Spoilers ahead for the first two episodes of Outlander Season 7.
Outlander returned in the 2023 TV schedule to resolve the cliffhanger of Claire’s imprisonment for murder and then quickly moved on. While the second episode was full of huge moments like Roger and Bree returning to the 20th century in a scene that gave the stars the giggles and a high-stakes reunion between Lord John and Jamie, there was also a smaller moment that has big implications for later in the series. Executive producer Maril Davis spoke with CinemaBlend about Season 7, and her comments about Jamie’s dreams raised a question about ghost Jamie in the future.
In a scene that was actually released prior to the seventh season’s premiere, Jamie opened up to Claire in bed about a dream he had of her, in which she was surrounded by electric light. Claire initially didn’t know what to make of his dream since he’d only ever heard electricity described, but the moment was enough for me to ask the executive producer about how close of attention fans should pay to Jamie dreaming of electricity, and Maril Davis shared:
I think this isn't a spoiler. I think it's from the book, so I feel fairly confident about this, but Jamie can see into the future. I mean, he can't time travel, but this isn't the only time, and I can't remember if we played it before, but certainly in the books there are [moments]. We'll have a couple mentions this season, but Jamie can see…. He said, 'I dreamed about light and I assume it's electric light, like you've explained to me,' but there's no way he would know that unless he actually dreamed of that. He has this ability.
It’s only fair that Jamie has some kind of time-related ability after his wife, daughter, son-in-law, and grandkids can travel through the centuries, right? Based on what Maril Davis previewed, there are more mentions of Jamie seeing into the future before the end of Season 7. The executive producer continued:
We haven't explored it too much. It is talked about in the books that Jamie can see glimpses into the future. My personal feeling is it was Diana [Gabaldon's] kind of nod to 'He can't time travel, but I'm gonna give Jamie some vision of this to tie him into the future.'
It remains to be seen if Jamie’s ability to see glimpses of the future will come in handy for the extended Fraser family, or if it’s just something that gives him a special power like the rest of them. Will this provide him with the ability to check in on Bree and Roger from afar, and give Claire updates on the family they expect to never see again?
Only time will tell on that, but Jamie’s description of seeing Claire surrounded by electric light in a dream immediately had me thinking back to Outlander’s pilot when I first saw it. As fans may remember, Sam Heughan’s first appearance in the series wasn’t after Claire traveled back to the 18th century, but earlier when Frank spotted a ghostly figure watching his wife up through a window as she brushed her hair in the 1940s.
Jamie’s description of Claire writing at a desk in Season 7 meant that he wasn’t referring to precisely this scene, but it was enough for me to revisit that scene from the pilot. When I spoke with the executive producer, I noted that the scene she’d mentioned left me flashing back to ghost Jamie from Outlander’s very first episode, and she responded:
I mean, we know that's Jamie. How that will kind of resolve itself is, I think, the big question of how he got there and what that all means.
The executive producer of course didn’t drop all the spoilers about the yet-to-be-revealed meaning of ghost Jamie’s appearance in the pilot, and author Diana Gabaldon hasn’t even resolved that mystery in her book saga just yet. With Outlander ending after Season 8 and the author still working on the tenth and final book, however, it remains to be seen if the show will spoil the end of the novel saga or the book will be published first. At this point, it seems unlikely that the explanation for ghost Jamie is coming in Season 7.
That may be all well and good, because it’s clear that Outlander has plenty of story to tell in the 18th century before explaining what happened back in the pilot. Just take a look at the trailer for Episode 3:
Keep tuning in to Starz on Friday nights at 8 p.m. ET for new episodes of Outlander Season 7. Alternatively, you can find new episodes streaming on the Starz app at midnight E.T. on Fridays. With the new and returning characters’ priorities set for the coming war, a lot could change very quickly as the fighting begins. You can also see what Maril Davis said to CinemaBlend about Jamie’s thoughts on the revolution and the super-sized Season 7!
