It’s tough when the hot Highlander you’ve fallen for comes home from a long trip newly married to a Sassenach.
That’s the problem young Laoghaire MacKenzie faced in last Saturday’s mid-season return of “Outlander.”
“It’s a very horrible moment when she comes back,” Nell Hudson, who plays Laoghaire (pronounced Leery), told Access Hollywood of Claire’s return to Castle Leoch as Mrs. Claire Fraser (after having wed James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser), when we spoke to the actress in an interview conducted last year.
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“It’s heartbreak,” Nell continued. “It’s heartbreak for Laoghaire and… imagine if that happened to you. Imagine if you were like in love with a guy, and he goes away and he comes back and he’s married to someone else and [it’s to] someone who was meant to help you get that guy.”
Before Claire went out on a road trip with Dougal Mackenzie, Jamie Fraser and the Highlanders in the first part of Season 1 – a trip that ended up with her walking down the aisle with Jamie – Caitriona Balfe’s character once tried to help Laoghaire out with her Jamie crush. Claire actually gave Laoghaire a (phony) potion to try and “move” Jamie’s heart.
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Seeing Jamie return with a new wife, and later, being rejected by Jamie when she offered him her maidenhood, hurt Laoghaire, badly. She was so hurt, she left an ill-wish in Claire and Jamie’s room at the castle.
“I think, often, when you are in just a lot of pain, it comes out as anger… I think that’s quite a human characteristic, basically, and I think that’s definitely what happens is that she’s got all this pain and she doesn’t know what to do with it and it comes out in this very kind of aggressive way and she does whatever she can do to rectify the situation,” Nell said, when Access asked her about the wee present Laoghaire left Claire (the ill-wish).
Those who watched the episode saw Jamie tell Laoghaire he was committed to his wife, but we had to ask Sam Heughan for his thoughts on what Jamie’s feelings once were for the bonny lass.
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“I think, you know, if Claire hadn’t been there and turned up in his life and thrown everything upside down, there’s a very strong chance they would’ve been together and you know, she’s a great girl. … She’s slightly misguided,” he said.
“Outlander” continues Saturday at 9 PM ET/PT on Starz.
— Jolie Lash
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