OUTLANDER Writer and Cast Weigh In on “Best Laid Plans”

(All photos courtesy Starz.)

 

Happy Almost-Weekend, Outlander fans!

I assume you have all sufficiently recovered from last Saturday’s episode and you’re chomping at the bit for more. Sadly, I can’t give you next week’s episode. But I can tide you over with some insider insights into our most recent chapter, “Best Laid Plans…”

I have included gifs of my reactions, as is tradition.

(Please note that this article contains spoilers for “Best Laid Plans…”.)

Last Saturday, The Hollywood Reporter sat down with Matt Roberts, Outlander producer and writer of “Best Laid Plans…”. On the docket was Roberts’ thoughts on the emotionally charged ending scene in which Claire collapses after watching Jamie stab Jack Randall between the legs.

This seriously calls into question Jack’s ability to have children (and thus create Claire’s husband Frank a couple of centuries later). Even worse, Jamie had promised Claire that he would spare Jack for at least a year making his actions a deep betrayal of Claire’s trust, even if they were quite satisfying to see as a viewer.

“In the next episode, [Claire’s] unwilling to even deal with why he even did it,” says Roberts, “Ultimately…we do discover why…There was a little sprinkle of it in this episode where we hint at why, where Jamie goes to the brothel to take care of Prince Charles’ debts, and he brought Fergus along with him. Fergus went into a room…and the door shut behind him. That is the prelude to the reason why Jamie did what he did…It’s so heart-wrenching.”

Obviously, this makes me even more worried for our little saboteur. I really just want to pack Fergus and Mary Hawkins into a comfortable box and ship them off on a beach vacation until this is all done. Is that too much to ask, Starz?

For audience members concerned about Frank Randall, Roberts had this to say: “At this stage of the season, you should definitely be wondering how Frank still exists. The thing I love about Outlander is we have two heroes, or three if you include Frank, and we know that somehow, they exist…So when we tell a story, it’s almost always ‘how’ and not ‘if.’ So our suspense lays in, ‘I wonder how that’s going to happen.’…So we know Frank can’t just disappear since Claire has already returned to him in the premiere. So how does this happen? Not if. That’s the big difference in how we do things on Outlander.”

In Not-Completely-Awful news, we heard more about everybody’s favorite crotchety highlander, Murtagh Fitzgibbons: “We went round and round in the writer’s room and finally decided that Jamie and Claire had to tell him the truth, because lying to this guy just felt wrong,” says Roberts.

Yes, Mr. Roberts, I completely agree. (It’s so nice when writers actually listen to you, isn’t it?)

Roberts went on, “And I always found the elements of Murtagh and Claire’s relationship so interesting, ever since they bonded on the road while searching for Jamie. He has…come to love her just as much as he loves Jamie…He’s let his guard down with her. So he’ll punch Jamie for not telling him the truth, but he’ll understand how Claire has this burden. He doesn’t explicitly say, ‘I believe you,’ but for all intents and purposes, it explains a lot to him about what’s been going on these past two years.”

Looks like Roberts is as big of a Murtagh fan as I am. This makes Mr. Roberts my friend forever. Unless Fergus is seriously injured. Then he would not be my friend. Oh God, now I’m so conflicted…

The writer/producer also gave us a peek into one of his favorite scenes that sadly did not make it to film. “Jamie was in a dream trying to deal with the ramifications of the promise he just made, and it was between him, Frank and Black Jack,” he says, “He was in a car with Claire driving and he was seated between Black Jack and Frank, and then you flash to the Battle of Culloden and Frank basically grabs Claire’s hand and tells her it’s time to come home. Jamie would then wake up from the dream distraught and put off…But through production issues…we couldn’t do it. I had to re-adjust after that.”

I don’t know about you, but that sounds like an amazing scene. Perhaps we’ll get something similar next season?

Read the full interview at The Hollywood Reporter.

Access Hollywood, meanwhile, scored conversations with Outlander’s resident Fancy Clothing Experts, Andrew Gower and Stanley Weber, who portray Prince Charles Stuart and Le Comte St Germain, respectively.

It turns out that Outlander fans have invented an excellent drinking game: take a swill every time Prince Charles says “Mark me!” (a common occurrence) and down your drink if Jamie and Claire try to have sex but don’t.

“It’s very, very sweet and I think it’s quite fitting really,” says Gower, “that they’ve invented that game, seeing as every time I’m saying, ‘Mark me’ at the moment, I seem to be holding a glass of wine or some alcohol. So I think it’s a fitting game if ever there was one.”

But the Prince gives a word of caution, “…I hope people are drinking safely, and maybe doing it like, every other ‘Mark me!’ and not on every one, because I don’t want to be encouraging bad hangovers on a Sunday.”

Oh, Andrew. If the Powers That Be didn’t want is to be hungover on Sunday, they wouldn’t be putting us through all of this emotional turmoil every Saturday night.

I would also like to officially add a rule to this drinking game: Sip your drink and look awkwardly at the ceiling whenever Prince Charles strokes Jamie’s face.

While Gower couldn’t comment on this (probably since I just made it up), he did speak to Charles’ feelings about our be-kilted hero: “…seeing James, I think he can sense a real man in him and his physique, his dedication, the way he speaks about where he’s from, his pride. Charles is a sucker for that and I think there’s almost an element of — Charles, weirdly enough, is an outlander. He is a guy who is out of his comfort zone…James does belong to somewhere, but actually, he’s away from Scotland…So in a weird way, they’ve sort of formed an alliance over that in Paris, both of them out of their comfort zones a little bit.”

Gower also discussed the Prince’s devastation over the failed attempt to finance his rebellion: “Ultimately, his main aim in life is to please his father. So, he’s at that point, after going round in circles, and finally seeing he might be able to move from Paris [where] he is the outlander…he’s had the rug pulled from under him. And I think it’s such a thing of the embarrassment of what would you say to your father in that point when you’ve spent all the money you already have on prostitutes for escapism…the woman you fell in love with doesn’t love you and you’re not powerful enough to make an impression in society? So actually, that moment in time, yeah, is very, very sad…He’s trusted so many people and the trust that he’s placed in people has backfired.”

Check out the full interview here.

Next, Access Hollywood sat down with Maker of Excellent Disgusted Faces Stanley Weber to discuss Le Comte St Germain’s feelings towards Jamie.

“I think I see what’s going on but I have no proof [that Jamie sabotaged the wine sale],” he says, “And yeah, we had these stand-off scenes, stare-off scenes, that I really enjoyed…Especially with the dynamic of Andrew Gower as well, who is so different and who is playing on some other sort of level…I know, I know, I know he’s involved but I have no proof. But also when I stand up and when I’m like, in front of him trying to threaten him, I’m almost like, ‘I’m not an idiot. This guy could crush me.’ He is like a proper…Scottish Highlander and an absolute beast. So…you want to try to put on some kind of…pride in like a, you know, ‘You don’t attack me’…So I was always trying to get my cane around so I could…but you know, without ever touching him, because I knew that that would be like, ‘No, don’t touch this guy, he’s gonna…kill you in a heartbeat.”

I must say that “absolute beast,” is probably the best way I’ve ever heard Jamie Fraser described.

Watch the full interview on Access Hollywood.

And look out for my recap of next week’s episode, “Faith”, coming soon to a SciFi4Me.com near you! Or peruse our previous coverage of Fraser exploits to date. Or stare at the Starz official website. Or follow your heart or something, I don’t know. I don’t run your life. Yet.

Outlander airs every Saturday at 9/8c on Starz, shortly followed by me flailing around my house and making strange sounds in a vague approximation of words about Outlander.