We need to talk about Sam Heughan‘s body for a moment. Over the years, Outlander has done a lot to and with the Scottish actor’s body. It’s been dressed up and dressed down according to the female gaze. It’s been brutally whipped and beaten (and covered in scar prosthetics). As a character, Jamie Fraser has been put through the ringer — he’s narrowly survived death in battle and he’s borne the pain and trauma of being raped. He’s also been presented as the ultimate highland hunk. When it’s not his beloved Claire lusting after him, it’s Laoghaire or Mary McNab or Geneva Dunsany or Lord John Grey. So, yeah, Sam Heughan’s body is quite front and center in Outlander. (Like it is in the lead image for this article – taken from the first promotional image Starz sent out for the next episode, a super-sized reunion coming Sunday, October 22.)

I want instead to talk about Heughan’s body in an entirely different way. I want to talk about what a fantastic physical performer Sam Heughan is. That’s not meant to sound lurid; It’s meant to be an artistic compliment. Physicality is an important tool in an actor’s arsenal, and it’s a quality that doesn’t get talked about enough. A shift in body weight, a change in posture, the angle of a sigh…these are subtle ways an actor can convey what’s going on inside the character’s head without ever uttering a word. And on last night’s episode of Outlander, Sam Heughan’s physicality was amazing.

When I was trying to describe it this morning, I wrote, with the caps lock on to illustrate how emphatic I was:

DID YOU SEE HOW SAM HEUGHAN LET HIS SPINE DO ALL THE ACTING? THAT WAS SOME GRADE-A BACK ACTING. HE LET THE RECOGNITION OF WHAT WAS HAPPENING RIPPLE OVER ONE DISK IN HIS SPINE AFTER THE OTHER, UNTIL THE WEIGHT OF HIS EUPHORIA AND WONDER WAS TOO MUCH AND HIS BODY JUST HAD TO COLLAPSE.

Was I a bit too excited when I wrote that? No, because I had just re-watched the Print Shop scene for the umpteenth time and once more found that it delivered on every level. Could I have eased off the caps lock? I could have, but I had to stick to my truth. Did Sam Heughan let his spine do all the acting? No, because if you look closely, his hand, his neck, and his breathing also did a lot. This is what I mean, though. This is his reaction to hearing his long-lost love’s voice for the first time in 20 years. You can see the muscles in his body adjusting to the shock, his heart absorbing what it could mean, and his head bargaining with how to deal with what’s next. You can see this all in just a few bits of movement.

That…is physicality.

Now, the Print Shop scene succeeds for a variety of technical reasons. There’s the crackling chemistry between Heughan and Caitriona Balfe, the careful way showrunner Ronald D. Moore plotted the entire third season to lead up to this moment with as much drama as possible. There are the musical cues from Bear McCreary, the soft lighting, the high/low orientation of Claire and Jamie…like Romeo and Juliet in the balcony scene. All of these forces conspire together to deliver an emotional catharsis unlike anything I can think of save for the happy endings in childhood fairy tales. But I still come back to how Heughan’s tempered body language sent me as a viewer over the edge. The careful restraint he had over the way his body turned…the fear and doubt in his brow that soon melt to awe and adoration when he realizes he’s looking at his long-lost love…the comical twist of his swoon.

As of this point, Jamie hasn’t said anything directly to Claire, but we know exactly the emotional ride he’s been on in just the last 90 seconds. That’s all Sam Heughan’s body talking.

Give Sam Heughan’s body an Emmy already. He – and it — deserve at least one.

Stream Outlander on Starz