Sam Heughan: Outlander season 6 is “darker, fractured and intense”

The sixth season of Outlander is fast approaching, and the stars are out in force teasing the next eight episodes.

And yes, there are only eight episodes; due to the pandemic the team had to cut back a bit, although the seventh season will make up for that by having 16 episodes.

In any case, more Outlander is always a good thing, even if it’s not as much as fans would like. And it sounds like season 6 will make up in intensity what it lacks in size. Just look at how some of the cast members described the new episodes to ET Online:

• Caitriona Balfe (Claire Fraser): “Oh, god. Oh my god.”
• Sam Heughan (Jamie Fraser): “Oh my god…It’s really tough. Darker, fractured and intense.”
• Sophie Skelton (Brianna Fraser): “Ooh, fast, frantic and fearful.”
• Richard Rankin (Roger Wakefield): “Mine are, Oh my god. Jesus Bloody Christ. What the hell?”

And if that’s not enough, let’s talk specifics.

Claire is “trying to put a brave face on” in Outlander season 6

At the end of season 5, Claire Fraser suffered a brutal assault. Although she survived and is now back with her family, the scars won’t easily fade, as Caitriona Balfe detailed:

"Well, I think when we first see Claire, on the surface, she’s trying to put a brave face on and go about her daily life as if everything is fine and everything’s normal, but really, underneath that, she’s really struggling. And we explore the PTSD that she’s experiencing and we explore how that trauma is affecting not only her, but the whole family, and what her coping mechanisms are this season. I think prior to this, Claire is someone who has always been able to compartmentalize things and put something in a box and move on, and that just doesn’t serve her this season."

On top of that, the Frasers are dealing with the arrival of the Christie family at Fraser’s Ridge. The patriarch, Tom Christie, has a connection to Jamie, and not one Jamie cares to revisit.

“We find out, obviously, the prior relationship or animosity, I guess, between [Jamie and Christie], was this challenge of power,” Sam Heughan said. “And Christie arrives and yeah, it’s a rather unwelcome arrival to Fraser’s Ridge. It really signals the beginning of this sort of unraveling, I guess, of the Frasers’ popularity at the Ridge and also the status quo. So they all have their own individual storylines and relationships, but yes, the Christie family as a whole are not the neighbor you really want. Jamie is quite forward-thinking, quite a modern man, but I think there are people that obviously would have their feet stuck in the past and would follow Tom Christie and his teachings.”

Balfe puts it more directly: “It’s that religious fundamentalism that he wields. And it’s very unaccepting of women or any kind of modern forward-thinking. As Sam said, it’s a very dangerous thing that he kind of holds over people.”

Roger and Brianna accept their situation in Outlander season 6

Meanwhile, Roger and Brianna ended season 5 with a failed attempt to travel back to their own time. They now find themselves stuck in the 18th century, which has some fringe benefits.

“It changes them this season, I think, because we actually just get to a point where we see them without a choice,” said Sophie Skelton. “They’re like, ‘OK, we’re here for good now. So let’s just really go at this together and just make a life for ourselves here.’ Even though there’s so much crumbling around them, them as people and as a couple is actually the most calm and grounded and secure that we’ve seen them.”

Richard Rankin agrees. “Yeah, it frees them. It frees them up,” he said. “Without that question constantly hanging over them and that thing between them of going home or not going home, it opens them up to other things and I think it’s then that they go, ‘Right, this is home. This is where we belong. What is our purpose here? And how can we help and how can we belong here?’ So it definitely takes a big weight off of them. And as a couple too, I think. And I think we really see that in season 6.”

"[Roger] has become more a man of that time, and he’s starting to apply himself in that way. And he has been accepted by Jamie, he’s part of the family. The family are pretty solid now as a unit, and I don’t think that’s a question which is hanging over Roger — which I think it had done previously. So I think he has the support and the love of the family, and vice versa, and I think that just allows him to follow a different path and to gain the experience and skillset required to succeed, I suppose, in the the century and be there for his family."

Jamie and Claire face the Revolutionary War

And finally, there’s the pesky matter of the American Revolutionary War coming to the Frasers’ doorstep. From our vantage point here in the 21st century, we know the Americans win, as does Claire. But that doesn’t mean she has all the answers, especially with Jamie currently indebted to the British crown.

“Unfortunately, she knows the outcome, but it’s all those really important steps that lead up to it that she’s not so clear on, which would be much more helpful to them,” Balfe said. “I think it’s a really tough position that they’re in. I think Jamie carries sort of the larger brunt of that burden, with having to decide where his loyalties are, his allegiances are, at any given time, because they know that at a certain point, they’re going to have to go against the crown.”

"But at this present point, the crown is who kind of rules the law and you have to appease them and you have to be seen to be loyal to the crown at this point. And so it’s a really delicate balancing act that they’re trying to do at the moment."

“Darker, fractured and intense” sounds like it covers things.

Outlander season 6 premieres on March 6 on Starz.

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