Outlander will not be airing a new episode on May 1. Here’s why we won’t be getting a new episode this week and when you can expect episode 9 to air on Starz.
Outlander Season 8.
Outlander Season 8. | Image courtesy Robert Wilson © 2024 Starz Entertainment, LLC

Friday has arrived, but there will sadly be no new episode of Outlander’s final season for fans to enjoy this week. In fact, there won’t even be a rerun to enjoy, as Starz has pulled the show from its schedule entirely for May 1.

That’s right, there is no episode of Outlander season 8 on the schedule for this week, with Starz airing Now You See Me: Now You Don’t in the primetime spot that has been home to new episodes of Outlander this spring. This is the first break in the schedule since the final season began on March 6, with Starz bringing fans eight consecutive weeks of new episodes.

Perhaps that’s why so many fans have been thrown off by the decision to pull Outlander from the schedule on May 1. So what gives?

Well, Outlander has adopted a strategy of working in a break in the schedule every season, with this break typically coming late in the season ahead of the season finale or the final episodes of the season. This tradition has become known as the “skip week,” in which Outlander takes a one-week break with the intention being to give fans some time to catch up before the final episode(s) of the season and to build anticipation for the last episode(s) of the season.

There is no pattern to the Outlander skip week, as some take place the week before the season finale, while others have taken place a few weeks before the final episodes. For season 8, the skip week comes just before the final two episodes of the show, which seems like a fitting time to break into the season.

When does Outlander season 8 episode 9 come out? 

The good news is that the Outlander “skip week” is only a one-week break in the season and not an extended break. While it unfortunately meant that there was no new episode to enjoy on May 1, it does mean that the season will resume on May 8 with the release of episode 9—aka the penultimate episode of the series.

Starz teases that the episode will see political threats coming to a head when an old friend of Claire and Jamie’s goes missing. We know this friend is Lord John, who is taken by Captain Richardson, but we’ll have to see whether the show makes any changes to the circumstances to the storyline that deviates from the events that unfold in the book.

With just two episodes left, we’re certain that episode 9 will be an intense episode that does a lot of work in building toward the series finale. We know that Outlander will go out with an epic closing chapter, but it’s going to be interesting to see where episode 9 leaves things and how it sets up the final episode of Starz’s beloved series.

Fans will find out what episode 9 holds when it drops at 8/7c on Friday, May 8 only on Starz!