‘Outlander’ Season 5 Finale: Here’s Where Brianna And Roger Ended Up After Attempting Time-Travel

SPOILER ALERT: This article discusses Episode 12 (titled “Never My Love”) of Starz’s Outlander Season 5, as well as the book series on which it is based. Please proceed with caution if you have not yet viewed all available episodes and wish to avoid spoilers.

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, Brianna (Sophie Skelton) and Roger (Richard Rankin), along with their son, attempted to return to the future in last week’s episode of Outlander. However, as the episode ended, it became apparent that they were not where they expected to be.

As pointed out by Harper’s Bazaar, Brianna and Roger wound up in the very time that they were seeking to leave. Crossing directly through the standing stones, the pair watched as their son, Jemmy (Andrew and Matthew Adair), ran around the giant stone only to find Young Ian (John Bell) still there. Ian was initially surprised, thinking that the family had crossed back into the future before returning back in time.

However, for viewers of Outlander, this is not the way in which time travel works in the TV series. Instead, time passes in either timeframe at the same rate. This means it is impossible for someone to make a trip, spend time in a location, and then return to a previous point in the other timeline.

What had happened, it was later discovered, is that both Brianna and Roger had been thinking more generically of “home” rather than of the era in which they were born. This meant that they traveled through the stones to the place that they associated with as home. Now, both know that they consider Fraser’s Ridge in the 1770s as their home rather than the 1960s of which they were expecting to return to.

It was an opportune time as well as Brianna’s mother, Claire Fraser (Caitriona Balfe) had been abducted by Lionel Brown (Ned Dennehy) and Brianna is now able to offer some comfort to her mother.

For those fans who also read the book series on which Outlander is based, this turn of events is somewhat different. While Brianna and Roger do eventually attempt to travel through time, it happens under different circumstances.

Those who read the books were wondering if the television series would significantly change events surrounding Brianna’s and Roger’s need to depart back to the future and alter the timeline of events as a result of this. Instead, the TV show gave further emphasis to the fact that Brianna and Roger now consider Fraser’s Ridge as their real home, rather than grappling with where exactly they truly belong. As a result of this, it puts them firmly back into the current storylines from the book series.