EPISODE 112: LALLYBROCH
WRITER: ANNE KENNEY 
DIRECTOR: MIKE BARKER
The Fraser ancestral home takes center stage in “Lallybroch,” as Jamie returns home with his new bride. Despite being the laird in name, Jamie’s been on the run as a fugitive for some time, so his abrupt return disrupts the entire dynamic of the estate. “Any of us who go home have a tendency to regress,” writer Anne Kenney says of the episode’s central theme. “You’re a different person with your family than you are with your friends and your spouse. What this became about was Jamie trying to figure out who he is in this place and how does Claire fit into all of it too. The honeymoon’s over. Now we have to see who we are going to be to each other, and to the world, now that we’re together.”
“Lallybroch is very important. We get to see his family side. Through that, we realize Jamie is maybe not as perfect as we thought. He has all this history and backstory that he maybe has not dealt with. He feels responsible and feels guilt for his sister, so it all sort of comes into play.”
To Jamie, Lallybroch represents his birthright, the legacy of his father and the responsibility of caring for the people who work his land. Director Mike Barker knew his visuals had to embody all of that emotional weight while exuding warmth. “I think it was really about creating a sense of familiarity about it,” Barker says. “I imagined [the grounds] a bit like a big cozy sofa, where you sit in it and it feels like it’s a real sofa.”
However, in reality, Lallybroch as a location proved to be a challenge. “The house, Midhope Castle, was chosen in block one, and it’s possibly the worst location that’s ever been chosen for a film ever,” Barker laughs. “It is diabolically bad. It faces the wrong direction to the sun; it’s constantly in the shade. You have to be really inventive about how you shoot it.”
Another difficult aspect to the episode was Jenny revealing what happened to her when Jamie was arrested and she was left behind to deal with Black Jack Randall. “The thing that was so difficult about that scene was that it involved a penis,” Barker says candidly about the graphic portrayal of Randall’s attempted assault on Jenny. “But Tobias was so unbelievably relaxed. Of course, the producers left it to me to go and speak to him [about the nudity],” Barker chuckles. “He was completely at ease.
“Fortunately, I knew Laura [Donnelly] from back in drama school. We used to hang out a little bit. Then we had just shot a movie together in Norway before Outlander. She is a terrific actress. It just felt very comfortable. It was very much like brother and sister. I think the first day was the arrival at Lallybroch, and Jamie and Jenny get in each other’s faces. Neither of them really backs down. I think that is key, that they are constantly sparring with each other. It’s great to see Jamie, who is so capable and great in most situations, really not be able to deal with it.”
“I found it quite harrowing, actually,” Barker admits. “There’s no fun in shooting scenes like that, because you are talking about violating someone. Even though Jenny’s being incredibly strong and fighting back in the way that she could, it still doesn’t get away from the fact that ultimately it’s a rape, whether it happened or not. It’s a very difficult thing, so I wanted to find a very simple, single image that was a violation without it actually being sex. That’s where the thumb came from,” Barker says of Randall forcing his digit into Jenny’s mouth. “It could have been sexy, but it was really, really frighteningly violating, I thought. It’s all in her eyes.”
“I know from talking to people before we shot [Jenny’s assault], they can’t necessarily understand why Jenny laughed, why that’s her choice. I certainly had several conversations with our director to make sure that we were on the same page regarding that. I think that as long as I had a very clear idea in my head as to why Jenny was laughing, then hopefully other people would start to understand, because it is a curious moment. I think it was to do with a last-resort feeling, that at that point there is no other way that she is going to be able to get out of that situation. She’s not going to be able to overpower him, so there is desperation behind it.”
“The nature of the power dynamic between Jenny and Ian [Steven Cree] is what fascinated us both, because Jenny obviously is very headstrong, very stubborn. Ian knows exactly how to soften her, to stay on her good side and manipulate her in the right way of true, complete love and affection. We discussed that a lot, just what it is that has drawn them together and what it is that works about that partnership so well.”
Finding out that Jenny successfully humiliated Randall into leaving Lallybroch cemented the strength of the character for Jamie, Claire, and the audience. “Jenny is this idea that helps you also understand Jamie’s attraction to Claire,” Kenney explains. “Jenny is this very smart, independent woman. You can see where—and I think we all do that to a certain extent—you replicate your familial relationships. We see how much influence and respect Jamie has for her. So I think that’s really interesting that she and Claire are birds of a feather.”
Kenney says watching the Fraser siblings reorient around each other in the episode was very satisfying. “My favorite scene is in the graveyard with Jamie and Jenny at the end,” she shares. “I loved writing it. They played it beautifully. I feel like it’s so human when she confesses that on some level she blamed him for their father’s death. When something horrible happens, you want to find somebody to blame. The fact that she did that, and once she saw [Jamie’s] scars, she realized, what have I done? I just love that moment between the two of them.”
