SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers from “The Happiest Place on Earth,” Season 7, Episode 2 of “Outlander,” now streaming on Starz.

While an epic explosion at Frasier’s Ridge would seem like the most shocking event thus far this season on “Outlander,” the Starz series managed to also pack in a shocking reveal, a bittersweet birth and the series’ most heartbreaking goodbye yet.

Moments into “The Happiest Place on Earth,” the mystery of who actually killed Malva (Jessica Reynolds) is finally solved. Despite Tom Christie (Mark Lewis Jones) having taken the blame for his daughter’s murder to save Claire (Caitriona Balfe) from the noose, it was actually his son Allan (Alexander Vlahos) who did it. Claire tries to stop Allan, overcome with grief, from taking his own life but Ian (John Bell) appears and shoots him with an arrow — stating that Allan’s actions killed an unborn child and for that, he cannot live.

On a somewhat happier note, Frasier’s Ridge welcomes its newest resident, Brianna (Sophie Skelton) and Roger’s (Richard Rankin) daughter Amanda. But it isn’t long before Claire notices the child has a potentially fatal heart issue. With this discovery comes the realization that Bri, Roger and their children must travel back to the future where modern medicine can save Amanda — and also potentially never see Claire and Jamie again.

As the MacKenzie family time-travel to the 1980s, Claire and Jamie (Sam Heughan) try to settle into their new normal. It isn’t long before trouble strikes. Fellow time traveler Wendigo Donner breaks into Claire’s surgery room to steal gemstones so he can go back home. As he and his crew rabidly search for more, they knock ether all over the floor. With an unfortunate strike of the match, Claire and Jamie’s life at Frasier’s Ridge goes up in flames.

Variety spoke with Balfe, Heughan, Skelton and Rankin about their families possibly parting ways forever, and what fans can expect for both couples this season.

This week’s episode, “The Happiest Place On Earth,” features a devastating parting of ways. These two families, the Frasiers and the MacKenzies, are going to be broken apart by hundreds of years, and just after Brianna has given birth to her daughter, Amanda. How does this rank in terms of sad goodbyes on the series, which are, unfortunately, a common occurrence?

CAITRIONA BALFE: I think that the joy and the absolute thrill of Brianna having a new kid, and everyone being able to be present there for that new life coming into the family — that was such a high. And then for the fear and the worry to come in when they realize that there’s actually something wrong with Mandy, and the implications of that and what that means. There really was only one solution, and that was for them to go back to save her. But it’s a death. It’s like they know that this is the final goodbye, or they think it’s the final goodbye.
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“There’s always another war,” says star Caitriona Balfe, previewing the upcoming season.

War! What is it good for? Storytelling on Outlander, it seems.

After several seasons dotted with the embers of rebellion, the American Revolution has at last erupted into a raging fire, rapidly approaching the Frasers’ doorstep. The hit Starz series plunges the Fraser clan and viewers into war for their seventh season, supersized at 16 episodes.

Premiering June 16, season 7 will be divided into two parts, with the back-half of the episodes not airing until 2024. This follows an abbreviated season 6, which clocked in at eight episodes and left Claire (Caitriona Balfe) on her way to prison for the murder of Malva Christie (Jessica Reynolds).

“We’ve left her in this prison,” says Balfe. “Her future is very precarious. We don’t really know what’s going to happen. All we know is that the normal systems of law have broken down.” It’s a startling cliffhanger, even by Outlander standards, though it was not the intended ending of season 6, which was cut short due to Balfe’s pregnancy and COVID delays.

Still, don’t expect Outlander to merely tack on those last four episodes to the start of season 7. “There are some major story threads from [season] 6,” says executive producer Matthew Roberts. “We do cover those, but we meld them into ending one section of stories at the exact same time as starting new stories. We had to rewrite them completely to get them into new stories going forward.”

Those new stories mean it’s out of the whiskey barrel and into the bottle for the Fraser family.

“The kitchen sink is what you can expect,” teases Roberts. “We load that kitchen sink up with everything. In comparison to other seasons, there’s more going on in season 7 than every one of our other seasons, not necessarily combined, but pretty close to it. We finally get to the Revolutionary War and how it affects all of our characters.”

Adds Balfe: “This season is so epic. It’s the season that’s closest to season 1 in terms of the scope and the span.”
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The premium cabler has also given a formal series order to a prequel, ‘Blood of My Blood.’

Outlander is coming to an end at Starz — but the saga of the Fraser family is not.

The premium cable outlet will bring Outlander to a close with an eighth and final season. The news comes several months ahead of a planned summer premiere for season seven of the time-traveling historical romance, based on Diana Gabaldon’s series of novels. The series will end as the longest-running original in Starz history.

The final season will run 10 episodes, while the forthcoming seventh season will have 16 installments.

“For nearly a decade Outlander has won the hearts of audiences worldwide and we’re pleased to bring Claire and Jamie’s epic love story to a proper conclusion,” said Kathryn Busby, president original programming at Starz. “But before we close this chapter there is plenty of their passionate story to tell over the course of 26 new episodes and even more to explore of this dynamic world and its origin story. We’re thrilled to continue to partner with Matthew, Maril and Ronald and can’t wait to see where their alluring storytelling takes us next.”

Starz has also given a formal green light to a prequel series titled Outlander: Blood of My Blood. It will chronicle the the love story of Jamie Fraser’s parents, Brian Fraser and Ellen MacKenzie. Matthew B. Roberts will continue showrunning duties from the main series. Gabaldon is a consulting producer.
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A dysentery epidemic spreads on the Ridge, and Claire falls deathly ill; she is almost recovered when the Christies arrive and drop a bombshell; as nefarious rumors spread like wildfire on the Ridge, tragedy strikes.