TV & Movies

The Outlander Cast Says Brianna & Jamie's Relationship Won't Be What You Expect

"Let's just say [their relationship] doesn't run smoothly."

Starz

Spoilers ahead for Outlander Season 4, Episode 5. At the end of Outlander Season 4's fifth episode, Brianna travels through the stones in an attempt to find her parents and save them from a deadly fire. We don't yet know if her mission will be successful, but this inevitably means she'll finally meet her biological father, Jamie. And according to the Outlander cast, their relationship will get off to a rocky start.

"Let's just say [their relationship] doesn't run smoothly," Sam Heughan, who stars as Jamie, tells Bustle. Sophie Skelton (Brianna) agrees. "At first, she obviously is still dealing with the death of Frank, so finding out about Jamie ... is just exceedingly bad timing," she says. "But Brianna is obviously going to have this curiosity about her biological father, so she then has this guilt ... Inside she wants to just push Jamie away and never really have anything to do with him, but at the same time she wants to answer all of these questions she has about him."

Jamie — who's only other child, William, wasn't allowed to know Jamie was his father — similarly struggles to connect with Brianna. "It's very difficult for Jamie because he wants so much to be a parent, and to be a parent to Brianna. But when she arrives in his life, she's an adult," explains Caitriona Balfe, who plays Claire. "As much as he wants to be a father, the needs of an adult are very different from the needs of a child. That's a very difficult balance for him to be able to strike."

Additional reporting by Dana Getz.