The sixth season of Starz’s historical drama–love story Outlander ended with a cliffhanger that suggests its central couple might always be somewhat star-crossed.
Accused of murdering the pregnant Malva Christie (Jessica Reynolds) — who was, in turn, blackmailing her family — Caitríona Balfe’s once-time-traveling doctor Claire Fraser was promised she would both be brought in for a fair trial and have her husband Jamie (Sam Heughan) by her side. Instead, the couple were ripped from each other thanks to the troublesome Richard Brown (Chris Larkin) and his so-called Committee of Safety.
Jamie was forced onto a boat bound for Scotland, which he escaped thanks to his nephew Young Ian (John Bell) and his friends in the Cherokee community. But Claire?
The seventh season of Outlander, which begins airing the first half of its season on June 16, opens with an image of what executive producer Maril Davis called “Jamie’s worst fear coming true”: a close-up of Claire at the gallows and scanning the crowd for Jamie to save her. Instead, she’s forced to her death.
“We open with something that’s really a vision in Jamie’s mind, but [it’s true that] Claire’s in a very precarious situation,” Balfe added. “Because of this war, the general rule of law has been broken down. So in one way, she’s left out to dry in this jail. But in another way, it’s also how she gets out.”
The opening scene also served as a quick catch-up for what’s at stakes for the lead characters of a show that hasn’t aired in over a year (the sixth season, which premiered in March 2022, had a truncated episode number due to COVID restrictions as well as Balfe’s pregnancy with her son, who was born in 2021). It also reminded audiences that the characters are living in America as it gears up for the Revolutionary War; that is, when the courts probably didn’t have time for drawn-out fair and balanced legal proceedings. Rotten Tomatoes spoke with Davis, Balfe, and Heughan to learn what else is in store this season for this couple who were previously divided by centuries.
1. MALVA’S MURDER WILL BE SOLVED
There’s lots of reasons to implicate Claire for Malva’s murder. Her apprentice in the arts of medicine and healing was also blackmailing the Frasers; claiming she’d tell people that Jamie was the father of her child. Claire also is the one who found her body. And although Claire’s an accomplished surgeon in circa mid-20th century America and was simply trying to cut the body open to save Malva’s unborn child — well, you try explaining that to a bunch of 18th-century colonialists. Davis said that the intent was for Malva’s murder to be solved in the show’s sixth season and that she knows “obviously, people want to know who killed her.” So this storyline will be sewn up fairly early in the season.
Closing this chapter will also allow Jamie to get what Heughan described as the “cold vengeance” he felt he needed.
“Amidst all of this trying to save Claire and navigate that, in the back of his mind, there’s some other motive just ticking away that he’s going to deal with it at the right time,” Heughan said.
2. WILL CLAIRE ACHIEVE ‘FULL POWER’?
Caitríona Balfe as Claire Fraser in Outlander on Starz.
In the series’ fourth season, shaman Nayawenne (Tantoo Cardinal) told Claire that she’d achieve “full power” when her hair goes white (which is to imply as she gets older). Jamie quotes that line this season. So is it possible that audiences might soon learn what else Claire can do beside travel through time?
“I think, as the season goes on, that maybe some of the more supernatural elements might come into play is a good way of saying that,” teased Balfe. Jamie and Claire’s grandson Jem, the son of their daughter Brianna (Sophie Skelton) and her husband Roger (Richard Rankin), does make reference to supernatural beings this season. But Jem is also a child who could be making up stories.
“Folklore is a huge part of the Scottish culture,” Davis said, referencing creatures like the human-horse demons nuckelavee. She added that this is also part of the Outlander source material that are author Diana Gabaldon’s books and that “we love the idea of these traditions passing on … and the idea of the future and the past and the old-school ways versus the newer ways and how these things evolve.”
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