Spoilers ahead for Episode 6 of Outlander Season 7, called "Where the Waters Meet."
Time travel is of course a fundamental part of Outlander, as the saga would have ended very quickly if Claire had never accidentally gone back in time via standing stones. The show has added bits and pieces of information about how it works over the years, including that most people can't actually do it and jewels are needed to make it work. After what Brianna discovered in a tunnel in the previous episode, I figured that Season 7 was on the verge of revisiting time travel again. I wasn't wrong, but it didn't happen like I expected, and I'm so glad that it wasn't spoiled.
Now, before I get into what happened, I have to disclaim that the only reason that I wasn't spoiled was technically that I'm several installments behind in Diana Gabaldon's book series and probably would have known who the nuckelavee was if I had kept up with the novels. Still, since I know I'm not the only fan of the series who hasn't read every word of Gabaldon's saga, I hope I'm not the only one celebrating that the reveal was a surprise!
The nuckelavee has been a mini mystery for the MacKenzie family after they returned to the 20th century and bought Lallybroch, with Jemmy insisting that something was taking food, Mandy getting a scare when she saw somebody lurking outside a window, and Roger discovering strewn food wrappers. He finally spotted the stranger outside the window when he was putting groceries away in "Where the Waters Meet" and gave chase... and even if you didn't immediately realize who the man was, it was clear by his clothes that this was not somebody from the 20th century.
Once Roger connected the dots, he immediately punched the man in the face... and the episode faded to black, meaning that fans will have to wait a week for the aftermath. Viewers only had to wait about fifteen seconds to get the man's identity, however, by watching the credits, which identified him as William "Buck" Mackenzie, played by Diarmaid Murtagh. Even if that name doesn't ring a bell among all the MacKenzies who have appeared on Outlander, what he did back in Season 5 was certainly memorable.
He is responsible for hanging and nearly killing Roger, who is one of Buck's own descendants, as he is the bastard son of Dougal MacKenzie and Geillis Duncan. In fact, Graham McTavish, known for playing Dougal, also played Buck back in Season 5. The question of what Buck is up to remains to be answered, but his presence in the '80s is proof of something that Outlander hadn't explored before: if Claire, Bree, and Roger could travel back in time, anybody from the past should be able to travel to the future.
In fact, given that Bree could travel through time because of Claire, and Jemmy and Mandy can travel through time because of their parents, maybe we should have all expected to see Buck again long before this as Geillis' son!
And this discovery already put the MacKenzies in danger, even though Buck is certainly out of his element in the distant future from his own time. It's possible that Outlander isn't going to do much with the potential risks of other time travelers, however, as I can't help but suspect that his introduction was for the purpose of testing Bree's theory about a portal in the tunnel she'd explored, sending him back to the 18th century, and raising the possibility of one of the MacKenzies going back to Jamie and Claire sooner rather than later.
We can only wait and see, and I have to wonder if we'll get many answers about Buck before Outlander goes into hiatus. While Season 7 is super-sized to sixteen episodes, only half of them will air before the end of the 2023 TV schedule, with the back eight set to premiere at some point in 2024.
I'm already nervous about Young Ian and curious about what Sophie Skelton and Richard Rankin commented about the Jacobite gold, so I'm hoping for at least some solid answers before the end of the first half of Season 7! You can always revisit the tragedy of Buck hanging Roger with the Season 5 episode of Outlander called "The Ballad of Roger Mac," available streaming with a Netflix subscription. New episodes of Outlander will continue airing on Fridays at 9 p.m. ET on Starz.
