SPOILER ALERT: The following reveals major plot points from Starz‘s Outlander series finale.
The series finale of Starz’s Outlander is finally available to view, and I doubt anyone is ready to see this romance of the ages come to a final conclusion. But ready or not, here it is.
The first half of Outlander, “And the World Was All Around Us,” was spent on Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire (Caitríona Balfe) saying goodbye to the family they had cared for and nurtured across the show’s eight seasons. Truthfully, neither they nor we, the audience, wanted to see Jamie and Claire walk off into the sunset just yet, and even with the carefully crafted final bow, it felt like there were still so many stories to tell.
Jamie gets major props for waking up a day before the day he is destined to die and not hiding under the bed until the battle was over (as I would’ve done). He got dressed, wrote his last will and testament, and went about his day with no plans to change his agreement to battle Patrick Ferguson and his men. This will place him at the Battle of Kings Mountain, where Frank Randall (Tobias Menzies) wrote in his history book that Jamie Fraser would die. With that knowledge, Jamie soldiered on with Claire by his side, leaving together with the men for battle from Frasers Ridge.
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That night, the group makes a campground, and the Frasers share what could be their final night together. In the morning, it’s off to war: Claire says a quick goodbye to Jamie and stays behind with Roger (Richard Rankin), as Jamie, Young Ian (John Bell), and the men march on bravely into the unknown.
The battle is bloody, and there are losses on both sides. Meanwhile, Claire is getting antsy about what’s going on, so she packs a bag quickly and heads off to find Jamie. Roger tries to stop her, but when he realizes that it’s a lost cause, he follows her. Things get tense when Claire arrives, because now she’s put herself into an extremely dangerous situation.
She recognizes some faces on the battlefield as being part of Jamie’s group, with many of them dead. In the end, she finds Jamie, the war is over, and they have beaten their enemies. Claire even makes a joke about how wrong Frank was in his prediction.
Jamie walks toward Ferguson, who they have captured, and the former asks the latter to surrender. Ferguson says, “Never!” seconds before pulling out a hidden gun that he uses to shoot Jamie. Claire physically feels Jamie has been shot, thanks to their powerful connection, and runs to Jamie. They share a few last words, and then he dies. Jamie is dead.
Ian and the men make sure Ferguson paid for his act with his life.
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In her grief, Claire drapes her body over her beloved’s and just cries out in pain. She stays hugging him through the night and into the next morning, not leaving his side for anything. Roger and Ian try to convince her to take his body home because he needs to be buried. However, there was no way anyone was going to pry Claire from Jamie, even if it meant they would die there together.
Next, there’s a shot of Claire, still hugging Jamie, and it is unknown if she has also died. But, all of a sudden, they both take a huge breath, and they’re alive. Technically, Jamie died, but Claire brought him back to life, like she did their daughter Faith, her hair fully gone white in the process.
There’s a special post-credit scene showing Diana Gabaldon, the author behind the Outlander book series on which the show is based. She is at a book signing, and she is surrounded by fans waiting to get their book signed. One lady notices she has an interesting leather notebook that looks similar to the one Claire was using to write her and Jamie’s stories. She asked Gabaldon about it, who coyly brushed off the question. It’s funny to think that the Outlander book series was plagiarized by Gabaldon based on the writings of Claire.
Other notable moments include the return of the original theme song, sung by Raya Yarbrough; the closing of the loop from the pilot episode, showing Jamie was the man outside Claire’s window watching her; and the beautiful forget-me-nots growing near the stones after Jamie touches one.
While it’s understandable that stars like Heughan and Balfe want to explore playing other characters in other projects, this finale of Outlander certainly leaves open an opportunity to return one day, to tell more stories, should they choose. It would be beautiful to see them return to Frasers Ridge and live happily ever after with the family and community they love and care for.
And if anyone was hoping for a different ending to this saga, Gabaldon has been working on the 10th and final main novel of the series, titled A Blessing For a Warrior Going Out, that has yet to be released.
