end to Father Alexandre’s torture.

In the next episode, Roger is saved from the Mohawk, thanks to Young Ian’s decision to stay with them, but receives the shocking news that Brianna has been raped and that her baby might be the result of that attack.  The look on Richard’s face just breaks your heart.  He needs a moment, but he goes back to Bree and wastes very little time before asking to see “his” son.

You would think that Roger had been through enough for a lifetime, but in Season 5 he is hanged on suspicion of being a Regulator.  Claire manages to save his life, but in “Famous Last Words” he is a changed man once again, “drowning in silence.”  Rankin’s performance in this whole episode is a tour de force.  He is silent for the majority of the episode but manages to say so much.

Roger’s embrace with Young Ian after he returns is one of my favorite moments in the series.  You can see the depth of his gratitude warring with his inability to express it, yet it all comes through.  His struggle to sing a bit of “Clementine” is heartbreaking.

As he tells Brianna at the end, “Everybody wants the old Roger back.  I’ll never be that man again.  I have changed.”  Richard earned every moment of that transformation for his character.

Towards the end of Season 5, things were looking up for Roger.  He finally started to bond with Jamie and came to the realization that Fraser’s Ridge was his home.  I look forward to seeing what Season 6 brings for him.

What are your favorite Roger Mac moments?  Let us know in the comments below.

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