Caitriona Balfe, who stars as Claire on Outlander, says the storyline of the show’s upcoming season 6 is heartbreaking and twisted. The sweeping historical fantasy Outlander, which premiered on Starz in 2014, is based on a popular series of novels by Diana Gabaldon, with each season of the show covering the events of one book. Season 5, which focused on the plot of Gabaldon’s The Fiery Cross, aired between February and May 2020. Outlander has already been renewed through season 7, and season 6 is expected to premiere in early 2022.
Outlander tells the story of Balfe’s Claire Randall, a WWII-era English nurse who is traveling in the Scottish Highlands with her husband Frank (Tobias Menzies) when she is inexplicably transported back in time from 1945 to 1743. Finding herself trapped in the 18th century, she meets and falls in love with charming Highlander Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan). Claire and Jamie’s adventures take them from the battlefields of Scotland to the royal court of France and ultimately to America just in time for the upcoming Revolution. Outlander seasons 4 and 5 showed the Frasers settling in North Carolina in an area that becomes known as Fraser’s Ridge.
Speaking to EW about her work on Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical film Belfast, Balfe teased a “heartbreaking” and “twisted” conflict in the upcoming season 6 of Outlander. She mentioned a new family who will be joining Claire and Jamie in their community on Fraser’s Ridge: the Christies, including patriarch Tom Christie (Mark Lewis Jones) and his children Allan (Alexander Vlahos) and Malva (Jessica Reynolds). Read her comments about the Christies below:
Outlander does baddies and villains quite well. [The Christies] aren’t your typical villains, which is great and refreshing.
Claire and Malva build a great relationship and bond. It’s very destabilizing for Claire. It’s a really heartbreaking, but a really twisted narrative that they all get embroiled in.
Though Balfe was careful not to give too much away, Outlander fans who have read ahead know what “destabilizing” events viewers can likely expect in season 6, which is based on Gabaldon’s 6th novel in the Outlander series, A Breath of Snow and Ashes. Of course, it’s always possible that the show will make some changes, and until Outlander season 6 premieres in early 2022, there’s no way fans can know for sure what will happen.
At this point, Claire and Jamie – not to mention the rest of their family – have been through an abundance of challenges. Sometimes, like with the Jacobite Rising, they were struggling against history itself, but they’ve also had to deal with more than their fair share of what Balfe refers to as “baddies and villains,” often in the form of powerful and violent men like Captain Jack Randall (Tobias Menzies again, in a dual role) and Stephen Bonnet (Ed Speleers). The idea of the Frasers facing a different kind of antagonist in season 6 is a fascinating one and will give Outlander devotees (including Susan Sarandon) something new to look forward to in the remaining months of “Droughtlander” – the name used to describe the long wait between seasons. While it would be nice to think Clare and Jamie have earned some peace, it likely won’t come as a surprise to Outlander fans that the long-suffering couple is headed for more heartbreak in season 6.
