<\/p>\n
\n\tSpoiler alert: <\/strong>This post contains spoilers for Outlander season 8, episode 7, “Evidence of Things Not Seen,” now streaming on Starz.<\/em><\/p>\n \n \tCesar Domboy wants “Outlander” fans to know one thing after this week’s episode: “I take no responsibility for this.”<\/p>\n \n \tHe immediately laughs when he says it, not because it’s not true, but rather because he knows fans will have great feelings about this episode, having been part of the global phenomenon for nearly a decade. Readers of Diana Gabaldon’s book series were preparing for one of the most tragic developments in her story in decades. But what they got was one of the biggest twists in the show’s 12-year history.<\/p>\n \n \tIn an act of heroic sacrifice, Fergus (Don Boy), the adopted son of Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire (Caitriona Balfe), meets a horrific end while trying to save his sons from a fire. Meanwhile, in Gabaldon’s book, it is his son Henri Christian (Benjamin Moss) who dies in the fire.<\/p>\n \n \t“The way it was written in the book wasn’t really suitable for putting together a show exactly as it was,” Domboy says. variety<\/em>. “When they asked me to come back for Season 8, which was obviously a yes, they reminded me of what happened in the books, but I said, ‘Maybe we can turn it into a very heroic send-off for Fergus.’ Saving the kids definitely added a new layer of heroism to his character, and I was happy with that. It’s the first time in my acting career that I’ve had to do something like this, so I was really looking forward to it.”<\/p>\n \n \tNow living in Savannah, Fergus and his wife Marsali (Lauren Lyle) are raising their four children while running a successful printing press from their home, following in the footsteps of Jamie himself, who ran a printing business in Edinburgh. However, Fergus has also been secretly producing inflammatory material to further the cause of the patriots in the American Revolution, and his family has become the target of escalating threats against the home and his business. When someone makes good on the threat, Fergus and Marsali wake up in a house engulfed in flames.<\/p>\n \n \tMarsali and her daughters escape safely, but Fergus rushes to find his young son Germaine (Robin Scott) and Henri Christian, who are trapped on the roof. In Gabaldon’s book, Henri Christian, born with dwarfism and exposed to relentless persecution during an era of intolerance, dies after falling from a roof while trying to escape a fire. The scene in which Fergus pulls his sons down from the roof in a pulley initially appears to be playing out exactly as in the original, but Henri Christian loses his grip on his brother. However, due to some clever deception, he is caught by Roger (Richard Rankin) at the last minute. Relieved that no harm came to him, Fergus watched Marsali below, until he fell from the burning roof and died. This is a significant change to the book’s storyline, especially considering Gabaldon’s series hasn’t ended yet and Fergus is still alive. This is also the most significant death in the TV series since Jamie’s uncle Murtagh (Duncan Lacroix) in season 5, and as such is a significant departure from the original story.<\/p>\n \n \tHowever, on the day of the shoot, Domboy and Lyle had to be persuaded that: why<\/em> It had to happen.<\/p>\n \n \t“For Lauren and I, it was a challenge,” Domboy says. “When you read it in the script, that look they give each other at the end is beautiful. But when we saw it in action, we thought, ‘Why doesn’t he take the time to jump and do that look?'”<\/p>\n \n \t“They really needed to explain to us that there was no way out for him, and she knew that,” Lyle added. “On set, they said we know this is what’s going to happen, but nothing prepares us for what it actually means. But this is a symbolic ending, and it felt really symbolic to do that.”<\/p>\n \n \tThe night shoot was one of the biggest set pieces in the show’s final season. When Fergus Fraser & Sons goes up in flames, a swarm of background actors rush to the scene and a colonial-era hand pump fire engine is called in to put out the fire. “It was wild,” Lyle says. “It felt really vast and cinematic. There were people everywhere.”<\/p>\n \n \tWhen Fergus falls from the roof while Marsali watches, the horror she experiences is one that Lyle was able to capture in a fraction of the time.<\/p>\n \n \t“The night we filmed his death, we had seven minutes left and I said, ‘Don’t cut it, just wrap it,'” she says. “So they rolled around and I said to them, tell me the beat when he goes down and what I’m reacting to. And I just got real into it and did it in the most emotional way I’ve ever experienced something like that. We released it. Fans may be upset, but hopefully this will hit you very hard in a very real and shocking way and in a way that makes you feel like you’re experiencing it with us.”<\/p>\n \n \tFergus’s loss affects everyone in Fraser’s orbit, and by the end of the episode they all learn of his death, ending with a montage of Fergus’ greatest hits. Jamie, who is best friends with his adopted son and who takes his last name publicly after raising his son from a brothel, collapses while building a coffin for Fergus, even though he has nothing to bury. <\/p>\n \n \tDomboy says if this wasn’t the final season of Outlander, things might have played out differently. “It’s ‘Outlander,'” he says. “If they had done another season, they could easily have shown Fergus running away from the fire and Jamie putting his ashes in the coffin, but in reality it was to protect his family because people wanted him dead for the revolution. Now it’s just fan fiction.” <\/p>\n \n \t\u201cOr the ghost Fergus,\u201d Lyle contributes a guess. “Marsali went crazy and started seeing ghosts of himself.”<\/p>\n \n \t\u201cOr an evil twin twist with an even stronger French accent!\u201d Domboy suggests, exaggerating his own French dialect.<\/p>\n \n \tAlthough Donboy admits that he half-jokingly begged the creative team to let Fergus live, he was content to send his character off as a hero, an incredible accomplishment for the character so far.<\/p>\n \n \t“It’s not often in your career that you get to play a character for this long,” he says. “Fergus in Outlander is one of the characters with the biggest arc. I grew up with him and was able to match what I experienced and felt as an actor on this set very well with what Fergus went through. I’m just so proud. I’m Fraser!”<\/p>\n \n \tMeanwhile, Marsali must settle into a new normal after returning to Fraser’s Ridge with her children, contemplating her next move and whether she will take on the legacy Fergus learned he was owed earlier this season as the unlikely son of a high-ranking French official. \u201cAs a woman in that era, you have to be selfish and survive,\u201d Lyle suggests. “Take the money, girl. That’s the modern way of thinking.”<\/p>\n \n \t\u201cFergus would want her to do that,\u201d Domboy asserts.<\/p>\n \n \tWhether she accepts it or not is something that will be resolved in the final three episodes of the series. For now, viewers are left with the heartbreaking loss of a beloved character, which puts the impending May 15 series finale in perspective. But Don Boy and Lyle didn’t want to say goodbye to Fergus and Marsali without interrupting their love the right way. In the script, their final love scene was to be quick, which is unusual for this couple despite the show’s reputation. \u201cIt\u2019s passionate and performative,\u201d Domboy says. However, the actors wanted something a little gentler.<\/p>\n \n \t\u201cWe asked them to step out for a little while and give us a little bit of time to choreograph with the intimacy coordinator,\u201d Lyle says. “We convinced them that it should start a minute before the script, where it’s all fun and goofy, because we think it’s great to show this version of a couple who have four kids and still have love for each other. Because in a few minutes, we’re going to see them die as an entity, so we didn’t know who they were. For a split second, you see who they were 10 years ago when they first started, where it was always about fun and romance, and giddyness and sexiness is becoming the last thing you see about them, and we have to see it’s more than just sex.<\/p>\n \n \tIn that spirit, Domboy knows exactly what words Fergus would have chosen if given the chance to say goodbye to his half.<\/p>\n \n \t\u201cI love you,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n #Outlander #shocker #Stars #break #shocking #death #differs #original #wanted #intimate #final #sex #scene<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Spoiler alert: This post contains spoilers for Outlander season 8, episode 7, “Evidence of Things Not Seen,” now streaming on Starz. Cesar Domboy wants “Outlander” fans to know one thing after this week’s episode: “I take no responsibility for this.” He immediately laughs when he says it, not because it’s not true, but rather because … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1007,641,1009,1011,1010,974,1005,1013,1012,1006,1008,796,970],"class_list":["post-553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-break","tag-death","tag-differs","tag-final","tag-intimate","tag-original","tag-outlander","tag-scene","tag-sex","tag-shocker","tag-shocking","tag-stars","tag-wanted"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yasbou.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yasbou.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yasbou.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yasbou.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yasbou.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yasbou.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yasbou.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yasbou.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yasbou.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yasbou.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}