Outlander's Marsali: Lauren Lyle's Unsung Hero Is Season 5's True MVP

Kimberly Roots
·2 min read

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Outlander has always had its healer heroine Claire and its strapping savior Jamie. But as the show’s current run draws to a close — the finale airs Sunday on Starz (8/7c) — we’d like to nominate a stealth candidate for the honor of Season 5 MVP:

Marsali MacKimmie Fraser.

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Trust us, no one is more surprised than we are at how much we’ve become enamored of the lass in the past few years. After all, Laoghaire’s elder daughter was introduced as someone deeply suspicious of/hateful towards “that woman,” aka her stepfather’s first wife, Claire. And while we understood that Marsali didn’t quite get how Jamie could abandon her mother, nor why he’d taken up with someone she’d never met… did she have to throw around words like “harlot” so often and so easily?

But that was many episodes ago, and the Marsali we now know is a loving, highly productive — in all senses of the word! — member of Jamie and Claire’s extended family. And in the current season, Fergus’ lady has truly come to the fore, proving herself useful in a variety of circumstances.

Need a medicine mixed up? An animal butchered? A punch thrown? Aye, Marsali’s got you covered. And it needs to be said: So much of the character’s winningness comes from portrayer Lauren Lyle, whose wry line readings give the character a ton of her lovable spunk.

Ahead of this Sunday’s episode (in which Marsali once again proves awesome, though we canna tell ye exactly why or how), we thought we’d compose a little tribute to Claire’s new surgical assistant. Click through the gallery at right — or go to it directly here — to bask in the joy that is Marsali, then hit the comments with your own odes to Season 5’s real hero.

Launch Gallery: <I>Outlander</I>'s Marsali Is Season 5's Unsung Hero — Here's Proof

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