Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan give us a wee taste of what to expect when “Outlander” returns.
Outlander fans have been singing a song of a lass that is gone for over a year now, and at long last, they get to reunite with Claire (Caitriona Balfe), Jamie (Sam Heughan), and the extended Fraser family when the second half of season 7 arrives Nov. 22 on Starz.
We last left Claire, Jamie, and Ian (John Bell) en route to Scotland, and these episodes will open on their return to Lallybroch. “We’re back in Scotland, and Scotland has always been a huge part of the show directly or indirectly,” Heughan says. “Scotland is Jamie’s ancestral home. We’ll see a lot of characters that are very dear to Jamie and to the viewers. Jamie is here to put things to rest and to deal with past relationships and deal with people that mean something to him.”
Lallybroch will bring elder Ian (Steven Cree), Jamie’s sister Jenny (Kristin Atherton replacing Laura Donnelly), and other familiar faces back into Jamie and Claire’s lives. But it won’t be a purely happy homecoming. “It is bittersweet,” Heughan hints. “Especially between Jamie and his sister, Jenny, there’s some big stuff that they need to go through together.”
First and foremost, Jamie and Claire have a lot to answer for when it comes to young Ian, who left home a child and has returned a man transformed into a Mohawk with a sweetheart waiting for him back in America. “Young Ian is, well, not young anymore,” Heughan quips. “He’s grown up. He’s become quite the man, quite a warrior. He really has grown up under Jamie’s guidance, and now Jamie must answer to Jenny.”
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That extends to Claire as well, who has never had the easiest relationship with her sister-in-law. “There’s a lot of mutual respect and love there, but Jenny is not fluffy in any kind of way,” Balfe says. “Both her and Claire have a tendency, especially when they’re in pain, to lash out. And this is what we see. Jenny is in a very painful situation and she wants Claire to really do something miraculous, and it’s not within Claire’s capability. There’s a lot of anger there that is maybe misplaced.”
Balfe echoes Heughan’s framing of their return as “bittersweet,” while also revealing that Claire’s time in Scotland will be surprisingly short lived. “There is some heartbreak,” she says of their time at Lallybroch. “When they get there, life has moved on and there may be some exits. But then Claire quite quickly has to leave again. She is needed back in the colonies. She gets a request to come and help somebody as only she can — the wonderful surgeon she is.”
That’s right Sassenachs, for the first time in several seasons, Jamie and Claire will have to endure a lengthy parting. And that’s never ideal for either of them. “When the Frasers are not together, things don’t always go very well,” Balfe says. “This is not good. Claire believes an event happens, which is devastating.”
Adds Heughan, mysteriously: “It’s not an easy time for the Fraser family, that’s for sure. But there’s so much for the book fans to look forward to, and if you don’t know the books, prepare yourself for a really emotional rollercoaster.”
Claire will be traveling to Philadelphia, which anyone familiar with American history will know is a fraught place to find oneself in this era. “This is a very tricky time politically, and Claire has her loyalties and her allegiances,” Balfe says. “There may be a little bit of political intrigue and on top of everything else, she may or may not do some spying.”
That shouldn’t surprise anyone given the Frasers’ propensity for ending up embroiled in major historical events, despite their best efforts to avoid them. “History pulls them back,” Heughan says of their (separate) returns to America. “We know that they can never avoid history and fate, and they’re about to get entwined in more of the great upheaval, the American Revolution. They don’t get to rest and have a peaceful time together for very long.”
As Claire settles in Philadelphia without Jamie, she’ll also encounter his son, William (Charles Vandervaart), whom she instantly recognizes as a product of both his fathers (even if he does not). “There’s a lot of the Fraser stubbornness, and then there’s also a lot of the Grey reservedness,” she notes. “He’s not an easy person to get to know necessarily, especially when he’s not fully aware of who he is.”
While Claire and Jamie are missing each other, they’ll also both be mourning the loss of their connection with Brianna (Sophie Skelton), Roger (Richard Rankin), and their grandchildren, who returned to the future in the first part of the season to secure Mandy a life-saving heart surgery. “It’s a really hard thing for Claire,” Balfe adds. “It was so hard to say goodbye, and it really is like a death. They feel like they’ve said goodbye for the last time. But it’s these kinds of sacrifices that people make for the greater good. So in a way, they are happy with the decision that was made because it means that Mandy’s okay, but she misses Bree so much and they have to believe that everything’s going well. She does try and keep the connection up by communicating with her in her own way, but it’s a tough one for her.”
So, yearning, difficult goodbyes, war, and espionage … pretty much sounds like business as usual on Outlander. Though Heughan notes we’ll see just as many news doors open as those that will close. “[There will be] welcome homecomings, as old relationships and friendships are revisited or put to rest, and then new ones that are tested and broken as well,” he says.
The only thing one can ever be certain of on Outlander is uncertainty. “The war has arrived and everybody is in danger, including Claire,” Balfe teases. “And yet, there’s also these new threads of family that have been discovered, which is very exciting and it opens up a whole mystery that then plays out in this season.”
Outlander returns Friday, Nov. 22, on Starz.