It’s so hard not to speculate on the Outlander Series. If you have read the  books, you don’t want spoilers (Hint:Read No Further if you are reading book series for first time) but are bursting to think about and discuss something with someone else. As the Frasers settle The Ridge with more people, many of them from Jaimie’s Ardsmuir Prison days this season. We will be seeing a cavalcade of new characters and experiences. Well, we haven’t had a good female villain since Geilis Duncan met her demise at the hand of Claire (Caitriona Balfe)in Season 3, (and we were so happy is was a dull blade!). Dare I even mention the next fiendish female? 

We had the pleasant surprise of having Marsali take on the role of medical apprentice to Claire in Season 5. Many of us book readers wondered how that would work out for our next upcoming villainess. As we know the writers for the series like to switch things up, we were wondering how the medical role of our new villain got placed on Marsali. I for one think that it was a great change as it gave Marsali a chance to really shine and not just be the woman having 2 babies a season character. However, things are about to change up dramatically for the Frasers. 

New Families Arrive on The Ridge

Okay, here it comes, you’ve been forewarned. Malva Christie and the Christie family. Phew, let out that air held in. Yes, Malva is going to stir up some serious trouble on the ridge. The kind that many a woman will cringe at, and want to wring this character’s neck. You actually have been missing having Laoghaire MacKenzie (Nell Hudson) around, haven’t you? We won’t go there. They can’t possibly leave this character out, can they?

The Christies are a family of protestant settlers who come to The Ridge as a result of Jamie’s (Sam Heughan) continued settlement contract. Jamie and Tom Christie, the patriarch of clan Christie, have an odd “relationship” from Ardsmuir prison. We’ll see more of the religious conflict side of things this season, as you have Presbyterians and the Catholic Clan Fraser. Not to mention the Browns. Jamie will need to unite The Ridge again and borrow on his past experiences of uniting the Ardsmuir men after the Battle of Culloden with Masonic rites. I don’t know about you, but I am hoping for some flash backs to the prison and some Murtagh wisdom.

Spoilers

Malva Christie is the niece of Thomas Christie, raised as his daughter. In the book series, it is Malva who becomes Claire’s medical apprentice.  Malva is also very beautiful and causes trouble up and down the Ridge as her many callers must be kept from her uncle. The Fraser family comes to trust Malva, but it comes at a dangerous price. Think Geneva Dunsany bad, mixed in with some Geillis and Laoghaire MacKenzie. Yup.

Claire teaches Malva to become an assistant healer, and she becomes quite fascinated with Claire’s experimentation with ether. Yes, here Claire goes changing history again, we can imagine how this might cause more “witchcraft” accusations. During a dysentery illness that hits The Ridge, Claire suspects she’s been poisoned, and during her delirium sees Malva for what she really is. She is hoping to remove Claire as an obstacle to having  Jamie. Claire recovers and later gets blamed when Malva is found murdered in her garden. 

The Lighter Side

We also have a very interesting story arc with Lizzy (Caitlin O’Ryan) coming up in season 6, we hope. As you know, the series does change things up a bit. After two seasons of seeing her moon after Ian and other men on The Ridge, we got a hint of things to come from the Outlander stories in the season 5 DVD set. But if you expect this one to be an easy one, nothing with Lizzy involved is ever easy. We’ll leave it at unconventional.

And about that fire? Fans of The Big House know what’s afoot. But there is a whole lot of intrigue and that bothersome Brown family to contend with as well. Oh, and that background problem, the start of the American Revolutionary War. Stay tuned, it will be a year out there, and we’ll let you know of locations if and when they leak out. 

Filming starts in a few weeks. 

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