Outlander Season 7, Episode 11 was an integral episode for the season that featured one shocker after the other. The biggest of them, however, was William learning a secret that had been kept from him for decades. This information changes everything about what William thinks of himself. “His entire sense of direction for his entire life has been his dedication to his role as a Lord and his dedication to King and country. And that completely falls apart in an instant,” William portrayer Charles Vandervaart aptly told TV Insider. Outlander Season 7, Episode 12 will deal with the immediate fallout from that revelation while another one is made. New images of the upcoming episode courtesy of the outlet tease a physical confrontation between father and son as they both come to terms with the new normal.
William is a ball of walking anger, according to his demeanor in the images. He confronts Jamie in a secluded area and looks like he’s ready to punch the man he now knows is his father. Under normal circumstances, he would have been happy to pummel a rebel — and he still might — but this new layer complicates things. “[William] a Fraser after all. He has that rage that all the Frasers have. So I mean, he doesn’t take it super well. There’s a lot of anger in there,” Vandervaart said. His anger spills over to almost everyone he meets.
Anger and Confusion Dominate ‘Outlander’ Season 7, Episode 12.
Speaking of the Fraser anger, “Carnal Knowledge” stokes Jamie’s anger when he learns that Lord John slept with Claire when they thought he had died. Jamie reacts quite badly, and that reaction “is going to have really profound consequences for their relationship. He doesn’t expect that Jamie’s going to react in the brutal way he does,” David Berry previously teased. Apart from anger, William is also really confused, as teased by Vandervaart, who said:
“I think he’s probably most upset with Lord John. That’s his dad. That’s the man who raised him, who taught him everything he knows. And I think it stings the most that [he] lied to him. There’s a lot of mixed feelings because, in a sense, Jamie also raised him when he was a groom at Helwater and he’d also taught William a lot of the things that he knows.”
But ultimately, Lord John is the only father William has ever known, and Vandervaart hopes they don’t lose their relationship over this. “They have a very intimate, beautiful relationship. I hope that they come to terms with each other again and find that love once again. I think they will,” he said. Whether that happens remains to be seen.
Watch “Carnal Knowledge” when the episode drops on Starz on Friday, December 13, to learn how everything plays out.