On Screen: “Outlander”
Outlander
After eight seasons — more than 100 episodes — spread over 12 years, the bittersweet finale of the historical fantasy “Outlander” turns out to be frustrating, raising more questions than answers.
SPOILERS AHEAD …
To recap: The story begins in 1946 when World War II British Army nurse Claire Beauchamp (Caitronia Balfe) and her professor husband, Frank Randall (Tobias Menzies), are visiting Inverness, Scotland. While examining plants near a stone circle on the hill of Craigh Na Dun, Claire is magically transported back to the 18th century.
That’s when she meets hunky Highlander Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan) with whom she has incandescent sexual chemistry, igniting a time-traveling romance, living at Lallybroch, surviving the bloody Battle of Culloden and eventually settling in rural North Carolina in the years preceding the Revolutionary War.
Their extended family includes daughter Brianna (Sophie Skelton), son-in-law Roger MacKenzie (Richard Rankin), their grandchildren, and nephew Young Ian (John Bell), plus Jamie’s illegitimate British son William Grey (Charles Vandervaart), raised by Lord John (David Berry) as the ninth Lord Ellesmere.
Based on Diana Gabaldon’s bestselling books, the genre-busting drama spans centuries and continents with passionate intervals in Scotland. France, the Caribbean and Colonial America.
Confusion about the ambiguous conclusion centers on historian Frank Randall’s claim that a James Fraser will perish in the pivotal Battle of Kings Mountain in 1780.
When Jamie is, indeed, fatally shot, Claire is inconsolable, eventually bringing him back to life as her hair turns totally white. So, did Claire become the mystical ‘white witch’ some had presumed her to be?
That’s followed by a contemporary post-credit scene showing author Gabaldon in a bookstore, carrying an old leather journal just like the one in which Claire wrote her and Jamie’s love story, subtly indicating that “Outlander” was based on Claire’s diary, signifying, perhaps, that their romance was predestined.
Apparently, the cast themselves were not sure about the conclusion’s bizarre final cut because multiple versions were filmed.
Meanwhile “Outlander” is still streaming on Starz — also on Prime Video and MGM+ — along with its spinoff prequel series, “Blood of My Blood,” about the courtship and marriage of Jamie’s parents, Brian Fraser and Ellen MacKenzie, focusing on Scottish traditions, clan mythology and beliefs in fairies and druids.
Susan Granger is a product of Hollywood. Her natural father, S. Sylvan Simon, was a director and producer at M.G.M. and Columbia Pictures. Her adoptive father, Armand Deutsch, produced movies at M.G.M.
As a child, Susan appeared in movies with Abbott & Costello, Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Margaret O’Brien, and Lassie. She attended Mills College in California, studying journalism with Pierre Salinger, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism.