When season two of Outlander ended, Jamie (Sam Heughan) sent Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and their unborn child back to her own time.
He expected to die in the Battle of Culloden and wanted to save her life.
Now, the third season will fill in the blanks from the lovers’ 20 years apart.
But their reunion, which is so lovingly depicted in Voyager, Diana Gabaldon’s third book in the Outlander series, won’t happen immediately. The pair will spend multiple episodes separated before their lives collide once more.
Claire and Jamie will reunite – but not soon enough!
“But don’t worry, I think it’s going to be worth the wait for fans,” Scottish star Sam, 37, reassures during an exclusive interview with TV WEEK.
“Jamie and Claire have gone on this journey for 20 years – he goes through all the stages of grief and anger.
“When he finally accepts the fact she’s gone, she comes back into his life again. So that print shop scene is going to be very special…”
Irish actress Caitriona breaks into a huge grin as she talks us through that pivotal moment.
“In her [Claire’s] ideal world, she would walk into the print shop, and he [Jamie] would sweep her up in his arms. And that would be that,” she says. “But it ends up going very differently.”
Watch Outlander’s season three trailer (story continues after video
Caitriona, 37, hints that it will be a “great thing for the audience to see”.
“Especially after they’ve been separated for so long,” she adds. “We get that moment – it’s awkward and it’s confusing, and it’s sweet and tender.”
Season three kicks off with Jamie lying on the Culloden battlefield in Scotland. He relives critical moments of the battle in a flashback. Eventually, he’s rescued – but it’s a long journey home.
First, Jamie winds up in prison. There, he crosses paths with Lord John Grey (A Place To Call Home star David Berry), whose life he saved as a child.
Meanwhile, in the future, Claire struggles to make the best of life in Boston, America, with husband Frank (Tobias Menzies).
Frank and Claire agree to raise her daughter together.
Frank has raised Claire’s daughter, Brianna (Sophie Skelton), as his own.
“There’s maybe a more repressed and brittle edge to Claire in the beginning of the season,” Caitriona says. “And then, hopefully, when we get to the point of the reunion, you’ll see those walls begin to be broken down.”
Although the show has had to tackle ageing its two leading stars over two decades, Caitriona says her focus was more on her character’s emotional journey.
“We thought prosthetics would be too distracting,” she explains. “Claire is only 50. So we looked around at many female crew members who are around that age. They all look pretty good, so we took our direction from them.
“You see a little grey in Claire’s hair. But most of the challenge, for me, was internal – showing how life experience changed her, and living with that loss.”
Jamie expected to die in the Battle of Culloden
Caitriona’s co-star Sam seems rather amused with his makeover to middle age.
“It was fun to play with hair and make-up and a few prosthetics,” he says. “And discovering what Jamie looks like at different stages in his life.”
The actor reveals eye make-up, false eyebrows and altering the colour of his lips were some of the tricks used.
“I also had this crazy wig at one point that was extremely uncomfortable,” Sam says. “But it put me in a really bad mood, which was perfect for the character too!”
Outlander returns tonight to Mondays 7.30pm on Showcase
