[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Outlander, Season 7, Episode 11, “A Hundredweight of Stones.”]
Outlander lastly tailored one in all its wildest guide plots for the display screen in Season 7’s gripping installment, “A Hundredweight of Stones,” as Claire (Caitriona Balfe) handled the presumed lack of husband Jamie (Sam Heughan).
After being informed he’d perished in a ship crossing the ocean from Scotland to America, Claire was left with a tricky determination to make, marry Lord John Gray (David Berry) or face potential loss of life after authorities suspect her of seditious conduct. In the end, agreeing to wed Lord John, Claire finds herself confronted with heightened feelings, and each she and Lord John discover consolation over the lack of Jamie in each other, consummating their new marriage.
Whereas it’s honest to say this was a one-time deal between the characters, the monumental event actually struck star Balfe. “We labored very intently with the writers to attempt to discover one of the best model of doing it,” she tells TV Insider of the storyline. “I believe it was a tough factor for me to wrap my head round. The person that she loves probably the most on the earth… how is she simply turning round and discovering consolation with another person?”
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“Within the guide, clearly they’re very drunk,” Balfe notes, “however to seek out that model of the way it occurs and the way may this presumably be one thing that transpires between these two very totally different individuals who aren’t attracted to one another, however but make it about one thing that they share and this grief that they share… It’s about consolation, but it surely’s about ache.”
When it got here to approaching Claire’s onscreen intimacy with Lord John, Balfe reveals, “It was powerful to movie. It was actually powerful,” however she credit her costar for the pivotal occasion, noting, “David was an unbelievable accomplice. I actually needed to depend on him. And really, Vanessa Coffey, our intimacy coach, was so useful in that.”
Approaching a scene like this with Berry was overseas territory for Balfe who provides, “I believe for Sam and I, we’ve been working collectively for thus a few years that we’ve type of a shorthand and an understanding, and Jamie and Claire’s relationship is so established already. Vanessa was superb in these scenes and David was actually nice.”
As for the way it all got here collectively onscreen, Balfe says, “I believe it’s humorous as a result of clearly within the edit it’s fairly lower up and spliced, however we had to determine what that journey was. So for us, it was very a lot about discovering the literal linear line of it. How does one come right into a room and strategy that? How does it find yourself occurring? After which for our showrunner and our editors afterward, they will discover that story in their very own approach.”
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Concerning Claire’s mind-set at this second, Balfe factors out that she’s struggling along with her feelings and the way she believed she’d really feel ought to she ever lose Jamie. “One of many hardest issues for Claire is that she doesn’t really feel like she thought she would really feel. She all the time felt that if Jamie died, if one thing occurred, she would perceive it. It might be a loss, a bodily religious loss that she would really feel immediately. And since she doesn’t, I believe she feels nearly betrayed by her personal physique and her personal physicality.”
When alcohol doesn’t numb it, she turns to Lord John, however even his closeness doesn’t enable the ache to abate. “It’s a complete journey,” Balfe sums up. And that journey takes a rollercoaster flip when Jamie all of the sudden reappears alive within the episode’s closing moments, with Claire dashing into his arms.
So little time passes earlier than they’re interrupted by William (Charles Vandervaart) overhearing Claire, Jamie, and Lord John mentioning his true parentage, in addition to a crowd of purple coats looking for out Jamie. In different phrases, there isn’t actually sufficient time to share particulars with Jamie about Claire and Lord John’s current union, not to mention their one-time tryst.
“It’s not too good, is it?” Heughan notes, including that in the case of Jamie’s impending response, “He doesn’t find it irresistible.” Understandably, Heughan explains that Jamie goes to wish a while to course of the data as soon as he can obtain it, and even then, the actor teases, “It’s actually tough for him to get his head round. I imply, he missed the boat, proper? He simply missed the boat. That’s all that occurs. However he comes into this new state of affairs the place issues have modified drastically with not solely his spouse but additionally his greatest pal, or somebody he trusts quite a bit.”
How will all of it pan out? Solely time will inform, however Heughan notes, “I believe it truly is a catalyst [for] one thing that performs out all through Season 7 and really into 8 as effectively… it’s not a cheerful time.” Keep tuned to see the way it all performs out as Season 7 continues on Starz, and tell us what you considered the most recent twist in Jamie and Claire’s story within the feedback part, under.
Outlander, Season 7, Fridays, 8/7c, Starz (Midnight on the Starz App and On Demand)