Outlander’s Grave Injustice With One Beloved Character Makes the Show Look Overly Biased Towards Sam Heughan’s Jamie
- Outlander fans believe the makers are somewhere biased towards Sam Heughan's Jamie Fraser.
- Fans empathize with David Berry's Lord John Grey character.
- David Berry is prepared for Lord John spin-off series.
Developed by Ronald D. Moore, the historical drama series Outlander is based on the novel series of the same name by author Diana Gabaldon. The show’s stars Sam Heughan, Caitríona Balfe, David Berry, John Bell, and more who have been appreciated for their work. The third season of the series is based on the third book, Voyager. The story follows Claire spending a good amount of her life back with Frank Randall in her original timeline.
Claire’s life with Jamie becomes a part of her other life, but she spends the majority of her time longing for him and trying to get back. The third season of Outlander was described as an epic love story with an additional layer of maturity. It holds a 90% critic score and a 92% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite a successful season, ardent fans of the show are still talking about one character that they think deserved better.
Fans empathize with David Berry’s Lord John Grey compared to Sam Heughan’s Jamie Fraser on Outlander
Actor David Berry plays Lord John Grey on Outlander, and back in 2017, during his conversation with EW, the actor spoke about his character’s progress in season three. Berry revealed that before they started filming, he did not have a chance to read Voyager, the third novel by Diana Gabaldon on which the third season is based.
Berry was asked about filming an emotional scene with Sam Heughan’s character, Jamie Fraser, at Ardsmuir Prison. To which he said that at the end of the scene, he was crying and had to get the tissues out and redo the scene. The actor mentioned that it was exhausting because it was such an emotional rollercoaster as the two characters remembered losing their loved ones. In season three, Jamie and John Grey grow closer together and are settled into a kind of companionship.
In one particular scene, the two of them are playing chess in Grey’s quarters when Jamie starts to talk about how desperate he was in the hours following Culloden. John Grey also opens up about losing a comrade very close to him during a battle. During the conversation, John Grey slightly puts his hand on Jamie to comfort him, but he freezes as his mind goes back to him being raped by Black Jack Randall. Jamie says to John Grey,
Take your hands off me. Or I will kill you.
After Jamie leaves, a tear falls on John Grey’s cheek, which clearly shows the man is just lonely, unable to open up about himself in public. He realizes that he finally found a person he can open up to, but he has somehow blown it away.
But fans have decided to question the makers for being biased towards Jamie Fraser, as they believe that Lord John Grey deserved better. A Reddit user mentioned,
John Grey needs somebody who can have a relationship with him.
A user in the comment section mentioned that Lord John Grey’s character is one of the best characters written in the Outlander. His character is right on par with the big books, but it’s different at the same time. The show somehow makes the audience feel bad for John Grey as though he’s a victim of ‘unrequited love’ towards Jamie Fraser while in the books, the character lives a really good life.
They noted it’s so hard to explain, but no one regrets reading about Lord John Grey. A user also mentioned that back in the day, PTSD wasn’t recognized, and Lord John Grey had no idea of Jamie’s history with BJR. There is no doubt that John Grey slowly became one of the fan-favorite characters on the show so a little inconvenience to the fan-favorite character will surely lead to questions from the fans.
Outlander actor David Berry addressed Lord John Grey’s spin-off series
As Outlander prepares to conclude after its eighth and final season on January 17, 2025, actor David Berry spoke to Deadline about his character’s spin-off series rumors. He said,
There was a time in Season 4 when we were going to shoot our Lord John series; it had been written—well, there was a writer attached, and I’d signed a contract to do a series. It went down to the wire as to whether or not it would get approved by the network, but ultimately, at the time, it was decided that it wasn’t the right fit or wasn’t the right thing for them.
The actor noted that he was prepared to do it at the time, and he’s still prepared to do it. David Berry also added that he’s hoping that they could go ahead with the spin-off. The actor mentioned that the executive producers, Matt B. Roberts and Maril Davis, on Outlander, have also expressed a lot of interest in doing the spin-off series.
David Berry further explained that it depends on finding the right network for the spin-off and the audience who’d be interested in moving forward to watching the show. He also expressed his disappointment with the fact that the spin-off series didn’t get approved initially but also noted that everything depends upon the audience.
Outlander is streaming on STARZ.
