On the latest episode of Outlander, William Ransom (Charles Vandervaart) has a bit of a meltdown that begins when he finds out that he's actually the biological son of Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan), shattering his self-identity; he's lived his whole thinking that his adoptive father Lord John Grey (David Berry) was his dad.
The news sends William into a spiral. He's abusive towards a prostitute who shows kindness to him before lashing out against Young Ian (John Bell) and his partner Rachel (Izzy Meikle-Small). He attacks Young Ian, who he just found out is technically his cousin, and then gets Ian arrested when he fights back. He also forces a kiss on Rachel.
"Hurt people hurt people, and that's what happens in this episode," Charles Vandervaar told Cinema Blend. "William's a hurt person, and he hurts people, kind of irredeemably. There's not really an excuse for what he's doing. There's an explanation, for sure, but he's going to have to do a lot to make it up to those people in this episode."
Vandervaar doesn't mince words about William's behavior, saying that he is "absolutely" a villain in this episode: "He does horrible, horrible things, things that are unforgivable. It's an interesting thing, because sometimes you empathize with him, because he is just this broken kid, essentially, that's acting out of impulse. I think he gets away with it a lot because he's Jamie Fraser's son, because everyone sees the good in him. Everyone sees the Jamie Fraser in him, but he is as much of his dad as he is his mom. I think there's some darkness there, and you can see that in this episode. He's acting selfishly."
Oddly enough, while William is melting down over the knowledge that he's actually Jamie's son, Jamie is elsewhere melting down over the knowledge that his wife Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and friend Lord John Grey slept together when they both thought he was dead. There's isn't a lot of impulse control in that line.
This is (hopefully) the "low point" for William Ransom; expect "action" to come
Talking specifically about picking a fight with Young Ian, Vandervaar thinks that William learning that Ian is his cousin has something to do with it. "Ian represents Jamie Fraser in that moment," Vandervaar said. "He represents that family tie that he doesn't want to be a part of. So there's just a lot of layers of self hatred and outwards hatred that William's experiencing in that moment." Also, William fancies Rachel, who is with Ian. Vandervaar describes William's interactions with her as William's "low point":
"I hope it doesn't get worse than that. I think his identity was completely shattered in front of him. He's not the Ninth Earl of Ellesmere. At least, he's not the rightful heir of that title, and I think he tied maybe a part of his identity to Rachel, and that was maybe something he was just holding on to after losing everything else. And you could see him act in a very, very bad, borderline unforgivable way after finding out that he wasn't really the third part of that love triangle. He was just like an extra, spare part."
Where does William go from here? New episodes of Outlander air Fridays on Starz, so obviously we'll have to tune in to find out. For his part, Vandervaar teased what little he could to Collider: “Eventually, there is some action. Whether or not it’s battlefield action, we’ll have to see. He’s a man of action." With the Revolutionary War going on in the background of the show, action is never far away. And if William can somehow find time to make things up to all the people he's hurt, that would be great, but time will tell.
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