Here is a NEW Interview with Toni Graphia from Variety
From Variety:
“Outlander” wrapped up its fifth season with “Never My Love,” an episode that includes some potentially polarizing moments, including centering the majority of the action around the kidnap and rape of Claire (Caitriona Balfe) at the hands of Lionel Brown (Ned Dennehy) and his band of outlaws.
More after the jump!
Although executive producer Toni Graphia calls this story, and Claire’s subsequent disassociation from the trauma, a “bold choice,” it was one that was in-line with the show’s long-time depiction of sexual assault. Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Brianna (Sophie Skelton) have been victims of sexual violence in the past as well. Although Graphia admits she knows it can be “hard on the readers and hard on the viewers” to experience such stories, these actions are inciting incidents that drive the narrative further.
“There are absolutely tentpole scenes that you have to do because that drives who the characters are,” executive producer Matt Roberts explains. “Off of this incident, 20 other things happen. How do you not do those tentpole moments in these books because they drive the characters throughout so much of the story?”
But, that does not mean depicting such action does not come without care. Claire was raped by Lionel in the season finale episode, and it was also implied that several other men raped her as well. The producers wanted to convey the true horror of the situation without doing anything gratuitous or provocative and, with that in mind, they came up with the idea for “dream escapes” as Claire disassociated.
“It’s a sensitive topic, and we did our research and we wanted to do justice to the material and not just play it in a kind of provocative or titillating way. It’s not meant for that. And we had read that not just sexual assaults, but hostages, kidnap victims, prisoners of war, they often would go somewhere else in their mind as a protection against what’s happening to them physically,” says Graphia.
When Claire enters the “dream escape” or “dream sequence” – I thought of Season 1 when Jamie is raped by Black Jack Randall and he speaks to Claire of the “fortress” which was his protection, but Black Jack almost destroyed it – until Claire saved him and Jamie at least had a blade of grass (so to speak) to hid behind. Claire’s dream escape was her fortress to protect her soul and her mind. I have a feeling that she will always be on her guard after dealing with the trauma she went through.
I wish to see Claire make to 2020 pandemic health crisis around the world while her life in nursing home must deal with many deaths.