'Outlander' Author Diana Gabaldon Weighs in on Why Jamie Is a Hero on Season 7's Fifth Episode

In the back half of part 1 of season 7 of Outlander, the focus of the story will shift slightly – don’t worry, Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire (Caitríona Balfe) will still be there – to include some newer cast members: Jamie’s illegitimate son William (Charles Vandervaart), who was raised by Lord John Grey (David Berry), and Quaker brother and sister Denzell (Joey Phillips) and Rachel (Izzy Meikle-Small) Hunter.

We first meet Denzell and Rachel when Young Ian (John Bell) brings William to Denzell for medical care – Denzell is a doctor – when an infection is raging through William’s body, and, happily, Denzell is one of the better doctors of his time, and he is able to save William’s life and limb.

Once William is well enough to travel, the trio begins their journey: William to return to the British army, Denzell and Rachel to find the Continental Army, where Denzell is hoping to offer his services as a doctor.

Along the way, they talk about the Quakers’ abhorrence of violence, and they are put to the test that night when the farmer at the farmhouse where they agreed to spend the night tries to murder Denzell. Luckily, William awakes in time and saves Denzell's life, but in so doing, he has to kill the farmer. It turns out that this is the first life he has ever taken, and we see William’s reaction to it, possibly an echo of his parentage.

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“I don’t see how one can avoid comparing him to Jamie, given the circumstances,” New York Times bestselling author Diana Gabaldon shares exclusively with Parade. “But the resemblances are clear: not only his impressive size and physique, but also his personal attributes: good sense of humor, physical courage (he leaps up and kills the bad guy to save Denzell from being killed), and thoughtfulness --not only his care for the Hunters’ well-being, but his genuine shock at having killed a man, and his attempt to come to terms with it, rather than pushing it under the rug.”

Still, one can wonder, how much is nature versus nurture?

“Jamie shares some of those traits with Lord John—particularly thoughtfulness, generosity and physical courage (though the show doesn’t let him show that until much later),” she says.

And not only does William save the Hunters from death, when they do finally part, he is generous to a fault, gifting them with all the money he has on his person.

“We might consider William’s generosity with money as being due more to Lord John than to Jamie; being raised as a member of the British aristocracy and having a LOT of inherited property and money probably makes it easier to share your wealth, as you’re pretty sure you’ll have more of it,” Diana adds. “Still, Jamie is always generous with what he has, so we can’t really distinguish generosity as belonging more to one father than the other.”

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William’s actions have gone a long way to impressing Rachel with who he is as a man, but her encounter with Ian also left its mark, which we see when they meet again and Ian, too, offers her his protection. Of course, at this point in the story, Ian has been assured by Claire that he will be able to father a child with another woman – and he has seen evidence of this at the Mohawk Village, so Outlander is about to put Rachel in an uncomfortable position of her heart wanting something that her religion won’t approve of.

“Well, Rachel has a clear sense of physical attraction to both young men, though with William it’s his nice manners and quick wit as well as his looks,” Diana points out. “With Ian, it’s more a chemical attraction, though she also admires his unselfishness and compassion, as witness his rescuing William from the Great Dismal. At the same time, she won’t regard either one as a potential love interest, because they’re both professional (so to speak) men of violence. A Friend who has strong attractions toward two warriors is in a bad place. But love is blind, and Rachel’s brother is smart enough to know that and point it out to her.”

As for Ian now being reassured that he can father children, this is one point where the book and the TV show diverge. On screen, when Ian returns to the Mohawk Village, Emily’s (Morgan Holmstrom) son, the young Indian with the light hair that he names Ian James, appears to be his son. Especially since the boy tells him, "Grandmother says I am the child of your spirit."

“Well, this is the show choosing to be explicit, where the book isn’t—their privilege,” Diana says. “Also choosing to give the kid an English name, rather than the Mohawk name he eventually has in the book. (Not that I blame them for doing that, as the Mohawk name is rather long, and abbreviates to “Lizard.”) But yes, we’re led to believe that this boy is indeed Ian’s biological son—though given the adorable, fair, fluffy-haired little boy they cast for the part (and his mother’s remarks about him entering Ian’s white world), there can’t be much doubt.”

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The Hunters do make it to Fort Ticonderoga and Claire and Denzell bond over a case that requires a man’s leg to be amputated, and we once again see a demonstration of how Jamie uses his intelligence to try to save lives by instructing General Fermoy (Olivier Raynal) to a potential danger to the fort, and not having to say anything – but maybe wishing he was on his way to Scotland -- when the general ignores his advice and the danger becomes a reality.

“He’s very used to the vagaries, frustrations and futilities of armies (vide Bonnie Prince Charlie’s campaign in 1745/6),” Diana says. “He wants to go to Scotland because he promised (several years ago) to find Ian and take him back to his parents at Lallybroch.

“Now, on the verge of keeping that promise, Jamie’s essentially been shanghaied and forced into this dangerous detour with clueless senior officers and allies. (Frankly, I didn’t care for the all-too-predictable, ‘Here’s how we win/Don’t bother me with nonsense, you stupid Scotsman/BOOM!!!/Oh, Sh!T’ thing (which wasn’t in the book, either… <cough>)

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“This is what Claire had to say (in a letter to Bree and Roger, in An Echo in the Bone):

“What’s somewhat more worrying than these points is the existence of a small hill, directly across the water from us, and no great distance away. The Americans named it Mount Defiance when they took Ticonderoga away from the British in ’75 and that’s rather apt—or would be, if the fort was capable of putting men and artillery on top of it. They aren’t, and I think the fact that Mount Defiance commands the fort and is within cannon-shot of it probably will not be lost on the British army, if and when they get here.”

“As for bragging, I can’t imagine he’d see any point whatever in pointing out that he was right, as everybody scrambles to flee. He doesn’t waste his time in political wrangling or scoring points. That’s one of the reasons why he’s a hero.”

Next, Outlander EP Maril Davis Teases What Will Happen in the Final Season (Season 8)