Outlander fans, how are we all feeling after Sunday’s painful episode? Days later and I still can’t seem to process my feelings properly. Luckily, we have plenty of cast and creator interviews to help talk us through the heartbreak and pain.
Warning: if you haven’t seen the latest episode, “The Ballad of Roger Mac,” there are SPOILERS below!
Showrunner Matthew B. Roberts spoke to Entertainment Weekly about bidding farewell to Murtagh. Book-readers had known for some time that Murtagh’s days were numbered, but because the show didn’t adapt his death exactly how it happened in the books, they weren’t sure when it was coming. That was all part of Roberts’ plan.
"Anticipation is a significant part of storytelling. We spend quite a bit of time in the writer’s room deciding when to reveal story points. We want the audience to emote … to cry happy and sad tears, to laugh out loud, to nervously wring their hands. But we also want to make them wait. To make them wonder, ‘what will happen next? And for the book readers, ‘when will that thing I know must happen … happen?’ All of that is deliberate."
Amid the heartbreak, there was a lighter moment when actor Graham McTavish, who played Dougal MacKenzie, show up as Dougal’s son Buck.
I didn’t even realize it was him until after the fact! “In the writer’s room, we talked about how fun it would be to have Graham McTavish, who famously played Dougal, play Buck MacKenzie, who is, of course, Dougal’s son,” Roberts remembered. “Then, coincidentally, our Starz executive Karen Bailey called Maril Davis and had the exact same idea, so we knew we were on to something! Maril called me and asked if we could make it happen. First, we had to check Graham’s availability. He was both available and excited to come back. However, since Buck is in his 20s and Graham, while in great shape, is not … haha, we had to make sure we could digitally de-age him a bit. So we did. Actually, the biggest challenge was keeping it quiet until the episode aired.”
While McTavish’s return was unexpected, it paled in comparison to the shock we felt over Murtagh’s death. And the way he died in Jamie’s arms…ugh, just typing this out is making me sad.
"Yes, this was planned for a long time — back in season 3. I spoke with Duncan [LaCroix] well before season five began filming and let him know about Murtagh’s arc. We all wanted to give Murtagh a heroic end — he deserves it — he’s one of Outlander’s most beloved characters."
Rest in peace, Murtagh.
Roberts isn’t the only one talking fans through these horrific events. The woman who created the world of Outlander, author Diana Gabaldon, told Parade that Murtagh’s death will be a “turning point” for Jamie. Gabaldon describes the death of Jamie’s godfather as “the place where he definitively severs his connection (however unwilling) with the Crown and becomes in his own soul a Rebel.”
The moment Jamie came to terms with Murtagh’s death and told Tryon off is the moment the “switch” in Jamie’s head was flipped. I think from here on out, he’s going to be team Regulator.
This will, of course, likely put his home and community, Fraser’s Ridge, at risk, despite having “paid his debt.” Just be careful, Jamie…please?
And what did the Outlander author think of “The Ballad of Roger Mac”? She loved it!
"Murtagh’s death…well, I have mixed feelings about that. As played out in Ep. 507, it’s shocking, heart-wrenching, sorrowful and accompanied by some top-notch acting by Duncan Lacroix, Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe. I loved it!"
She has a great point there. The trio put on some of their best performances we’ve seen in the series.
In the books, Murtagh dies decades before this point, during the battle of Culloden. Gabaldon explained why she made that choice for her version of the story:
"Murtagh died at Culloden because he was such an important man in Jamie’s life. There had to be a visible and deeply emotional price to that battle: not just a recounting of fighting and depersonalized mass slaughter; we needed to suffer not only Jamie’s physical wounds, but his grievous personal loss of the most important man in his life. […] Had Murtagh been by his side through those experiences, he wouldn’t have been so truly, devastatingly alone—and that experience of solitude and loneliness is a major part of his life, and a defining part of his character going forward. Luckily, Murtagh stayed tactfully gone while Jamie was in the cave, but having him at Ardsmuir [in the series] did change the emotional tone for Jamie."
Jamie has been through plenty on the show, but in the books, Murtagh’s earlier death propelled Jamie forward in a different way. I have a newfound appreciation for both the books and the series after this episode.
As for where Jamie goes from here? Gabaldon doesn’t make it sound promising:
"Nobody lives forever, not even on television. Plainly, Murtagh needed to die sometime, and where better than at the Battle of Alamance? The irony of his being killed by the young militiaman that Jamie had schooled in the art of war added an extra bit of horror and poignancy to his passing, and Jamie’s sense of shock and grievous loss was palpable. The loss of his godfather, his protector, his oldest and best friend, the man who had been by his side since childhood…for Jamie, this is stepping off a cliff into a thousand-mile deep pit, and he’s in free-fall."
The impact of this “free-fall” will likely be something Jamie experiences not just for the remainder of the season, but for a long time to come. As past jarring experiences have shaped Jamie, this one will too. Let’s just hope he doesn’t free fall into complete chaos and lose himself along the way.
Outlander is off for a couple of weeks, but will return on Sunday, April 12 with “Famous Last Words.”
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