Here is a new interivew with Ron D. Moore from The Hollywood Reporter
From The Hollywood Reporter:
And with that, the “Droughtlander” begins again.
More after the jump!
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Saturday’s supersized Outlander season two finale finally caught up to where the premiere began: Jamie (Sam Heughan) forced Claire (Caitriona Balfe) to go back through the stones to her first husband Frank (Tobias Menzies) for her own safety before the disastrous Battle of Culloden began. But the 90-minute episode actually picked up in 1968, 20 years after Claire reunited with Frank. She had returned to Scotland with her grown daughter Brianna (Sophie Skelton) after Frank had passed to attend Rev. Wakefield’s (James Fleet) funeral, and there, the two women met his son Roger (Richard Rankin), who is actually a descendent of the Mackenzies.
Back in the 18th century storyline, it was the morning of April 16, 1746, when the Battle of Culloden was set to happen. Claire wanted to poison Prince Charles (Andrew Gower) so the rebellion would die before the battle could even happen. However, Dougal (Graham McTavish) overheard Claire and Jamie planning the assassination. Enraged to hear such treason, Dougal tried to kill Jamie, but Claire stepped into the fight and helped Jamie stab Dougal instead, instantly killing him. Horrified at what they did, Claire and Jamie sent Fergus (Romann Berrux) away from the battle with the deed to Lallybroch, giving it to Jamie’s nephew and keeping it in the family in case something happened to him. It’s then, while trying to convince Claire to go back through the stones to her time, that Jamie dropped a bomb on her: he had figured out that she was pregnant again with his child. Armed with that knowledge, Claire agreed to go back to Frank for the safety of their child, and after sleeping together one last time, she went back through the stones.
Back in the present day storyline, Claire returned to the Culloden Moor 20 years after she left Jamie. When Claire found the Fraser headstone, she broke down in an emotional speech to the deceased Jamie, telling him all about their daughter’s life. But Brianna was suspicious of her mother’s constant disappearing acts, and enlisted Roger in helping her figure out what happened between her parents back when Claire and Frank stayed at the Reverend’s place, before Claire traveled through the stones. While going through Roger’s father’s journals at Oxford, Brianna ran into none other than Geillis Duncan (Lotte Verbeek), although she went by the name Gillian Edgars now, since it was before she traveled back in time.
Later, Brianna and Roger learned from the journals that Claire went missing for three years, and from that, Brianna figured out her father wasn’t Frank Randall. She confronted her mother, and so Claire finally confessed to her all about Jamie, but Brianna didn’t believe her. That’s when Claire saw Brianna’s pamphlet that Gillian had given her and recognized Geillis from her photo, and while she tried to see her, her husband told Claire that Gillian had left him weeks ago, and Claire knew she was planning to go through the stones soon so she stole Gillian’s journal detailing her research about Craigh na Duhn.
When Brianna later asked Claire to tell her about Jamie, Claire also got to educate Roger about his ancestry, since it turns out that he’s the descendent of Geillis and Dougal. The trio then went to confront Gillian/Geillis to confirm Claire’s story, knowing she’d be at the stones, but by the time they arrived she had already murdered her husband since she believed she needed a human sacrifice to go through the stones. Brianna, Roger and Claire witnessed her disappearing through the stones, and so Brianna finally believed Claire’s story. And to top it all off, Roger discovered research from his late father that revealed Jamie Fraser escaped execution after the failed Battle of Culloden. Hopeful that she could find Jamie again, Claire decided to go back through the stones herself.
The Hollywood Reporter spoke with Outlander executive producer Ron Moore about the emotional season two finale, what changes were made from the page to the screen and what he’s most looking forward to bringing to life in season three.
I had the finale planned out pretty much at the beginning of the season. When we were talking about the beginning of season two, I just felt that right away, starting in 1968 wasn’t going to work on TV. It was too big of a leap to go from Claire and Jamie on the ship sailing off to France to suddenly go to 1968, with 20 years passed and Claire is now in the 20th century, she’s a doctor, she has a grown daughter, Jamie’s dead, Frank’s dead. It’s like, whoa. Too much for the audience to take in one big swallow. So I decided to start more chronologically in the premiere with Claire returning to the 20th century, which in and of itself is a huge leap. That’s an enormous thing just by itself so let’s do that. And so when would we get to the 1968 story that book readers are expecting? That’s how we decided to get to 1968 at the end of the season, way back at the very beginning of the season. And then I felt it would be powerful to intercut that with the last moves of the 18th century story so while you’re watching Brianna realize who her real father is, and Claire is realizing that maybe Jamie didn’t die after all, we’re cross cutting that with the 18th century story when they arrive at Culloden Moor with Jamie’s goodbyes to Claire and all that.
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