For Outlander, 20 years is an eternity. Five episodes, not so much.
As season 2 morphs into season 3, Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire (Caitriona Balfe) will spend a quarter of their lives on the opposite sides of a century. Children will grow, families will move, and lives will appear to move on. Nevertheless, a certain time traveler will find herself standing on the damp steps of an Edinburgh print shop before “Voyager” hits its halfway mark.
Claire & Jamie’s ‘Outlander’ reunion
Speaking at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour on Friday, showrunner Ron Moore previewed the pace of season 3.
Comprised of separate narratives for the two leads, the series will explore Jamie’s story from the blood-soaked soil of Culloden Moor to the rainy reaches of eastern Scotland and Claire’s from the birth of Brianna to the operating rooms of Boston to 1766 where their paths converge once more, presumably as episode 5 bleeds into 6.
“As always, we take our cues from the book first,” Moore said, as per TVLine. “The books laid out this episodic story of Jamie. You had five chapters of his life [beginning with the Battle of Culloden]. That’s five episodes right there.”
It’s choice moments from these tales that were highlighted in “Outlander”’s San Diego Comic-Con trailer (see video below), although even more clips were presented at the TCAs.
When the pair reunite, however, it won’t be all sunshine and roses (when is there ever sunshine in Scotland?). Claire and Jamie will have to come to terms with the fact that they’ve spent two decades in different eras.
“Claire’s had time to prepare herself for what this might be and to play various scenarios through her mind.
But for Jamie, this person just landed in his life again and there was no warning,” Balfe told Entertainment Weekly. “So you’ve got two people trying to figure out how to go about this.”
Once they do, it’s goodbye kilts and tartans.
‘Outlander’ hits the high seas
That’s right, the back half of Diana Gabaldon’s “Voyager” adaptation will put Scotland in the rear view – 7,000 miles in the rear view.
The standing stones conspired to bring a time traveler and a warrior together, and the fates will collide once more to take the pair across the sea to Jamaica.
Find out more when “Outlander” returns to Starz on Sept. 10. The network has renewed the series for seasons 3 and 4, taking viewers all the way through the events of Gabaldon’s acclaimed “Drums of Autumn.”
