Throughout the five seasons of Outlander, Jamie (played by Sam Heughan) has had a turbulent time with a lot of heartbreak. He had to kill his uncle Dougal MacKenzie (Graham McTavish) in season two, lost his firstborn daughter Faith with wife Claire (Caitriona Balfe) after she was stillborn. The second season also saw him force Claire to return to the future as she carried their unborn baby Brianna (Sophie Skelton). But perhaps the most heartbreaking moment was watching him say goodbye to his godfather Murtagh Fitzgibbons (Duncan Lacroix) who died in his arms.
Speaking about the storyline, Sam explained the moment was difficult for Jamie as he lost his last connection to Scotland.
“You know, I think the Murtagh storyline, it’s not part of Diana Gabaldon’s books but I think for me and for Jamie it was one of the strongest storylines we’ve had for a while,” he remarked.
“This dichotomy he is in, he’s a man of honour, Murtagh is his blood and Jamie is losing a part of himself, a part of his connection to Scotland, his father figure, someone who has been there since the beginning.
“I know we have all loved not only Duncan Lacroix, who is just one of the greats of the cast of Outlander, but his character as well.
READ MORE: Outlander: Caitriona Balfe on ‘going to dark places’ as Claire Fraser
“I think it also brought the regulator story home to the viewer, you could put a face to the two sides and explore the dichotomy Jamie was in.”
But that wasn’t the only storyline Sam felt was tough for Jamie as he added: “Of course, at the end, the scene where Jamie just doing everything and going to battle for Claire was another great storyline.
“That’s the great thing about Outlander, we have huge emotional arcs, each season it seems to get more involved and complicated, it’s a gift for us from the writers and Diana.”
Sam’s comments came as part of a Q&A with Deadline and Caitriona also spoke of the season five finale.
YOU CAN SIGN UP TO AMAZON PRIME TO WATCH SEASON 1-5 OF OUTLANDER HERE WITH A 30-DAY FREE TRIAL
“With this particular storyline, when Matt came to talk to us about it and start talking about disassociation, which is also something which you don’t often see when rape is being handled.
“So we talked a lot with RAINN [Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network] at how we could approach this and also just in terms of making sure we had trigger warnings at the start of the episode.
“You never want to do something like this and not give people the opportunity to kind of go into it with their eyes open and know what they are going to see.”
Caitriona added: “It’s really important to all of us when we approach any kind of subject matter like this that we do do it in the most responsible way possible.”
The actress noted she had to be careful to separate Claire’s life from her own life when it came to tackling tough storylines.
She explained: “I definitely think when you are dealing with really heavy subject matter you know, you do go to quite dark places within yourself.
“I think there’s always a certain amount of purging of it that you have to do.
“But I think the healthiest way to be able to do this job is to also be able to leave these things at the door when you leave during the day.”
Outlander seasons 1-5 are available to watch on Amazon Prime Video now.
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