Fans of the hit time-traveling romance Outlander will know that the series is not without many shocking moments which take the characters through the absolutely heights of drama. But, for every finale which (sorta) sees our favorite characters brutalized beyond anything we'd want to imagine, there are also light and bright spots to fill out these very complex and difficult lives. Lauren Lyle, who plays Marsali on the show, recently revealed that Outlander actually cut out a disturbingly amusing moment, which involved a sheet and a cadaver. Y'all? That's the most Outlander thing I've ever heard!
Lauren Lyle appeared on the Outcasts podcast not long ago, and spoke to hosts and fellow Outlander cast members Tim Downie (Governor Tryon) and David Berry (Lord John) about her part on the show. To start things off, they all read an important scene from Season 5, where Claire attempts to recruit Marsali as her medical apprentice. After the hilarious reading, though, Lyle admitted that she and Caitriona Balfe, who portrays Claire, had quite a bit of fun with the fake cadaver which was also a major part of the scene. According to Lyle:
He had this loincloth to cover himself, his boxers and whatnot, but when we had the fake body that was the cadaver that was all opened up and was gruesome and disgusting, we had given him full anatomy. So, we could see. Quite funny, you know how at the end it says, ‘Marsali becomes very intrigued?’ We did, with every take, we got closer and closer to his male anatomy. To the point where we were doing it and I was lifting up the sheet to look and Claire was slapping my hand away. We would do it and they would allow us to run with that, and keep going, and it didn’t quite make it into the cut… But we always found it quite funny. Quite liked it. Kept you involved.
Aw, man! I really wish they would have kept this in the final cut of the second episode of Season 5, because it really is perfect, dark Outlander humor. Plus, as Lauren Lyle describes how the scene went down as they were filming, it completely fits both how Marsali and Claire would handle such a tense situation.
The semi-naughty scene in question comes after there's been a funeral for one of their neighbors, who'd been brought in by his wife to see if Claire could figure out why he was having trouble breathing. The good doctor was unable to save him, seeing as how she couldn't figure out what was even wrong with him, but decided to keep the man's body for study just in case this happened again.
As we know, Claire is the only medical professional around with a real understanding of how the body works and what can be done to help people, and as those nearby rely on her more and more, she's realized she needs help. She's seen that Marsali is good at butchering animals, and not prone to Brianna's squeamishness, so she brings her surrogate daughter in to show her the body and explain what she wants from her.
Marsali is none too pleased with the fact that Claire kept the man's body and has been a-cuttin' on it, because such an idea was seen as barbaric (and, potentially, witchcrafty) by most people back in the good ol' 1700s. She only begins to come around once Claire fully explains the situation and says that their neighbor will, in fact, get the burial he deserves once they're done with his body. I mean, if this doesn't sound like a wonderfully tense situation in which to try to take a peak at a dead man's personal bits, what does?
The lovely spitfire we know as Marsali has, as far as we ken, only ever been with her husband Fergus. And, while we know they've been together a lot (she's been pregnant roughly 95% of the time since they married), she likely hasn't seen another man's dingle or berries. Who could really blame the young wife / mother / new doctor-in-training for being curious?! I haven't had the opportunity to watch the Season 5 DVDs yet, but if this bit of gruesome comedy isn't in the special features, we should all start a petition.
We will almost certainly have a much longer wait for Season 6 than was previously anticipated, but you can rest assured that we'll be here to fill the Droughtlander with as much Outlander news as possible in the intervening months. For more on what to watch in the coming weeks, check out our guide to fall TV!
