Warning! Spoilers Ahead for the Outlander season 6 finale and beyond.
In a suspenseful final episode, the Outlander season 6 ending left much to be explained. Based on the best-selling books by Diana Gabaldon, Outlander season 6 is based on Gabaldon’s A Breath of Snow and Ashes, but due to filming restrictions during the pandemic, Outlander season 6 got shortened to eight episodes, with the show’s creative team opting to push several of the book’s biggest plot lines to next season. While one may have expected the Outlander season 6 ending to be a disappointment because of this, the action-packed yet intimate finale was nothing short of gripping.
Picking up right where the previous episode left off, the Outlander season 6 finale begins with Richard Brown’s (Chris Larkin) safety committee arriving to collect Claire (Caitriona Balfe) for trial. Brown sends a man to sneak into the house and kidnap Claire, but Claire shoots the man, setting off a fire-fight that leads to Claire and Jamie (Sam Heughan) barricaded in their home for the night. Soon the settlers of Fraser’s Ridge arrive demanding Claire stand trial for Malva’s murder, and Claire and Jamie surrender with the rest of the episode spent detailing their journey to Wilmington. Meanwhile, another journey is taking place, with Bree (Sophie Skelton), Roger (Richard Rankin), and Jemmy (Andrew and Matthew Adair) on their way to Roger’s seminary school, when, along the way, Jemmy’s lice-induced haircut answers the seasons-long mystery surrounding the identity of Jemmy’s true father.
Titled, “I Am Not Alone,” Outlander season 6, episode 8 is a poetic and fascinating contrast to the show’s previous season finale, in which Lionel Brown and his gang kidnapped and sexually assaulted Claire in a horrific series of events that have seen Claire emotionally and psychologically distant throughout season 6. In the Outlander season 6 ending, however, despite Claire being once again attacked (by another Brown, nonetheless), Claire is not alone. Though Jamie and she have been torn apart, Claire finds herself under the mysterious protection of Malva’s father, Tom Christie. Here’s a breakdown of the Outlander season 6 ending explained in detail.
Claire & Bree's Future Scene: Is Outlander Hinting At Claire's Execution?
As is Claire’s way of handling trauma in Starz’s Outlander, she returns mentally to the comforts of her time. This was the case during her sexual assault in the Outlander season 5 finale and is once again the case during her and Jamie’s stand-off with Richard Brown’s men in the Outlander season 6 finale. While barricaded in their home, Claire tells Jamie of the modern tradition of a prisoner’s right to a last meal and explains that the meal is traditionally something that brings the prisoner comfort before their death. She describes her and Bree’s ritualistic diner fare and her dialogue works to explain the episode’s opening scene in which she and Bree are seated at a diner in the future.
While the scene could be interpreted by some as Claire’s last meal and point toward her doom in the impending trial, there are definitive signs that point toward the scene simply being a coping tool for Claire. Firstly, Claire is wearing red again, reminiscent of the dream sequences during Claire’s attack in Outlander season 5 in which she and Jamie are hosting a dinner party in the future and she is wearing a red dress. The similarity of Claire’s clothing in both sequences lends to the idea that she is psychologically returning to the same place—a place where she is safe. Furthermore, the scene establishes the setting as a return to a specific time in Claire’s life by pointedly showing Bree’s lack of a wedding ring, while showing Claire’s silver Lallybroch wedding ring on her right hand. This distinguishes the scene as a source of comfort for Claire, rather than a determination of her fate or foreshadowing.
Tom Christie's Story Explained: Why He's Helping Claire
Tom Christie has been a mercurial character throughout Outlander season 6. While often being cast as a villain, his allegiances on Fraser’s Ridge have grown more mysterious over the final episodes. Though he originally seems to perceive Claire’s medical expertise as witchcraft, he then acquiesces to her fixing his arthritic hand and has since been surprisingly tight-lipped regarding her. Now, in the season finale, his dedicated protection of Claire seems an utter reversal of his stance from the beginning of the season and offers the first signs of what readers of Diana Gabaldon’s A Breath of Snow and Ashes know already: Tom Christie is in love with Claire. If the Starz series follows the book’s story, Tom is destined to continue in his protection of Claire until he eventually falsely confesses to Malva’s murder in order to save Claire from execution.
Jamie Fraser's Nine Lives: What Life He's On Now
During their stand-off with Richard Brown’s men, Claire and Jamie have several intimate love scenes together, one of which involves Jamie recounting a fortune teller likening him to a cat with nine lives. After taking count of Jamie’s near-death experiences, he and Claire determine that he is currently on his sixth life. However, this will likely not be the last time this subject is brought up in the series, as it is a recurring theme for Jamie from this point forward in the Gabaldon’s books and is mentioned again in An Echo in the Bone and Go Tell the Bees That I am Gone.
Why Claire Forgoes Her Oath As A Doctor
One of the most significant elements in the Outlander season 6 ending is when Richard Brown’s man dies from his gunshot wound. After the young man is sent into Claire and Jamie’s house to kidnap Claire, Claire shoots the man rather than allow herself to be captured. This moment is epically significant in the development of Claire’s character, as she has spent nearly the entirety of Outlander season 6 haunted by the events of her previous kidnapping and smothering her trauma in ether. Now, her reaction to attack is no longer to try and hide it or silence it, but to fight—a phoenix-from-the-ashes moment for Claire and a return to the character’s remarkable strength from earlier seasons. However, a monumental change occurs within Claire’s character as a result: While en route to her trial, she sees the wounded young man’s suffering and tells Jamie she should heal him, but Claire does not, and several scenes later, the man dies.
While Claire’s character in Outlander has killed before, this instance is unlike the others because Claire watches as the young man suffers, noting that he will likely die of infection, and then does nothing. As Claire refused to kill Lionel Brown in lieu of her oath as a doctor in the Outlander season 5 finale, it is especially significant to see her forgo her Hippocratic oath in this instance and allow the young man to die. This could imply that, as Claire is en route to her second witch trial and considering her unspeakable trauma after Lionel Brown discovered her writings as Dr. Rawlings, Claire has finally reached a point where she is afraid to perform medically.
Will Brianna & Roger Return To The Future In Outlander Season 7?
Balancing the turbulent drama of Claire and Jamie in the Outlander season 6 ending, Brianna and Roger’s story is a calm contrast, with Jemmy’s lice revealing a type of hereditary birthmark that finally confirms Roger as Jemmy’s true father (instead of Brianna’s rapist, Stephen Bonnet). And while this confirmation does much to provide a sense of stability within their little family for this specific episode, viewers should expect that sense of stability to be short-lived. As filming for season 6 was severely restricted due to the pandemic, several major plot points from the end of Diana Gabaldon’s, A Breath of Snow and Ashes will now be the first episodes of Outlander season 7 before the season begins the content from her seventh book, An Echo in the Bone. One of these plot points is the birth of Brianna and Roger’s daughter, Amanda, who is born with a heart problem. So, if the Starz series follows the books, viewers should expect to see Bree and Roger time travel back to the future with their children in the forthcoming season.
Why Outlander's Season 6 Finale Ends On A Cliffhanger
Brianna and Roger’s coming departure is not the only reason the Outlander season 6 ending is such a cliffhanger, though. Another major plot point from A Breath of Snow and Ashes is Claire and Jamie’s impending house fire, though as Claire points out in the finale, there are still several months to go before the date given in the paper. The night before they leave for trial, Jamie promises Claire that she will see their home by moonlight again, but, as they are taken away from Fraser’s Ridge, there is a noted sense of unease as Claire and Jamie leave behind their beloved house.
Yet, even if they do return to see their home still standing, their lives on Fraser’s Ridge are now forever changed, as is seen in both the settler’s condemnation of Jamie and Claire and in the stonings they face in surrounding towns on their way to trial. While Claire and Jamie are both used to being outcasts and Claire being called a witch is somewhat old hat by now, Jamie and Claire came to America for a fresh start and built Fraser’s Ridge with their own hands. It could be that the greatest cliffhanger of the Outlander season 6 ending is waiting to see how Jamie and Claire will survive—not the trial or the fire—but the loss of their home in a relational sense rather than a physical one with the episode’s title bringing hope to Claire now and in times to come.
All episodes of Outlander are available now on Starz.