Warning: SPOILERS ahead for the Outlander Season 7 premiere! Step away for some whiskey until you’ve had time to catch up.
We are now a few days past that big Outlander premiere, with Season 7 delivering lots of surprising drama and a big save for Claire…which, shockingly, didn’t come from Jamie, despite him being “like a bull” in trying to rescue the imprisoned Mrs. Fraser. While he, Young Ian, and their Cherokee allies were certainly working on it, it ended up being Tom Christie who came through with the ultimate save, sacrificing his own life for Claire’s. Now, actor Mark Lewis Jones has opened up about why his character made that bold move for her.
Why Outlander’s Mark Lewis Jones Thinks Tom Saved Claire
If you’re all caught up on Season 6 (and I definitely hope you are by now), you’ll remember that Tom Christie hardly gave the outward appearance of being a big softie when he arrived at Fraser’s Ridge with his children, Allan and Malva. But, it also became clear before too long, that he’d developed an attachment to Claire, in spite of his past troubles with Jamie. And, that truth was finally revealed to the doctor when he told her in the Season 7 debut that he was confessing to Malva’s murder in order to save her.
When speaking to TV Insider about Tom’s actions, Mark Lewis Jones noted that those feelings are truly at the heart of his decision to take the fall for a crime neither he nor Claire are responsible for:
I’m not sure he’s racked with guilt. I think he’s filled with love. It’s always felt like he’s been waiting for this one opportunity to show love, and it presents itself in the shape of Claire. I always feel that he’s been heading towards [that] really. In Season 6, he’d been incredibly uptight and pious with Claire in particular, and that was in order to hide his true feelings. When we get to Season 7, he’s in a position where he can reveal how he really feels, not just with Claire, but with [Jamie].
Though it’s possible Tom has had some thoughts of being a bit responsible for this, as he did seek out Fraser’s Ridge when looking for a place for himself and his family to stay, that’s not the basis of his confession. As co-star David Berry noted when talking about new and returning characters’ priorities this season, love really was the impetus behind Tom’s bold move to save Claire.
After Tom has an emotional, air-clearing chat with Jamie, where he reveals his plan, he later meets up with Claire to give her the same information. It’s then that he tells her what he’s about to do for her, and why. A lot of other truths come out, as well, and Jones says that, because of the situation they found themselves in, it was almost inevitable that things would end this way for Tom and Claire:
Up to that point, he’s had a tough life with it all — the jail and the kids and the wives — and in a way, it all comes to a head in the most simple way: just two people in a small room...The whole thing is so peeled back and revealing and vulnerable, especially for Tom. But I think for both of them, at that moment, there’s nothing to hide behind.
Book readers know what ultimately happened to Tom, but we’ll have to wait and see if the series will reveal his fate. Until such a potential time as that, however, we can rest assured that Jamie and Claire will continue to live life to the fullest and honor his sacrifice.
