Outlander season 5: Sam Heughan breaks down Murtagh’s death

Sunday night’s Outlander season 5 episode 7 may very well be the best episode we’ve seen for Sam Heughan — and that’s saying something. The death scene with Murtagh was heartbreaking and soul-crushing. He didn’t want to accept what happened and because of that, he even tried to bring Murtagh’s body back to Claire in the hopes that he could magically be saved.

Unfortunately, he came to learn that there was no saving him and Jamie is devastated. This is a story that cements his opposition to the British — he was only with them in the first place because of an oath — and it’s also one that establishes further just how different his world now is from what it once was. Speaking in a new interview with Elle, Sam explained just why this death is going to impact Jamie to such a degree:

It felt [like] the most grief. He’s not only losing his godfather—basically a stepfather—but he’s losing the last real contact with Scotland, the last member of his blood apart from his aunt and daughter. It’s very raw—losing that part of his life, the old world and ways of doing things. For Jamie, losing him is like losing his rock, like losing one of his points of safety. There was always this great love between Jamie and Murtagh and it was never spoken of. You just knew Murtagh was always there for Jamie, and likewise.

We saw at the start of the season just how early Murtagh was involved in Jamie’s life, so we are speaking here about a man whose loyalty to him withstood several decades. Even though he’s now gone, we do like to think that a part of him now transmits into Jamie and that essence will inspire him as we gear up for the Revolutionary War.

What do you think of the extraordinary Sam Heughan performance on this weekend’s Outlander?

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Photo: Starz