Outlander: Why Brianna didn't reveal her mom's pearls to Laoghaire
Sunday’s tense scene in Outlander between Brianna (Sophie Skelton) and Laoghaire (Nell Hudson) was actually missing a major prop: Ellen Fraser’s pearls that Jamie gave to Claire, who then passed them down to their daughter, Brianna.
In Drums of Autumn, the fourth Outlander book, on which this season is based, Brianna shows the pearls to Laoghaire to prove that Jamie is her dad, but then the crazy Scot tries — and fails — to snag the necklace. She did marry Jamie, after all!
While there was lots of arguing between Brianna and Laoghaire in Sunday’s episode, there was no such tug-o’-war over the pearls because they were never revealed. So we asked executive producer Maril Davis to explain.
“We actually had them in,” Davis says. “There’s a deleted scene that you’ll see on the Sony DVDs that shows that we did use the pearls. It was a decision in the editing room. Certain people had questions about why she wouldn’t use them. She could potentially buy passage if she lost her money. There were those of us who felt like she’d never obviously sell those pearls because they are sacred, but why wouldn’t she have brought them out earlier? There was so many questions. Also, we left out the fight between Brianna and Laoghaire because it felt a little over the top. For those reasons, we decided not to include the pearls. I’m not sure if we’ll use them later, though obviously she has them with her.”
Outlander airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on Starz.
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