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SPOILER WARNING
This page contains MAJOR SPOILERS about Roger MacKenzie from the Outlander book series, which may not yet have aired in the TV series. Read at your own peril!
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Roger Wakefield MacKenzie is the adopted son of the Reverend Reginald Wakefield. His birth parents were killed during World War II; his father's plane went down and his mother was killed in the London Blitz. By 1968, he was an Oxford don and one of the youngest professors at the university. His life changes forever on the day that Dr. Claire Randall and her daughter, Brianna, arrive on his doorstep with a research project concerning a group of Highlanders during the Jacobite Rising of 1745.

Personal History[]

Roger was born in Kyle of Lochalsh to Marjorie and Jeremiah ("Jerry") MacKenzie around 1940-41. His father left to serve in the Royal Air Force during the war, and died when his plane reportedly went down over the English Channel in October 1941. A few years later, Marjorie MacKenzie was killed when a tube station collapsed in London during the Blitz, and the orphaned Roger was taken in by his maternal great-uncle, the Reverend Reginald Wakefield, who raised Roger with the help of his housekeeper, Mrs. Graham. His childhood in Inverness as the minister's son was fraught with the usual schoolyard rebellions, and in his teenage years he spent summers working on a herring boat in the Minch, where he learned to speak Gaelic from the fishermen.

All his life Roger had believed that his father, a Spitfire pilot, had been shot down over the English Channel; however, years later Claire advises him that Spitfire pilots never flew over the Channel, and that she recalled Frank mentioning the strange occurrence of a pilot missing from a plane crash site in Northumbria – and that the name Jeremiah had a certain doom about it. Claire reminds Roger that there are stone circles all over Northumbria, and that, in combination with Jerry's disappearance on Samhain, could mean that he became an accidental time traveler.

Roger's ability to travel through the stone circles seems to be hereditary, passed down from his ancestress Geillis Duncan, who had borne an illegitimate son by Dougal MacKenzie. The child was adopted into another MacKenzie family after his birth and became William Buccleigh MacKenzie, also a traveler, and Roger's grandfather some six times over.

Events of the Novels[]

Outlander[]

Roger is introduced as the Reverend Reginald Wakefield's adopted son, orphaned at a young age after both of his parents perished during the war. The Reverend is actually Roger's mother's uncle. Roger's presence inspires a discussion between Claire and Frank Randall about adopting children.

Dragonfly in Amber[]

Roger is in the middle of sorting through his recently deceased adoptive father's estate, when Dr. Claire Randall and her daughter, Brianna, arrive at his door in Inverness in 1968. While ostensibly in Scotland to do sightseeing, Claire asks Roger about a list of men who fought at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, and wants to know if any of them survived.

Glad to have a distraction from sorting through all the late Reverend's books, papers, and other belongings – and rather taken with Brianna Randall – Roger agrees to look into Claire's query. Still, he can't shake the impression that Claire Randall is holding back more than she is letting on about her research request. Claire also tells Roger and Brianna about the time 20-odd years before that she and Frank watched a local group of self-styled druids dance on the fairy hill of Craigh na Dun, and asks Roger if the late Mrs. Graham has any family who might be available for Claire to talk to. Roger says there's a granddaughter, Fiona Graham, who took over at the manse after her grandmother passed.

When Roger mentions possibly stopping by the stone circle on a trip to Broch Tuarach, Claire knocks over a glass of whisky, spilling it on Roger's trousers. After a tense moment of allowing Brianna to pat him down with napkins, Roger has the strange notion that Claire might have knocked the glass over on purpose.

Roger continues to be distracted from cleaning up the manse, wishing to dig into Claire's research project, though not so much for the project itself, than that he might use it as an excuse to see Brianna Randall again. He decides to visit Culloden House the next day.

The question of Claire's list of men at Culloden grows ever more curious after Roger finds puzzling inconsistencies regarding the men of Broch Tuarach, as well as the usual difficulties of finding a specific person in the historical record among countless others with the same name. Certain that Claire had deliberately prevented him from inviting Brianna to join him on his trip to Broch Tuarach, Roger has a historian's urge to find out what exactly is going on with Dr. Randall and this project, as well as a keen personal interest in seeing Brianna again.

In pursuit of more leads, Roger travels to Edinburgh with just one clue: the name Captain James Fraser, which had not appeared on Claire's list but had linked the thirty Broch Tuarach men to the Frasers of Lovat. When he returns and shares his findings with Claire – the fates of several of the men on her list, but not all – she is excited to hear what he's found, but after they and Brianna have enjoyed a tea of cake and whisky, Claire makes an odd request to Roger while Brianna is out of the room: that he not take Brianna to the stone circle at Craigh na Dun, and that he not mention the name Jamie Fraser to Brianna.

That night, Roger is kept awake by Brianna's promise to do field research with him, so he decides to go through the Reverend's papers, believing this will help him fall asleep, for sure. Briefly distracted by the unwanted attention of Fiona, Roger finds an old newspaper clipping detailing Claire Randall's return in 1948, after having mysteriously disappeared three years[3] before that. Roger recalls an offhand comment Claire made earlier about Brianna's age, and he realizes that not only did Claire reappear after being presumed dead, but she had also returned pregnant. Frank Randall was not Brianna's biological father.

Plagued the next day by speculation about what Claire might mean to do about revealing Brianna's true paternity, and whether the father, presumably a Scotsman, might still live in the area, Roger begins to wonder – and dread – what his role in the whole affair might ultimately be.

Roger takes Brianna for a tour of Culloden, where he tells her about the Duke of Cumberland and Bonnie Prince Charlie, and they share a walk across Culloden Moor, viewing the clan stones and the bits of heather left by visitors as tokens of remembrance. At the end of their day, Brianna asks if she can help with more of the dirty work of his research, adding on that maybe Claire will join them. Roger agrees to give Brianna more work to do, but privately prefers that Claire not join them, knowing now what he does about Claire's past.

Brianna comes alone the next day, though, and they get to work going through the Reverend's boxes upon boxes of stuff stored in the garage. They come across a box labeled "RANDALL", and Roger offers it to Brianna to take back to the bed and breakfast with her, to show Claire. Just before she leaves with it, though, Roger takes out one of the Reverend's journals, wondering why it was stuck in the box.

Later, when Roger has time to sit down and page through the journal, he reads the entries the Reverend made about Frank and Claire Randall in May 1948. The Reverend laments the hardship of Claire's return on both her and Frank, and gives spare details on visiting with them. The journal also references a request Frank makes to the Reverend before he takes Claire back to London with him: to find out about Jonathan Randall, Frank's ancestor, and James Fraser, both of the 18th century. The Reverend notes that he can't figure what these men of centuries past could have to do with the Randalls' current situation, and neither can Roger – quite. Although he knows about a Captain James Fraser, whom Claire had informed him definitely died at Culloden, Roger can't see what this could have to do with Brianna's parentage. One final entry from June 1948 intimates that the Reverend had found Jonathan Randall's grave at St. Kilda.

Roger invites Brianna and Claire to join him on a visit to St. Kilda; Roger told Brianna about Jonathan Randall's headstone being there, which Brianna holds off as a surprise for Claire. When they eventually find it, Claire is shocked. Her reaction disturbs Roger, as she seems to become angry, then resumes her composure as though closing off strong emotions she let loose so briefly. After Claire insists they go on ahead into the church while she sits in the shade of a tree, Roger shows Brianna the church building. Once inside and feeling intensely drawn to her, he impulsively kisses her. Roger tries to hold onto the feeling of the moment, but suddenly the silence is shattered by the sound of a woman's scream. They rush outside to find Claire, pale and appearing highly disturbed by something. Roger watches as Claire caresses the name and inscription on a headstone: "JAMES ALEXANDER MALCOLM MACKENZIE FRASER – BELOVED HUSBAND OF CLAIRE". Roger asks if she knows the name, and Claire tells them that she is Claire, James Fraser was her husband – and Brianna's father.

They take Claire back to the manse, where she rejects their offer of water and suggestion that she's taken ill from sun exposure. Claire begins to tell them about the stone circle on Craigh na Dun, and while Brianna still insists on getting help for Claire, Roger becomes cautiously interested in what she has to say. Claire tells them about going through the stones, meeting Jamie and the band of Highlanders, men of the MacKenzies of Leoch; she explains that she married Jamie to escape Black Jack Randall, but ended up falling in love with Jamie, and when she had the opportunity to return to her own time, she couldn't bring herself to leave him; how Jamie had fallen back into Randall's clutches during their brief time at Lallybroch, and she'd saved him from hanging to death, but not before Randall had had his way with Jamie; how they had escaped to France, and traveled to Paris to try and dissuade Charles Stuart of his doomed plans for restoring the Catholic king to the throne. She tells them the whole story of their time in Paris, then later back in Scotland, how they failed to prevent the Rising and how Jamie had sent her back through the stones, to protect her and their unborn child from imminent destruction on the eve of the battle.

Upon finishing her incredible story, Claire doesn't have to wait long for a reaction from her audience: Brianna, enraged that her mother would spin such a tale on top of telling her that Frank Randall wasn't her real father, throws a fire iron through a window. Roger, however, remains thoughtfully quiet after Brianna storms out. He wants to believe, but hasn't quite got there yet. He asks to see Claire's wedding ring, the silver one with the Highland interlace pattern, and at his request she takes it off for the first time in twenty years. They are both stunned to see a tiny phrase engraved on the inside of the ring: Da mi basia mille – "Give me a thousand kisses". It is Claire's patently shocked reaction that seals the deal for Roger; he believes her.

After Roger tells Claire what became of the various Jacobite players she had known in the eighteenth century, they go for a walk and philosophize about changing the course of history, and the relics that remain hundreds of years later. When they return to the manse, Claire broaches an unexpected subject with Roger: Geillis Duncan, who had borne an illegitimate son by Dougal MacKenzie, is Roger's ancestor, and Claire believes she hasn't yet traveled back into the past. She explains that she felt compelled to tell Roger, so that he might decide what to do: should he find Geillis, and warn her that she would meet her death in the past, or would doing so effectively erase Roger's very existence?

Roger decides to look for Geillis, or Gillian Edgars as she is known by in 1968. He and Claire visit Gillian's home, but find only an irritable husband who refuses to talk to them, and so they move on to the Institute for the Study of Highland Folklore and Antiquities, where Gillian attended classes. They learn about Gillian's personality from the director of the Institute, who uses the words "intense" and "obsessive" to describe her interest in standing stone circles.

That night, Roger takes Brianna out for dinner and then back to the Edgars' house, testing Claire's suggestion that perhaps Greg Edgars might convince Brianna of the truth to Claire's story. As Roger draws information out of Edgars about Gillian's activities and whereabouts, Brianna begins to suspect that he's up to something. After they leave, she confronts him, and he tells her about Geillis/Gillian being his ancestor. While Brianna is still reluctant to entertain the main points of her mother's story, she agrees to think about Roger's situation, for his sake.

After Claire returns from the Institute, from which she stole Gillian Edgars' notebook, the three decide to go Craigh na Dun on the eve of Beltane, believing that Gillian would choose that night to make her journey to the past. They climb the hill to find Gillian there just as a huge fire ignites, blinding them as Claire cries Gillian's name. Fearing pursuit, Gillian hurries toward the cleft stone, and vanishes through it. Roger, Brianna and Claire all experience the terrible effect of the stones on those that can hear them, the stink of petrol and roasting human remains thick in the air. As Roger comes to, he finds Brianna beside him, weeping with the aftershocks of terror. They panic for a moment looking for Claire, but they find her, lying insensible in the grass nearby. Roger carries her back to the car, and Brianna drives them back to the manse.

When Claire comes to, Brianna, knowing what the answer will be, asks if her story was really true, and Roger thinks of the Bible verse: "Blessed are those who have not seen, and have believed."

The following evening, Roger comes to a decision about something, and tells Claire that he has found something. He proceeds to read a passage in a book that describes one officer of the Fraser of Lovat's regiment who escaped the slaughter after the battle at Culloden, and states his belief that that man was Jamie Fraser.

Voyager[]

Roger, Claire, and Brianna search for clues in the historical record about what really happened to Jamie Fraser.

Drums of Autumn[]

The attraction between Roger and Brianna grows, but Brianna's loss of her mother and the revelations about her own true origins complicates her relationship with Roger. After months with hardly a word from Brianna, Roger discovers that she has gone through the stones on Craigh na Dun to find her parents, and warn them about an horrifying news story from 1776. Roger follows her into the past, and eventually meets Jamie Fraser himself, though it doesn't happen at all like he imagined.

The Fiery Cross[]

Having decided to stay in the past with Brianna and their child, Roger tries to find his place on Fraser's Ridge—as a husband, as a son-in-law, and as a trained scholar and musician suddenly thrust into a daily life of farming and hunting in the backcountry of North Carolina.

A Breath of Snow and Ashes[]

Roger is still adjusting to the loss of his voice and finds himself on a spiritual journey that is at once unexpected and completely natural.

An Echo in the Bone[]

Having returned to the 20th century for the sake of his daughter and family, Roger once again struggles with his identity and place in his new circumstances. He also encounters an old acquaintance, whose unexpected appearance, as well as some mislaid papers about time traveling, sets Roger and family on a course which may have heartbreaking, irreversible consequences.

Written in My Own Heart's Blood[]

As Roger and Buck search the past for Jem, they meet a few people along the way whose reputations precede them: Brian Fraser, alive, though already a widower; a young Jenny Fraser; the newly instated commander of the garrison at Fort William, Captain Jonathan Randall; and Geillis Duncan, the wife of the procurator fiscal in Cranesmuir.

Events of the Show[]

Roger MacKenzie is introduced as a young child flying a toy airplane around the house of the Reverend in the 1940s-50s. After 20 years, he returns to the show as a grown man who develops an attraction to the visiting Brianna Fraser. After Claire Fraser returns to Jamie in his time, Bree and Roger visit each other and call one another every once in a while. Roger proposes and Brianna tells him that she can't marry him so early in a relationship. He takes this as a solid rejection and leaves.

Bree goes to find her mother to warn her of their impending deaths at Fraser's Ridge and leaves a note at the inn at Inverness she stayed at. She directed the innkeeper to only give the letter to Roger after a year. He found the inn ten days after Brianna left it, and the innkeeper gave him the letter reluctantly. Roger raced to Craigh na Dun and followed Bree 200 years in the past.

After a long journey and half a ship ride with one Stephen Bonnet, he arrives in Wilmington, where he sees his future wife in a tavern. Roger aggressively brings her outside, while Lizzie watches on. Bree and Roger leave for an abandoned building (that resembles a shed) where they are handfast, and then they consummate the Scottish tradition. After having sex, Roger and Bree get into a fight and Bree tells Roger to go back to his time. Roger exits, but returns later because he is an "idiot". The same day, Brianna is raped by Stephen Bonnet.

After being threatened by Bonnet to stay on the ship to fulfill his contract, Roger returns to the murdering rapists ship to complete his payment. He requests to be paid in a tiny gemstone rather than with the 12 pounds he was owed. Bonnet agrees, and Roger leaves to go find Bree again.

When he comes to Fraser's Ridge, he is met by Lizzie, who currently believes that Roger was Brianna's attacker. The maid reports this information to Jamie, who then proceeds to beat him nearly to death and order Ian to sell him to the Mohawks. When the entire misunderstanding is sorted out, Brianna is furious with Jamie and Ian (oddly, she is not very angry with Lizzie) and Jamie vows to track down Roger. Claire and Ian accompany him as Brianna cannot go for she is pregnant.

Roger is forced to march from North Carolina to upstate New York, when he meets another captive named Clyde. Clyde is missing two fingers and wearing a unique waistcoat. As he is being dragged, he becomes dehydrated and dies. Roger is brought to the Mohawk camp, where he is thrust into a gauntlet. He cannot make his way through and becomes a prisoner where he meets Father Alexandre Ferigault.

The priest tells him how he fell in love with a Mohawk woman and she had a child. When the priest refused to baptize his child as to not condemn him to a death in hell by being baptized by a sinful priest, the Mohawks condemned the priest. He was to die by having his feet burned until he died. He told of one individual that lasted three days. Roger did a speech in their prisoners hut about how he is an idiot for going after Bree and needs to look out for "number 1" and the priest should do the same. They dig a hole under the hut to escape, but it is not finished by the time the priest is forced to be tied onto the pyre.

The priest is taken, and Roger escapes only to hear his screams many yards away. He turns back and throws a barrel of mead into the fire to make the death quick. Johiehon, the mother of the priest's child leaps onto the pyre to burn with the man she loves. The Mohawk slave trader is astonished and angry at both Roger's escape and the woman's passion. He takes Roger back to the hut and locks him away.

Jamie finds The Mohawk town and offers to trade for the Roger, nicknamed "Dogface". At first, they seem willing, but then Claire reveals a blackish blue stone around her neck. The village refuses to trade and the Frasers are sent from the village. A small rebellion meets up with Claire, Jamie, and Ian, and tells them the story of the stone (essentially, it can supposedly tell the tribe of their own future). At the conclusion, they offer to help release Roger on the condition that they get the stone.

The group infiltrates the town but are caught by a Mohawk who fires a rifle as an alarm. The group is immediately surrounded by Mohawk Indians and taken. The intra-tribe rebellion is punished, and Jamie, Claire, and Ian are freed but they refuse to leave without Roger. Jamie surrenders himself and tells Ian to communicate it to the Chief. Ian secretly volunteers himself in trade, and it is accepted. Jamie tells him he is worthy and they have a teary moment and Roger is released.

At the camp just outside the town, Roger punches Jamie repeatedly and Jamie says that he deserves it. Then, Jamie gets pissed at Roger's abandonment of his daughter and stops Roger from his attack. Roger tells him about how he found another time traveling outcropping between North Carolina and New York. Jamie and Claire tell Roger everything about how Bree's child may be Bonnet's. Roger says he "needs time to think" and takes off. Jamie and Claire angrily return to River Run to tell Bree, and her newborn son the news. Brianna is heartbroken, but a few minutes after, Roger comes riding up and holds Brianna and meets what he referred to as "his son".


Personality[]

And if Roger found himself now bard to a displaced Highland chieftain, still he must try also to be a warrior when the time came, for the sake of his son, and those who would come after.


Though he grew up in a loving home, raised by his mother's bachelor uncle and his housekeeper, the early loss of both his parents and lack of any other kin well into adulthood effected in Roger a profound longing for family. He is compassionate to a fault, in that a well-meant gesture on his part is sometimes interpreted as overly familiar or inappropriate. Generally good-humored and relaxed, with a mischievous sense of humor, Roger rouses to anger more slowly than his Fraser relatives, though he can reach a fury no less formidable should the situation call for it.

With a background in history, Roger has a scholar's "insatiable, amoral curiosity"[4] which he carries with him when he goes through the stones to the 18th century. He is also passionate about music, particularly Scottish folksongs and Gaelic hymns.

Physical Appearance[]

Roger is a tall man at 6 ft 3 in (190 cm), with a dark complexion, or what Claire would describe as a "Black Celt" – olive-skinned, with thick black hair and lashes.[5] His eyes, inherited from his ancestress Geillis Duncan, are a bright green, often likened to the color of moss, though they are deepset like his MacKenzie ancestors. When Brianna sketches him, she draws a bold nose and a wide, slanted jaw.[6] Roger usually wears his hair long.

Relationships[]

Dougal MacKenzie and Geillis Duncan[]

Geillis conceived Dougal MacKenzie's bastard child, and her pregnancy saved her from being burned as a witch. After she gave birth to a son, the child was given to another family to raise, and Dougal devised a way for Geillis to escape burning as a witch.

Roger is a descendant of Geillis and Dougal's son. Roger has Geillis's green eyes and inherited her ability to pass through the stones. He meets her in 1739, having traveled through time in search of his son, Jem.

Brianna Randall Fraser[]

Roger and Brianna get married in late October, 1770, at Mount Helicon, North Carolina.[7].

Name[]

  • Roger means "famous spear" from the Germanic elements hrod "fame" and ger "spear".[8]
  • Jeremiah comes from the Hebrew name יִרְמְיָהוּ (Yirmiyahu) which meant "YAHWEH has uplifted". This is the name of one of the major prophets of the Old Testament, the author of the Book of Jeremiah and (supposedly) the Book of Lamentations.[9]
  • MacKenzie is the anglicized form of MacCoinnich, a Gaelic patronymic name meaning "son of Coinneach". The personal name Coinneach means "handsome" or "comely".[10][11]

Trivia[]

  • Roger is one of three characters that appear "in person" in every novel of the main series; the other two are Claire and Jamie.
  • Roger owns a Morris Minor[12] that is bright orange.[13]
  • Roger has type O blood.[14]
  • Roger had a stuffed Scottie named Uncle Angus as a child. After unearthing Angus during the cleaning of the manse, Brianna, charmed with him, had dusted off his plaid bonnet and placed him on her own bed in the guest room.[15]
  • When Roger asks Brianna if she has picked up any Scottish turns of phrase, she tells him that there is a dance in the States called the Shag, but she understands that she shouldn't ask him to do it with her here. Roger replies, "Not unless you mean it".[16]
  • Dougal MacKenzie is Roger's sixth-great-grandfather and Brianna's paternal great-uncle.[17] This makes Roger and Brianna 2nd cousins, 6 times removed. Statistically, they share 0.05% DNA.

TV Series[]

Scottish actor Richard Rankin portrays Roger Wakefield MacKenzie in the Outlander television series.[18]

Scottish actor Rory Burns portrays young Roger in the series.

Appearances[]

Season One

Season Two

Season Three

Season Four

Season Five

Gallery[]

22galeria Roger MacKenzie has a photo gallery.


References[]

  1. Age as of the end of Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone.
  2. Gabaldon, Diana. "How old is Roger?." MSG: 57670.4. Diana Gabaldon. Books and Writers Community. Compuserve. Published 17 October 2007. Accessed 15 June 2020. 
  3. In the U.S. edition of Outlander, Claire disappears in 1945, while the U.K. editors changed the year to 1946, which made more sense for Claire and Frank's post-war reunion. Which date to go by is a point of contention among fans, and varies among editions of subsequent novels in the series.
  4. Voyager, chapter 2.
  5. Drums of Autumn, chapter 3.
  6. Drums of Autumn, chapter 50.
  7. The Fiery Cross, chapter 14.
  8. Behind the Name: Roger – accessed 21 June 2016.
  9. Behind the Name: Jeremiah – accessed 30 September 2014.
  10. Behind the Name:Coinneach – accessed 21 June 2016.
  11. Ancestry.com – accessed 21 June 2016.
  12. Dragonfly in Amber, chapter 1.
  13. Dragonfly in Amber, chapter 3.
  14. The Fiery Cross, chapter 97.
  15. Drums of Autumn, Chapter 17
  16. Dragonfly in Amber, chapter 48.
  17. Drums of Autumn, chapter 40.
  18. Outlander STARZ Official Twitter – December 14, 2015
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