“The scene with Claire and Jamie in bed and then talking about the bees. That was our last ever scene. So, I cried a mountain of tears after that as soon as they yelled, ‘Cut,’” Caitriona Balfe tells TV Insider about weeping on her final shooting day with Sam Heughan. (Watch the Inside Outlander aftershow video for our full interview where Balfe and executive producer Matthew B. Roberts break down the finale above. Stay tuned for a separate interview with Sam Heughan.) “Sam went inward and he got very quiet and, you know, you could see how emotional he was, but his way of dealing with it was to get very, very quiet; my way of dealing with it was just like emote all over everybody.”
Balfe and Heughan have played soulmates Claire and Jamie since Outlander debuted on Starz in 2014. Based on the bestselling novels by Diana Gabaldon, the series drew a dedicated global fanbase obsessed with the story of a 20th century nurse-then-doctor who falls through time into the arms of an 18th century Highland warrior. The heart-wrenching series finale saw the dreaded fulfillment of the prophecy of Jamie Fraser’s death at King’s Mountain, and his eventual resurrection by Claire, whose hair has gone white after using her healing powers to save him.
Balfe isn’t certain they are waking up in the time and place. “Do they open their eyes and they’re in this world? Or do they open their eyes and they’re somewhere else? I don’t know,” Balfe tells us.
Shooting the scene of Claire grieving over Jamie’s body took days — on location and in a soundstage. On top of expressing Claire’s grief and pain, Balfe had her own aches to contend with. She shares, “My knees hurt. Sam Heughan is very heavy and when you’re trying to hold him on top of you it’s kind of taxing on the knees!”
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No matter where Claire and Jamie are in time or space, the finale gave us so many things that have made Outlander a beloved hit, including one last lovemaking scene between the passionate couple. “We talked a lot about this being a moment of just tenderness. It had to be so tender. This was them. Just, it’s an ultimate lovemaking moment. You know, it’s not about pleasure. It’s not about physicality. It is love. It has to be all love,” Balfe says. “They’ve always communicated in some ways through their physicality. And I think a couple that loves each other in the way that they do, of course they would make love in this sort of very … I don’t know, it’s tender, just in a way giving each other solace because they know potentially what is about to come.” The mood was lifted when the pair were treated to a champagne on set courtesy of executive producer Maril Davis to celebrate their final love scene.
The finale also tied up that story of the anonymous Highlander ghost who was watching Claire in the series premiere before she traveled through time. It has long been acknowledged that the figure was Jamie, and in the finale, the face of the wraith was revealed to be Heughan’s. Roberts says that the scene was the same from the series premiere, where Claire’s first husband Frank (Tobias Menzies) confronts the ghost. Menzies was unable to return for a shoot, so the only new footage was of Heughan.
We also saw that it was Jamie’s ghost who planted the flowers at the Craigh na Dun stone circle. The fateful mission to gather those forget-me-nots drew 20th century Claire to the stones and began her journey to Jamie. Roberts has this to say about that moment: “Craigh na Dun is clearly a fairy hill; it’s magical, it has magic powers, and we know Jamie can’t time-travel but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have, [as] this ghost, [that] ability. I can’t label it.”
And although fans may be grieving the end of the series, there could be more to come. Roberts shares, “The thing about Outlander is it’s kind of this wonderful place where, I mean, certainly we have so many stories that weren’t told that we can kind of dive back into if we wanted to. There’s a 10th book that we know nothing about.” With Fanny (Florrie May Wilkinson) and the other children having the ability to time travel, could there be a story there? “There’s a lot of different avenues, tributaries we could go down. And there’s a lovely other book series with an amazing character, John Grey. We have David Berry, who’s an amazing actor,” Roberts says. Reminded how much fans are asking for that spinoff series, Roberts says, “Hey, look, we’re trying. You know, we’re trying. Don’t think we’re not.”
Check out the video to hear more from Roberts about how the final season was put together and from Balfe about directing the second episode; what she’d like to do next; her deleted scene with Sophie Skelton (and why it was cut); and more.