Outlander season 5: More takeaways from first photo

Earlier this week, the first glorious photo of Outlander season 5 was released, and it certainly gave us quite a bit to be excited about! Filming is underway, and both Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe are on set! These were obvious reveals, but it’s still very much exciting to have it seen in actual, photographic form. Today is technically day nine of production for the cast — they’re probably either wrapped for the day or close to it at the time of this writing.

There are a few obvious takeaways from this photo, but within this article, we want to have a little fun — and also dig a little bit deeper. What smaller takeaways are here with this that are not immediately clear? There are a few things that either you thought about for a moment, or just overlooked in the midst of examining the picture in a larger sense. Check out some more of our thoughts on the subject below!

1. Jamie’s got a bit longer hair – Does that seem that way to anyone else out there? It at least seems like a different wig, and maybe the wig’s message is “this is Jamie after spending a good stretch of time out in the wilderness. The same could be said for Claire. This has always been the task and challenge for the costume department with this show — try to find a way to fit the times, while also still feeling fashionable and to play into those who love the intricate outfits.

2. The state of the season – It’s obviously springtime in Scotland and the weather is a reasonable reflection of that. Yet, the weather in Scotland almost has to equal the weather in North Carolina, largely because something like that is hard to fake for the sake of the show. Because of the length of production this time around, there will be chances to showcase both the summer and also the fall — and maybe a little bit of snow at the tail end, based on however long production lasts. One of the interesting things to look back on in season 4 was how obviously cold some of the scenes were — take for example, the Jamie – Brianna meeting, where you could see both Heughan and Sophie Skelton’s breath as they spoke.

3. Were Jamie and Claire just traveling? – Given the presence of the wagon behind them, it feels likely that the two are either coming or going somewhere — our guess is that they are arriving back home to Fraser’s Ridge, hence why the two of them appear to be so happy to be home. It’s possible that Roger and Bree will join them … but we don’t think it takes deep analysis to recognize that neither one of them are here in this photo.

4. What episode is this photo from? – It’s likely the premiere, but remember that Outlander often films their episodes in blocks — think in terms of a couple of episodes filmed at the same time. Scenes are sometimes filmed out of order for various production reasons, so this could be a scene from either episode 2 or the end of episode 1, as opposed to just something at the start of the premiere. One thing we are confident about is that this isn’t just some randomly-staged photo, given that it would take a lot of work (and wasted time) for production to get that sort of thing together.

Have any specific takeaways from this Outlander season 5 photo?

Be sure to share some of your thoughts in the comments below.

Photo: Starz