Beware SPOILERS for Outlander season 7 part 2 below!
The latest episode of Outlander, “Brotherly Love,” featured the death of a long-running character: Old Ian, played by Steven Cree, so named because he’s the father of Young Ian (John Bell). As the show marches toward its ending, fans would do well to remember that any character could die at any moment. All bets are off!
The episode opened with a flashback of Old Ian teaching Young Ian and Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan) how to fight as a team. Years later, his death is hitting everyone hard. “They were trained and brought up together and they fought side by side and they’ve got this long history together and there’s some beautiful scenes, I think, they’re beautifully written and wonderful to play with Steven [Cree], we’ve got a great relationship with him,” Heughan told Radio Times. “He’s a fun character in real life. It was just nice to play with these amazing actors that come on set and that group, with Kristen [Atherton] as well, some really great scenes and the extended family, actually all really fun.”
“But yeah, really bittersweet and sad to say goodbye to him. And as you can see, the consequences of that and how Jenny is just full of grief, but I just think it’s a real gift as an actor to be given scenes like that…And it was very sad when he walks out in his full regalia and his kilt and waves goodbye to young Ian and young Ian knows deep down that’s the last time he’ll see his father.”
Killing off a character on a TV show is supposed to feel like a big deal. It hurts especially bad on a show like Outlander, which has been running for nearly a decade. Fans have seen characters like Old Ian recur over and over and over, so when he makes his exit, it feels heavy.
And if the fans are having a hard time with it, imagine what the cast members who have acted alongside Steven Cree are feeling. “Yeah, we were very lucky though, being on the show we’ve worked on for so many years that you create these experiences or these memories that you’re not having to conjure them up or pretend,” Heughan said. “I remember Steve and I talking about, way back in season 1, doing scenes together and him being completely inappropriate and making me laugh and the director laugh and just, really nice memories of like when we were in Lallybroch and had these scenes together.”
Caitriona Balfe (Claire Fraser) reflects on Old Ian’s death
Caitriona Balfe, who plays Jamie’s wife Claire Fraser, also weighed in on Old Ian’s exit. “Yeah, I think she has to try and be strong. But also, Claire and Ian had such a close relationship too. And I think, for her, it’s a heartbreak because she’s saying goodbye to a friend.”
“He was someone who really welcomed her when Jenny wasn’t necessarily always warm and fuzzy. It was Ian and Claire who had more of a close relationship. So yeah, you just, I think you just have to put yourself in the character’s shoes and just imagine what she would try and do.”
And like Heughan, Balfe noted that these events hit all the harder because of how long Outlander has been going: “So those relationships are all, we’ve built them as well with the actors and with the characters. So those memories are within you. So it’s, I think the beauty of this long running show is that so much of that work has been done over years. That it’s very easily accessible.”
New episodes of Outlander air Fridays on Starz. The second half of the show’s seventh season will wrap up in January. After that, that’s only one season of the show left! If events like the death of Old Ian hit hard, we can only imagine what the cast and crew have in store for the big finish.
But fans needn’t worry too much; although the main show is ending, Starz is giving them a salve in the form of a new spinoff, Blood of My Blood, coming sometime next year.
