One Month Until Outlander Finale: What We Know About the Ending Based on Diana Gabaldon’s Books

Who would have thought, back in August 2014, that twelve years, a pandemic, a prequel and several journeys to the series’ stages later, we would be worrying about the ending of a production in which a World War II nurse travels through time to 1743 Scotland and discovers the charms, and disappointments, of the Scottish Highlands. Because the end of Outlander is drawing closer, there is one month to go, and we tell you what we know about the finale of the series based on Diana Gabaldón’s books.

The eighth season of the series, made up of ten episodes, will arrive on March 7th on Movistar Plus+ with a weekly broadcast that promises to keep us glued to the screen until the last scene. And since goodbyes are not easy, saying farewell to characters like Claire and Jamie, who, like us, have lived through many changes in the last twelve years, is a drama we’re not sure we’ll be able to endure.

But that will be in May; for now, we are going to discuss what awaits us in the new and final episodes of Outlander, a series that premiered when the small screen was another and has managed to remain among the audience’s favourites.

The Challenges Ahead of the Finale

After the events of Outlander’s seventh season, Claire and Jamie discover that, unfortunately, the struggle they were trying to leave behind has followed them home. Fraser’s Ridge is now a thriving settlement that has grown and flourished in their absence. With the new arrivals and the changes that have occurred during the years they have been away, the protagonists face a vital question: what are they willing to sacrifice for the place they call home and, more importantly, what would they sacrifice to be together.

While they maintain a united front against external intruders, the family secrets that eventually come to light threaten to tear them apart from within. Although they have left behind the war for America’s freedom, their fight for Fraser’s Ridge has barely begun. The Frasers will then have to protect their kin, reconcile wounds of the past and accept that every journey – in time and in life – has a price.

As for the protagonists, Claire will explore how to balance her medical instinct, her emotional strength and her love for Jamie against external dangers and the secrets that emerge within the family. And he, in addition to the war, which has followed his steps, will have to face other external threats as well as personal fears about the future of his family, perhaps linked to those advances we’ve seen in the new episodes, in which he reads a text that hints at his possible death.

This Isn’t Goodbye

For Ronald D. Moore, the series’ showrunner, “since the beginning it has been a story about how love survives time, war and loss. The ending must honour that emotional journey.” For Diana Gabaldón, author of the saga of novels that gave rise to the series, and who has already clarified that its ending will be different, “Claire and Jamie have always been characters who grow with the reader –and with the viewer–”, therefore, “the closure is not a goodbye, it is a culmination”.

Just as it’s hard to imagine an Outlander not so deeply rooted in Scotland, it’s almost impossible to picture a production in which the protagonists are someone else. Because the production that in Spain we can watch on Movistar Plus+ has changed the lives of many viewers, but also those of the actors who, for twelve years, have given face and voice to Claire and Jamie Fraser: Caitríona Balfe and Sam Heughan.

For the former, the eighth season of Outlander “is about farewells, but also about legacy. Claire arrives at the end fully being who she was always destined to be.” Something more resolute has been shown by her co-star and on-screen husband, who has stated that he doesn’t know how the production that launched him to fame ends. Or perhaps it happens to them as to us, preferring not to know it, to avoid having to admit that the finale, like everything, has arrived.