One of the biggest questions plaguing the Outlander fandom remains why Jamie (played by Sam Heughan) was outside his future wife Claire’s (Caitriona Balfe) window in Inverness.
Claire and Frank (Tobias Menzies) were on their second honeymoon in Scotland following the end of the Second World War, but during one particularly rainy evening the intelligence officer was puzzle to spot a man dressed in period garb gazing up at his wife.
Yet when he moved towards the stranger, the Scottish Highlander – revealed to be Jamie on close inspection – dissipated into the air.
Was it a ghost? Was it Jamie time-travelling to see his wife in the 1940s? Or is there a completely different explanation?
The acclaimed American author has promised fans she will clear up the mystery with the last paragraph of her final book – the 10th in the series.
But until then, a new theory may have given a very exciting alternative.
Sharing their thoughts on Reddit, user Asmortica speculated Claire and Jamie were always meant to be together from birth, but the former was sent through the Standing Stones as a means of protection, sending her life on a different course.
The fan began: “My theory on Jamie’s ghost.
“Claire was born in Jamie’s time and they were meant to be together. There was another Jacobite rising around the time she was born.
“Were her parent travellers and sent her to the future to save her?
READ MORE: Outlander: Diana Gabaldon reveals how she felt about casting choice
“Colum [MacKenzie] talks about a healer named Davie Beaton in the show,” Asmortica continued. “He died of a fever. Could that of been a relative of Claire? Her father perhaps.
“I just think if she really was born in 1918 then even Jamie’s ghost would not have known her yet.
“Idk. Just my crazy theory and would love to chat about it during droughtlander,” the user added enthusiastically.
Chickmomma242 offered against the idea: “The argument I would have against this is that the mosquitos/bugs/germs of the 1700s don’t bother Claire and Roger [MacKenzie] as much as others.
“She theorises it’s because they are from the 20th century and have different blood and built up genetic immunities to some things. But I like where you’re going!”
“They recieved vaccinations in the 20th Century that would make them immune to many diseases,” Asmortica sent back, and Chickmomma242 added: “She doesn’t even get colds though. Immunisation don’t work against viral illnesses. She first makes this discovery/observation in book 2 when Jamie is sick at the palace and she meets with Black Jack Randall.”
While the possibilities are endless, only Gabaldon knows the truth, and in a recent comment on The Lit Forum she may have inadvertently debunked the theory. But is she merely keeping her lips sealed?
“Basically, it comes down to who talks to me, and who I personally find interesting,” she said honestly. “I don’t find Claire’s parents interesting at all (not that they couldn’t be; it’s that I don’t care enough to try to dig into them), so you probably won’t get a novella about them.
“(I think people keep wanting one because they’re convinced that her parents were a) time-travellers (well, at least one of them had to be–unless they weren’t really her parents (but they were)), and b) knew that and c) were involved in some hair-raisingly dangerous adventure that involved them traveling through time, but (for no apparent reason) d) choosing to hide the fact by kidnapping a couple of strangers, assassinating them and setting their bodies on fire in the Beauchamp family car.)
“My personal impression is that they never knew they had the ability to time-travel, and were leading perfectly ordinary lives as a middle-class bank manager and a primary-school teacher who’d left teaching to raise her daughter,” the author added.
Outlander book nine is expected to be released later this year or early 2020, and season five airs from February 12.