Dive deeper into this episode with exclusive sketches, production designs, and fun facts delivered directly from the Outlander crew.
Playing Jocasta
Speaking of her role, Maria Doyle Kennedy says, “Jocasta is compelling, a joy to play. I just love her. She is complicated and has lived a hard life. At this stage, she has been married three times but it must have been the loss of all her children that really resonated with her, the result being, subsequently, an ability to survive anything. Family, for both Jocasta and Jamie, is like a compass—a deep magnetic force drawing them back to their roots and to their heritage. Jocasta is extraordinarily resilient and stoic but there is a deep well of love within that she doesn’t often get to express. We will see that this season, with her family coming back into her life. The physicality of Jocasta being blind has been a challenge. I can’t make eye contact with anyone; it is a lonely place to act from. So much human interaction is eye to eye, but for acting in particular it really is essential in terms of cues. I have tried to use my ears as my eyes, so the physicality of playing her is interesting. She doesn’t draw attention to her blindness; her status is important to her. My research involved speaking to a blind friend about the myth of heightened other senses, but you do have heightened adrenaline at all times as you are on guard against the dangers of space and banging into things.”
Building River Run
Executive Producer Maril Davis describes River Run as “our biggest key set of the season, built both on location and on our A stage in the studio, where we build our biggest sets annually. For Season 1 this was Castle Leoch, the Paris apartment in Season 2, the Boston apartment in Season 3, and now, River Run. It was such a vivid description in the books, situated on the water so most visitor arrivals and trade were by boat. It was necessary to find an idyllic piece of land that could be North Carolina, on a river, which we found in the North of Scotland. We built an exterior which we enhanced with blue screen. The interior set is a masterpiece, a luxurious, opulent plantation. Gary Steele and his team have again outdone themselves.”
The set constitutes about 12,000 square feet as an interior set and there is an exterior set in parkland, in Northern Scotland. As the show is filmed in blocks of two episodes, each with different directors, Gary Steele designs with as many options for camera as possible—vistas through double doorways with fireplaces in the parlor and the dining room, for example. The huge sweeping staircase is a piece of art in itself.
Production Designer Jon Gary Steele notes, “When we first designed River Run, I had imagined it with pale, cool colors from looking at hundreds of plantation houses, but once we got closer, I changed my mind as pale colors just don’t feel Outlander to me. The tobacco-inspired walls actually have about seventeen layers of paint on them, with a red base, building towards the depth of color of dried tobacco leaves, to show how the estate made its money. Jocasta was very wealthy so I wanted her house to reflect that. She has a number of slaves so everything is very shiny and polished. The fabulous teal, floral, silk damask fabric that we have used for her chairs and sofas was the inspiration for the rest of the color palette of the house, so the house has balance and beauty.”
Set Decorator Stuart Bryce adds, “For Jocasta’s plantation house, the silks for the upholstery would have been shipped from Europe and the furniture designers in the colonies at those times would have relied upon traditional European knowledge of Chippendale etc., and then added their own individual twist. It was a very creative time.”
One of the unsung heroes of many production companies is the greens department. Hugo Diaz, leading the team, describes some of the key areas he and his department focused on in order to make Scotland double for North Carolina. “One of the quintessential looks of North Carolina is the Spanish moss in the trees, so we bought trucks of that in to dress all the trees at River Run from mainland Europe. It was very time consuming to get it right—it took two of the greens team six days to dress trees. We wanted River Run to be lush and well-tended. To illustrate its wealth we used whites, pinks and pale blues: vibernum, spirea, rhododendron and hydrangea.”
Wardrobe: Phaedre’s Costume
Says Co-Costume Designer Nina Ayers, “I based the colors for Phaedre and all the slaves at River Run on the tobacco and indigo which the script mentions as being two of the commodities which Jocasta’s plantation grows. There are symbols embroidered into some of their clothing which create a link to the various African countries from whence they came.”
