‘Inside Outlander’ Aftershow: César Domboy & Lauren Lyle Break Down That Shocking Death (VIDEO)
Outlander‘s final season is racing towards its conclusion, and the latest installment, “Evidence of Things Not Seen,” proves that not all of the characters behind this beloved show are infallible. Warning: Spoilers for Outlander Season 8 Episode 7 ahead!
While the episode’s title may not be a dead giveaway upon first glance, it later reveals itself to be a mirror to Season 2’s devastating installment, “Faith,” as it unravels answers about the fate of Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire’s (Caitriona Balfe) first daughter, Faith, at the same time that the Frasers grapple over the insurmountable loss of one of their own, as Fergus (César Domboy) perishes in a printshop fire, as he helps evacuate his family from the burning building.
The twist of death is like a gut-punch, not just to viewers, but particularly to book readers, as the plot originally kills off Fergus and Marsali’s (Lauren Lyle) son, Henri-Christian. In this adaptation, Fergus is sent off in a heroic blaze of glory as he lowers his sons by rope down to the ground. Henri-Christian does fall, but into a readily waiting Roger’s (Richard Rankin) arms.
Moments later, just as Fergus is about to attempt his exit from the roof, with his family safely on the ground, he falls through the printshop ceiling, lost to the flames. Marsali’s blood-curdling scream as she watches on is piercing.
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Regarding the death, Domboy tells TV Insider for the latest Inside Outlander aftershow that he talked about “Fergus’s arc, what was up for him,” with Matthew B. Roberts and Maril Davis. “They wanted to eventually make it different from the books because they were wrapping the show with Season 8, so they talked about Fergus sacrificing himself to save his kids, and it felt great. I was like, ‘This is cool.’ I wasn’t sad because… I’m not missing too much on what’s left of the show.”
Unlike Domboy, Lyle will continue to play a role in the show as the end of the episode sees Marsali arrive at Fraser’s Ridge with her and Fergus’s kids, alongside Brianna (Sophie Skelton) and Roger. While Lyle was originally upset over the death twist, as she shares, “I thought, ‘My god, what? How? What? Why?’ And then it all made sense with how it was supposed to be on Henri-Christian.”
“I think for Outlander, it’s huge, it’s laced in love. It’s a beautiful thing to play that the loss of the person you love most in the world… your soulmate, and I think it’s something that would be closer to what I would understand as well,” Lyle adds of tackling the grief Marsali begins to exhibit onscreen. “I don’t have kids, so to think and go through the process of what it would mean to lose the person that you’ve built everything with and means the most to you and that you’ve chosen and adore and love… I really imagined how that would feel doing it.”
Along with that heavy loss in this episode, Jamie and Claire learn the truth about Faith through a pamphlet recounting details of family history from an interview Jane (Silvia Presente) gave in the final hours before her death. In the pamphlet, Jane reveals that Master Raymond (Dominique Pinon) had delivered their daughter Faith to the lacemaker across from his apothecary shop.
He instructed the woman to care for the baby and he’d return for it, but if he did not make it, she was to bring the baby to Lady Broch Tuarach. Of course, Master Raymond disappeared, and when the lacemaker went to find Lady Broch Tuarach, she and her husband had sailed away from France. Ultimately, Faith was raised by this lacemaker, and according to Jane’s words, Faith and her family were heading to North Carolina to find Claire and Jamie when she was supposedly lost at sea.
The information is a lot for Fanny (Florrie May Wilkinson) to take in as Jamie and Claire reveal that they’re her grandparents. The full weight of the revelation is paused by Fergus’s loss, but it provides an answer to a long-awaited mystery, even resolving the song mystery as Master Raymond taught the lacemaker the tune Claire sang to the baby.
In the video above, Domboy and Lyle break down Fergus’s farewell, Marsali’s grief, their romantic onscreen journey, and what could be next as three more episodes loom over the horizon.
Outlander, Season 8, Fridays, 8/7c, Starz
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