Ronald Moore
Executive producer Ronald Moore participates in the Starz "Outlander" panel at the Television Critics Association (TCA) Winter Press Tour in Pasadena, California, January 9, 2015. Reuters/David McNew

“Outlander” Season 2 episode 8 featured the return of a character from the first season, which surprised the fans. According to the books the character was not supposed to return till the third book in the series.

[Spoiler alert]

The return of Laoghaire MacKenzie (Nell Hudson) surprised the fans who have read the books because she is not featured in “Dragonfly in Amber,” on which the second season is based. Her return is particularly surprising because most of episode 8 was in Lord Lovat’s (Clive Russell) home.

In a new video released by Starz, Executive Producer and writer Anne Kenney said that the main reason why they decided to bring back Laoghaire is to “redeem” her a little before what happens down the line. Without this redemption, Kenney pointed out, the events of the future would feel “implausible.” She said that it would be interesting to see how the fans react to the change.

Another big change in “Outlander” Season 2 episode 8 was Lord Lovat’s teeth. The character from the books had no teeth and he instead used artificial teeth made of wood. Kenney said that they wanted to keep that in right up to the last minute, but later changed their minds.

The prosthetics and the wooden teeth would have made it difficult for the actor to speak in the scene. Lord Lovat is a very important character in the episode with many dialogues, so the producers had to let the idea of the wooden teeth go.

Meanwhile, Hudson spoke about Laoghaire’s return with TV Line and said her character’s return was news to her as well, when she was first told about it. Talking about her character’s relationship with the Frasers, the actress said that she was “genuinely striving for humility and penitence, and most of all forgiveness.”

However, the love that Laoghaire has for Jamie is still there. Hudson said that towards the end of episode 8 of “Outlander” Season 2 there is a transformation in her character and she feels that all that “hard work and piousness” was of little use to her.

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