Ron Moore dishes on the season finale.
If you thought things on Outlander were getting dire, you haven’t seen anything yet.
In the penultimate episode of Starz’s time-travel saga, Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan) was feeling the wrath of Black Jack Randall’s (Tobias Menzies) sadistic torture during his Wentworth prison stay. Bloodied, battered and emotionally (and physically) scarred, it's safe to say, Jamie’s life will never be the same again.
“He made a contract at the end of the [last] episode and he’s going to uphold that contract,” executive producer Ron Moore tells ETonline of the agreement he makes with his archenemy to save Claire’s (Caitriona Balfe) life. “He takes his word very seriously. If he lets down his side of it, if he were to offer resistance to Jack, if he were to fight back, if he were to break his word, Claire would be killed.”
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“Claire’s life is in danger at literally every moment, so Jamie is going to uphold his part of the bargain regardless of what it costs him. That’s the most important thing to keep in mind as you go into the finale,” Moore adds.
Jamie’s prison torture is an experience that won’t be going away. Though Moore hesitates to call it a defining moment for the Scot as he moves forward with his life, he acknowledges the impact it will have on his relationships – present and future.
“It’ll be with him the rest of his life,” Moore says. “It definitely has repercussions and reverberations for both Jamie and his relationship with Claire.”
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If you’re familiar with Diana Gabaldon’s future novels, you know that Wentworth bubbles up now and again – something Moore specifically pointed out.
“Beyond [this season], in the subsequent books, Diana always had the character return to this. Jamie never forgets his experience with Jack. Jack always haunts him many, many years later in the book series,” Moore says. “This is a key moment in his life and he will always be different.”
“There’s the Jamie before and the Jamie after – he’s always Jamie and it’s not like this will change him outwardly to the world. But internally this experience will always be there,” he continues.
On a more intimate level, Jamie and Claire’s marriage will be immediately affected.
“It will certainly affect their intimate relationship, and their trust and love will be tested by this,” Moore hints. “Jamie will have to decide how he wants to deal with it and Claire will be trying to discover what the secret he’s holding within himself about what happened with Jack. That conflict forms the basis of their story in the season finale.”
Outlander wraps up its first season Saturday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Starz.