Little does Richard know that Claire is already suffering because of the Browns. Lionel is like a ghost haunting her and driving her to her many ether-induced sleep escapes, but for viewers, he is also a mechanism that allows us to hear what’s going on inside Claire’s head. “Lionel is a pretty effective mechanism for… reflecting, shall we say?… Claire’s inner turmoil,” Outlander bestselling author Diana Gabaldon exclusively tells Parade.com about the action in the series’ latest episode. “In fact, he often is literally a reflection, showing up in mirrors, glass doors and windowpanes. He also usually shows up behind her, slithering into view from the side, sneaking up on her. Which is, of course, exactly what her fractured thoughts are doing.” Lionel’s ethereal presence stems from the PTSD Claire has suffered from after she was attacked in Season 5 at the hands of Lionel and his band of thugs from Brownsville. And while it is true it is a manifestation of those events, it goes beyond that into all the doubts that assail Claire because of what she sees as her selfishness for having done everything in her power to be reunited with Jamie. “Lionel’s what her mind is using for a metaphor to articulate itself, to say the things Claire can’t bring herself to look at,” Gabaldon continues. “And to be honest, I think one reason for using this device is that Ned Dennehy is just so good at playing repellent evil, the showrunners were loath to lose him.” Claire has been reluctant to share her torturous thoughts with Jamie. She doesn’t want to add to the many burdens he’s already facing, such as Lizzie’s (Caitlin O’Ryan) pregnancy by either Josiah or Keziah Beardsley (Paul Gorman)—and not knowing which twin, and the unrest on Fraser’s Ridge as the superstitious inhabitants have turned against him and Claire. “Jamie’s been on the receiving end of religious and cultural prejudice most of his life; he knows you can’t change people’s minds in such matters," Gabaldon explains. “If you’re not willing to endure constant strife, or actual war, all you can do is draw your own lines and try to minimize conflict, which he does, throughout, with regard both to Tom Christie [Mark Lewis Jones] and the strait-laced fisherfolk.” Finally, Claire breaks down and confesses to Jamie all her thoughts and fears, including her visions of Lionel, and it is the highpoint of the episode. Gabaldon says, in her opinion, the key to this scene was the combination of Balfe’s very considerable talent and her pregnancy. “She pulled so much energy from her state of being and channeled it to devastating effect,” Gabaldon says. “You’re totally with her, feeling her anguish in every word. Beyond that, her confession implicates Jamie, doesn’t it? While it was certainly her choice(s), he’s directly responsible for the fact that she did abandon Frank (and then Brianna). So, this climax of the episode shifts the inner conflict she’s been dealing with all through the season to an explicit outer conversation/joining with Jamie; it’s like Lionel bursting through the looking glass, as it were, and being (more or less) vanquished by the two of them, together.” Jamie, as evidenced in the scene with Claire, will do everything for those he loves, but as the episode also demonstrates, he is also tolerant of other people’s foibles and prejudices. Take the aforementioned Lizzie and the Beardsley twins, for example. Jamie forced Lizzie to marry Kezzie, but then they find a way around that by getting Roger (Richard Rankin) to handfast her and Jo. “He’s been neatly outwitted by Lizzie and the Beardsleys, who must together have more brains than they seem to singly,” Gabaldon says. “He’s done what he thought was the best solution to the problem of Lizzie’s pregnancy—make her marry the father (as he brusquely says, ‘Pick one.’), and banishes the other twin until the baby is born, in order to avoid potential suspicion. “But then, Roger Mac is neatly bamboozled into marrying/handfasting Lizzie to the other twin. So… what, exactly, can Jamie do about it? He could, I suppose, banish all three of them from the Ridge, but that looks like being the only alternative. And aside from the fact that his family loves Lizzie and wouldn’t want to lose her, banishing them all from the Ridge would mean putting a pregnant young woman and her child in no little peril. The potential for danger (in a time of increasingly imminent war), starvation, etc. would be augmented by the very strong probability that people would be shocked at the Beardsleys’ leaving and would start asking questions. Jamie’s a just man, but he’s kind-hearted. He bites the bullet (as Claire remarks in the book, “No man of spirit likes to admit that he’s been done in the eye by a 19-year-old bigamist.”) and does his best to keep them from being exposed.” Outlander airs Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on STARZ. Next, Outlander Season 7 Has Started Filming! Plus, Everything Else We Know About the Show’s Future
