*Contains minor possible spoilers for the context of Outlander season 6*
Outlander season 6 has finally arrived, with the first episode of Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire’s (Caitriona Balfe) latest drama now available to watch on its new home of Starzplay in the UK.
Although the show is truncated to eight episodes this time rather than its usual 13 to 16, due to the pandemic, viewers are still treated to a feature-length premiere episode.
This season follows on from season five, so the Fraser-MacKenzie clan is still in pre-Revolutionary War America and still at the home they’ve built for themselves: Fraser’s Ridge.
Stars Richard Rankin, who plays Roger, and Sophie Skelton, who is Brianna, teased ‘tension’ and ‘disruption’ for the family in North Carolina, while speaking exclusively to Metro.co.uk ahead of the season’s debut.
What time period will the show cover though, and which historical events could it include?
When is Outlander season 6 set?
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Outlander season 6 begins in 1773, following on from the events of the last season, after an initial flashback to Ardsmuir Prison in 1753 introduces Tom Christie (Mark Lewis Jones) as a new settler and figure from Jamie’s past
The show’s seasons have tended to follow Outlander author Diana Gabaldon’s books each time, covering roughly one book per series, but there have been shake-ups.
Season five saw Outlander cover parts of the sixth book, A Breath of Snow and Ashes, after it had largely finished events in the fifth book, The Fiery Cross.
This means Claire’s attack and ordeal at the hands of Lionel Brown and his men has already taken place in the TV, as well as Brianna’s eventual revenge on Stephen Bonnet (Edward Speleers), despite forming large parts of the sixth book.
A Breath of Snow and Ashes will be the basis for Outlander’s eight new episodes however, and the book covers the years 1773 to 1776, so it’s likely the TV show will do the same.
What historical events will Outlander season 6 cover?
America in the 1770s sees the run-up to the American Revolutionary War.
If the show ends this season in 1776, as the book does, then it will encompass the start of fighting, which began on April 19, 1775.
In the book, Brianna and Roger narrate the famous 1860 poem Paul Revere’s Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to each other, which commemorates the actions (with wavering accuracy) of the patriot whose ride on April 18 warned patriots of the imminent arrival of British forces.
As in season five, Jamie’s split duties cause issues as he tries to balance the oath he swore to the British crown after the Jacobite Rising with his loyalty to his family and the hope for American independence he has been assured will come.
There’s also the potential matter of seeing if Jamie and Claire’s house will burn down, the printed record of which, dated January 21, 1776, inspired Brianna and then Roger to travel through the stones to warn Claire back in season four.
Outlander season six premieres March 6 on STARZPLAY.
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