Poor Claire and Jamie—they’ve been through so much. Apart from the odd bit of time travel (obviously), Outlander's central couple have dealt with a 20-year separation, assault, death, battles, amputation, cheating, political revolution, kidnapping, disease and 18th-century bathroom facilities. The last time we saw them, they’d just been shipwrecked at the American colonies, so it’s all been a bit tiring.

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But, good news! In the forthcoming season 4, our favorite bodice-ripping couple will finally get to relax—sort of. ELLE.com got all the juice from the Outlander For Your Consideration pre-Emmy event in Los Angeles this weekend.



Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan at the STARZ Outlander FYC Event Getty Images

They get to experience settled married life—and it’s not always amazing.

“We finally actually get to see them in some sort of state of domestic bliss,” Caitriona Balfe, who plays Claire, told ELLE.com on the red carpet. "Finally, they’re not being ripped from home or made to travel across oceans. They actually settle, and it's a different dynamic, and it's nice to explore that. Like, what is this relationship when it's normal? Because we haven't really had that.”

But domesticity might not exactly be Jamie’s strong suit, and that could lead to blow-ups. “He’s very practical,” Sam Heughan explained. “Like why does he need to put the toilet seat down? It’d probably drive him irate that she’d clean up around him, or make him put things in certain places. I’m sure their domestic arguments are pretty fiery.”

But there’s still going to be plenty of sexy time.

"It’s a very important part of their relationship,” Heughan said. But without the tension of constantly being separated, or imprisoned, or nearly dead, things might have slowed down a little in that department. “They’re slightly older,” he added, “so maybe it’s less energetic, who knows? But they are madly in love with each other. They’re older now, and it’s the first time we actually get to see them as this couple that actually can be together and not be in some sort of dire drama. Up until now, there’s always been something going on. It’s nice, for a brief moment, to see them be able to relax in each other’s company, though of course it’s Outlander, so it doesn’t last long.”

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Caitriona Balfe Getty Images

All that gorgeous hair is fake, by the way.

One thing we noticed on the red carpet was Balfe’s cute, freshly cut bob with bangs. So has she cut off the famous Claire curls because they’ve already finished shooting season 4?

“Not at all,” Balfe said. “We're right slap-bang in the middle. But we've been using wigs since last season. So I was able to break free and do my own thing.” Heughan, whose hair was short and blonde at the event, also admitted Jamie's mane is mostly extensions and wigs on the show, thereby ruining everyone's fantasy of running their fingers through Jamie’s red curls. Sad.

Brianna will time-travel and Claire will be very stressed about it.

We’d heard Claire and Jamie’s daughter Brianna (currently in the 20th century) was going to travel back in time next season, but we weren’t sure exactly how it would go down. It sounds like she won’t be going through the stones like her mom did, but doing some other kind of hocus pocus instead.

Sophie Skelton (Brianna) and Caitriona Balfe (Claire) in Outlander Starz

“The path that she takes to make that journey is very different than the path that Claire took,” executive producer Ronald D. Moore said. “They’re on very different tracks. She goes for a different purpose, and in a different way than Claire did, and once she arrives there, she has a different set of problems than what Claire dealt with.”



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Also, Claire isn’t sure pioneer-era North Carolina is the safest spot for her precious daughter. “She wants her daughter to have every opportunity, and live a happy, safe life,” Balfe said. “I don't think she believes that’s possible in the 18th century, at least in the beginning. So it's going to be bittersweet. Obviously it's going to be so sweet for her to see Brianna again, but she's going to be worried about her.”

Frank might be back, but he’s definitely still dead.

There have been some rumors Tobias Menzies might be returning to the show, but since both his characters—Frank Randall and Black Jack Randall—are dead, that could prove tricky, and the producers were pretty cagey about how they might pull it off.

“You won’t really be seeing Black Jack again this season,” Moore said, “but there’s a chance you might see Frank again. It’ll be interesting to see your reaction to how we play him, if we get to do it, how we play him this season, because it’s a slightly different flavor.”

Executive producer Maril Davis hinted Frank might reappear via some flashbacks. “It's hard because obviously Frank is dead,” she said. “But you know what, certainly in the book anyway, we always see flashbacks of Claire's relationship with Frank. We love that."

But for now, Moore wouldn’t confirm anything. “It’s still something we’re playing around with,” he said.

Tobias Menzies (Black Jack Randall) and Sam Heughan (Jamie Fraser) STARZ

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There will be more family members.

We already know Maria Doyle Kennedy is joining the show as Jamie's aunt Jocasta Cameron, but it sounds like there will be even more family characters on the way. Heughan said,“People appear, and people return into his life this season that extend his family. Some are more surprising than others. This season is very much about family, and about the foundations of that. Jamie Fraser is the ultimate patriarch, he wants to provide for everyone. He’s always wanted to be a parent, and have an extended family. I think that’s what he’s trying to build here.”

Heughan also hinted that Jamie and Claire might become grandparents! “He’s grown up more and he’s now trying to provide for his family,” he said, "to understand that more, what it’s like to be a father or grandfather.” So now the question is: Will it be Marsali and Fergus’ child, or will Brianna arrive in the 18th century pregnant with Roger’s baby?

Sam Heughan at the STARZ Outlander FYC Event Getty Images

Claire and Jamie will live in an adorable log cabin.

The couple will inhabit "Fraser’s Ridge"—a beautiful home in the woods they’ll build themselves, which sounds to us like a solid reason to see a shirtless Jamie wielding an axe.

“You do see Jamie building,” said production designer Jon Gary Steele. And the resulting cabin is spectacular indeed. "I have to admit it's amazing,” he said. “I think people are going to want to live in it. It's got fireplaces at both ends, and there’s always a fire roaring, and it's beautiful. It's not big; it's not supposed to be big, but it's kind of glamorous for what it is. It's going to be great.”

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The Frasers will also have lots of lovely animals around, Steele said. “We've got animals, and we've got pens and all kinds of gardens and things going on. There are horses, goats, pigs and a dog.” Of course, we heard about Rollo the dog, who’s supposed to be a wolf hybrid (so Game of Thrones!) when news broke he’d be played by two matching Northern Inuit dogs.

Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait for fall to see all these season 4 gems put into action. But for now, we know it will be heavily focused on Claire and Jamie settling down. As executive producer Matthew B. Roberts put it, “For the first time, they’ve picked a place they want to call home, and season 4 is really about building that home, and the obstacles they undertake to try to do that. What's the definition of home? Is home them as a couple? Is home where the heart is, or is it an actual physical place? You'll have to watch and find out.”

And one last thing we always hoped for—Jamie will definitely time travel.

Remember way back in the pilot episode, when Frank sees a random Scotsman staring at Claire through their hotel window in Inverness, only for him to bizarrely disappear? We always figured that had to be Jamie time-traveling into the present day, but we’ve been waiting forever to hear anything about it. "That was a random golfer,” joked Moore at first. But then Davis confirmed it!

“That is Jamie,” she said. Sadly, though, it doesn’t seem like we’ll be seeing that scene from his point of view anytime soon. “It hasn’t been explained,” she added, "but hopefully we get to that point where we get to explain it.”

Excitingly, Heughan said he’d actually already read the script for that part. "Diana [Gabaldon, author of the Outlander books] has written that scene and she showed it to a few of us,” he said. So maybe it’ll be in season 5...or 6? Obviously, it’s totally okay with us if they have to keep making the show forever.