Tv series are strange beasts. They're in a parallel universe with their own rules, habits, codes – even vocabulary. Viewers develop a much stronger bond and affection for them compared to “ordinary” movies: season after season there's plenty of time to get used to the characters, to love this and hate that one, and to try to guess (sometime even try to influence!) the tv authors’ next choice.
And sometimes – authors honor their viewers in a peculiar way, called an “Easter egg”, via some specific detail. In most cases, they hide some special object in the set of a certain scene – a special object no one will notice and understand, except the most passionate fans. Outlander season 1 gave a huge Easter egg to the fans in episode 4. The “object” in that case was the most valuable – Herself! In the Gathering scene Diana Gabaldon, author of the Outlander saga, played the blue-dressed lady chatting with Mrs Fitz and hushing Claire and Murtagh. Wow! Most of the tv audience didn’t even notice, but the book fans went hysterical! At times, more rarely of course, the “nod” is hidden in the script. It’s a line, actually, which definitely has to sound reasonable for all the viewers, but has to be capable of signifying something more to fans. Something special, able to make them startle, jump on their chair, and be delighted. Season 3 gave this kind of present to the fans. A present concerning Jamie. The writers of episode 10 (The Doldrums) gave to Claire a line, just after a quick passionate scene, on the ship the Frasers are traveling on to reach Jamaica, chasing Young Ian. A line that wasn’t in the book. While cuddling after lovemaking, Jamie caresses his wife’s hair. He lightly touches the newly grey locks. The dye she used just before Christmas is fading: at this point of Voyager’s storyline we’re more or less two months after Claire’s return in the 18th century. Time enough for the dye to have vanished, letting the grey hair surface.
For the first time Jamie discovers the true look of his now 50-year-old wife Claire. Not veiled by the chemical artifice of dye anymore, she offers herself to him as she really is (not bad at all, btw!). Jamie does appreciate this, and he addresses some poetical words towards her hair. “I like the grey” he says, “the way the light hits it, like a piece of silver moonlight”. There’s a reference to one of the previous scenes of the episode, when Claire and Jamie were staring at the moon on the ship’s deck. But most of all there’s a reference to Outlander's most iconic episode ever, The Wedding (episode 7 of season 1), when the 22-year-old Jamie, a few hours after having married Claire and having lost his virginity with her, “completely under her power” praised her brown hair, starting to call her mo nighean dunn, “my brown-haired lass”. Let’s get back to season 3, and to the point – the authors' nod to their fans. What does Claire answer to her grey-hair-estimator husband? She tells him: “How could I not love a man who says such things? If you said that in the 20th century, you'd be the king of all men”. Here we are. That’s the nod. “The King of men.” The nickname used by the most devoted fans for Jamie. Why? The reason dates back to 2013. When producer Ronald D. Moore and his team, Outlander’s copyrights in their hand, started to promote the first steps of season 1’s production. Everybody’s first aim was of course to engage actors as close as possible to the characters Diana Gabaldon had described in her books, not only physically (even if, of course, Jamie had perforce to be very tall...), but also – and above all – capable of rendering each one’s nuance of character. The major challenge was, it goes without saying, to find the best James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser and the best Claire Elizabeth Beauchamp ever. Actors able not only to make the tv viewers completely fall in love with them, but also to match the (great) expectations of the early Outlander’s fans: Gabaldon's readers! Ron Moore and his associates then started to call Jamie “the king of men”: they were worried the casting department wouldn’t be able to find an actor fit to embody such a character. Handsome, strong, sexy, compelling, ironic, able to sword fight, to ride, to speak several languages... finding somebody able to be convincing as the king of men seemed a mission impossible. To everybody’s great surprise, however, Sam Heughan was the first actor to sign for the series. His audition won everybody ’round and the 33-year-old almost unknown Scottish actor started his journey to become JAMMF. Ron Moore has recalled this story several times in interviews and podcasts, and the Outlander’s fan base has embraced the nickname. Toni Graphia and Shannon Goss, the two writers of season 3, episode 10, have then decided to honor the fans by giving to Claire that line, making her call Jamie “the king of men”. And the fans did notice – and very much appreciated it.
© insideoutlander [English version proofread by Kath at www.gofoolproof.com]
