Outlander season 3: How many episodes should there be before Jamie / Claire reunion?

The wait for Outlander season 3 is (finally!) starting to enter the home stretch. More than likely, we have a little more than two months to go before the show returns to Starz, and there are many moments to look forward to there.

Above all others, thought, is the Jamie / Claire reunion. The Print Shop scene is the stuff of legend among many of the show’s longtime fans, and everyone involved in the series knows just how much anticipation that there is for it + the pressure to get it right. We don’t envy them for that!

The question that we wonder here is rather simple: How long do you wait to get Jamie and Claire together in the new season? How long is too long? Note that we’re not spoiling anything in this article from the show — if you do happen to know when the reunion happens for whatever reason, please don’t spoil anything in the comments.

Creatively, we sense that one of the struggles entering season 3 is rather simple: How long do you keep Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan apart from each other? They are the two anchors of the series, and their chemistry as these characters is a central reason for the show’s popularity. You don’t want to drift so far from this that the separation becomes a distraction. However, if you reunite the two characters too soon, you really don’t do the story any justice. As viewers, we need to be able to feel some of the longing and the heartache that Jamie and Claire do. For Claire, this is a woman who, until the events of Dragonfly in Amber, thought that Jamie was dead and had struggled to move on with her life. Meanwhile, for Jamie he’s spent the past two decades knowing that Claire was in the future, and the thought of not having her may have led to him being a shell of his former self.

Nobody wants to feel such pain; yet, it’s necessary to feel such pain in order for the show to have the resonance it needs.

Obviously, you’re going to see a lot of Balfe and Heughan together this season — the entirety of the storyline for the characters heading to Jamaica features the two of them front and center. With that, it wouldn’t be a shock to us, and it may even be right, if the writers wait to give you the full-on reunion for a few episodes. If it happens around episode 4, for example, that gives you the time to properly understand what the lives of these characters were like apart, and how badly that they want to get back to each other. That builds anticipation, and does so without creating a hopelessness.

Regardless of whatever the writers and producers decide (maybe they’ll jump around in time even more than we presume they will), the one thing we feel confident about is rather simple — they’ll do the story of Diana Gabaldon right. After two excellent seasons, they’ve earned all of our trust and faith to deliver a great story.

When do you want to see the Jamie / Claire reunion take place on Outlander season 3? Share in the comments below!

Other news

If you missed it, head over here to read our report on the departure of one key Outlander writer-producer prior to season 4 production beginning. (Photo: Starz.)