It is a Machiavellian scheme at its best, producing the best episode of Outlander so far this season, in my opinion, and hate-watching Cunningham is a big part of it. He’s doing a great job playing the villain in the story.

“I am so glad to hear that,” Bew tells Parade when it’s mentioned. “To be fair, people adore Jamie and Sam. So that is great because it’s something to play against and with.”

In the story, Cunningham doesn’t hate Jamie. Rather, he believes that Jamie is on the wrong side of the Revolutionary War. And as a Loyalist, he sees taking him down and winning the Ridge for the King as his duty.

“I think he admires Jamie Fraser,” Bew says. “He has a different point of view, but I think he admires his strengths, and I think he would like to be able to use and manipulate those strengths. I don’t think that he necessarily comes down to just wanting to take him out because he disagrees with his point of view. I think he’s a true Tory. I think he survived that way, and he’s very arrogant as well. I think he thinks he could probably control him and manipulate him however he wants, and I think he quite likes him because he’s a very likable guy.”

But Cunningham also believes he has an ace up his sleeve. When his son died in battle, Cunningham has said that his son came to him and told him that he would see him again in seven years, so Cunningham believes he can’t die before then, so he is willing to take chances a normal man might not.

“He believes he’s impervious, which gives him an extra arrogance on top of having the King’s money, the King’s blessing, the King’s orders, and the King’s backing, which he genuinely thinks is the right direction for the good of the people at Fraser’s Ridge,” Bew continues. “There’s an arrogance to his politicking and his manipulation across the board, but this extra thing of this experience that he’s had, and I did examine it, and wonder, ‘Is it genuine?’ I think if he genuinely had an experience where he believed this happened, if he hallucinated because he was in battle, he still thinks it’s real.”

That invulnerability gives Cunningham a swagger and a smarm that makes it easy for anyone on Jamie’s side to dislike the Captain. It doesn’t help that he’s reached heights in his life – his rank of Captain, for instance – so he feels justified in trying to take over the Ridge. And he’s really shocked when his plan doesn’t work – warned ahead of time, Jamie planned a counter offensive – and Cunningham winds up with a bullet in his spine and may be paralyzed for life.

He turns to Jamie and says, “How did you know?” To which Jamie responds, “It’s my Ridge.”

“I think he believes it was the right thing,” Bew says. “I think in a short time, he would come around, trying to ‘Machiavelli’ another angle to get what he wants. He’s paralyzed, he’s not out of the game and I think that that’s the kind of person he is.”

What may have surprised him, because it might not be something Cunningham would do is when Jamie takes him to Claire (Caitríona Balfe) to save his life when he’s lying on the ground bleeding.

“I think he knows Jamie is a good guy, an honorable guy, and I think he knows that he can use that and manipulate that,” Bew says. “That’s why in Episode 3, he convinces him to go and look at the people and says, ‘You’re going to have to shift your point of view’ [meaning the majority of the people on the Ridge are Loyalists], but he’s trying to work with Jamie. He wants to use Jamie’s strength — some of the strengths are weaknesses — because he’s being very kind, but I think he is also touched by that. I think he’s affected by him. I think he means it when he says, ‘This was never the plan. Plans change.’”

In Diana Gabaldon’s novel, Cunningham’s mother takes him back to England. We’ll have to wait to see if that’s what happens on the TV series or if Cunningham stays around to try to cause more mischief.