Dive deeper into this episode with exclusive sketches, production designs, and fun facts delivered directly from the Outlander crew.
Wardrobe: Brianna’s Costume
Co-Costume Designer Terry Dresbach reflects on Brianna’s clothing: “It was special for me. She is, sort of, me—or at least she wears what I wore. I just made or bought the clothing of my youth and put it on Brianna. The clothes she is wearing in college and when Roger shows up in America were what I, and everyone I knew, was wearing in 1969 when we were 15. Embroidered blouses from Mexico, patched jeans from the Army Navy surplus store, Frye boots, Gunne Sax dresses… I searched high and low for her brown suede jacket. I had one in high school. It was a very SPECIFIC jacket. I can’t believe I actually found it.”
The Scottish Festival
The Scottish festival, at which Roger has been invited to give a performance playing his guitar, takes place in the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina so, unknowingly, Brianna is traveling across the same countryside as her parents in the eighteenth century. The festival was a huge undertaking for the production, requiring hundreds of extras to create the atmosphere of a festival. The interior scenes for the festival—the venue for both Roger’s performance and the Calling of the Clans—were filmed in the midst of winter in a warehouse in Glasgow. The exterior scenes of the festival, featuring the incredible stalls, burning stag, and glorious sunset were shot in a park outside Glasgow this summer.
Said Sophie Skelton (Brianna), “It was wonderful—such a great atmosphere of Scottish dancers and music and then American stalls, prom queens, cars and everyone having fun. It was infectious for Roger and Brianna and… who knew Richard Rankin could croon like that? Girls are going to swoon all over the world.”
Richard’s Musicianship
Said Executive Producer Maril Davis about Richard Rankin’s performance, “Richard has a beautiful voice. The day we filmed the scene where he performs is one of my favorite parts of that episode. It would be great if his version of that song was released as a single—it’s a wonderful performance.”
Added Richard Rankin, “For the Scottish Festival, I was asked if I could learn the fiddle, to which I responded, ‘don’t be ridiculous—it takes years to master.’ I can play the guitar, so I was happy to do that. Producers told me it would be a couple of tracks, playing and singing. The first song was an old Scottish folk song, which was fine. I had that mastered. The second song, ‘The Devil’s Kitchen,’ was only delivered close to filming and was an arrangement of an old Scottish song which was so difficult—oh my god, what a challenge. I didn’t want anyone to ‘be my hands’ playing it. I was determined to master it but drove all the cast and crew mad with my practicing, especially Sophie. Then, she had to pretend she had never heard it when we performed it at the festival.”
Fraser’s Ridge
The decision which Jamie and Claire make to leave River Run is one which forever shapes the course of their new life together. As they journey through the Blue Ridge Mountains, they are struck by the beauty of the wilderness, a land which is, at yet in their minds, untamed and uncultivated. The view of Fraser’s Ridge that we see is made of a combination of footage from a wood in Scotland and a ‘plate shot’ of North Carolina itself. The importance of ‘fraise’, meaning strawberry in French, at Fraser’s Ridge (commonly associated with the etymology of the surname ‘Fraser’) was a fun element for the Greens Department. They cleared the bramble and then redressed with moss, grasses, and bushes to create texture and shape for the area. They wanted to introduce plants that might really grow on a cliff-face: blue grasses, azaleas, ferns, and then incorporated around 300 strawberry plants.
Said Sam Heughan (Jamie), “When Jamie Fraser discovers the idyllic part of the North Carolinian countryside that becomes Fraser’s Ridge, he finds the place where he wants to create a home. Not only is it fertile—good farming land—but the discovery of the wild strawberries on the ridge were a sign for Jamie Fraser, that within this pastoral beauty is the place to make a home. This is his equivalent of becoming a laird again—having tenants and making the land work for them all. It is a fresh start where he can finally be himself, to lay down roots for himself and his extended family. However, he is cognizant that he is making a deal with Governor Tryon that may land him on the wrong side of history by accepting this large parcel of 10,000 acres of prime land.”
