“She is ‘Deadeye.’ She would be a great help at the front,” Sophie Skelton told TV Insider about the possibility of her Outlander character, an expert shot, joining dad Jamie (Sam Heughan) at the looming Battle of Kings Mountain. “That would be very Brianna. One of the hardest things for Bree is to stay at home. We saw that in Episode 5 and 6. She’s also wise enough to know that being there for her children is the smarter thing. Between her and Roger — they can’t both go.”
Phew. That’s one less thing to worry about for the Fraser fam, whose latest tragedy was losing Fergus (César Domboy) in last week’s heartbreaker, as the time-travel romance speeds towards the series finale on May 15. Warning: Spoilers for Outlander Season 8 Episode 8 ahead!
We spoke with Skelton about the developments in the eighth episode, including William (Charles Vandervaart) finally forgiving Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Captain Richardson (Ben Lambert) clocking Lord John Grey (David Berry) over the head. The actor also discussed her competition with Heughan, how “gutted” she is about the deletion of an intense scene from this season’s third episode with Caitriona Balfe, and why she’s content with where the story leaves Brianna.
What was it like to shoot a scene in this episode where you’re doing target practice with the new rifle Brianna created – all while wearing a baby bump?
Sophie Skelton: Those baby bumps haunt me. They are quite unpleasant. There’s a lot going on under them. I did love the imagery of Brianna having this new life inside of her and making rifles. It’s haunting, but also empowering. I felt so proud of her. She’s come so far and takes things in her stride and gets things done. I admire that.
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Can you pour a bullet now?
I can! I can also change the rifle over because originally in the scene that showed the passage of time and Brianna doing all the drawings and stuff, we were going to see her properly changing the rifle over. I can get competitive with Sam. Brianna can be competitive with Jamie. Naturally, I had to learn how to do it as quickly as possible so that I could whip him in that scene where we have the shoot off. It’s the final season. I’ve got to get the last win in.
Are you a better shot than Sam?
Yes. He’s going to hate that, but yes.
How will William’s reconciliation with Jamie change things for Bree?
Brianna has always wanted a big family. She’s had a lonely life — spurts of family and then it’s torn away. This is a dream come true. She sees herself in William. He’s literally living out her younger mistakes in front of her. For her to be able to change how it plays out for him is like healing her younger self. The relationship is one of my favorite parts of Season 8. I love working with Charles. I think that shows on screen. We’ve not really had that kind of relationship of siblings on Outlander before.
When the two of you have downtime on set, is there something special about that offscreen relationship, too?
I’ll definitely be giving Charles advice about women. It was so sweet because when we were filming that scene on the balcony and he’s talking about Amaranthus [Carla Woodcock], we literally between takes were talking about a girl Charles was dating and I was like, “This is so cute. I’m actually just your big sister.” I’ve never been able to be the big sister in my life. It was very sweet.
We only have two more episodes to go, so when will we meet Bree and Roger’s baby, Davy?
It’s beautiful that it happens when it happens. There’s new life coming in as Fergus has unfortunately left their world. But for Bree, it’s always very scary to give birth at that time. It’s in the forefront of her mind when she says to Roger, “If anything happens to me, promise you’ll stay.” Originally that was to do with her heart. In the book, she has a heart attack, and we did film that, but that storyline got cut.
Do you want to share anything about that omitted scene?
That was one of my favorite scenes ever in Outlander, and I’m gutted. It was beautiful. The writers did a great job. It was the scene where Brianna finds out about Lord John [and Claire sleeping together] and they have that banter between Brianna and Claire. It takes a complete 180 and Brianna starts going into AFib. I fall to the floor, and Claire’s trying to calm me. We have this three-page scene. Caitriona and I walked out of it feeling really good. She found me in my trailer later and was like, “That was absolutely beautiful.” At this point, I’m a book fan and it’s hard when things have to be taken out. I feel your guys’ pain as fans, but the writers have to fit in new things. Sacrifices have to be made. That was a big storyline for me, and it was a shame to lose in the last season. Hopefully they’ll be able to pop it on a deleted scenes DVD.
…but we saw Captain Richardson come back. In the books, we know he’s a time traveler. Can we expect some trouble from him?
I mean, it’s Outlander. We always have to expect trouble, don’t we? That’s all I can say.
Anything else you want to mention about this episode, the first one since we lost Fergus?
Mentioning Fergus, one thing I admire about Brianna is she puts on a brave face. In the scene [in the seventh episode] with Marsali [Lauren Lyle], the audience and the camera sees something that no one else does — Brianna trying to fight back tears and be there for Marsali when she, too, has lost her brother. It speaks volumes about the woman she’s become. She used to be at the epicenter of the chaos. Now she is the steady voice of reason that everyone else is coming to. That is a cool place to leave her. She’s come so far from Season 2. To see somebody have that much growth in a short period and become such an incredible woman, I feel honored to have been able to play that.
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