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Outlander Season 5 has just seen a major character death as the villain Stephen Bonnet (played by Ed Speelers) campaign of piracy came to an end.
In Episode 10 of the Starz show, titled "Mercy Shall Follow Me," he finally faced trial for his crimes and was found guilty. He was sentenced to death by drowning, but just as the water started to lap across his face Brianna (played by Sophie Skelton) shot and killed him, allowing her to kill the man who raped her.
According to Speelers, it was not his decision to leave the Starz series. Speaking to TVLine, he joked: "I was pretty p***** off...I'm not going to lie. I was on holiday with my family, with my young children. I was on a beach in Mallorca and I took a phone call saying, 'we need to get you in for certain tests and things, makeup tests.'
"I was like, 'What's this about?' 'You have a bullet wound to your head.' I said, 'What bullet wound to my head? Am I surviving this?' I then got a script, and I obviously wasn't."
In a way, the character was always bound to die in the TV version of the Diana Gabaldon books. In the sixth book in the series, titled A Breath of Snow and Ashes, Bonnet faces the same fate, with Brianna shooting him because she knows of his fear of drowning.
Speelers said of this, "a villain such as Stephen Bonnet, he doesn't make it in the books, and there's no way he's going to make it in the TV series. Deep down, I knew it was going to come at some point."
After Brianna kills Bonnet, Roger (Richard Rankin) asks her: "Was that mercy, or was it to make sure he's dead?" TV Guide put that question to actor Sophie Skelton, who said: "We'll never know why she did it. I don't even know if Brianna 100 percent knows why she did it.
"She could do it because she wants to make sure that's Bonnet is really dead...Part of it, I think, could just be revenge..,The third bit of it... there is a tiny bit of mercy in there."
Bonnet is not the only character to have died in the current season of the Starz show. Murtagh (Duncan Lacroix) also met his fate in Episode 7 after one of Jamie's (Sam Heughan) militia shot him. Murtagh did manage to survive the events that killed him in the book, but Season 5 saw him lose his life at the Battle of Alamance.
At the time, Lacroix wrote on Instagram: "Well those of you who have seen episode 7 know that it's the fondest of fond farewells from yours truly and this guy. My time on Outlander has been magical and I'll miss mixing it up with the cast and crew."
Speelers also posted on Instagram in the lead-up to Bonnet's death, though he was more coy about his character's fate. He wrote: "Apparently there's another #outlander episode on @starz and @amazonprimevideo this weekend. No idea if Stephen Bonnet is in it or not. If I was a betting man I'd say he wasn't but then I've always been a useless gambler. I do know he likes drinking flat whites out of compostable coffee cups. Do let me know if he ends up being on the tele this weekend."
With Bonnet dead, some of Season 5's major plot points are tied up, and River Run seems relatively safe for now. However, with two episodes of Outlander due before the season comes to an end, things are unlikely to stay calm for Jamie and Claire (Caitriona Balfe).
Outlander Season 5 airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on Starz.
