Fans of Outlander might have overlooked a crucial detail in a season two scene where Claire Fraser, portrayed by Caitríona Balfe, falls victim to poisoning by the nefarious Comte St. Germain, played by Stanley Weber.
The malevolent Comte, along with other French aristocrats, targeted Claire as retribution for her role in the destruction of their valuable cargo.
Claire’s medical expertise led her to identify a smallpox outbreak aboard a ship at the harbour, resulting in the incineration of both the vessel and its contents to halt the disease’s spread.
However, instead of a deadly poison, Claire was covertly served a beverage laced with bitter cascara, a mild laxative, as a cautionary measure that the Comte had procured it from Master Raymond’s (Dominique Pinon) apothecary shop.
What may escape the notice of viewers is the disparity between the actual filming of this scene and its on-screen portrayal, reports the Daily Record.
The poison attempt was shot in Prague (Image: STARZ)
In a discussion on the official Outlander podcast, executive producer Ronald D. Moore and executive producer/writer Toni Graphia divulged the intricate production process behind this particular sequence.
Moore disclosed: “All the Paris stuff was shot in Scotland and then we went to Prague at the end.”
Graphia elaborated further, stating: “The interior Paris stuff was shot in Scotland, but we saved certain scenes.”
The aftermath of Claire Fraser’s poisoning was shot months before the attempt itself (Image: STARZ)
Moore added: “Which is very complicated, it’s called crossboarding when you’re separating scenes like that and shooting in batches, which is a practice.
“But doing it as aggressively as we did in season two with Prague and Scotland and France and the South of England, and all this kind of stuff, it’s very complicated – not just in terms of production but also for the actors.
“Because the actors have to remember where there were. I don’t how they do it.”
Claire and Jamie’s scene after the poisoning was filmed in Scotland earlier (Image: STARZ)
Writer Graphia lauded the cast for their adeptness at transitioning between various segments of the narrative and delivering compelling performances: “Hats off to them.
“They have to shoot all these things out of order and today it’s like, ‘Hey, am I happy? Am I sad? Am I mad at Jamie? How far along in the story are we?”.
“It’s very tricky to boomerang those emotions from day to day and they do it masterfully.”
Executive producer Moore chimed in: “They do it so well. Like this sequence is the aftermath of her poisoning but they hadn’t shot the poisoning yet. We didn’t shoot the poisoning for months.”
This implies that actress Balfe would have had to synchronise her performance from the aftermath of the poisoning with the actual poisoning scene, which was filmed several months later.
