Outlander’s seventh season wrapped up with a bombshell that Faith Fraser is alive, shaking the hearts of viewers who mourned her stillbirth back in season two.
Audiences watched, initially distraught, as Sam Heughan’s Jamie and Caitríona Balfe – who has opened up on her ‘personal’ connection to her new role – and her character Claire grappled with the loss of their first child in a dramatic episode which put Claire’s own life at risk – until Master Raymond, portrayed by Dominique Pinon, stepped in to save the day.
Straying boldly from Diana Gabaldon’s acclaimed novels, the Scottish Daily Express reports that both the show’s makers and Gabaldon have crafted a new trajectory for the storyline.
A woman in a coat looks serious as she stands outside© STARZ
In a creative leap, Master Raymond has been depicted pulling off a miraculous save, allowing Faith to grow up in a time far different from when she was supposed to have died, reports the Daily Record.
However, this plot tinkering has not sat well with every fan of the historical drama, sparking intense debate online.
One Reddit user vented their disappointment bluntly: “I feel incredibly let down by the ending of the current season.”
The fan continued, mourning the reversal: “I feel that the stillbirth of Faith was such beautiful acting and incredibly poignant, and to suddenly retcon it as if she didn’t die is unbelievably infuriating.”
They also cast doubt on the storyline’s consistency by asking: “If by some miracle Faith did survive, there is absolutely no possible way she would know a song from the future as she wouldn’t have been brought up with it.
“There are numerous time travelers in the show, so it would make more sense that Fanny and Jane’s mother was from the future and sang the song to them.
A woman in grey looks tearful© STARZ
“I know there’s magic and so on, and anything can happen in Outlander, but this idea of Faith being alive is ridiculous and completely undermines the whole beautiful storyline they did with her death.”
A second added their thoughts: “It makes no sense for Fanny to know the song unless someone from the future sang it to her. Even if Faith lived, she would have only been hours old when Claire sang the song to her.
“Faith would have had to dead for hours, before being brought back to life. Wouldn’t that make her a zombie baby? Then, the zombie baby would have had to travel from France to the colonies and then had two children to cross paths with Claire. Lame story arc.
“Time travel makes more sense since there is a 50//50 chance Claire inherited her ability to time travel from her mother [sic].”
Another fan agreed, saying: “In the books, the baby had been dead for five days before Raymond showed up.”
Meanwhile, a forum member expressed their feelings: “Quite agree with you. The idea of baby Faith being alive, growing up, having children, teaching them a 20th-century song, and then those children ending up on the other side of the world, in exactly the same time and place as Claire. Totally ridiculous!”
The conjecture doesn’t end there, with some fans theorizing that Claire’s mother might have unintentionally time-traveled and taught the song to others in the past.
Outlander author Gabaldon has previously dropped hints that the song I Do Like to be Beside the Seaside will make an appearance in the prequel series Blood of My Blood.
This dancehall tune from Julia Moriston’s (Hermione Corfield) era lends credence to theories suggesting that Claire’s mother didn’t perish in a car crash as initially thought but instead journeyed through time.