When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.
Credit: Starz
Outlander build up plenty of momentum in the long-awaited second half of Season 7 from the 2024 TV schedule now into the 2025 TV schedule, but fans unfortunately have an extra week to wait to learn Claire’s fate. She was shot in the penultimate episode, resulting in a great performance from Sam Heughan. Suffice it to say that Jamie has a lot on his plate for the upcoming season finale, called “A Hundred Thousand Angels.”
But I’m so hopeful for one particular scene involving him and his son that I started flashing back to what Charles Vandervaart told CinemaBlend about a particularly violent scene also featuring Caitriona Balfe after William learned the truth about Jamie… and why only two takes could be attempted. Surely Claire’s cliffhanger can’t take the full hour, right?
Why Outlander Is Taking A Week Off Before The Finale
The reason why Starz is skipping a new episode on Friday, January 10 is simple: a one-off special is taking over the time slot. Despite the 30th Annual Critics Choice Awards being postponed due to the wildfires affecting the Los Angeles area, the broadcast of the Critics Choice Association’s 7th Annual Celebration of Black Cinema and Television is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET on 1/10, a.k.a. the usual Outlander slot.
The Season 7 finale will air just a week later on January 17, and Starz previewed what to expect with this episode description:
Denzell must perform a dangerous operation with the skills he’s learned from Claire. William asks for help from an unexpected source in his mission to save Jane.
Well, it’s not great news that Claire has to rely on 18th-century medicine as her only hope of surviving, but Denzell Hunter is certainly her best option to pull off a medical miracle worthy of the 20th century! As for William, I’m glad to learn that more of the storyline with Jane is on the way after an earlier episode got me invested in their dynamic, but I’d also love to see at least one more scene between William and Jamie and/or Lord John.
And realizing that reminded me of my conversation with Charles Vandervaart, who plays William, about his character’s violent reaction to learning Jamie is his true father.
Charles Vandervaart’s Violent Scene
Possibly the most chaotic scene of Season 7B involved Jamie’s return from the “dead” to the shock of Claire and Lord John, followed by William accidentally learning the truth that all three had tried very hard to hide from him. Shortly after Jamie severely beat Lord John for having “carnal knowledge” of his wife,” William showed that he inherited some temper from Jamie despite being raised by another man.
Claire confirming the truth to William was all he needed to go into what can charitably be called a tantrum, but more honestly described as a rage. He proceeded to shock Claire with a rampage through Lord John’s house, destroying vases, furniture, the chandelier, a mirror, and… a table, which was a much bigger deal in real life than it seemed compared to the rest of the destruction in the episode.
It was lucky enough that William directed his violence at inanimate objects compared to what Jamie did to Lord John, but Sam Heughan and David Berry probably were able to film many more takes of their fight than Charles Vandervaart could of his rage through the house while Caitriona Balfe watched. When I spoke with the actor about the “horrible, horrible things” that William did in Episode 12, I also had to know how many takes he had to get that scene right, and he explained:
Two takes! We got two takes for that scene, and I remember the prop guy was telling me, ‘Hey, this is an antique table. If you can, try not to kick it very hard.’ And I was just thinking, how am I supposed to not kick it hard? I’m supposed to be as angry as possible. I’m not just gonna break everything, shatter everything else, and then just lightly tap this table. So I told him, ‘Look, I’m gonna kick it. I’m so sorry if it breaks.’ And he told me that there’s only one of them.
Neither one of William’s fathers was present when he destroyed everything within reach on his way out of the house, which is part of why I’d love to see the three of them sharing a solid scene before the end of Season 7. But the rampage came right after he learned from Claire that not only was Jamie truly the man who sired him, but Lord John had known all along. So, if William was going to act on his fury, he couldn’t hold back in the heat of the moment! Vandervaart went on:
I think the take that they used was the first take, because after that, the table was absolutely shattered. [laughs] It was in pieces. And I think they managed to salvage it. Because it was old, it didn’t have any nails or anything in it. So I think you could kind of reassemble it. I mean, fingers crossed. That’s what they told me. But yeah, it was two takes, and then we didn’t have anything left to break. All of it was broken.
I went back and rewatched this particular sequence from Episode 12 via my Hulu subscription with Starz, and it does look like Charles Vandervaart kicked the table with enough force to shatter it in the take that ended up in the final cut. The camera also panned away from table before viewers could see how it ended up after the kick, but hopefully the table could indeed be salvaged for the sake of the prop guy.
All in all, Vandervaart described the sequence as “not super pleasant” for his character, and he remembered it quite differently as an actor. He shared:
It was not super pleasant. In real life, though, that was such a fun scene, borderline one of my favorite scenes of all time. I essentially got to be in a rage room and just break whatever I wanted for my job. It was so great. You can’t see it in the show, obviously, but in between takes, I was smiling so much. I was like, ‘This is the best day of my life!’ You never get to do that, right? You have to behave in real life. You can’t just break anything you want. So it was a real treat to do that once in my life.
Charles Vandervaart had a lot more fun with the scene as an actor than his character did in the episode! All in all, we’ve mostly seen William’s rage expressed in the wrong directions, ranging from smashing tables to forcing a kiss on Rachel to mistreating Jane during their first encounter in the brothel.
Now that he’s cooled down, I’d be all-in on Outlander featuring a scene with William, Jamie, and Lord John actually talking out what has happened… as much as the men of Outlander ever talk things out, anyway. Alas, not much time is left in the foreseeable future.
The Season 7 finale of Outlander will air on Friday, January 17 at 8 p.m. ET on Starz. The show been renewed, but the eighth season will also be the last. Filming concluded on Season 8 back in September, and it remains to be seen when Starz actually plans on premiering it. For now, be sure to tune on January 17 in to see how Claire presumably survives her bloody ordeal from the penultimate episode!
