This story contains spoilers for Outlander season 7, episode 3.
Part of what makes Outlander so addictive is its capacity to endlessly reinvent itself, thanks to the time-traveling ability shared by most (but crucially, not all) of its core cast. Despite being fish out of water in the 18th century, Claire (Caitriona Balfe), Brianna (Sophie Skelton), and Roger (Richard Rankin) have now spent several seasons seemingly settling into life in the past—but the seventh season has already upended all of that in spectacular fashion.
In last week’s episode, Brianna and Roger made the agonizing decision to travel back through the stones in order to save their daughter Mandy from a heart defect that has no cure in the 18th century. For all intents and purposes, it’s a one-way trip, which Brianna makes knowing that she may well never see her parents again. And as wrenching as that choice is, it gives Brianna and Roger a chance to reestablish themselves in the modern era they thought they’d left behind forever.
But they don’t pick up exactly where they left off. Instead, this week’s third episode “Death Be Not Proud” finds the couple making a life for themselves and their children in the 1980s, having traveled from Boston to Brianna’s ancestral home in the Scottish Highlands. It’s been a minute since Outlander spent any significant time in the 20th century, and for showrunner Maril Davis, it was important to resist the urge to lean too hard into the 1980s of it all.
“I think a lot of people will say, ‘Oh, that’s not the ’80s I know,’” says Davis, acknowledging that fans expecting to see shoulder pads, big hair, and neon clothes may be disappointed by the show’s naturalistic approach. “People have to remember, this was the 1980s in the Highlands, which is going to be a bit different from the 1980s in, say, Los Angeles. But we did push the envelope a little bit with hairstyles and clothing, because we wanted that to pop.”
To that end, costume designer Trisha Biggar put Sophie Skelton’s Brianna in a bold jewel-tone to kick off the 1980s storyline—a teal wrap cardigan that immediately feels distinct from any of the show’s previous eras, as do Bree’s new blowout and bangs. “They’ve come from Boston, a metropolitan city in the U.S., to a very rural part of Scotland, so it was interesting to think about their journey to get there, what clothes they’ve picked up along the way, and then the difference between them and their neighbors in rural Scotland, where people are not very up to date with fashion,” Biggar explains. The clearest example of this comes early on when Bree and Roger pay a visit to his friend Fiona, whose traditional wardrobe cuts a sharp contrast to Bree’s bold colours and more fitted silhouette. “Although Fiona’s young, realistically she wouldn’t be eye-catching in terms of fashion, so we have her in local knitwear with a print blouse.”
For Skelton, Brianna’s return to her 20th century origins was a chance to discover new dimensions to a character she now knows inside out. “She left [the 20th century] in the 1960s, as a teenager, so coming back lat a matured woman and mother was like finding her identity trough clothes all over again, which was super fun for us to do,” she reflects, adding that she and Biggar took time to find the right balance between character growth and consistency. “I really fought to keep her tomboy-ish elements, and Trisha was a fan of some of the more feminine and floral aspects peeping through as well. I think that ended up being the perfect concoction, and we found a way for both sides of Brianna to shine through.”
Besides that bold yet cozy teal cardigan, Bree’s other signature look in episode 3 is a navy Pendleton wool jacket with a multicolored striped yoke—a distinctly American brand which helped to bridge the gap between Boston and the Highlands. “I found that coat in a vintage place in Scotland, surprisingly, and just fell in love with it,” Biggar says of this moment of costume scouting kismet.
Skelton was especially enthusiastic about the bangs, because a dramatic hair change felt like a natural step for Bree in a moment of general transformation (as anybody who cut their own quarantine bangs can attest). “This season is Brianna’s world taking a 180 flip, so she’s bound to have spent some time recalibrating herself all over again and experimenting. It’s such a human thing to want to change your whole ‘vibe’ and look when there’s a big shift in your life.”
Throughout the show, Brianna has often called out the physical discomfort inflicted on women by their corseted clothing during the 1700s, and Skelton relished the chance to highlight the distinction once again now that she’s back in the future. “I’ve always wanted to re-draw attention to the constraints of the clothing, partly to appreciate women of that era who had to wear it day in and day out,” Skelton says, “but also to remind the audience that Brianna isn’t an actress, she’s a fish out of water, and her whole demeanor would change by being in this kind of physical cage.” Now that Brianna is back in her natural surroundings, there’s a deliberate shift in the way she carries herself. “Her walk is different, her posture is different, her voice is even different, because you can breathe a little better. Some of that changed naturally, but I also definitely laid some on a little thicker for the sake of the storyline. Bree was ahead of her time for the 1960s, so I definitely feel the ’80s is more where she feels at home in her own body, and clothes, and surroundings.”
Fashion aside, this season’s accelerated timeline-hopping posed a unique production design challenge, since much of the 20th century storyline takes place at the Fraser estate of Lallybroch. “I know people get tired of us saying ‘this is the biggest season ever,’ but this season really does feel like it,” says Davis. She notes that the bumper-sized seventh season will incorporate “2.8 books,” of Diana Gabaldon’s source material, and several different time periods, of which the 1980s is just the first. So rather than trying to revamp the interior of Lallybroch multiple times within the season, production designer Mike Gunn and his team came up with a creative solution. “We thought, what if we have Bree and Roger and the kids living in this trailer outside Lallybroch, because the process of redoing it takes years?” Davis recalls. “At first, I’ll be honest, I was not sure how it would look, but then I really came to love the idea. Sometimes those tricky production things end up busting everything open in terms of the bigger vision.”
Juggling multiple eras has always been part of the Outlander remit, but without getting into any specific spoilers, it seems safe to say that season 7 is pushing that to the limit. “It’s a really interesting aspect of the job, the ability to jump into completely unexpected places, and the research aspect of that,” Biggar reflects. “Every episode seems to have a different research need—this season alone, you’ve got naval uniforms, British army uniforms, revolutionary military uniforms, Quakers, and then also real people. That’s the other thing with this season, because of the Revolutionary War, so many famous historical figures will be passing through the story.”
Episode 3 makes it clear that Brianna and Roger’s ties to Claire and Jamie aren’t entirely severed—but how their stories will intersect again is anybody’s guess. For now, given how long they’re about to spend renovating Lallybroch, it seems safe to assume that the couple and their young children are back in the 20th century for the long haul. “They’ve settled, they’ve found Lallybroch again, they’ve redone it, and I think there’s a sense that they’re settled in their home,” Davis says. But this being Outlander, the moment they let their guard down is right when the waters get choppy. “There are visitors they don’t expect, there is workplace drama they don’t expect, and all those factors will contribute to a very rocky road ahead.”
Emma Dibdin is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles who writes about culture, mental health, and true crime. She loves owls, hates cilantro, and can find the queer subtext in literally anything.