Warning: there are spoilers and theories ahead for those not caught up on Outlander.
Perhaps the biggest mystery in the Starz adaptation of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander novels is the identity of the ghost that Frank Randall sees in the first episode of the show. Frank describes the man spotted watching Claire as a Highlander, but is it Jamie’s ghost that is spotted in Inverness?
According to Town & Country , Gabaldon confirmed that it is Jamie’s ghost that Frank saw that night in the rain, but the mystery is more complicated than that. The author adds that Jamie Fraser can’t time travel like Claire, Brianna, and Roger. So if Jamie was in 1946, following Claire before she ever traveled back in time, how did the 18th century Highlander turn up in 20th century Inverness?
In 2014, Gabaldon gave an interview talking about Jamie’s ghost and his age at the time he was spotted by Frank Randall.
“Sam Heughan [the actor who plays Jamie Fraser on the TV series] asked me and I hadn’t thought about it before but I just answered him immediately. Do you want to know?
“He’s about 25.”
As die-hard Outlander fans know, at the age of 25, Jamie Fraser isn’t dead. This reality creates more questions, and has sparked some serious theories among the faithful.
It’s a mystery that won’t be solved until Diana Gabaldon’s final book in the series is published. https://t.co/EgoHSCAwuu
— TOWN&COUNTRY (@TandCmag) July 14, 2019
One theory is that Jamie’s spirit traveled through time to guide Claire to him. Another suggests that a near-death experience, perhaps at Culloden, allowed Jamie’s spirit to travel. But author Gabaldon confirms that the mystery won’t be solved until the last book in the series is published.
“The ghost is Jamie – but as for how it fits into the story, All Will Be Explained — in the last book.”
Gabaldon explains that the Outlander series of books will likely have 10 books total, and the ninth, Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone, will debut in 2019.
Outlander was already a popular series on Starz in the United States, and now it’s getting even more exposure since the first two seasons were released on Netflix, explains The Inquisitr .
At the end of May, the first two seasons of Outlander started streaming on Netflix in the U.S. (they were already streaming in Europe since the beginning of 2018), expanding the core audience of the show that is shot in Scotland to include subscribers of the streaming network.
The next new season of Outlander will likely be delayed until early 2020, due to an extended hiatus in the current shoot.