8 ‘Outlander’ Easter Eggs in Claire’s Season 5 Finale Dream Sequence (PHOTOS)
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Season 5, Episode 12 of Outlander, “Never My Love.”]
Outlander delivered one of its most brutal episodes to date with the Season 5 finale installment, “Never My Love.”
After being captured by Lionel Brown (Ned Dennehy), Claire (Caitriona Balfe) is subjected to rape and other forms of physical assault as well as verbal abuse and more. Angered over her medical advice penned under the name Dr. Rawlings, the man carries a personal vendetta against the Fraser matriarch for giving his wife the idea that she could refuse him in bed.
Throughout the ordeal Claire fades in and out of the present real-world and drifts into a ’60s era dreamscape that includes Jamie (Sam Heughan) and many of her beloved family members. The intermittent sequences also include some major Easter eggs for fans that they may have missed in the chaos of the heavy episode.
Below, we’re breaking down all of the key callbacks in the twisty fantasy world Claire conjured.
Outlander, Season 6, TBA, Starz
Jamie's Tartan
One familiar image from the dream sequence included Jamie (Sam Heughan) wrapping Claire (Caitriona Balfe) up in his tartan. Throughout the series this gesture has symbolized safety for Claire and considering the reality she’s facing in the real world, it’s understandable that she would conjure such comforting images as this.
The Orange
The last time fans saw an orange was during Season 2’s time spent in France. When Claire tried bargaining with King Louis XV (Lionel Lingelser) for the release of her imprisoned husband Jamie, she lets him sexually assault her. Taking her power back in that awful moment, she doesn’t leave the exchange empty handed and takes one of the king’s oranges with her.
The Red Dress
Claire famously wore a red dress in Season 2 that had a lot of heads turning. We’re sure her bright ensemble in the dream sequence is no coincidence and is a blatant callback to the memorable wardrobe piece she wore during her visit to Versailles with Jamie and Murtagh (Duncan Lacroix).
Family Dinner
All of Claire’s family from the 18th century, both alive and dead, were at the dinner table except for Bree (Sophie Skelton) and Roger (Richard Rankin) who supposedly die in a car crash in this twisted dream. Perhaps it represents the fact that no matter what Claire does, her family can never be whole with people on different sides of time, illustrating the dark side of choosing her life with Jamie at Fraser’s Ridge over staying in the future with her daughter.
The Dragonfly
Early on in Jamie and Claire’s marriage, his friend Hugh (Simon Meacock) gives them a chunk of amber that contains a dragonfly. As the battle of Culloden is about to begin in Season 2, Claire leaves the keepsake with him as she returns to the future. Later on we see Claire discover the item in a historical collection during her trip to Scotland with Brianna for Reverend Wakefield’s (James Fleet) funeral. Needless to say, the dragonfly plays a symbolic role in her and Jamie’s relationship which would explain its presence in her dream.
The Rabbit
When Jamie awakes on the Culloden battlefield after the fight has ended, he spots a rabbit wandering among the corpses before he imagines Claire walking towards him. In Claire’s dream, she also visualizes a rabbit which in this case could symbolize Jamie in the same way it was a symbol of her for him.
The Blue Vase
In the series premiere of Outlander, Claire admires vases through a shop window in Inverness, Scotland and her narration reveals, “I wanted nothing so much in all the world as to have a vase of my very own,” implying that buying one symbolized the beginning of a long and settled life. Her dream is fulfilled in this sequence as we see the item placed among the belongings in the ’60s era home.
Ian's Mohawk Roots
Ian’s (John Bell) connection to the Mohawk are symbolized in a patch on his soldier’s uniform, which in a way parallels his war gear in the real world.
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Here was my list. Some may be stretches and there are probably more???
*Red dress
*Vase
*Rabbit
*Orange from King Louis
*Wall from master bedroom at Lallybroch
*Modern house from magazine in Boston
*Microscope
*Abstract painting of Fraser's Ridge
*Bree/Lizzie hand and ear comment
*Jamie & teeth rattling comment
*Jamie wrapping Claire in plaid like first night
*Germain playing with a dragonfly toy
*Jamie's hair was warrior short like when she first met him and how he cuts it when he goes to battle.
*Just the two of us comment from A. Malcolm
*Ceiling leak - unsure if Beardsley reference, book reference to their first night back, or just reality creeping in to disassociative state
*Blood of my blood Gaelic vows
*Sweet potato comment - unsure if this was a nod to Claire telling Jenny to plant potatoes before Culloden?
*Car accident same as what took Frank and her thinking Bree, Roger and Jem are gone forever like Frank (and her parents, too, if memory serves)
*Do no harm is revisited as her Hippocratic oath
*Tub is back from first cabin
*Setting dislocated shoulder - 1st time Claire and Jamie meet
*Brown brothers similar to MacKenzie brothers (one calm leader, one crazy one LOL)
*Waterhorse comment from Rupert and Grants' attack on rent party
*Jamie watching her by river like right before he took her to the stones
*Moon comments - space broadcast viewing at hospital, J&C on ship looking at moon
***Vengeance offer like Sandringham*** (I haven't seen anyone else mention this)
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O
I noticed many of the same things in her dream state. But you caught several more! Great job! In the one picture of her in the red dress she she looks pregnant. I am sure that represented her baby Hope that she lost and to remind her that she still has Hope to come through this terrible attack.
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Faith
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C
Don’t you mean Faith? In any case either word fits.
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I was wondering if she is subconsciously afraid she will become pregnant thru the rapes and be in the same situation Bree was - having to decide whether to keep or abort. She is going through menopause - the hot flash last week.
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G
The baby's name was Faith.
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The baby who died was named Faith
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P
Well done!
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WOW. You really pay attention and have quite a memory
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B
The wallpaper design was thistles.
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you are amazing and great job joyful a genius. you are and also the house I think looks like Gellis home in the sixties where Claire met her husband(Gillian husband) the young man who asked about Otter tooth the time period 68 was the same one that Gellias came from.
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Thank you so much...I caught many of these but will look forward to searching for them when I watch the episode again. 512 was brilliant!!!
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B
Wow! That’s cool! What about the roof leak? I didn’t catch the meaning...
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It's not an Easter Egg...it's reality seeping into her escape construct.
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O
The scene (from the book at least) in their first cabin where Jamie gets up in the middle of the night to find a leak in the roof which he goes outside to fix then and there.
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B
Also snowing.. the same scene in colloden when Jamie saw the rabbit
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O
How about when Jamie found her ge said you are alive. She said that to Jamie after ordeal with black jack
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C
Could the leak in ceiling be referred to the travels on the boat.
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R
Where was the microscope?
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G
The metaphor in this episode are overwhelming
Brilliant done .
i hope that those true artists, the creators of the show can hear and feel our applauses and appreciation .
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G
The drip in the ceiling represents the time Jamie went outside naked in winter to fix a roof leak in the new cabin on Fraser Ridge.
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The producers have said it symbolizes reality trying to leak into her dream world.
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R
I read that, too, but like your theory better. 🙂
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That’s what I thought too
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G
Thank you. I was wondering what the drip meant
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O
That's it! I knew there was a scene about a leaky roof, but I couldn't remember where or when it took place.
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O
The abstract painting of the House on Fraser’s Ridge was brilliant!
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G
I thought that the cabin appeared on fire.
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That was my first thought of the house being on fire too
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B
And it was in flames!
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O
In the first shot panning down the hallway of the dream sequence home, there is a desk off to the right. Sitting on the desk is the microscope.
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Murtaghs pants are plaid.
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Wow! I didn't notice that!
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B
My dad always wore plaid dress pants. He was Scottish 💙🏴
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G
The leak in the ceiling in the deam house. Same as the leak in the cabinet roof.
Dream house Thanksgiving, it's raining. Frank was killed in a car crash when it was raining. Bree, Roger and Jemmy were killed in a car crash during the rain in Claire's emotional escape dream. Claire's feeling of loss after the McKenzie departure from the eighteenth century.
Jamie's old scars on his left hand showed when he grasped Claire's hand when he and her were appreciating their ordinary day while watching their children and grandchildren play. Portraying the length Jamie will go to keep Claire safe.
Jocasta has her sight in Claire's dream house. Likewise Fergus has both hands. Maybe meaning, in Claire's idea of a perfect world. Also, Murtagh is still alive.
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B
The cops were Brown and Hogpile(?)
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O
LOL!
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P
Why is everybody dressed modern clothes except for Jamie?
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G
Jamie will always be her constant. She will always see him this way. He looked just as he did in the beginning when he said she need not fear as long as he's near her.
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He's dressed like any man in the 60's
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G
Because he cannot time travel - he is always in the 1700s in her mind
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P
I believe Jamie can time travel. If you remember from the first episode Jamie was watching her in the hotel room from the Plaza at Inverness. Frank was on his way back to the hotel when he thought he saw a ghost. It was Jamie in the 1940's.
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The creators have said that that was a ghost. Actually, the author may have too, I think.
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G
He looked in modern clothes. They even said that. Looked 60s/70s to me as well. Even the hair.
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B
So, what did the eggs symbolize please??
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P
Someone mentioned that everyone at the Thanksgiving table had red shoes on. Did anyone else notice this? I wondered if it was another "Wizard of Oz" (no place like home) reference.
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G
Marsali is wearing white go-go boots. I don’t recall what everyone else had on.
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G
Jamie has on tall black or dark boots... no red there.
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O
All of them, but I thought the most poignant was Claire being wrapped so tenderly in Jamie’s tartan.
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G
The first time Jamie wrapped up Claire, he did not use his plaid. . . . Mistake or intentional? I saw the tan cover late on also, but briefly.
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Any thought about the ending scene, both in bed, naked, no tartan or blanket wrapping, just limbs? Jamie will protect her with his body.
Also, has anyone identified what the small figure was on top of the TV? I couldn't make it out.
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G
Also there are connections with Brianna and her stuffed “ rabbit” bunny. Her favorite stuffed animal.
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I noticed all of these things ,plus the painting of Fraser's Ridge !
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I couldn’t figure out what the painting of of. I am so thick!
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O
Claire is saved and safe with Jamie! he wraps it!
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the song, Never, my love. I believe it goes to the book, Drums of Autumn, when they first arrived in America and she wondered if Jamie would tire of her.
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C
Jocasta has her vision back and Fergus has his hand
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We thought it was brilliantly done. We had to pause the show for a bit, because we were reeling from the abuse Claire suffered. Very powerful episode which tied the whole series into this one show. I noticed that Bree, Roger and Jemmy couldn't go back, because in the 60s they had died in the car crash. Hence, the reason they stayed put in the 1700s.
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R
*The two policemen were Lionel Brown and the man in the redcoat from the rape.
*Lionel Brown was sitting at the table when Jamie made his toast.
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G
Why do they call them Easter Eggs?
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we hide Easter Eggs as a game for the kids to search for them. Easter Eggs in film is based on that. Directors, writers and eve actors can add something that really doesn't belong but probably relates to the theme.. In a Steven King movie an actor passed a bookstore, in the display window were books by Steven King
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"References," in English literature, rather than Easter Eggs.
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Or how Stan Lee always made a cameo appearance in all the "Avenger" movies. Just stuff to look out for.
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L
The leaking ceiling. Hmmmm. For show watchers, this could be the leaking deck when they made love on the ship. For book readers, it could be the leaking roof Jamie fixed in the nude.
The wallpaper behind the desk is from the Laird's room at Lallybroch.
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The leaking ceiling. Hmmm. Could be the water leaking through when they made love on the ship. Book readers might see the leaking roof Jamie fixed in the nude.
The wallpaper behind the desk is from the Laird's room at Lallybroch.
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G
I might be wrong but the "policemen" say that paramedics tried to save Bree and Roger at the crash site. If this was set in the 60's, paramedics did not exist by that name until the 70's. My husband was a career firefighter and EMS. That is why I question this. EMT certification came about in the late 70's and paramedic's were after that. So I think it is a "mistake" that is done in that scene.
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I saw JoCasta had on red shoes too.
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C
What is the significance of the water dripping from the ceiling ?
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Everything is said, but this one is one for Jamie. The shot of the way he shot his gun is how he survived his son.
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B
Only saw this while watching in closed caption -- something about Jacosta being a good name.
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P
When he tells her, “It’s just the two of us now”, it was the same thing he said to her during their reunion during season 3 (A. Malcolm).
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B
I noticed the microscope and the typewriter in the unused living room. That room’s wallpaper was from season 2
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You all missed the microscope on the desk!
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Joyful_2010, well done!
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C
Saw all of those, though I must admit I didn't make all of the context connections....just knew that they had special meaning. I noted that everyone except Jamie was in 20th century clothing. His was still 18th century....
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Those of us who lived through that era recognized that Jamie’s clothes would not have been out of place at all in the 60’s. Frilly men’s shirts, black jeans, black boots, and leather jackets were all in style (or ‘in’ or groovy as we would have said. Even Jamie’s hair style was the style of rebels of that time.
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Trisha Biggar - costume designer - said Jamie is in a similar shirt to the ones he normally wears but a bit more fitted. then in pants similar to his breeks, but made of denim. and his shirt is tucked in. Giving him a more modern look but he is the ONE clearly still rooted in the 1800's
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O
Also there’s a print on the wall of herons which calls back to Season three when she’s talking to Bree about seeing them in Scotland.
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I forgot to add, the abstract painting in the dream house is of the big house on the ridge that is on fire.
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Producers have said it is an abstract painting and I do not think it depicts fire at least that is what I got from their interview.
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R
Thanks for that information. It helps me understand the symbolism. Interesting that season 2 has so many implications..
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B
Wow! Amazing stuff!!!
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