The actor shares what’s to come now that William knows Jamie—and not John Grey—is his father.
The truth about William’s paternity on Outlander had to come out at some point—and boy did it ever at the end of episode 711, when Jamie’s son discovered that Lord John Grey was not his father after all.
“It’s going to be a full-on identity crisis,” Charles Vandervaart, who plays William, tells Glamour. “His entire life has revolved around him being a lord and these virtues of protecting king and country and that all falls apart in a moment. He discovers that’s all a lie. Everything he was raised with isn’t his—his ideas about his identity are gone.”
Now that William knows he’s a Fraser, Vandervaart says there’s a lot of rage that comes along with that reveal. “I don’t think this is a very pretty season for Mr. William Ransom,” he says. “Hopefully, there’s a lot of growing to do.”
When episode 712 (titled “Carnal Knowledge” and written by Toni Graphia) airs this week, William will struggle to understand how he could have been so in the dark and what it means for his future. In fact, Vandervaart says it’s his favorite episode of the season. “William’s just an absolute tornado, and I can’t wait for people to see that.”
So what does this mean for William’s relationship with Jamie, Claire, and Lord John going forward? And what was it like to finally play a reveal that was in the works for years? Below, Vandervaart tells all.
Glamour: Last week’s episode was monumental for William. Where does he go from here?
Charles Vandervaart: Just after the discovery of his true parentage, we’ll see him absolutely lose it. I don’t want to give away too much, but he throws a tantrum. He really does. It was the most fun, because in real life I think you oftentimes have to have a façade of maturity. And even if you do want to have a full-blown tantrum, you can’t quite do that. You have to hold yourself in. But William does not do that. He’s not about to hold it back. He has a great couple of scenes where he’s just an absolute tornado, and I can’t wait for people to see that.
He pretty much lost it at the end of episode 711.
It gets worse.
Oof. What was it like to play the moment where William overhears that he’s Jamie’s son?
It was quite surreal, and it’s also basically the first scene where Jamie and William interact with each other knowing who they are to each other. There’s that one other scene in the first half of season seven, where Jamie and William meet, but it’s so loaded. Even then, William doesn’t know that Jamie’s his real dad. So it’s the final meeting between these men, and it’s been a long time coming. So yeah, it was nerve-wracking to go into that, but I had a great little community around me. Sam [Heughan] and Cait [Balfe] and David [Berry] were all there, so it was a great little scene to film.
At the end of last week’s episode, William handed Jamie something. What was that?
It is quite an Easter egg, and it was mentioned once or twice I think before, but Ian gives it to him in the first part of season seven, episode three, I think, when William is on the surgery table and has that stick in his arm. He gives it to him and says it’s from his uncle, and it’s for good luck, essentially, so the surgery goes well. And it does. It goes really well. He doesn’t lose his arm. He thought he was going to lose his arm, and he doesn’t. I think in that moment William realizes that Ian’s uncle is in fact Jamie Fraser. So that is his, and William’s been holding onto that as his good luck charm or his little memento to keep him safe throughout the war. In his anger, he doesn’t want anything to do with Jamie Fraser, so he gives it back to him.