Outlander's Richard Rankin teases complex, profound moment in season 7B

Figuring out that he's in the wrong time period was a major blow to Roger in the season 7 premiere and we see him, in episode 10, try to suss out whether or not Jemmy and Rob Cameron (Chris Fulton) could also be in the same time as him and Buck (Diarmaid Murtagh).

But it's in episode 10 that Roger is faced with the possibility of seeing his father after being given his dog tags by Graham McTavish's Dougal MacKenzie.

It's a moment that is both "complex and profound" for Roger, he tells RadioTimes.com exclusively.

On the potential of seeing his father again, Rankin said: "I think that's a very complex moment. It's a very profound moment when he gets those dog tags because the realisation that his father might be in the 18th century throws a lot of things up in the air for Roger, a lot of things that he's believed.

"He believes his father died when he was very young flying a Spitfire that came down over Europe in the war. I think there's a lot of disbelief for him, and to then come to the conclusion that hang on, the body was never found, so he must have himself made his way through stones and been trapped back here."

Rankin continued: "But that obviously leads to a lot of other potential conclusions: Is Jemmy then not here? Is this the Jeremiah that we've been attached to because you need that sort of anchor point when traveling through the stones? Or, is Jemmy somehow safe with him if his father is still alive and still well in that time?

"Because talking about the 18th century and to travel there back alone, presumably without the knowledge of it happening, presumably his father hasn't done that more than once.

"Then he could be leading it to a kind of a dead end or leading them to the conclusion that his father may have suffered a fate there," Rankin said.

"So it asks a lot of questions, I think, and it becomes quite a complicated point in the story for Roger to try and piece these things together, struggling on trying to find Jemmy, but I think it's starting to look a little less likely that Jemmy himself is there so that starts to worry Roger quite quickly as well."

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Speaking about how the ideas of fate and how this all could perhaps be part of a wider spiritual plan for Roger, Rankin said: "I think it's hard to deny the sort of this hand of fate and it's intervention through these stories because of the way that it brings things in such a sort of a full circle.

"Especially when you have the sort of paradoxes of Buck being there when his parents meet.

"It gives you a very sort of chicken egg paradox, it's like what came first? And you start to imagine that these things are somehow predestined or in some kind of infinite loop, which you can come to the conclusion that's fate, I think, quite easily. Otherwise, without it, what is it?"

Rankin continued: "I think it does solidify Roger's faith because he starts to come to the conclusion that this is predestined from a sort of a higher place, and all of these things are meant to be.

"We come to the kind of conclusion, I think, as a group throughout the show, that you can't change, as much as we often try, you can't change history.

"So that has been in some way set. I think that's to bring Roger anyway to the belief that it must be set by God and everything is part of God's plan. I think that's where he arrives at, I think."

Outlander season 7 part 2 will be released weekly every Saturday on MGM+ in the UK. It is also available to stream on Starz in the US. You can buy Diana Gabaldon's books on Amazon.

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