Fans of Outlander have become accustomed to long droughts of content between seasons, but Starz is making sure that we're not waiting so long for new footage this time around. Season 3 came to an end back in December 2017, and the network immediately released a teaser for Season 4 that saw Claire and Jamie contemplating their future in the New World. Now, Starz has aired a full scene from Season 4, and it reveals that poor Jamie and Claire will be in big trouble yet again in the next batch of episodes. Here's what happens.
In the scene from Season 4, Jamie and Claire can be found driving a horse and wagon down a road late at night. Because this is Jamie and Claire we're talking about, they run into a problem when a group of redcoats stops them on the road and demands to know what they're transporting in their wagon. Jamie starts out by claiming that they're simply carrying provisions, but when the soldiers start poking around, Jamie admits that they also happen to be carrying a corpse. Understandably, the English soldiers are surprised to hear that this married couple is transporting a dead body by moonlight.
Claire is quick to explain that they're taking the dead man for a proper burial among his kinsmen, and this tidbit reminds one soldier that he saw Jamie calling out to the man when he was being hanged. It's enough for the redcoats to decide to double check and make sure the corpse is actually dead. The body is wrapped in a shroud, but that's not enough for the English, and one of them goes to stab the body in the leg to make sure that he's really, totally, 100% dead. Claire and Jamie are visibly nervous at this twist and try to protest that stabbing the body is desecration. One of the soldiers stabs the body with his bayonet anyway. The body doesn't move and the Brits allow the Frasers to move on.
Taken at face value, it would seem that this scene is just another example of the fact that Claire and Jamie attract trouble from the redcoats wherever they go. Book readers know that there's a lot more going on. The Season 4 scene is straight out of the fourth book of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, called Drums of Autumn. Minor book spoilers ahead. While Jamie and Claire do indeed want to give a proper burial to a man who had been hanged, they're transporting a lot more than food and a dead body. They're also hiding an Irish pirate by the name of Stephen Bonnet, who will be played in the show by Ed Speleers of Downton Abbey fame.
Stephen Bonnet plays a significant role in the Outlander narrative in Drums of Autumn, and this scene indicates that the show is going to feature that plot in Season 4 and potentially beyond. Even though the Outlander show has made some big changes to the book story, it seems Stephen Bonnet's introduction will go largely as written by Diana Gabaldon. End book spoilers.
This new scene from Season 4 was released on January 14 after an Outlander marathon on Starz. It won't be available online, but you can find it on the Starz app or video on demand. There's still no word on when exactly Season 4 will hit the airwaves, although it will be at some point this year. Hopefully we can continue to count on new content from Starz while we wait for the next batch of episodes.
For what you can watch while Outlander is off the air, take a look at our midseason TV premiere guide and our 2018 Netflix premiere schedule. If you're not up on the shows that weren't quite as lucky as Outlander last year, check out our rundown of all the 2017 TV cancellations. Don't forget to swing by our breakdown of why the Outlander credits are the very best on TV.
