Every day is a good day to retrace some of the best Outlander episodes throughout the entire series. Some time ago Parade.com spoke directly with Outlander book writer Diana Gabaldon, who revealed her personal selection, with the addition of some favorite episodes from fans that can not miss.
Season 1 Episode 1, “Sassenach”
The first Outlander episode ever introduced viewers to the mystical setting of Scotland and the characters we’d come to love. The episode is filled with so many iconic moments: Claire (Caitriona Balfe) watching the Druidic women dancing among the stones, her first meeting with the evil Black Jack Randall (Tobias Menzies), healing Jamie (Sam Heughan)’s wounds and their horseback ride to Castle Leoch—the ruins of which 1940s Claire had just been exploring with her husband, Frank (also Menzies). And let’s not forget Frank’s strange encounter with a misterious Highlander who, Gabaldon confirmed, is Jamie’s ghost.
Season 1 Episode 2, “Castle Leoch”
This episode sinks in for Claire that she has traveled to the past as she get their first real glimpse of the world she’s entered into—which makes this one of Gabaldon’s favorite episodes. Castle Leoch is the home of the MacKenzie clan, who are not sure what to make of her. Claire and Jamie have their first heart-to-heart, as he reveals how he got the scars on his back and she tells him that her husband is “not alive”. We also enjoy the first of many feasts in the castle’s great hall. Claire’s talents as a healer come in handy, but that also means Jamie’s uncles, castle Laird Colum and his brother, Dougal, want to keep her there—but will she be kept as a guest, or a prisoner?
Season 1 Episode 7, “The Wedding”
This one is both Gabaldon’s and fans’ favourite episodes. It’s Claire and Jamie’s wedding, when they recite their now-famous wedding vows, “Blood of my blood, and bone of my bone.” Even though initially they only agree to marry to keep Claire safe from Black Jack Randall, on their wedding night the newlyweds can’t deny their mutual attraction.
Season 1 Episode 15, “Wentworth Prison”
In the first season finale we can Jamie saved from execution by Black Jack Randall, who wants him for his own purposes, and throws him in the prison dungeon. Claire, meanwhile, hatches a plan to break Jamie out, but unfortunately, she too is caught by Black Jack after just a few fleeting moments alone with Jamie, who makes a bargain: he won’t fight against Jack in return for Claire’s release. And before Black Jack lets her go, Claire tells him she is a witch and whispers in his ear the exact date of his death.
Season 1 Episode 16, “To Ransom a Man’s Soul”
This is not an easy episode to watch, but it’s so outstandingly done that it must make it onto anyone’s (including Gabaldon’s) “best” list. Having promised not to fight Black Jack, Jamie succumbs to the torture of his captor. Heughan and Menzies give unforgettable, heart-wrenching performances. The episode offers a bit of levity in Murtagh’s successful plan to use a herd of cattle to literally break down the back door of the prison. After Jamie recovers, he and Claire sail away to France—and Claire reveals she is pregnant.
Season 2 Episode 7, “Faith”
This episode is no doubt the best of the France-set half-season. After going into labor early, Claire loses the baby, which is named Faith. In the meanwhile, Jamie is in jail for dueling Black Jack. The episode later contains one of the most memorable sequences ever. the King of France agrees to release Jamie in return for the help of “La Dame Blanche,” a.k.a Claire. She plays up her witchy persona in order to save her apothecary friend, Master Raymond, from a dark arts accusation. At the end of the episode Jamie and Claire tenderly reunite after a touching confrontation. and they go visiting Faith’s grave where Jamie places an apostle spoon.
Season 2 Episode 10, “Prestonpans”
Now back in Scotland, Jamie and Claire have come up with a plan to change the outcome of the bloody Battle of Culloden, in which Scottish rebels were defeated by the English. In a nail-biting moment before their first battle, the real-life Prestonpans, Jamie’s uncle Dougal tests the marshy ground of the battlefield, just out of range of British guns. Then follows the first major battle of the series as Jamie fights and Claire tends to the wounded. This lead-up to Culloden shows viewers the sacrifice of war even in victory, as one of Jamie’s clansman is sadly killed.
Season 2 Episode 11, “Vengeance Is Mine”
This is the first Outlander episode Gabaldon wrote, and it includes one of the characters viewers love to hate, the slippery Duke of Sandringham, who makes a final appearance. Claire first thinks she’s making a deal with the Duke to help them all get away from the Redcoats; but the scheming Duke is up to his old tricks, double-crossing Claire and holding her as bait to lure Jamie, who he plans to turn over to the British. Any episode with the Duke is full of twists and turns, but this one ends with his comeuppance, as Jamie’s godfather Murtagh slices his head clean off. Viewers also get to see Claire’s friend Mary Hawkins enact her revenge on her rapist, one of the Duke’s henchmen, with a knife to the gut.
Season 2 Episode 12, “The Hail Mary”
Jamie and Claire make last-ditch efforts to change the course of history and avoid the deadly encounter at Culloden. But this episode is more focused on the fates of two ailing men who meet their end: Jamie’s uncle Colum MacKenzie, the Laird of Castle Leoch and Dougal’s brother, and Black Jack Randall’s kind brother, Alex. Both dying men have moving deathbed conversations with their siblings. We also learn that Mary Hawkins is pregnant with Alex’s child. But in a surprising turn Black Jack agrees to marry her for his brother’s sake. This episode shows Outlander is all about character development, even those who aren’t Claire or Jamie.
Season 2 Episode 13, “Dragonfly in Amber”
In the season finale, we head to the moment viewers have anticipated for two seasons, the Battle of Culloden. This episode wasn’t on Gabaldon’s list, but it is surely one of fans’ favourites. Viewers already knew that Claire goes back to the future because we’d seen her in a flash-forward at the beginning of the season (and half of this episode also takes place in Claire’s present-day). But we didn’t know how or why it would happen, and have been secretly hoping it would somehow not come to pass. It’s a sad ending to the season: Not only are Claire and Jamie separated, but they realize they can’t change history, and the battle begins. In the present-day, though, Claire learns that Jamie did not die at Culloden, and decides she must go back.
Season 3 Episode 1, “The Battle Joined”
In this episode, we finally get to see the Battle of Culloden itself. In which Jamie has it out with Black Jack once and for all, killing him. Back in the 20th century, Claire finds herself in an unhappy marriage to her first husband, Frank, and she gives birth to her daughter, Brianna.
Season 3 Episode 4, “Of Lost Things”
In this episode we see Jamie suffering (and so do we) for the fact that he must leave behind yet another child to be raised by another man. When he was working as a groom at an estate aptly named Helwater, Jamie is blackmailed into sleeping with the family’s daughter, Geneva. Who’s about to marry an old, unattractive man. She gets pregnant and dies in childbirth. When her husband, who knows the baby isn’t his, threatens to kill the child, Jamie shoots him and stays on with the family to be close to his son, Willie, forging a sweet bond. But eventually their resemblance is noticed. So Jamie must leave (Jamie’s friend Lord John Grey and Geneva’s sister, who are marrying, will raise Willie), by forcing himself not to look back.
Season 3 Episode 6, “A. Malcolm”
Twenty years may have passed before Claire takes the journey to the past again and steps foot into Jamie’s print shop in Edinburgh. but once they are reunited again it’s like the sun came out again in their lives. Like their wedding night all those years ago, Jamie and Claire don’t rush into bed—they spend a lot of time talking first, because they have a lot to catch up on. But when they finally do make love, it’s worth the wait.
Season 4 Episode 4, “Common Ground”
Jamie and Claire decided to settle in North Carolina in Season 4. In this episode (which is not a favorite of Gabaldon’s, but one of ours!) they find the spot of land that will be called “Fraser’s Ridge,”. Establishing what will become their home for the upcoming seasons. First, though, they must make peace with the Cherokee who are not exactly happy to see them. In the present-day, their grown-up daughter, Brianna (Sophie Skelton), is making plans of her own, unbeknownst to her on-again-off-again boyfriend, Roger MacKenzie (Richard Rankin). Roger finds out some important information about her parents’ fate in the 1700s. But it turns out, she may be on her way to the past to see them already.
Season 4 Episode 6, “Blood of My Blood”
This episode features some major character development for Lord John Grey, one of fan favourite characters. First as he and Jamie play chess and talk, just like old times; and later, as Lord John and Claire have an intimate fireside chat while she nurses him when he gets ill. Lord John also brings an expected guest: Willie, who doesn’t know Jamie is his biological father. Jamie and Willie spend time together reconnecting, although Jamie doesn’t reveal the truth about their relationship.
Season 4 Episode 9, “The Birds & The Bees”
Even though this one’s not on Gabaldon’s list, but many fans love the episode for the sheer reason that it’s the first time Jamie meets his daughter Brianna, who’s traveled back in time to find him. The moment is soft, sweet and touching. She also reunites with her mother, and Claire is overjoyed to see her. The new family, though, struggles a bit to connect; after all, the father who raised Bree was Frank, who’s now deceased. Jamie, though, says he doesn’t want to replace Frank, and tells Bree to call him, “Da.”
Season 5 Episode 3, “Free Will”
This episode makes a slight departure from the rest of the season and is almost a self-contained story, with Jamie and Claire investigating an isolated cabin right out of Deliverance where something is not quite right. They find a pregnant woman inside and a near-dead body, but all is not as it seems. As we learn what went down, there are some moral questions arising: When is it OK to torment a tormentor? And what mercy or justice should be shown to such a person as they lay dying?
Season 5 Episode 7, “The Ballad of Roger Mac”
What might be the best episode of this season has echoes of the Battle of Culloden, as Claire, Jamie, Roger and Brianna try to alter history and prevent a battle that sparked that American Revolution. Jamie’s godfather, Murtagh, is on the other side of it, and Jamie definitely doesn’t want to fight his kin. But as before, they can’t change the past, and the battle ensues. In a shocking and emotional moment, Murtagh is shot and dies in Jamie’s arms.
Season 5 Episode 9, “Monsters and Heroes”
Heughan gives another outstanding performance this season when Jamie is bitten by a snake and must face his own mortality—and his own pride, as he asks Claire to let him die rather than amputate his leg, which has become infected. But his nephew Ian brings him back around, reminding him that his own father (Jamie’s brother-in-law) is also missing a leg, and Jamie’s adopted son Fergus is missing a hand. As Jamie nears death, he asks Claire to touch him, and she presses her naked body to his. He says he chose to stay with her and live, and that he will always love her.
Season 5 Episode 11, “Journeycake”
This emotional episode written by Gabaldon is all about family. Bree and Roger discover their baby, Jemmy, can time travel, and make the difficult decision to go back to the future for their family’s safety. Revelations abound in this episode as well: Jamie reveals to Bree that he had a son, so she has a brother; and Ian learns that Claire, Bree and Roger are from the future. Before the bittersweet goodbye, the family gathers for a final meal. In a nod to the future, Claire presents them with “journeycakes,” otherwise known as peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
Season 5 Episode 12, “Never My Love”
The season finale presented yet another act of sexual assault, this time on Claire by a group of odious fellow settlers. To the episode’s credit, the focus is kept almost solely on Claire as she endures the horrific experience by disassociating her mind. She imagines a 1960s Thanksgiving complete with Jamie, Fergus, Marsali, Ian, the deceased Murtaugh and Aunt Jocasta. Seeing all the 1700s characters in groovy garb is totally surreal—but noticeably absent are Brianna and Roger. In the meantime, the real Bree and Roger have shockingly not been able to travel back to the actual ’60s, and instead return to Fraser’s Ridge. Claire is rescued by Jamie and company, and she vows not to be shattered by the attack. Later in a tender scene we see her safe in Jamie’s arms, as they cradle each other’s naked bodies.
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