‘Outlander’ Fans Think Season 6 Will Finally Explain 1 of the Show’s Biggest Mysteries
The Outlander season 6 premiere is getting closer and closer. And as fans wait for the current Droughtlander to come to an end, they are sharing their theories about what could come next in the screen adaptation of Jamie and Claire Fraser’s story.
The biggest mystery that’s yet to be explained is the appearance of Jamie’s ghost that happened way back in season 1. Will Outlander season 6 finally give fans the explanation they’ve been waiting for?
Jamie’s ghost appeared in the ‘Outlander’ pilot
In the very first episode of Outlander — titled “Sassenach” — Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and Frank Randall (Tobias Menzies) are on vacation in Inverness, Scotland after the end of World War II. A local innkeeper tells the couple that they are visiting during the Samhain Festival. Which is a Celtic celebration of the time they believe the barrier between the physical and spiritual world is at its thinnest.
One evening, Frank is headed back to the inn when he sees a man standing outside. He’s looking up at Claire, who is standing in the window while brushing her hair.
The audience never got to see the man’s face. But it was clear he was wearing below-the-knee leather boots, a Scottish kilt, a satchel, a coat, and a Scottish cap known as a tam.
‘A chill down my spine’
When Frank approached the mysterious man, he asked if he could help him. But when the man turned around, he seemingly disappeared. At the same time, the light flickered out on Claire.
“When he pushed past me, he was close enough that I should’ve felt him brush my sleeve as he passed, but I didn’t,” Frank tells Claire. “And I turned around to say something, and he’d gone. He just vanished. That’s when I felt a chill down my spine.”
Outlander author Diana Gabaldon later confirmed that the man Frank saw was indeed the ghost of Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan). However, fans still don’t know why the ghost of the 18th-century Scottish highlander was in 1940s post-World War II Scotland.
Will ‘Outlander’ finally explain Jamie’s ghost in season 6?
For the better part of a decade, fans of the Outlander TV show have been offering up their theories about how and why Jamie’s ghost appeared in the pilot episode.
In a recent Reddit thread, a fan theorized that an endless time loop could explain why the ghost visited Claire before they officially met. The fan explained why they think Claire and Jamie always manage to find each other when they are separated.
“Someone on here once referenced the theme of circles,” user hghayes wrote. “If you think about it, they could just be perpetually reliving their lives with each other. Jamie’s ghost waits for Claire until The 1940s. She travels back and they do their thing, die, then do it all over again centuries later.”
The time loop idea started a big discussion among fans. But, could all of that be revealed in season 6?
Does Jamie’s encounter with a fortune teller support this latest fan theory?
As the discussion unfolded, another Outlander fan agreed with the time loop theory and pointed to Jamie’s encounter with a fortune-teller as evidence. Fans will recall that during that encounter, the fortune-teller told Jamie that he’s destined to live out nine lives.
A third fan added that if Claire died outside of her time, it could throw the universe out of balance. Hence, the time loop.
“My idea is that Jaime’s and Claire’s souls won’t rest until Claire dies in her own time. When Jaime has a dream of Claire with all white hair, sitting at a desk writing with a modern lamp, he is seeing Claire in her and his last lifetime. And maybe what Claire is writing is their story,” the fan wrote.
‘Outlander’ fans won’t get answers about Jamie’s ghost just yet
Season 6 of Outlander is based on book six, A Breath of Snow and Ashes. So, fans will not find out about Jamie’s ghost in the upcoming season. In fact, they are going to have to wait a lot longer to get answers. Unless production deviates from the books in a major way.
Gabaldon just released book nine, Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone. And, the answer wasn’t in there, either. Instead, fans are going to have to wait until the 10th and final book in the Outlander series. This means fans of the TV show will have to wait until the final season.
“The ghost is Jamie–but as for how it fits into the story, All Will Be Explained–in the last book,” Gabaldon wrote on her website.
The author also told Entertainment Weekly that, “It’ll be the last thing revealed in the tenth and final book.
Outlander season 6 premieres Sunday, March 6 on Starz.
