Claire has been married several times, and one can say that her weddings have not always been the happy occasion people hope their weddings would be. In OutlanderSeason 7, Episode 11, Claire gets married to Lord John Grey for survival purposes, but the ordeal is one of the most painful moments she’s ever experienced. The wedding comes on the heels of the news that Jamie was presumed dead in a ship accident, and the redcoats were circling her for being associated with the Rebels. A snap wedding had to be done to save her from the wrath of a faction losing every battle and seeing itself losing the war.
“I think Claire appeared equally as miserable for her Jamie wedding, although secretly happy inside. Outwardly very miserable then, and certainly miserable now. I think she is just numb now,” series star Caitríona Balfe told Variety of what was going on at that moment. Claire had barely processed the grief of losing her husband, and there she was, committing to another. Several distinctions were present in this wedding, as there was no love between the two parties, at least not in the way someone would expect. The actress added:
“She is in the process of shock. It is purely functional — this is to save her. She is at that stage of grief where she doesn’t quite know what to think or feel, and I think she expects to feel something different than she does. And the fact that she doesn’t feel it is a source of betrayal of her own self. It is not a very happy occasion.”
The Wedding Was Very Painful for Claire, Says Caitriona Balfe.
“It’s horrible, to be honest,” Balfe’s costar in the scene, David Berry, said. The wedding involved the exchange of vows, and something about the words was particularly twisted. For most couples, the words flow out of their mouths with ease because they mean it, but everything hits harder when it’s out of necessity. That was the case for Claire, and when the priest mentioned death, Claire almost broke down. Balfe dove into the cruel nature of the vows, saying,
“It is cruel, if you think about it, that right after losing her husband, she is being forced to say those words. They could have just done the “I Dos,’ but no. To make her say all of that is very cruel.”
Even if the circumstances that catalyzed that wedding were false, the feelings at the moment were real and informs some of what happens after. The stars teased Jamie’s “brutal” reaction to the actions, especially the grief-fuelled sex that followed that night. Sam Heughan teased “a strong scene that is kind of a typical Jamie and Claire moment where they really hash it out” in Outlander Season 7, Episode 12, “Carnal Knowledge.” This will carry over through “much of the season and into Season 8,” Hueghan teased.