Outlander season 5 spoilers: What sort of time jump is coming?
Conventional wisdom, of course, suggests that there will be. Time jumps are fairly common with this show given that it does cover such a lengthy period of time. Just take a look at the second half of the fourth season, which covered the bulk of Brianna’s pregnancy and then also Jamie and Claire making their trek up to Shadow Lake in order to bring Roger home from the Mohawk. Season 4 also started with a significant time jump of its own; Jamie and Claire arrived in America at the end of season 3 shipwrecked, but early on the next season they already had some of their life figured out … other than of course the idea of a permanent settlement to call their home.
Regardless of whether it is a week, a month, or something else entirely, it does feel as though we can expect at least something in season 5. This is what Richard Rankin (the fantastic Roger) had to say to the Radio Times:
“There’s a little passage of time, but there’s a lot going on for all of the characters, and there’s a lot of new relationships to be forged.”
Within that span of time, we figure that at least some characters make it back to Fraser’s Ridge — the first photo from season 5 (likely from one of the first two episodes) features Sam Heughan and Caitriona Back at what looks to be their famed settlement. As for what’s all going on, just think of things this way.
Jamie and Claire – They have to figure out how to handle Jamie’s new order from Tryon to forge a militia to stop the Regulators, something that they really don’t want to do given that one of them is their own family in Murtagh. Without him, their journey wouldn’t be the same and they never want to hurt them.
Also, they have to prepare to be grandparents for the first time, and this may be especially awkward for Jamie given that he really hasn’t had all that much time to be a father over the course of his life. William is with Lord John and he only met Brianna last season! Jamie especially has to prepare for some sort of better relationship with Roger … one that ideally, involves the two not coming to blows any more.
Roger and Bree – Here, the #1 priority may be adjusting to being parents for the first time, and then after that, they can start preparing for a formal wedding! While they may have been hand-fast, we imagine that there’s going to be a formal ceremony coming at some point with all of the festivities, beauty, and hope that you would expect. We’re also wondering what their responsibilities will be around Fraser’s Ridge, and it would be fun to see them forge a strong bond with Fergus and Marsali, one of the other couples on this show who haven’t exactly spent a lot of time with them so far.
So … yeah, there’s a lot going on and doing a small time jump may just be the best way to bring a lot of the action to the forefront, rather than watching the characters travel from one place to the next at the start of the season. Time jumps are the show’s way of doing a fast-travel command from a video game.
Photo: Starz