Outlander: Jamie & Claire's Relationship Timeline Explained (2024)

With so much time travel on Outlander, the relationship timeline between main characters Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire (Caitriona Balfe) on the popular Starz series can be confusing to follow. In Outlander season 1, Claire finds herself transported from 1945 to the year 1743. She meets and falls in love with Jamie, but her husband Frank (Tobias Menzies) remains in the 1940s. Throughout their time together, Jamie and Claire reside in Scotland, France, Jamaica, and finally the American colonies. Even though Jamie and Claire are not from the same timeline, Claire realizes that what she shares with Jamie is stronger than her love for Frank.

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What makes the relationship so compelling is the idea that the two met by accident but are the loves of each other's lives. Jamie and Claire prove to be soulmates throughout Outlander by doing whatever it takes to keep the other person alive. Their story is one of survival and dedication as they consistently choose each other. Even though their commitment to one another is unquestionable in the later seasons of Outlander, Jamie and Claire continue to face trauma and obstacles throughout their journey to build and protect their own family unit across the show's timeline.

Season 1, Episode 1 - Episode 5

Jamie & Claire Meet & Form A Friendship

After serving as a nurse during World War II, Claire spends the beginning of the first episode of Outlander visiting Scotland with Frank. When she touches one of the standing stones at Craigh na Dun, Claire wakes up in a new time period where she meets Jamie, a Scottish Highlander. Jamie and Claire's relationship timeline begins with her healing his injuries. This sets off the theme of their romance of always coming to one another's aid. Because of her experience as a nurse, Claire is kept in the Highlander clan as a healer, and she tries to plot her way back home.

Season 1, Episode 6 - Episode 7

Jamie & Claire's Friendship Grows & They Are Married

Claire catches the interest of Jonathan "Black Jack" Randall (also played by Tobias Menzies), an English knight who is also an ancestor of Claire's husband Frank. Randall becomes fixated on figuring out Claire's history, and to protect her, it is arranged that she marry Jamie. The marriage between Claire and Jamie will officially make her Scottish, which would prevent Randall or another English officer from removing or arresting Claire without due cause.

In Outlander season 1, episode 7, "The Wedding," Jamie and Claire marry out of necessity, but their union marks the start of their romantic feelings. Before consummating the marriage, the two discuss their childhoods and backgrounds so that their wedding night is not awkward. After sleeping together, Claire is torn because she realizes she is developing feelings for Jamie while still longing to return home to Frank.

Season 1, Episode 8 - Episode 11

Jamie & Claire Struggle To Adjust To Married Life But Their Relationship Grows As Claire Picks Jamie Over Frank

Jamie takes seriously his vow to protect Claire no matter what. After marrying Jamie, Claire returns to the standing stones in an attempt to return to Frank. She is captured by Randall, but Jamie rescues her. When Claire is accused of witchcraft, Jamie once again rushes to her side. In Outlander ​​​​​​season 1, episode 11, "The Devil's Mark," Claire confesses to Jamie that she is from the future. Even though he does not understand it, he believes her story.

Until this point in their relationship timeline, Claire was actively torn between her growing feelings for Jamie and her past love for Frank. Jamie gives Claire the opportunity to return home to Frank. When confronted with the chance to leave, Claire realizes that Jamie is who she really wants to be with, and she returns to him.

Season 1, Episode 12- Episode 16

Claire Rescues Jamie & Finds Out She Is Pregnant With Jamie’s Child

After a raid goes poorly, Jamie is captured by redcoats, escapes, and is then recaptured. While imprisoned, Jamie is tortured and raped by Randall. Murtagh (Duncan Lacroix) devises a plan to rescue Jamie, but even after he is freed, he is haunted by the assault he endured. When he admits he wants to die, Claire professes her love for Jamie, telling him, "If you take away the one last thing that makes sense to me, then I will die with you right here now." The first season of Outlander ends with Claire and Jamie leaving for France, and at the start of their voyage, she tells him she is pregnant.

Season 2, Episode 1 – Season 2, Episode 7

Claire & Jamie Move To France, Adopt A Child & Claire Loses Her Pregnancy

Outlander season 2 opens with Claire reuniting with Frank in 1948, and the instances that lead her back to Craigh Na Dun are explained over the course of the season. In France, Jamie meets and adopts a young boy named Fergus while Claire hides that she knows Randall is still alive. When Jamie and Randall duel after Randall sexually assaults Fergus, Claire collapses and later gives birth to a stillborn daughter named Faith. Claire manages to secure Jamie's freedom following his duel with Randall, and the couple decides to leave France.

Season 2, Episode 8 – Season 2, Episode 13

Claire & Jamie Say Goodbye & Claire Returns To Frank

Jamie and Claire's hardships do not let up in the second half of Outlander Season 2. Back in Scotland, Claire is pregnant, and Jamie is certain he will perish in the Battle of Culloden. In an act of true love, Jamie insists that Claire returns to her time period for herself and their child. After an emotional goodbye, Jamie guides Claire's hands to the standing stone, and they are separated. In 1968, Claire has a daughter named Brianna who is coming to terms with finding out Frank is not her actual father. The season ends with Claire finding out Jamie did not die during the Battle of Culloden.

Season 3, Episode 1 – Season 3, Episode 4

Claire Struggles To Move On From Jamie

Season 3 of Outlander begins with Claire living in Boston shortly after she reunites with Frank. Even though their relationship is strained, Frank agrees to raise Jamie's child as his own. In their separate timelines, both Jamie and Claire struggle to move on from one another, and Claire decides to start medical school to find a new purpose. After 20 years of raising Brianna together, Frank reveals to Claire that he has been having an affair and wants a divorce. Frank dies in a car accident, and Claire becomes more honest with Brianna about what her strained relationship with Frank was like.

Season 3, Episode 5 – Season 3, Episode 13

Jamie & Claire Reunite & Arrive In America

By TV couple standards, Jamie and Claire are solidified as endgame early on in their relationship timeline on Outlander. In the first season, it was clear that Claire's feelings for Jamie were stronger than her feelings for Frank. The initial love triangle is completely resolved midway through the third season when Brianna and Roger (Richard Rankin) help Claire research what happened to Jamie following Frank's death. Roger is able to trace where Jamie was in 1765, and Claire returns to the standing stones to find him. When she finds him in a print shop, Jamie faints at the sight of her.

After reuniting with Jamie and Fergus, Claire finds out that Jamie is married to Laoghaire (Nell Hudson). While Claire is initially angry with Jamie for the betrayal, his marriage to Laoghaire is no longer valid since she returned. The remainder of Outlander season 3 demonstrates that no matter how many times Claire and Jamie are separated, they always find one another again. On a voyage back from Jamaica, a storm wrecks their ship. Instead of making their way back to Scotland, Claire, Jamie, Fergus, and Marsali (Lauren Lyle) wash ashore in the Province of Georgia.

Season 4, Episode 1 - Season 4, Episode 7

Claire & Jamie Are Robbed &Their Daughter Brianna Becomes A Time Traveler

Outlander season 4 opens with Claire and Jamie in the American colony of North Carolina. They decide to make a life in North Carolina, but a thief named Stephen (Ed Speelers) betrays and robs them. Back in the present-day timeline, Brianna is curious about her birth father and wants to reunite with Claire. After rejecting Roger's proposal, Brianna travels to Scotland with the intention of visiting the standing stones. Roger follows her, and the two make separate journeys across Scotland and to the American colonies. On their respective journeys, Brianna crosses paths with Laoghaire while Roger ends up boarding Stephen's ship.

Season 4, Episode 7 – Season 4, Episode 13

Jamie & Claire’s Family Adjusts To Life In North Carolina

In Wilmington, North Carolina, Brianna and Roger reunite but are separated. After Brianna tries to get Claire's stolen ring back, Stephen sexually assaults her, further cementing himself as Randall's replacement for the show's main antagonist. Claire realizes that Stephen is the man who assaulted Brianna and that Brianna is pregnant. After Brianna gives birth to a son, Jamie and Claire travel to the Province of New York to free Roger. As the group makes their way back home, Claire reveals the details surrounding Brianna's pregnancy to Roger. The choice Roger must make parallels Frank's previous choice to raise Brianna as his own, and he chooses to commit himself to Brianna.

Season 5, Episode 1 – Season 5, Episode 12

Jamie & Claire Work To Keep Their Family Together

Outlander season 5 shows Claire and Jamie questioning their place in history. Jamie has been asked to kill Murtagh and the red coat he once fought against in Scotland. Outlander is no longer just about Jamie and Claire against the world, and the entire Fraser family works together as a unit in times of hardship. When Jamie is bitten by a venomous snake, it becomes a family effort to keep him alive, and Brianna is the one who comes up with a solution. In the season 5 finale, "Never My Love," Jamie, Fergus, Roger, and Ian (John Bell) all come to the rescue of Claire after she is kidnapped.

Season 6, Episode 1 – Season 6, Episode 8

Jamie & Claire Prepare For The American Revolution As Tensions Rise In The Colonies

Because Claire, Brianna, and Roger are all from the future, the three know the Revolutionary War is inevitable. As tensions rise in the backdrop of the show, the sixth season brings revelations to light and reminisces over everything that has happened throughout Jamie and Claire's relationship. In the Outlander season 6 finale, "I Am Not Alone," Claire is charged with a murder she did not commit. Jamie reassures her that after everything they have been through they will survive. Even though Claire's fate was unknown at the end of the season, Jamie's words sum up that their relationship is always steadfast amid the chaos.

Season 7, Episode 1 - Episode 8

Jamie & Claire Are Stuck In The Middle Of War

Though Jamie and Claire are united in their love for one another and their family in season 7, their family is pulled apart. Someone else's confession means that Claire isn't put to death for the murder she didn't commit at the end of the sixth season, but Jaime is nearly immediately conscripted into the army after. Instead of fleeing, Claire and the family decide to help fight. Of course, the family is missing Roger and Brianna because the duo have had to time travel to the future (but far into the future) to save the life of their new daughter.

The separation weighs on the family, but even after Jamie suggests Claire go to the future with them, she remains in the past with him, showing that she is done using time travel to escape danger for herself if she can't be with the love of her life. The rest of Outlander season 7 will have to bring much of the family back together.