Outlander season 3 looking towards Print Shop reunion in episode 6
There is a perpetual push and pull when it comes to leaving Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan’s characters separate on the series. After all, you want the two to be apart for long enough so that the impact of the separation is truly felt on the fans. You want to feel some of the pain and the emotion that comes with that; effectively, you need to know how badly the two of them need each other. However, there’s also no denying that the passion of their relationship is one of the primary selling points of the story. If you split the two characters up for too long, then you start to run the risk of alienating fans who are interested in getting the two back together as soon as possible. You also don’t want it to be such a distraction that viewers are thinking more about that than they are anything else with the story.
One way or another the good news is that we now have news. Judging from what executive producer Ronald D. Moore said at the show’s TCA Summer Press Tour panel yesterday, episode 6 appears to be the milestone moment where the two are coming back together. In the five episodes before that, these characters will explore what life looks like without each other — and we have a feeling that it is going to be rather challenging for the two of them. Check out the quotes below via TVLine:
“As always, we take our cues from the book first … The books laid out this episodic story of Jamie. You had five chapters of his life [beginning with the Battle of Culloden]. That’s five episodes right there. [At the same time, we will explore Claire’s] relationship with Frank and the disillusion of that marriage, her becoming a doctor and raising Brianna.”
Moore also echoed some of what we’ve said about the timing of the separation: You want it to matter so that audiences are practically begging to get the two characters together once more.
Admittedly, we anticipated that the Print Shop would come a little earlier in the season, but five episodes is not an egregious amount of time to wait and will create a deluge of Print Shop anticipation. Claire and Jamie will still have more than half of the season together, and there is still that voyage part of the Voyager story (natch) that we’ll get to see. At that point, the two will be spending so much time together aboard that ship to more than make up for it.
Remember that season 3 premieres on Sunday, September 10, and also remember that there is a new behind-the-scenes featurette out there with some further discussion on the show and what lies ahead! You can view that over at the link here. (Photo: Starz.)