Outlander ended its seventh season with a shocking revelation suggesting that Faith Fraser may have survived. The show’s writers have confirmed that the series will now venture into uncharted territory with an alternate timeline conceived by author Diana Gabaldon.

Gabaldon had hinted that she hadn’t had the chance to delve into this herself, but it involved Master Raymond (Dominique Pinon) transporting Claire Fraser’s (Caitríona Balfe) stillborn child to another era and saving her. The enigma surrounding Faith Fraser is set to be a significant storyline in the eighth and final season, reports the Scottish Daily Express.

Interestingly, fans might be surprised to learn that actress and producer Balfe advocated for a reference to Faith in the pivotal reunion scene between Claire and Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan) in the third season, after being separated for 20 years. During the print shop reunion, where Jamie was using the alias Alexander Malcolm, Claire showed her husband pictures of their second daughter Brianna Fraser (Sophie Skelton) from the future.

The Highlander then commented on how Brianna had red hair “like her sister, Faith”, a poignant tribute to their late baby. Balfe previously explained how she persuaded the writers to include a subtle reference to Jamie and Claire’s firstborn baby.

Jamie and Claire spoke about their time apart

“I just thought that no parents would ever forget a child, even if the child didn’t make it to term,” Balfe told Elle. The Irish actress further added in the 2017 interview: “She’s still very much part of the family unit.”

The moment wasn’t in the original novels, but the show’s writers believed it was essential. The character of Faith is central to Outlander, with showrunner Matthew B. Roberts highlighting its significance, especially in the second season, marking the infant’s death as a crucial point in the narrative.

For the third season’s reunion, Roberts acknowledged the challenges faced in deciding which elements to retain or omit for the TV rendition, sharing, “I wanted to stay as close to that median point of the source material as possible and not stray too far to either side of that.”

Jamie remarked about Faith and Brianna having red hair(Image: STARZ)

Discussing with The Hollywood Reporter, he added: “I wanted to keep [things] as faithful to the source material as I could, from beginning to end, because of what has already come before this.”

Debates arose within the writers’ room over content decisions, as Roberts noted: “We had debates in the writers room about what to keep and what to add and what adding something might do to the scene.”