‘Outlander’ Finale: 4 Burning Questions We Have About What Happened And What Comes Next

The Outlander series finale came out today, finally revealing the ultimate fates of Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire (Caitriona Balfe) on the Starz show. While the final episode of Outlander did tie most of the story up in a tidy little bow, we still have some burning questions about key characters’ fates.

**Spoilers for Outlander Season 8 Episode 10 “And the World Was All Around Us,” now streaming on Starz**

Most of the final episode of Outlander is centered on Jamie’s fate. The first half of the episode sees our hero making sure everything is in order at Fraser’s Ridge in case he dies fighting in the Battle of Kings Mountain, per Frank Randall’s (Tobias Menzies) history book from the future. He writes his will, bids farewell to his loved ones, and asks Claire three important favors if he falls in combat.

While it initially seems that Jamie manages to survive the battle, the dastardly Major Patrick Ferguson (Charles Aitken) refuses to formally surrender. Ferguson shoots Jamie point blank in the heart, crying, “I will never surrender!” Jamie’s men quickly kill the Redcoat for his deed and Claire rushes to her husband, determined to save him.

However, there’s nothing Claire can do. Jamie dies in her arms. We then see Roger try multiple times to get Claire to allow them to transport Jamie’s body back to Fraser’s Ridge for burial. Instead, she insists he’s already home.

We then discover that it was Jamie’s ghost staring longingly at Claire from the street in Inverness and that his ghost then went to Craig na Dun. As he left the stone circle, the blue flowers that originally drew Claire to the magical time travel portal bloomed. So that’s one mystery solved!

Nevertheless, we have four burning questions about the Outlander finale and what it means for the rest of the characters going forward…

1. Did Claire Also Die in the Outlander Finale?

   Well… Did she? 

   The final moments of Outlander reveal that Claire refuses to leave Jamie’s body. She is so absolutely heartbroken that not even Roger can convince her that it’s time to take Jamie’s body home to Fraser’s Ridge for the burial and Catholic Mass he requested. 

   After we learn that Jamie’s ghost was responsible for the blue flowers the drew Claire to the stones, we go back to Kings Mountain. Claire is still entangled in Jamie’s arms, but she is eerily still. As the camera closes in on the couple, the two gasp awake at the same moment. Then, Outlander cuts to black and the final credits.

   I interpreted this moment to be ambiguous on purpose. Jamie’s dead. He has to be. If he isn’t dead, his ghost can’t haunt Claire in Inverness. However, their shared gasp either has to represent the eternal nature of their bond or maybe that Claire also died and now they’re ghosts together. 

   That said, I don’t know! We don’t yet know what showrunner Matthew B. Roberts really meant by that scene!

2. Will Fanny Ever Time Travel?

   We learned a few weeks ago that Fanny (Florrie May Wilkinson) also has the ability to travel through time. She picked up an emerald by a stream, heard the tell-tale buzzing, and cracked the gemstone in half. What we don’t know, though, is why Outlander revealed this to the audience without letting Jamie, Claire, Brianna (Sophie Skelton), and Roger (Richard Rankin) know, too. 

   Will Fanny ever learn that she comes from a family of time travelers? Will she travel to the future, to a time and place where she not only could practice medicine, but also be more free of the puritanical judgment of 18th century society? Could she travel backwards? Maybe even show up as a character on Outlander: Blood of My Blood? 

   Why introduce Fanny as a time traveler, but do nothing with it in the finale? Huh? What gives?

3. What Will Happen to Brianna and Roger’s Family if Davy Can’t Time Travel?

   In an interesting scene in the Outlander finale, Jamie explains to Claire that Mandy (Rosa Morris) revealed to him that she can sense the energy of her individual family members as colors. We already knew from Master Raymond (Dominique Pinon) that Claire’s light is blue. Mandy told Jamie that she and Jemmy (Blake Johnston-Miller) are red. However, she also revealed that Jamie’s energy is the color of water and that Davy’s is the same.

   Jamie believes this means that Davy, like him, cannot travel through time. This is important because one of Jamie’s final wishes is that he wants his time-traveling family members to return to the safety of the future. Davy, he figures, can stay behind on the Ridge to be raised by Young Ian (John Bell) and Rachel (Izzy Meikle-Small). 

   Claire explains that Brianna would never leave her son behind in the past before insisting that she herself would not want to leave colonial times because she would want to be in a time and place where she felt closer to Jamie.

   We don’t know if this information is ever going to be relayed to Roger and Brianna! What happens to Roger, Brianna, and their kids? Who is working on the renovation of Lallybroch? Are Roger and Brianna just going to raise their kids in colonial America? What comes next for them?

4. Uh, Does Jamie’s Last Will Blow Up William Ransome’s Claim to Nobility?

   One of the most touching parts of the final Outlander episode was getting to learn about all of the smart and sentimental gifts Jamie bequeathed his love ones. Brianna gets a sizable plot of land to raise her family, Young Ian inherits his uncle’s weapons, Marsali (Lauren Lyle) gets his fine pens and stationery, and all of the grandkids get equal lump sums of money. 

   However, the last part of Jamie’s will, which leaves three excellent casks of whiskey and his Bible to William (Charles Vandervaart), kind of sort of made me stop in my tracks. It’s not that whiskey and a Bible aren’t perfect gifts for William — because they literally are — but that Jamie outs William as his “natural” son William James Fraser, before dropping his legal name.

   The penultimate episode of Outlander was all about Jamie and Lord John Grey and William collectively coming to peace with their strange family arrangement. William finally emotionally connected to Jamie, while appreciating that Lord John (David Berry) was the man who raised him to be a gentleman. So what does it mean if William’s true lineage is revealed in a legally-binding document? Does it matter? Are we to intuit that he’s done with aristocracy? 

   When DECIDER spoke with Charles Vandervaart earlier this year, he told us he doesn’t think William’s story is necessarily over. “I think there’s always more. I mean, Outlander‘s huge. It’s like a universe, so there’s always more story there, I think,” he said.

   So are these final mysteries designed as jumping off points for other spin-off projects? These are just some of the four burning questions I had after watching the Outlander series finale…