At the end of Outlander Season 5, Brianna and Roger proved their home is in the 18th century. In a new Season 6 clip shared by Town & Country, Bree and Roger discuss living in the past and its potential consequences. This has been a topic for the time travelers of Outlander since the beginning. But while they're worried about the results of future world wars, I'm worried that Outlander may keep the MacKenzies in the past for good.
In the one-minute clip, which is from the Season 6 premiere, "Echoes," a conversation about tea vs. coffee leads the couple to talk about what side of the American Revolution the British Roger will be on (yes, he may be Scottish, but he's still British). The Oxford historian says he's a Patriot, of course, because if the Americans lost the Revolution, how would that impact WWI and WWII? All good (and stressful) questions. (And not to be this guy, but the nitpicker in me must say that the Boston Tea Party happened in 1773, so if this previously-released script page was accurate and Season 6 begins in 1774, Roger hasn't been paying attention to current events.)
Brianna simply asks, "What can we do?" And if her mother's attempts at changing what happened at Culloden are any indication, she's right that a handful of time travelers can't change significant events and they will just have to play out as the history books said. But is this clip also an indication that Bree and Roger have no intentions of going back to their own time ever again?
Book spoilers ahead.
In Season 5's "Journeycake," Bree, Roger, and Jemmy tried to go back to the 20th century. But the stone circle chucked them back out into the 18th century in the "Never My Love" finale because they had been focused on "home" and home is where their family of Claire and Jamie are. Although Outlander series author Diana Gabaldon wrote "Journeycake," this plot of Roger, Bree, and Jemmy making a failed attempt to get back was not in the books.
Bree and Roger do eventually go back to their own time in the Outlander novels after Brianna gives birth to their daughter Mandy. Mandy has a heart condition that Claire can't treat in the 1770s, so the MacKenzies head back to the 1970s at the end of A Breath of Snow and Ashes to attempt to save their daughter.
I've already considered that the failed time travel trip could be the Starz show's way of removing the entire plot of Bree and Roger going back to their own time. That's pretty unfathomable as a book fan. But with only eight episodes in Season 6, it's possible that they won't travel to the future at the end of this upcoming season. And if Season 7 turns out to be the last, maybe the show doesn't want to complicate their plot by having Roger and Bree go back to their time.
Maybe I should just be happy for a Season 6 clip of Bree and Roger and stop there. But with them musing about their part in history, I'm getting a little stressed at the possibility that Outlander the show may be planning to have the MacKenzies remain a permanent fixture in American history.
Images: Starz