THE ULTIMATE TWIST: Did Claire’s Parents Actually Save Jamie Fraser’s Life In The Past?

We’ve finally reached the end, Sassenachs. After 12 years and eight seasons, the finale of Outlander is here. While the tenth and last book in the series the show is based upon hasn’t been published yet, author Diana Gabaldon did have some input on the final season, having written wrote written the screenplay for the penultimate episode.

Before season eight premiered this spring, showrunner and executive producer Matthew B. Roberts revealed to Entertainment Weekly that the cast and crew filmed multiple endings for the series finale to prevent leaks through post-production. It was also critical to have the actors film so many and consider each one probable so they wouldn’t know which one was real. A few actors seemed content with the show’s end. “Brianna’s at peace, and that makes me very happy,” Sophie Skelton told the magazine, while David Berry noted, “Lord John’s story ends in a place that I’m very happy with.”

We will probably never know what any of those alternate endings entailed, but here’s how Jamie and Claire’s time-traveling romance concluded onscreen.

Spoilers below for the ending of the series finale of Outlander.

To recall where we left off in episode nine, Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire (Caitríona Balfe) had just returned to Fraser’s Ridge from Savannah after rescuing Lord John Grey (David Berry), who had been kidnapped by Captain Richardson (Ben Lambert). Richardson, also a time traveler, wanted to blackmail Lord John into convincing his brother to give a speech that would alter the course of history and change the end of the American Revolution. Lord John and Jamie also resolved their long-simmering feud, appropriately over a chess match.

Just as Jamie and Claire have settled in at home, they are caught off guard by the arrival of Benjamin Cleveland (Turlough Convery), who has returned with his militia, telling Jamie that the Revolution has finally come to the backcountry. The entire season has been leading up to the Battle of Kings Mountain, with Frank Randall’s book predicting Jamie’s death in the fray.

The series finale begins with a cold open, on one of the most familiar symbols in Outlander: a fiery cross, an Scottish Highland ritual traditionally used by clan chieftains to summon their men to battle or rendezvous during emergencies. It was previously seen in season five and is also a nod to the title of book five, The Fiery Cross.

Outlander has long wrestled with questions of fate and whether history can be changed. Brianna previously tried to persuade Jamie to leave Fraser’s Ridge and avoid the battle altogether, but Jamie appears to have made his peace with what Frank predicted, quietly setting his affairs in order, writing out a full will and leaving the bulk of his possessions to Claire, with specific items for other family members, including his mother Ellen’s silver stag brooch to his sister Jenny. The camera flashes between characters, and it briefly settles on Brianna furnishing a rifle, possibly the custom one (technically from the future) she discussed earlier this season.

Jamie and Claire share a quiet conversation in their bedroom. It’s the morning of their departure. Claire tells Jamie she went out to the beehive last night, and she says she saw two of them huddled together in a flower. He asked if they were dead, but she said no, they were just sleeping and waiting for the sun to rise. Jamie asks if that’s what Claire always wanted, just a “quiet life with only bees for company.” She replies, “I don’t think the quiet life was ever meant for us.”

Thinking about the afterlife, Jamie says he wonders if God will let him look in on people, just once in a while. Claire asks if he will look in on her. She tells him about when she was in Inverness in 1945, looking in through a shop window, and desperately wanting a vase. (The ghost of what appears to be a Highlander ghost watching Claire also appears in this scene; Gabaldon had already confirmed this was Jamie’s ghost.) Claire tells Jamie she didn’t get the vase, but the next day she made the fateful trip to Craigh na Dun.

Jamie, Claire, Ian (John Bell), and Roger (Richard Rankin) all make their farewells before departing the Ridge. Fanny (Florrie May Wilkinson) confronts Claire, angry that they are leaving her behind after promising to stay with her. Tearfully, Claire tells her they must go to make things better for all of them. Jamie hands Frank’s book back to Brianna, telling her that he’s thankful to Frank for all he did raising her. Jamie makes a private trip to the beehive. The title of the ninth book, Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone, refers to an ancient Celtic tradition of informing hive bees about major life events like deaths, births, and long journeys. Jamie tells the bees about what’s to come, asking them to look after Claire when he is gone. Jamie’s final words to the beehive are words from a poem: “And I shall have some peace. For peace comes dropping slow.” The line comes from “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” by W. B. Yeats, written in 1890.

The Frasers and members of Jamie’s militia join with Cleveland’s forces and they ride off from the Ridge. While at camp, Jamie tells Claire that their granddaughter Mandy (Rosa Morris) told him something important. Mandy, Brianna and Roger’s daughter, has demonstrated more exceptional abilities when it comes to time travelers, somewhat like a seer. According to Jamie, Mandy doesn’t “see” their new little brother Davy the same way she does Jemmy (Blake Johnston-Miller) or her parents or Claire. She sees Davy the same way she sees Jamie: “like the color of water.” Jamie believes this means Davy might not be able to time travel and pass through the stones. Regardless, he says if something happens to him in the battle, Claire and the family should go back to the 20th century, and let Ian and Rachel (Izzy Meikle-Small) raise Davy as their own. Claire says simply this will never happen—that Brianna would never leave her son and that Claire believes this is the time she belongs in.

Walking through the forest to the battle, Jamie gives a speech to the troops to rally them, and Roger leads a prayer. As they’re walking off, Jamie and Claire make their farewells, with Jamie saying in Gaelic, “Tha gràdh agam ort, mo chridhe,” meaning “I love you, my heart.” Claire responds in Gaelic with the same. As he walks away, Claire tells Roger she feels like “the Lady of Shalott,” referencing another 19th century poem. Written in 1832 by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the poem is about a woman cursed to view the outside world only through a mirror, never permitted to look directly at Camelot below, while weaving a magical tapestry. After years of isolation, she breaks the curse when the reflection of Sir Lancelot catches her eye. The mirror cracks, and the curse begins to go into effect. She escapes the tower, climbs into a boat, and drifts down the river toward Camelot, singing as she goes, but dying before she reaches the shore. The people of Camelot emerge to find her body and her name written on the bow, left to wonder who she was.

After nine episodes of foreshadowing, the Battle of Kings Mountain is finally shown, narrated by Frank (Tobias Menzies). Claire and Roger are seen weaving throughout it, tending to fallen soldiers as they go. At one point, Claire slips on the hillside and drops her medical bag. Jamie sees Major Patrick Ferguson, the British commander, on a horse and sounding the retreat. The British put their arms up in the air, and it looks like the battle is all but over and everyone survived. All of a sudden, Ferguson comes charging toward Jamie with his sword up, but Jamie cuts him down off his horse. Ferguson is dragged away, and when Jamie asks for his official surrender, Ferguson says he will never do it, and shoots Jamie with a revolver at close range. In return, Buck (Diarmaid Murtagh) shoots Ferguson and Ian hits Ferguson with his axe. (According to history, Ferguson did die at Kings Mountain.)

While many fans theorized maybe Claire’s surgical skills would be put into use to save Jamie or even Brianna’s rifle that was not supposed to be invented until the 19th century would do it, it turns out, Claire was actually right when she talked to Captain Richardson last episode: you can’t change history. Frank said Jamie died at the Battle of Kings Mountain, and that is, tragically, what came to pass. Ian, Roger, and Buck try to comfort her, but she says he just needs to rest. Nightfall comes, and Claire is weeping beside Jamie’s body. Roger returns in the morning, saying they need to take him home and bury the body. As Roger walks away, Claire murmurs that Jamie is already home.

The scene changes to that night from the pilot episode, when the ghost of Jamie appeared in Inverness in 1945. Jamie’s face is completely clear now as he looks up at Claire in her hotel room window. Walking around the corner, Frank spots him and walks over, about to ask what he is doing, but Jamie turns around and vanishes. Jamie reappears in daylight, at Craigh na Dun, walking around the stones. He stands in front of the center stone, where Claire traveled through before, and places his hand on it, but as expected, nothing happens. He grins, and walks down the hill, as the camera pans to the blue flowers that once blew in the breeze, leading Claire to touch the stones in the first place. What follows next is a montage of Claire and Jamie’s memories throughout their lives, across Scotland, Paris, Jamaica, and North Carolina.

When we return to the present, Claire is still lying next to Jamie’s body in the sun at King’s Mountain, but her hair is now completely white. Suddenly, Jamie makes a brief gasp for air before his eyes open. Then the final credits roll. As to what that could mean, fans will likely be theorizing about that for the rest of time, even after the final book, A Blessing for a Warrior Going Out, is published.

One possibility is that Claire did actually manage to heal Jamie, not with her surgical skills, but through some other magical quality. Earlier in the season, Claire was able to save a stillborn baby after childbirth, not through CPR, which she attempted, but after simply seeing a vision of Master Raymond (Dominique Pinon) and an intense blue light. Speaking of Master Raymond, he became an important topic of conversation again this year after it became apparent that Claire and Jamie’s first child, Faith, wasn’t stillborn after all, but somehow survived, likely through a similar scenario, although it was never fully explained this season.

While that discussion could go on forever, and it will on the Internet, there was one final post-credits scene. Sadly, it doesn’t appear that Jamie will be returning in Avengers: Doomsday. This is more of a treat for fans. The scene opens in a bookstore, and appears to be the early 1990s. Everyone is waiting in line and holding copies of…Outlander. Sure enough, sitting at the table is author Diana Gabaldon herself. For reference, her first Outlander book was published in June 1991. One fan waiting to have her book signed asks Gabaldon about the antique-looking, leather-bound journal sitting next to her on the desk. Gabaldon remarks that she just keeps it around for inspiration. At the end of episode nine, Claire said she was starting a journal, intending to write down her and Jamie’s story.