Outlander‘s Sam Heughan, Caitriona Balfe and Mark Lewis Jones Break Down Tom’s Jarring Return From the Dead
We’ve already seen love for Outlander‘s Claire bring one man back from the dead. In Friday’s episode, it kinda happened again.
While the Frasers spent some time in Wilmington, N.C., ahead of their planned journey to Scotland, Claire literally bumped into someone she thought was a ghost: Tom Christie, the Ridge resident who falsely confessed to murder in order earlier this season to save Claire from being tried and hanged for the crime.
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The last time we saw Tom, played by Mark Lewis Jones, he was destined for death yet at peace after telling Claire he loved her. Everyone assumed he’d meet his fate in the weeks that followed. But Episode 4 found the pious Ardsmuir man decidedly among the living, thanks to both his usefulness to the harried governor and the chaos of the burgeoning war. (Read a full recap.)
Tom’s survival shocked Claire and Jamie — hitting her especially hard — so of course we wanted to chat with all the Starz drama’s key players about the big development. In separate interviews, we asked Jones and series stars Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan to break down Tom’s startling resurrection. Read on for their thoughts.
TVLINE | Tom Christie is a bit of an enigma; for a long time, it’s hard to tell where he’s coming from. In your estimation, what do you think was the tipping point — or turning point — for him in how he feels about Claire?
MARK LEWIS JONES | I think it’s a gradual build, but I think something happens immediately when we first meet him at Fraser’s Ridge… He’s been given a bit of food, and Jamie and Claire walk in. It’s almost that something is sparked when he first sees Claire.
But if I cast my mind back to the scenes, you know, the hand scenes and the operation, and when Claire comes down at night and Tom has been made to stay in the surgery bay overnight… There’s that quietness and peace, and she’s got her hair down, and she leans over him at one point. It’s gradual, but I think there are key moments within that journey.
And when we get to [Season] 7, Tom had been on the journey, you know, as her protector. As you say, he’s difficult to read. He is an enigma — I think that’s the correct word for him — and by the time he gets to the boat when he offers himself as a sacrifice, it’s all brought to a head, all an act of love and his love for Claire. To actually be able to say that he loves her is, like, where did that come from? [Laughs]
TVLINE | And it seems to me that we can’t count out that Tom might have some jealousy of Jamie in there, too.
JONES | Yeah. Tom’s got these weird children and his murky past. He tries to keep, everybody on the straight and narrow, and builds the church, and he’s pious, and he’s Godly, and yet he’s deeply unhappy and uncomfortable in his own skin. And he sees Jamie as this person who’s been liberated and has this beautiful wife and all these wonderful people around him, this amazing home and this incredible land — and he looks like Sam Heughan, you know? [Laughs] He’s a big hero, and Tom feels inferior… In a way, I think Jamie brings out the worst in Tom.
So when we get to the Red Falcon scene [in the Season 7 premiere], outside, in a way it’s Tom’s turn to play hero and offer himself. In a way, Tom gets to equal him, at least for a moment. [When Jamie gives the eulogy], it really touches Tom when he’s told that he would respect him. That means the world to Tom.
TVLINE | There are very few people who can throw Claire off her game so hard. Caitriona, why do you think that is? She’s speechless when he comes back.
CAITRIONA BALFE | Claire sort of had him pegged as this pious bigot very early on, and she could sense there was something more to him. She tried to reach him a few times, but I think every time she tried to do that before, she’d sort of hit a wall. So with everything that happened with Malva, his reaction to Malva’s death, all of that, Claire, I think she just sort of put him in a box and decided that that’s who he was.
… What’s so surprising is the way he reveals himself when he reveals more about his life, the pain that he suffered, and you get to understand why he acts the way he does, and then, you know, when he makes an overture towards Claire, it’s a really fun, very confusing-for-Claire moment. Mark Lewis Jones is so amazing. He’s been such a dream to work with, and we’ve enjoyed having him on the show so much.
SAM HEUGHAN | Oh, it’s wonderful. Yeah.
TVLINE | Sam, I want to talk to you about Jamie’s reaction to all of that. Jamie seems very glad to have Tom as someone else who cares about Claire so deeply and is literally willing to lay down his life for her. Do you think the Jamie of Season 1 or 2 would’ve had that same, sanguine reaction to another man inserting himself into Claire’s life like that?
HEUGHAN | No, you’re absolutely right. Yeah, absolutely not. Jamie, over time, he’s aged. He’s become calmer. Also, their relationship is so interesting. There was butting heads, and they have such a long history, going back to Ardsmuir… I think there’s actually a mutual respect between these two men. They’re just on different sides, right? And of course, they both love Claire, because they’re just genuinely good people. They’re just from different sides.
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