[Warning: this post contains spoilers from "The Search."]
With the revelation that Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan) has been captured by the Red Coats, Outlander's "The Search" proved time is of the essence for Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and Jenny (Laura Donnelly) to find him before Black Jack Randall (Tobias Menzies) does. What ensues is an epic cross-country romp for Claire, Jenny and Jamie's godfather, Murtagh (Duncan Lacroix) filled with silliness, shenanigans and some seriously game-changing propositions.
The Hollywood Reporter caught up with episode writer Matthew B. Roberts to discuss the hour's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly references, its dirty take on "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" and why we don't know [Black] Jack — yet.
How did you tackle this episode?
It
was an odd and difficult assignment, particularly based on the fact
that Jamie's not in it at all. I felt a need to keep him very present in
every scene throughout the episode. The previous episode, [writer] Toni Graphia had taken on the gangster genre with "The Watch" and [being inspired by] The Sopranos
and all that. But this one felt like the Western where a loved one goes
missing and you have to find them at all costs. There are horses and
guns and it really had that The Good, the Bad and the Ugly feel
to it, in three parts. It's actually kind of set up in that way, too:
the good — Jenny and Claire — the bad — the Murtagh, and the ugly — no
offense to Graham, he's a very handsome man — being Dougal (Graham McTavish).
Well his proposition is what's truly ugly about it.
Exactly!
What did you think of Dougal's proposition of marriage?
The
feeling of this is from the book — it's heightened in this scene — but
in the books Claire won't agree to it. We wanted her to, though, because
it's actually a great tactic to agree. And why not? It's a win-win for
her, because if Jamie's dead then she's just going to the stones. For
Dougal, his intention has always been to make himself more powerful and
in 1744, more land is more power. So if he can take over the Lallybroch
land he can be more powerful.These are the three most influential on his
character, in Jamie's life other than Claire — Jenny, Dougal, Murtagh —
so their feelings about Jamie, and how Claire negotiates each one of
them, drives the story in each part.
Jenny and Claire going out together to find Jamie was a real Cagney and Lacey situation.
I've
always been drawn to both the Claire and Jenny characters because they
are very strong women and you do not want to get in their way —
especially when theyhave set their sights on something. And together
they're even more formidable than they are separately: Claire was just
running on pure passion.
Jenny was incredibly tenacious
this whole episode — from torturing the courier to the breast milk
scene. It just shows how determined Jenny is and it's a moment when you truly see Claire gain respect for her.
She
has been tentative, as I think anyone would be going into a situation
like that. The Frasers are not an easy group to get along with: this is
home for the holidays times a thousand. This family is rough around the
edges! And they don't immediately accept Claire, not just because she's
English, but because Jamie went away for four years and came back an
outlaw with an English bride they know nothing about. So you can see the
wariness on both sides. But the search is not just the search for
Jamie, it's the search for the characters in the story to come together
as well. They have to search themselves — Jenny and Claire — to become
one together.
The same could be said for Murtagh and Claire's second act.
That
was the other point of part two: we don't know a lot about Murtagh and
his backstory. There was a scene earlier on in the season that was
dropped that had a bit more explanation about how he came to be in the
Fraser clan outside of being a blood relative. For Murtagh to open up to
her is very enlightening for Claire's view of the character, and that's
why she allows herself to fall into his arms and acquiesce to his
wishes of going back to the beginning and starting over.
Overall, this episode was the lightest of the season.
We
needed to take a breather between "The Watch" and the last two
episodes, which are going to be very, very heavy. And in writing "The
Search," I already knew what was coming down the road so we
intentionally wanted to give the audience a break. We couldn't just hit
the audience over the head with dark, dark, dark, dark: it's like a war
movie. When you just see battles, you need a moment to let the audience
just breathe around a campfire or whatever. For the book readers, they
obviously know there's a battle coming in more ways than one. You
haven't seen Jack — and you're about to, be prepared.
No doubt the singing and dancing bit added to that levity.
In
the book, Murtagh sings and dances. [But] Cat sings quite a bit in
between takes; she'll sit down in her chair and hum and sing and I
jokingly one day said, "I'm going to make you sing one day on camera"
and she said, "No you'll never do it." And when it came about that we
were going to train Duncan to dance, I thought, "Let's give Claire the
singing part."
How did manipulating that song come about?
It
just popped into my head one day. We took an old song and manipulated
it. Hearing some of the songs of the day, they weren't necessarily
entertaining so you had to figure out what tune would realistically draw
a crowd. The lyrics are filthy: it's talking about guys showing their
coggies and pencils rising — I'm sure you can do the math here. It's
about taking a girl on a date and giving it to her in a very vulgar way.
I don't know if you've seen Victor/Victoria, but that was kind of the play on this. And that's why we put her in the juggler costume: this is the Outlandermash-up.
Outlander airs Saturdays at 9 p.m. on Starz. What did you think of the episode? Click here to read our interview with Laura Donnelly.
