The Fraser family is hugging each other tighter than ever. It is a cold, windy day in April 2024 on the Outlander set in Scotland, but this moment, being shot for the eighth and final season’s March 6 premiere, would warm any heart. Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire’s (Caitríona Balfe) daughter Brianna (Sophie Skelton) and her husband Roger (Richard Rankin) have time-traveled from the 20th century with their young children to make their forever home on Fraser’s Ridge in 1770s North Carolina.
“For them to come home is everything that Jamie’s wanted,” Heughan says. The moment mirrors how the cast felt about returning to set. Balfe adds: “We spent so long apart last season, in different timelines and worlds. Everybody is very excited that we all get to work together again.”
They settle cozily into a new house built by Ian (John Bell) to replace the one that burned down. They happily anticipate Ian’s wife Rachel’s (Izzy Meikle-Small) first child and enjoy the new addition of young Frances (Florrie May Wilkinson), who the Frasers believe is the child of their daughter Faith, long thought to have died at birth. Faith’s survival was only one of the questions in the Season 7 finale of the fantasy romance, based on the bestselling novels by Diana Gabaldon. Fans will also get answers to series-long mysteries in these last 10 episodes that feature moments from Gabaldon’s ninth and most recent book, Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone, and extend beyond stories known to readers.
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Gabaldon has a 10th book planned to close out Jamie and Claire’s story, and exec producer Matthew B. Roberts made sure they were on the same page for the show. “I’ve talked to Diana about how it’s going to end, being careful to know what she’s thinking and careful not to tread on anything she is planning,” he says.
And, of course, a shadow is cast over the Fraser household right away, thanks to a history book Bree brings with her, Soul of a Rebel, by Frank Randall, Claire’s first husband, who raised Bree as his own in the 20th century. Jamie reads it (only Heughan, TV’s hunkiest grandpa, can make a silent reading scene look this sexy) and learns of his own death in a backcountry battle. Then he and Claire mull Frank’s intentions. Did he know they would read it? Was he trying to stoke their fear, or warn them?
Even with that news hanging over their heads, Claire and Jamie’s bedroom scenes this season are as steamy as ever. “Caitríona and I have talked about it a lot. It’s softened, but it’s still passionate,” Heughan says. Although the scenes are not as hot as the beloved wedding night, they have plenty of heat. “I mean, it’s like 20-odd years of their life. I don’t know that there’s anything new left for ’em,” Balfe says with a laugh. “But I think it’s always different shades.”
Jamie’s also dealing with lingering jealousy over Claire’s brief, miserable marriage to Lord John Grey (David Berry). John’s living in Savannah, Georgia, with the young man he raised as his own, British officer William Ransom (Charles Vandervaart), who is still fuming about not knowing that Jamie was his biological father. A beautiful distraction is his cousin Ben’s (Alex Bhat, seen in flashbacks) widow, naturalist Amaranthus (Carla Woodcock), who, with her baby, is living with Lord John.
At the Ridge, less-friendly faces pose threats, like the charismatic owner of a new trading post, retired British soldier Capt. Charles Cunningham (Kieran Bew). There’s also Benjamin Cleveland (Turlough Convery), based on a real-life revolutionary. “In Frank’s book, Jamie fights alongside [Cleveland and his militia], who are dealing out their own style of justice and law — not Jamie’s,” Heughan says.
The war closes in on all sides for the Frasers. Roger’s faith makes him vulnerable on the battlefield (“He won’t take a life, an issue when you’re facing the other end of a musket,” Rankin says), while Jamie’s adopted son Fergus (César Domboy), back for the first time since Season 6 with wife Marsali (Lauren Lyle) and their family, secretly produces revolutionary tracts in his print shop.
Add in difficult childbirths, wilderness threats, and a devastating fire, and it all builds to what Balfe hints will bring Claire and Jamie to a new emotional level. “There’s stuff at the end of the season that they haven’t gone through before,” she notes. We’re here for you, Frasers, until the very end.
Outlander, Season 8 Premiere, Friday, March 6, 8/7c, Starz
