In the first two episodes of Season Six of Outlander, we are quickly reintroduced to life on Fraser’s Ridge. The imminent threat of revenge is still hanging over Jamie (Sam Heughan) and his family following the slaughter of the men who kidnapped and raped Claire in the Season Five finale, and Claire (Caitriona Balfe) is still struggling to process the trauma.
However, the season begins with a bit of localised time travel, as we hop back to Jamie’s time at Ardsmuir prison and meet Thomas Christie (Mark Lewis Jones), a religious fanatic who soon shows up at the Ridge with his children and a band of settlers in tow. Jamie honours his promise to welcome any of his fellow former prisoners, but there is no love between the two of them, and it becomes clear that the Christies are trouble.
This season looks set to explore both internal and external conflict, dealing with Christie and the Brownstown men, as well as the ever-present threat of revolution. The series isn’t shying away from addressing the impact the revolution had on Native Americans, and we begin to learn more about what happened during Ian’s time with the Mohawk.
The series gets off to a slow and slightly plodding start, with the exception of one eye-opening scene in which Fergus shows off one of his more unlikely skills learned during his childhood in a brothel. Balfe does good work as Claire struggles under the weight of trauma, and it’s nice to see Heughan bring back the wilder young Jamie in flashback.
Christie looks to be yet another compelling Outlander villain, but we can’t help but feel impatient for the revolution, so that the show can regain the sense of urgency and impending doom that was so powerful in earlier seasons…
Outlander S6 premieres 6 March on STARZPLAY. Read our interview with stars Sophie Skelton and Richard Rankin here.