Minor spoilers for Outlander season 6 follow.
Note: The following article contains discussion of sexual misconduct from the outset that some readers may find upsetting.
It’s almost two years since Outlander season five ended with a shocking storyline – the brutal kidnapping and rape of Claire Fraser by Lionel Brown and his men – and star Caitríona Balfe is looking forward to fans finally seeing how her character is coping in the aftermath of the attack as season six begins on March 6.
“I think it was really important when last season we were talking about the attack and the rape and what that was going to be, we were already having conversations about how important it was that we were going to show the aftermath and the recovery [in the next season],” says Caitríona in an interview with Digital Spy.
“Our writers did a fantastic job, and they came up with this great premise about what would be the likely result of what Claire would do in terms of having PTSD, and how she would navigate through that.”
As Outlander fans know, Claire has already had her share of traumas, beginning, of course, when the 1940s army nurse found herself transported back to 18th century Scotland and into the arms of rugged Highlander Jamie Fraser. She has survived at least four previous sexual assaults (including one by the French king), a near-drowning at sea, and narrowly escaped being burnt at the stake as a suspected witch, but last season’s attack was the most horrific of all, and one that would clearly have long-lasting ramifications for Claire and her family.
“What I loved is that we do see Claire unravel in a way that we have never seen before, and this kind of old coping mechanism that she has had of compartmentalising everything and moving on just doesn’t serve her any more,” says Caitríona about the new season.
“It’s really interesting to be able to explore her in a new way, and be able to kind of take her on this new journey because you can’t expect a character or somebody to go through something like that and for it not to deeply, deeply, shake them to their core.
“We see her make some steps on her recovery, and you know she may start looking at other avenues of how to mask the pain that she is in. But really I think it is a long journey for her to be able to get through it, but there is hope there and I am confident that everyone will see her in a much better place as we go through this season.”
While most seasons of Outlander have been 12 or 13 episodes long, the new season six is shorter, with just eight episodes due to pandemic filming constraints. However, Caitríona promises that the shorter season works as well as previous seasons – and the bonus is that season seven will have more episodes.
“What we did was we took the four episodes that we would have filmed [for season six] and we are now having them at the beginning of season seven, so season seven is going to be a 16 episode season,” she explains. “I think in that way we are still able to do Outlander in the way we’ve always been able to do it, we take our time, we allow the story to unfold, we still have some great standalone episodes that are still a world within a world which is something I think we do quite well.
“We have one that is very much like a Western, we have one which is a bit more like a horror again, and there is another one that is kind of like in – not the pandemic – but another kind of medical emergency that comes to the Ridge. I think our writers did a really great job of maintaining the scope and the scale of the show despite the different challenges we had filming it.”
While the large Fraser family – Jamie and Claire, their daughter Brianna and her family, along with Fergus, Marsali, their numerous kids and Jamie’s nephew Young Ian – are settled at Fraser’s Ridge in North Carolina, there is still space for new residents to arrive with their own trials and tribulations that Claire has to deal with alongside her own recovery this season.
“There is one moment in particular where I think it all comes to a head for her and she has to really have a ‘Come to Jesus’ moment about where she is at, and the fact that maybe she needs to look for help from the people around her because she can’t carry this burden on her own,” Caitríona says. “We have the Christies who have come to the Ridge, and they bring with them a lot of their own complications and their own secrets, and that is going to have a huge impact on Claire and Jamie as well, there is a lot of great stuff happening this season!”
The cast and crew will return to the Outlander set near Glasgow this spring to film the extended season seven, which will be at least partly based on author Diana Gabaldon’s seventh book An Echo In The Bone. Gabaldon has actually written nine Outlander novels – and has hinted book 10 will be the end of Jamie and Claire’s story – so has Caitríona asked her how Claire’s story ends?
“She [Diana] has told Sam [Heughan, who plays Jamie] – I think she has told Sam something about his character, but then I think he is just really nosy and he badgered her! I’m quite happy to let the mystery live, and just find out when I need to find out,” says Caitríona.
In the gap between seasons Caitríona has, of course, won critical acclaim and a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role as ‘Ma’ in Kenneth Branagh’s Oscar-nominated movie Belfast. Outlander fans need not panic, however, as Caitríona seems very happy to continue juggling the hit series with her film career.
“I think I have always said that as long as the material continues to be challenging and the writing continues to challenge us, and there are new things for us to explore as actors, then that is all you want as an actor,” she says.
“What we know now is we have this great season seven picked up, and it is going to be 16 episodes, and we are all in a little way girding ourselves to have the stamina to be able to do that, because we will be shooting for 13 months pretty much, which is going to be really intense. So, to be honest, to think beyond that doesn’t really serve us – and those decisions are not in our hands anyway, so we’ll see!”
While Caitríona may not know how long Outlander may run beyond seasons six and seven, she does have an idea of how she would like Claire and Jamie’s story to end, whenever that ending may come.
“I think it has to be a Romeo and Juliet moment, right, where we are both together, or a Naoise and Deirdre moment where Jamie and Claire sort of lie down together and slowly drift off,” she says. “I don’t think one can survive without the other and I don’t think Claire will leave him at all. Nobody is eternal, so at some point someone is going to have to croak it so they might as well do it together!
“Maybe they turn into turtles, something that lives for hundreds of years, and they travel together, under the sea – maybe that’s the end…”
Source: digitalspy.com