Outlander: Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan Say the Next Episode 'Will Change Everything'

[Warning: This story contains spoilers for "A Life Well Lost," the Season 7 premiere of Outlander.]

Time and war be damned! The Frasers will always find their way back to each other. But after the harrowing events of the Season 7 premiere of Starz's Outlander, will a reunited Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and Jamie (Sam Heughan) finally get a moment to breathe and enjoy a quiet life on Fraser's Ridge?

"No," Balfe tells TV Guide, with a knowing laugh.

Heughan adds, "There is one scene where they will be happy to be home, but not much after that."

Hanging over the Frasers in Season 7 is the dark cloud of the American Revolution, which has been brewing since they arrived in the Colonies in Season 4. But before they can even fortify themselves for the war to come, there's the small matter of saving Claire from the gallows.

In the premiere of the supersized 16-episode season, Jamie heads to Wilmington to rescue Claire, who has been arrested and charged with the murder of Malva Christie. Unfortunately, by the time he reaches town, she has already been plucked from the jail by Royal Governor Josiah Martin (Eugene O'Hare), who heard rumors of a prisoner capable of tending to his pregnant wife.

Everything to Know About Outlander Season 7

Once on board Martin's ship, Claire learns her new host has procured her healer talents just in time to flee North Carolina following a clash with the Patriots — and he's taking Claire with them. Jamie pleads with Martin to free his wife, which Martin agrees to do on the condition the Scot raises an army at Fraser's Ridge to fight for the king. But to everyone's surprise, it isn't Jamie who ultimately saves Claire.

It's Tom Christie (Mark Lewis Jones), who confesses to the murder of his daughter, who was actually the child of his wife and his brother. Whether he actually killed Malva is debatable. But as Tom professes his love for Claire, he makes it clear his sacrifice to save her from the noose –– guilty or not –– is one he is happy to make.

And just like that, the Frasers are back in each other's arms. But it will be a short moment of bliss because Balfe says an event in next week's episode will change everything. What happens, she teases, is "the catalyst for a real change in the pace of the season. They are on a forward motion after that. It doesn't really stop until Episode 16, I think." Fortunately, the crisis on the horizon won't be another run-in with the nefarious Richard Brown (Chris Larkin) and his vindictive Committee of Safety.

The premiere ends with Jamie sneaking away from Claire to confront a drunken Brown, the man who arrested her for murder and even attempted to have Jamie forcibly deported back to Scotland so he couldn't stop her likely execution. In the tense climactic scene, Jamie all but tells Brown he's come to enact revenge for the atrocities he and his brother have wrought over the past two seasons. Brown immediately starts threatening that if Jamie kills him, his family will hunt him down. But Jamie is one step ahead: He already sent Young Ian (John Bell) and his Cherokee friends to take care of Brown's allies.

As the realization of his fate washes over him, Brown makes a final plea to Jamie's morality. But it falls on deaf ears as Jamie moves in for the kill and the screen fades to black.

"I think it is interesting he knows the Browns are in town, and he doesn't deal with it straight away," Heughan says. "He's very calculated. He's very cold in his vengeance. But I think that is what has always been cool about Jamie. He knows how to wield his violence and it is great to be reminded of that. It is a satisfactory ending, I think, for Jamie to get rid of the Browns."

The episode is bookended with intense scenes featuring Brown, having also opened with Jamie's vision of a future that, thankfully, never comes to pass. It shows Claire tearfully stepping up onto the gallows in Wilmington, looking out on Brown and an audience watching her be pushed to her death.

It is a call back to the first moments of Season 4, when Claire and Jamie watched their friend Gavin be hanged by the same noose in the streets of Wilmington. Balfe says shooting such a scene is never pleasant, but it is a surreal reality of the series.

"It's never very fun to have a noose put around your neck," she says. "In some ways, it's interesting in how they film it and how the stunt guys set up the shot and how it will all happen. But any time you bring your character to the precipice of death, it is always a bit strange. Then again, it's funny on Outlander because that's what you do on a Tuesday morning and then I guess we're moving on!"

The season ahead will unfold in two parts, with the first eight episodes arriving this summer and the final eight arriving in early 2024. Ahead of the premiere, executive producer Maril Davis confirmed to TV Guide the new season will cover the remainder of author Diana Gabaldon's sixth book, "A Breath of Snow and Ashes," before adapting Books 7 and 8, "An Echo in the Bone" and "Written in My Own Heart's Blood," respectively. Starz has also confirmed Season 8 will be the series' last.

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But before the Frasers can even contemplate the ending to their story, they will have to make it through the American Revolution, something that will find them slipping back into familiar roles. 

"This season, I think Claire kind of recognizes how heavy the responsibility that Jamie has on his shoulders weighs on him," Balfe says. "Not only is she there to support him, but this will be an opportunity for her to be that doctor again and work in the field hospitals."

It won't just be Claire and Jamie against the war and the world though, Heughan says. "This whole family unit needs each other and they have each other," he says. "They are about to walk through the eye of the storm, definitely."

Outlander Season 7 airs Fridays on Starz's streaming apps and at 8/7c on Starz.