Spoiler Alert: This post contains spoilers for the series finale of Outlander, “And the World Was Around Us,” now streaming on Starz.
Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan don’t know what to make of the final shot of Outlander. But I know what they were feeling in that moment when they shot this movie about two years ago.
“We were both like, ‘Can we just stay dead?'” Heughan told Variety. “Can I take a little rest?”
This elicited a laugh from the pair, who were sitting together the day before the series finale on May 15, but they weren’t kidding. While filming the scene where Claire lies next to Jamie’s corpse and possibly dies herself, neither of them wanted to follow the script. They were instructed to open their eyes and take a deep breath when the series faded to black. Outlander showrunner Matthew B. Roberts is leaving it up to audiences to decide what this potential return means. But Balfe and Heughan wanted to stay dead.
“We played a game of chicken about who would open their eyes first and who wouldn’t,” Balfe says. “I was like, ‘I haven’t opened my eyes. Are you going to open your eyes?'”
Courtesy of Stars
To be fair, their resistance to this tragic scene pales in comparison to that of fans who spent the entirety of Season 8, and in fact the nearly 12 years leading up to it, fearing that the couple would not get their happy ending. This season begins with Claire and Jamie being given a book written in the 20th century by her first husband, Frank (Tobias Menzies), and Jamie is given a book that declares he will die at the Battle of Kings Mountain, deepening that question. This ominous prophecy largely follows author Diana Gabaldon’s ninth book, Go and Tell the Bees I’m Gone, but it was still present throughout the season. In the book, Jamie is shot, but Claire manages to save him with the help of her long-teased “blue light” healing abilities.
The shock of life at the end of the TV series suggests a similar ending, as the final shot shows Claire’s hair turning gray overnight as he cradles her body, now lifeless next to her. But fans will have to figure out what that means and whether what they’re seeing is reality or just one last bit of magic before the series ends.
“I guess it’s up to interpretation, but is it somewhere else now?” Heughan asks. “Maybe they’re in a different realm. There’s definitely something eternal about these two.”
“It’s even metaphysical,” Balfe added.
Roberts knows exactly what happened. Would he like to share it with the class? “No, I don’t,” he said with a mischievous grin.
More than 10 years later, Roberts doesn’t want to tell fans what they thought of the final episode. “If I say categorically, ‘This is what you should get out of this,’ I think that diminishes your experience. I don’t want to do that to the fans. They’ve earned the right to decide for themselves what that is.”
However, he admits that multiple versions of the finale existed. Most were red herrings in case the script was leaked or the call sheet was made public. However, they also filmed a variation of the final scene.
“During the shoot, there were multiple options for what was being filmed,” Roberts said, again without revealing many details. “I think that’s why even if you’re working on a show, you can say, ‘I don’t know how it’s going to end. I haven’t seen anything.'” Because with that ending, you can do a lot of things. ”
He said the endings of these fake scripts were made with at least some knowledge of Gabaldon’s 10th and final book in the series, “Blessings for the Outing Warrior.”
“Princess Diana gave me a little synopsis of where she’s going in Volume 10, so if one of them gets published, it would fit perfectly into that (story),” he says. “There were a few others, and I wish I had had the time and space to explore those as well.”
Courtesy of Stars
Regardless of how the ending is interpreted, Balfe and Heughan agree that it was not easy to make into a film. Not only because it was emotional, which was understandable, but because they didn’t know how to incorporate this moment into the story of two characters that they had spent 12 years building individually and as a partnership.
“Speaking for myself, it was difficult to understand what that moment actually was,” Balfe says. “You want it to be meaningful, you want it to be impactful, you want it to be powerful. I felt it was really important to get it right. But there were some things that were being rewritten that would have happened before. And for me as an actor, I didn’t feel like I had all the information for the character in that moment. So it was the best time to shoot. But as always, as actors, we think we’re creating our own linear story, and then we find ourselves in a mess. It’s the editing suite where everything goes out the window anyway, so we have to trust Matt to make the decisions he wants. And, you know, he did.”
“I didn’t know what the ending meant,” Heughan added. “But I thought my job was done when I died.”
Again, this elicits laughter from both. “Yeah, Sam says, ‘Now I’m just lying on a rock!'”
Director Heughan was interested in filming a scene that would pay off with mystical moments dating back to the pilot (and Gabaldon’s 1991 original). In the scene, a Scottish man stands in the rain outside Claire’s hotel in 1946, watching as she combs her hair. The man disappeared before his face could be seen, but fans have long speculated that it was Jamie. The finale bears that out, as the scene was one of the first Heughan shot in season eight.
“I was really excited and worried that I wouldn’t be able to do it because I’m too old, but they did a great job,” he says. “It was really cool to put back the costumes from Season 1. I had no idea what they were going to look like.”
“It’s great,” Balfe assures him.
Heughan has several theories as to why and how Jamie appears in the 20th century. “I think it was when he was younger. I think he had just come back from France and found himself here[outside her window],” he says. “There’s something about that place. He’s a superstitious guy. He doesn’t have the ability to travel or anything, but he knows that this place is very special and sacred. He goes there and he’s looking for something, and I think he found it.”
However, this scene is probably a little longer than fans were expecting, and follows Jamie from the moment he disappears to his next destination, the stone circle of Cray na Dun. For a moment, when he touches the stone, it looks as if the show is about to say he’s a time traveler after years of claiming he’s not. But he does not pass them. Instead, when he leaves, the blue flower that Claire first went to pick on the stone in season 1 magically sprouts after him. Earlier in the episode, I asked her if she regretted searching for the flower that led her to the stone on her last morning at Fraser’s Ridge, and she said no. Is this an invitation for Jamie to leave them with her to come find her in time?
“Whether he’s a ghost or a younger version of himself, perhaps he’s calling Claire to himself in some way,” Heughan says.
Throughout the episode, fans will see more scenes between Jamie and Claire than ever before. This corrects what Balfe and Heughan claim was missing.
“It’s definitely a good fit,” she says. “I don’t think they spent as much time together this season, but Jamie and Claire have been central to this story from the beginning, so it felt right.”
“I think that’s something that we may have lost a little bit, but probably should have more of, and that’s what Jamie and Claire have been together through the last few seasons,” Heughan says.
“But that scene in the finale was classic Outlander, wasn’t it?” she said, nodding in agreement with his opinion.
Among their moments together is the final sex scene the two characters share. Throughout its history, the series has made headlines for its open acceptance of sexuality. As executive producers, Balfe and Heughan spoke candidly about their role in making these scenes relevant and necessary to the story, as well as their work with the intimacy coordinator starting in season six. This was a very important part of their journey as actors, and they toasted it at the end.
“There were some great photos of us celebrating our final intimate scenes together,” he says. “We have everything, including a glass of champagne!”
Balfe said that depending on how they read the final shot, they remained committed to making sure that this scene was important to the bond that would be the last night the Frasers would share.
“They’ve always communicated through physicality as well as everything else. And what we’ve always tried and fought to do is make sure that it makes sense for the storyline, that it feels authentic to who they are and where they are in their relationship at this point. “This scene felt like a very tender moment, and it was beautiful. It was very intimate and it wasn’t about sex. It was about holding each other and being close and connected, and it felt like that was important.” ”
But ultimately, what are fans supposed to take away from a touching yet sad final chapter, punctuated by glimmers of hope and perhaps even a breath of life for the central characters? Is the door really closed to him returning to Outlander in the future?
“Well, that door will never close, I’ll tell you that,” Roberts says.
