'Outlander' Author Diana Gabaldon Weighs in on the Hellos and Goodbyes on Season 7's Fourth Episode

It was in with the new and out with a little bit of the old on tonight’s “A Most Uncomfortable Woman” episode of Outlander’s seventh season when we met Denzell (Joey Phillips) and Rachel Hunter (Izzy Meikle-Small) for the first time and then the Tom Christie (Mark Lewis Jones) story was laid to rest.

Casting is always a big part of storytelling. Can you imagine anyone else playing Jamie and Claire than Sam Heughan and Caitríona Balfe? Well, Denzell and Rachel will be playing a big role in the rest of season 7 into season 8, so getting that casting just right was important – and New York Times bestselling author Diana Gabaldon was happy with the results.

“Outlander’s casting director/team pull it off again!” she told Parade. “I was delighted to meet Joey and Izzy on set at Lake Menteith a year or so ago. From stature (they’re both slightly taller than I am, but everybody is…) to having a very direct, pure sort of impact…they inhabit the Hunters beautifully. Tough, sturdy, and totally honest; emotionally very open.”

Related: Outlander Reveals Captivating First-Look Portraits of Denzell and Rachel Hunter From Season 7

We met the Hunters, who are Quakers, when Young Ian (John Bell) brought a dying William (Charles Vandervaart) to their cabin to be treated for the infection that was raging through his body. Denzell is a doctor, and, happily, for his time period, an excellent one. Because of the large amount of material that needs to be covered this season, the story was of necessity condensed.

“William’s journey into the Great Dismal (back in the day, “dismal” was a word that just meant “swamp”) takes a bit more room in the book, but I admit that trying to film a cottonmouth chasing William (they really do chase people, if riled up enough) would be a) difficult and b) time-consuming, and there is a lot of more important material to cover,” Diana said of the changes made from the novel to the TV series.

Then she continued, “I’d say the major necessary points were covered, those being William’s meeting with Ian (with Ian and reader/viewer Knowing, and William Not Knowing [that Jamie is his father]), and his later meeting with the Hunters.”

From earlier in the episode, when William was the only man who went to the rescue of the whore that his fellow soldiers set on fire because they believed she had the pox, we saw that even though Jamie didn’t raise William -- Lord John (David Berry) did, he appeared to have some of the same fine qualities as his father.

Related: Outlander's Mark Lewis Jones on the Smoldering Love Tom Christie Has for Claire Fraser

The “old” referenced earlier was the wrapping up of the Tom Christie storyline. Both Jamie and Claire – especially Claire – believed that by this point in time that Tom would be dead since he took responsibility for the death of his daughter Malva (Jessica Reynolds). But it would turn out as fate would have it that he was spared when he became the governor’s secretary – and only because Claire had saved his hand with her surgery. The two saved each other’s lives.

Tom also informed Claire – after startling her with a kiss upon first seeing her – that it was he who placed the obituary in the paper to mark her and Jamie’s deaths after he heard about the Big House burning to the ground at Fraser’s Ridge. He did so because he couldn’t put flowers on her grave. And it was from him telling Claire that she’s a most uncomfortable woman that the title of the episode was derived. When Tom left her, it seemed that was the final time we would see him.

Related: Outlander Author Diana Gabaldon Weighs in on Season 7's Third Episode and the Death of a Beloved Member of Fraser's Ridge

“I think so,” Diana said. “(Loved the scene where Tom kisses Claire—particularly Caitriona’s Extremely Startled expression when he does.) I also really liked the two scenes that follow—the Very Awkward (but honest) scene between Tom and Claire, and then between Jamie and Claire, when they start by discussing Tom (more or less sympathetically), and then turn to their own affairs.”

Related: Outlander Star Sophie Skelton on What it Means for Brianna to Be Back in the Future

The episode also ventured into the future with Brianna (Sophie Skelton) and Roger (Richard Rankin), who have purchased Lallybroch and are updating it to be their family home. But as a result of that, they needed extra money, so Bree interviewed for an engineering job, and found it almost as frustratingly misogynistic as dealing with men in the 1700s.

“Well, she is a modern woman,” Diana said. “And “modern” in the 1960’s-80’s was/is a far remove even from Claire’s “modern” origins in the 1930’s-40’s. Nineteen Fifty-ish was a big turning point in (English-speaking) society, both because of the social aftermath of the war—women had been doing traditionally male jobs during the war, from necessity, and not all of them wanted to go home and have babies.

“Also, the 1940’s war effort was a major turning point for technology. A ton of stuff that was invented or developed for the war effort later became important contributions to daily life. Likewise, the medical personnel who fought in the war brought back all the new knowledge of surgery, drugs, and treatment to civilian life. A LOT of things changed, and Claire was right in the midst of it.

“At the same time, she remains her own person—and so does Brianna. People thrive or fail when pulled out of their usual/chosen niches (be those temporal, spatial or social), but in terms of personality, they seldom lose the ‘selves’ they had.”

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