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Here’s A Quick ‘Outlander’ Refresher Guide Before The Season 3 Premiere

By Abi Ong
Published on: 22:37 PST, Sep 9, 2017

Droughtlander is finally over as Outlander Season 3 is set to premiere tonight after over a year of hiatus. Because of the show’s confusing and complicated time-traveling twists, even the most ardent Jamie and Claire shippers may find it easy to get lost during the offseason. Not quite updated on the Outlander frenzy? Read on for a simplified refresher course about the hit romantic series.

Claire Returns To The Future

There’s no doubt that Claire (Caitriona Balfe) had the most agonizing storyline in Outlander Season 2. She was sexually assaulted and lost a baby–all while trying to prevent the historically ill-fated 1746 Battle of Culloden from happening.

Before the doomed battle, Jamie (Sam Heughan) found out that Claire was pregnant again. In an act that’s both desperate and heroic, Jamie sends Claire back to her time in the 1940s so she could raise their child safely.

“Even if I could go back through the stones, it’s not my place. My destiny lies on Culloden Moor,” Jamie passionately told Claire in front of those fateful Craigh na Dun stones.

“I’ll find you. I promise.”

Claire was reunited with her modern-day husband, Frank Randall (Tobias Menzies), who agreed to raise her love child as his own on the condition that she will never reveal the child’s true identity.

20 Years Later, Jamie Fraser Is Alive

Outlander Season 2’s finale episode made a huge 20-year time jump from 1948 to the 1960s. Claire apparently kept her word and stayed with Frank. Her child, who she named Brianna after Jamie’s father, is now all grown up.

After Frank died, Claire and Brianna went to Scotland. There, Brianna (Sophie Skelton) learned about her mother’s mysterious disappearance many years ago and deduced that she was conceived during that time. Claire confessed that Jamie–a man from the 18th century–was her real father. Brianna then told Claire that based on her research, Jamie might have survived the Battle of Culloden. The 1960s Claire Randall then decided to run back to the ancient stones and look for her one true love.

What To Expect This Season

The Season 3 trailer reveals that Jamie and Claire would indeed try to find each other across centuries. However, Outlander fans must know that their reunion won’t happen until after a few episodes.

The first part of Season 3 will most likely explore the 20-year gap that the star-crossed lovers had to endure without each other. Questions will be answered: What was Claire and Frank’s marriage really like? What really happened on that doomed battlefield, and how did Jamie survive?

But, rest assured that the Jamie-Claire reunion is indeed happening. Outlander Season 3 is based on “Voyager,” Diana Gabaldon’s third novel of the same series. In the book, Claire successfully goes back in time and sees Jamie again at a print shop. This highly anticipated reunion is hinted to happen in Episode 6. Once they are together again, Jamie and Claire would embark on a life-altering journey across the Atlantic.

According to Harper’s Bazaar, this season will have 13 episodes. One tiny departure from the book is that the season will open to a scene detailing the Battle of Culloden. The fate of Captain Black Jack Randall, the show’s most-hated villain, will finally be revealed.

Meanwhile, Caitriona Balfe teased that this season will not scrimp on steamy, passionate scenes. In an interview with Vulture, the actress told fans to watch out for the reunion episode, in particular, to see how Jamie and Claire would act upon seeing each other for the first time in 20 years.

“I think if anything, when Jamie and Claire get together again, their love is timeless and who they are inside is timeless… I think old people have good sex too, last I heard!”

Outlander Season 3 premieres tonight, 8 p.m. on Starz.

[Featured Image by Vivien Killilea/Getty Images]

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