Outlander season 6 was Starz series at its strongest and weakest

The eighth episode of Outlander's truncated season six – originally planned to be 12 episodes, but shortened due to COVID and then Caitriona Balfe's pregnancy – delivered an exciting escalation to the Christie drama.

There was a breathless shootout, a confrontation between different factions on Fraser's Ridge, a treacherous journey with an attempted stoning, and finally, Claire's incarceration – quite the send-off for a season which has, in large part, been a slow-burning affair.

The season began with the Christie family and their fisherfolk followers settling on the Ridge, and daughter Malva becoming Dr Claire's devoted apprentice. But trouble soon began.

We learned that Tom's wife had been burned as a witch and we saw him terrorising his children. Meanwhile, Malva seduced several men, blackmailed Roger into silence, spied on Claire and Jamie, and cut off the fingers of a dead man to make a love charm.

Finally, there was the season's big twist: Malva accusing Jamie of fathering her unborn child. That meant the Frasers were prime suspects when she was killed, becoming vulnerable in their former safe haven due to the superstitious fisherfolk thinking the worst of them.

Richard Brown, head of the local Committee of Safety, spotted his opportunity to punish the Frasers following the death of his brother Lionel and swooped in to arrest Claire.

It cleverly ties in with the season's other big plot: Claire dealing with PTSD after Lionel and his men abducted and raped her, to which she responded by self-medicating with ether rather than confiding in Jamie. But in the wake of Malva’s murder, she finally admitted everything, including the underlying guilt she felt from time travelling to be with Jamie, which she believes is the catalyst for everyone else's difficulties.

Season 6 treated us to several standout scenes featuring Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan, with their complex relationship once again at the heart of the action. It's a bond that has been carefully built up over several years, balancing high drama – shock, anger, betrayal and fear – to keep the narrative moving, while remaining faithful to what the series is all about: their fierce love for one another and the sheer will to survive.

Outlander is at its very best when it underpins its action scenes with real emotion, and there was plenty of that in season 6. We care about this story, and not just because we want to find out who killed Malva, who fathered her child and whether Claire will be freed, but because we're heavily invested in the characters – even those we've spent significantly less time with, such as Tom Christie, who is brilliantly played by Mark Lewis Jones.

Claire is still alive, for now, because he insisted on accompanying her. But why? Tom seemed convinced by Malva's tale about Jamie, so surely he wouldn't protect the Frasers if he truly thought they'd killed his child. Perhaps it has something to do with his complex feelings for Claire: though he often disapproves of her, he also seems deeply drawn to her – another fascinating thread in this tapestry.

But Outlander's condensed sixth season does leave us in an odd place. It would certainly have been more satisfying to resolve the Christie story properly instead of splitting it across two seasons. Might that have been possible if the show hadn't spent so much time on the less compelling side plots?

Like Game of Thrones, Outlander has a habit of sacrificing forward momentum to check in on its many, many characters. In season 6, that included maid Lizzie and the Beardsley twins, who form a throuple, and we were subjected to tonal whiplash in the finale from the repeated switches to Roger and Brianna, who are on the road because Roger wants to be ordained.

The latter half of Outlander felt like the show at its weakest, pulling us away from a thrilling life-or-death plot in order to gently advance a low-stakes one and tie up various loose ends – such as the confirmation that Roger is Jem's biological father.

Yes, that parentage news concludes a long-simmering mystery, but it's hard to care when it tears us away from Claire being stoned by angry villagers, or Jamie nearly being deported to Scotland. In fact, it does Roger and Brianna a disservice – while the former's desire to become a priest is an important character development, it got lost in the mix.

With a colossal 16-episode seventh season on its way, the upcoming chapter will have the time it needs (and was deprived of in season 6) to round off unfinished storylines and serve up some fresh ones. But that still doesn't address one of its central issues: the TV adaptation of Diana Gabaldon's novels is only getting more complex and sprawling as it continues, building from just Claire's point of view to that of multiple people in different locations and time periods.

Outlander is often thrilling viewing, completely unlike anything else on TV – and that creative ambition is part of its appeal. But it remains to be seen if a longer season 7 will help resolve that problem to give viewers the very best version of their beloved show.

Read More:

• Outlander prequel series reportedly in the works
• Caitríona Balfe and Sam Heughan on Outlander season 6: 'They're as in love with each other now as before'

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