“By and large, I thought the shorter season was excellent!” bestselling author Diana Gabaldon shares with Parade. “Possibly because there was limited time, the show could use only two major storylines, with two minor ones paralleling them.” The major storylines which then dovetail at the end, were the devastating impact the Christies and the Browns (both real and imagined) had on Jamie andClaire’s life on the Ridge and the minor storylines were Young Ian (John Bell) and the Indians—both Mohawks and Cherokees, and Roger (Richard Rankin) and Brianna (Sophie Skelton). “Since things were conveniently simplified by the limited time available, it let the writers work more intensively with less material, which resulted in a tight, well-fitted season,” Gabaldon continues. “I was very pleased at the amount of original dialogue from the books—and the largely intact scenes—that got used this season, beautifully engineered into the overall scripts.” That said, the last scene in the finale—where Young Ian and a band of men, including the Cherokee chief (where did he come from?), rescue Jamie (Sam Heughan)—is changed from the book, where it is a solo Ian who rescues his uncle, but the TV version made for a dramatic ending, including when one of the captors raises his hand to stop a bullet and it tears through his hand into his eye! “I liked that a lot, too, though I think my favorite part of that scene was the ship’s master, swimming madly for safety in his frilled shirt, nice coat, and tricorne hat,” Gabaldon says. “As for people appearing as needed… surely you’ve heard of movie magic? (Something like the Harry Potter floo powder is probably involved…)” Normally, Jamie is the hero of the action, but in the Season 6 finale, Tom Christie (Mark Lewis Jones) is given the chance to be the man of the hour. We know he is an honorable man, so it is no surprise that he volunteers to protect Claire when she is arrested by Richard Brown (Chris Larkin) and his Committee of Safety, especially because deep down, Tom has to know that Claire and Jamie didn’t kill Malva (Jessica Reynolds). “Tom Christie is a Troubled Man, to be sure,” Gabaldon says. “He has Strong Feelings for Claire (which appall him, as a religious man). He also has Strong Feelings for Jamie, but in the other direction. He can’t help but recognize Jamie’s honor, ability to lead men, keep a beautiful woman happy, and to successfully father a family—all things Tom obviously can’t do, except the honor (at which he is determined not to be bested). And the fact that the man he hates (even though his religion tells him not to, he’s singularly unsuccessful in cramming it down) possesses the woman he loves is a constant pebble in his moral shoe.” Tom has trouble grappling with all the above, but then he is pushed to the limit with the shock of Malva accusing Jamie of siring her unborn baby, her murder, and then Claire’s arrest. Claire’s incarceration in jail in Wilmington and Jamie’s escape from being shanghaied back to Scotland by men paid by Richard Brown are where the season ends, but Gabaldon teases what we can expect in Season 7. “We will actually find out in the next season why Tom is not completely destroyed (though he’s obviously pained) by Malva’s death,” she says. “He was not unhappy with her accusation of Jamie, despite her being labeled as a harlot for sleeping with a married man (well, any man, but especially that one); it gave him a moral one-up (he thought) on Jamie, which is something he’s been looking for since Ardsmuir. “Her death, distressing in itself, is much worse for Tom, in that Claire is implicated and endangered by it. (He doesn’t care whether Jamie and the Big House are burnt to a crisp, but Claire…. no, not happening on his watch!) And once arrived at the jail, with Jamie no longer there to protect her, Tom at last steps gravely into the role he’s wanted all along: to be Jamie (the protector and hero in the beloved woman’s gaze), but also on the right side of his religion. “You could say that Tom’s is the happiest ending in this episode, I suppose,” Gabaldon wraps it up. Outlander Season 7 is currently filming in Scotland for a 2023 release on STARZ. Next, Outlander Season 7 Has Started Filming! Plus, Everything Else We Know About the Show’s Future
