This week’s post-episode round-up includes interviews with Sam Heughan, Caitriona Balfe, Sophie Skelton, Maril Davis, Diana Gabaldon, and Richard Rankin. Only excerpts are below, so please click on the links for each article to read them in their entirety. As always, be aware of spoilers for “The Company We Keep” and upcoming episodes.
SyFy Wire: INSIDE OUTLANDER 5.4: SAM AND CAITRIONA TALK JIGS AND LOVE STORIES IN ‘THE COMPANY WE KEEP’
Variety: Why ‘Outlander’ Actors ‘Fought’ for the Brianna-Marsali Friendship
“[Bree’s] relationship with Marsali, we talked about it — would it be fraught? Would they like each other or would they be at odds?” executive producer Maril Davis tells Variety. “And we kind of went the path of then bonding together. They’re in similar positions and those two actresses have such great chemistry on screen. I’m thrilled with what Lauren did this season, she’s been amazing and it just gets better.”
“I think originally the writers wanted there to be more animosity between them and we really fought against it,” Skelton says. “It’s like, c’mon, it’s a female-led show, let’s show that women can support each other and get along. So we really fought for them to be bonding as sisters. I love the scene where Marsali calms Bree’s fears about [her rapist Stephen Bonnet]. It’s a lovely moment, a nice quiet moment, getting two women from completely different time periods coming together in this really simple conversation. I like that relationship.”
“These characters have been there previously, but you get to see a lot of new relationships, like Brianna and Marsali, like Roger and Fergus. You know the characters already, but you don’t know those relationships, and I think that’s something that expands the season,” says Rankin. “It happens throughout the season and it keeps it fresh, keeps it new. It’s an interesting new dynamic in the season and really opens things up and gets at real life.”
Parade: Is Stephen Bonnett Coming for Brianna’s Baby? On Tonight’s Outlander, She’s Convinced
“As soon as Bonnet gave her the black diamond, she knew that he had some strange vested interest, certainly, in Jemmy, and that really put a chill through her,” Skelton said. “Now that he is alive, the main thing for Bree is fear. Obviously, she’s still suffering tremendous trauma from [the rape], but her priority is Jemmy, and now, because of that diamond and because of that day, going into the present, she is aware that Bonnet might be coming around.”
Parade: Outlander‘s Jamie and Claire Just Rejected Their Last Chance to Raise a Child Together—Diana Gabaldon Explains Why
“Jamie asking Claire whether she wants to keep Bonnie is the epitome of tenderness,” Gabaldon added. “It touches on their mutual regret that they were never parents together, and his longing during their years of separation–hoping that his child had survived, and imagining Claire as a mother, holding his baby…and knowing that he’d never see that. Claire gives him a beautiful, tender answer: she shares his regret, but regret is not enough. And together they make the decision to give the baby to Lucinda, a young mother who lost her own baby at birth, and has both love and milk in abundance.”
“Well, in purely storytelling terms–as per book, I mean–you don’t want a baby hanging around all the time,” Gabaldon explained. “I have three kids (presently 33, 35 and 37) and two grandsons (2-½ and 6 months), and I have vivid memories of what life is like with a baby/small kid in close range. Either I would have had to have Claire find somebody to palm the kid off on all the time–which would make her look non-maternal and cold-hearted–or she would have had to stop going to battlefields with Jamie.” But the battlefields “are where the fun stuff happens,” Gabaldon pointed out. “This is why Dragonfly in Amber starts 20 years after Outlander–to give Brianna time to grow up and be left, so I didn’t have to juggle a whiny little kid for chapters and chapters. I mean, small children are just Not Interesting to anybody but their parents or grandparents.” Good point.
TV Line: Outlander‘s Jamie Kicks Up His Heels: Sam Heughan on Fraser’s Frisky Fling (and Why Claire Liked to Watch)
TVLINE | Tell me how long it took to figure out what that would look like. How much did you have to prep?
In the book and in the script, it was a sword dance. I wanted to do a Highland Fling, because I felt like we’d seen the sword dance in the show. Duncan [Lacroix] did a really great version of that [in Season 1]. So actually what I’m doing is the Highland Fling, which is a dance that they do around the battlefield. It’s all about kicking off the chains of the British, there’s this this sort of leg kick, and the hand [positions] are about the stag. It’s about prowess, but it has a message as well. It’s one of sort of rebellion, so I liked that.It was fun. The situation is, they’re letting loose for a little bit, and it’s kind of cool that Claire gets to see Jamie do that for the first time. She’s like, “Oh, he can actually move!” [Laughs] Pretty tough, because the boots I’m wearing are impossible to dance in, and you have to be really up on your toes. It’s kind of hard in those big boots. But I had a friend of mine who helped teach me; she’s a Highland dancer.
Starz: The Sword Dance
All sources linked in their respective parts of this post.
