Ronald D. Mooore on the ‘Outlander’ set (Starz/Sony Pictures Television)
Harrowing, dark, challenging, exciting, true, intense, disturbing and powerful.
Those are some of the words the “Outlander” cast and Executive Producer Ronald D. Moore used to describe the show’s Season 1 finale when Access Hollywood spoke to them at the beginning of April, as the second half of the season was about to kick off on Starz.
Readers of Diana Gabaldon’s “Outlander” novel know about the dark twists the story takes (some of which were shown in Episode 15). But for those audience members who never picked up the book, the show’s writers were mindful of trying to prepare that portion of audience for what’s to come.
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“Yeah, absolutely and we kind of tried all season long to sort of drop hints along the way and sort of show you sort of where the show was gonna go and some of its darker elements,” Moore told Access in a new interview. “Certainly in Episode 6, ‘The Garrison Commander’ episode, it’s a big Jack Randall episode. We tell the story of the flogging through his eyes and the flogging’s pretty horrific. I mean, it’s a pretty nasty scene to watch in that flashback, and his description of it, so it sort of felt that was the first big marker to sort of say, ‘Hey, look, this show’s going to go some places that may be very difficult for you to watch. You know, fair warning.'”
Moore explained how he and his team approached the finale scenes (that take place in Wentworth) in the “Outlander” writers’ room.
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“It’s difficult material,” Moore explained. “It’s absolutely sort of dicey stuff to try to deal with, but we all just kind of went at it very professionally and we all just sort of talked about it just in straight up story terms. We didn’t really ever step outside the show and talk about, ‘Well, how would this be received in the public? What would the press say about it?’ or ‘What are the fans going to think?’ We just tried to stay in the story and the arguments were always about, ‘Would the character do this, or would the character do that?’ and, ‘What’s the right place to take the story?’ It was always sort of an internal conversation.”
With all the talk of Emmy season coming up, it should be noted that there are exemplary performances in the finale, but it is tough material and viewers may want to have tissues nearby (and an “Outlander” support group on standby).
“Outlander” Season 1 concludes on Saturday, kicking off at 9 PM ET/PT on Starz.
— Jolie Lash
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