“It’s merely his ghost…”: Truth Behind Outlander’s 1 Heart-Racing Jamie Fraser Scene Makes Sam Heughan’s Character More Mysterious
- Sam Heughan has been appearing as Jamie Fraser in Outlander since the first season.
- In the pilot episode, viewers witnessed a spectral figure which they assumed was Jamie's.
- The secret behind Jamie's ability to appear in the future is yet to be decoded.
Outlander is one of the most popular historical dramas and the second part of the seventh season has recently concluded. The show follows the story of Claire Randall (Caitríona Balfe), a former World War II nurse, who time travels to 1743, falls in love with and gets married to a Highland warrior named Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan).
The pilot episode of the series shows a ghost like figure whom people have long assumed to be Jamie. This make things complicated because there is proof that Jamie is incapable of doing time travel. The mystery around that figure might be debunked soon if the events of the second episode of Season 2 are anything to go by.
Was it Jamie Fraser’s ghost in Outlander‘s pilot episode?
About 25 minutes into the first episode of Outlander, Frank Randall can be seen walking through the rain when he comes upon an apparition. This figure is staring right at a window of the bed and breakfast where Frank and his wife Claire are staying in Inervness, Scotland. Sure enough, through the window, Claire can be seen brushing her hair.
The plot twist is that when Frank turns towards the man to ask him why he was staring at Claire, there is no man there. When Claire tells Frank that he looks like he has seen a ghost, he comments that he is not too sure that he has not. It was a mystery that fans could not understand and often talked about on Reddit.
That was until Outlander book series author Diana Gabaldon confirmed in the FAQ section of her website:
The highlander ghost that Frank sees in my first book is Jamie—but as for how it fits into the story, All Will Be Explained—in the last book.
Does that mean Jamie is dead when he comes to see Claire outside the bed and breakfast in 1945? The answer to that is: No. In an interview with the Outlander Podcast in 2014, Gabaldon said that when Sam Heughan asked the author about the Jamie’s age in that scene, she told him that the Scotsman is about 25.
Fans of the show are aware that Jamie lives far beyond the age of 25. So, he was definitely not dead when Frank saw him. The question that arises now is whether Jamie time traveled or was it something else that facilitated his visit from the past.
How did Jamie show up in the pilot episode?
Fans who have been keeping up with the show are aware by now that Jamie Fraser does not have the ability to travel through time unlike his wife Claire Randall and their descendants could. A reference to the fact that Jamie could visit the future through his dream was made in Episode of Season 7.
In the episode, Jamie recounts that in his dream, he saw Claire’s face illuminated by electric light and that she was sitting at a desk writing. When Claire asks how he could have recognized something he has never seen in real life, Jamie reasons that he can dream of the past so maybe he can dream of the future too.
Moreover, Jamie also had a feeling that he must have been seeing Claire “in her proper time” alludes to the fact that he, in fact, may have a dream connection with Claire even when they are divided by space and time. The real explanation behind Jamie’s ability to be in the future will only be established when Gabaldon’s tenth and final book is published.
Outlander is available to stream on Starz.
