Warning: spoilers are ahead for Episode 5 of Outlander Season 8, called “Send For The Devil."
The extended Fraser family split up ahead of the events of “Send For The Devil” on Outlander, and that turned out to be pretty bad timing for Jamie in the 2026 TV schedule. He got word that not only was Captain Cunningham still an enemy of revolutionaries, but was joining forces with allies to attack, kidnap, and then turn him over to be hanged. Kieran Bew, who joined the eighth and final season to play the new villain, spoke with CinemaBlend about the intense fight sequence between him and Sam Heughan that was a long time coming for Jamie and Cunningham.
What Happened With Jamie And Cunningham in Episode 5
The simmering tension came to a head during the meeting at the Masonic lodge, when Jamie snuck out during the closing prayer before Cunningham and his fellow Tory cronies could seize him when they walked out the door. Jamie and his Ardsmuir men regrouped in the woods, with Jamie instructing that they weren’t to kill any of the Tory traitors since Cunningham didn’t intend to kill Jamie… only for Cunningham to just go ahead and try to kill Jamie in a scuffle at the trading post. Cunningham was wearing trousers, while Jamie was kilted up. (This will be important later.)
Both men fought dirty, with Jamie just trying to survive while Cunningham was still confident that he had another five years of life left due to his son’s prophecy. Jamie came out the better, as he was only lightly stabbed in the chest, knocking the blade aside before Cunningham could stab through the his heart. Still, Cunningham won the fight against Jamie, only to get shot in the back by Buck before he could fire a killing shot at the Fraser’s Ridge leader.
They made it back to the big house, where Claire was too busy checking on the status of her bleeding husband and tending to Cunningham to point out that, as she’d suggested, Jamie’s plan really wasn’t great. The fight very nearly ended in Jamie’s death well before he’s supposed to die at the Battle of King’s Mountain. It’s unlikely that the pair will have a rematch, however, as the episode ended on the reveal that Buck shooting Cunningham in the back resulted in the Tory losing the use of his legs.
We may not know which of several series finale endings the showrunner chose for the very end, but I think it’s a safe bet that this fight sequence was Cunningham’s last hand-to-hand brawl. And apparently, it was a much more fun experience for the actors than it was for their battered characters.
What Kieran Bew Said About Battling Sam Heughan
When I spoke with Kieran Bew about the new episode that followed last week's big enemies-to-lovers development, he only had good things to say about “Send For The Devil.” After he confirmed that he’d already seen the episode, he shared his take on the finished product of his fake fight with Sam Heughan in the trading post set:
I'm delighted it's got as much bite in it as it has. We had a very jolly fight scene. Couple of days, couple of nights, shooting in Scotland with a lightning rig. And it's funny how normal it was for us to be rolling around, wrestling and strangling each other. [laughs]
I for one always get a kick out of actors having a “jolly” time while filming sequences of their characters fighting to the death, and that was the case for Kieran Bew and Sam Heughan in Episode 5. Bew went on:
I've known Sam a long time, and there was a moment when I was straddling him on the table, and he had his kilt on and his bare knees, and I was positioning myself on top of him, and I said 'People would pay a lot of money to lie here, Sam.' And of course, we're taking care of each other, but it does look like we're hurting each other. It's very funny doing that kind of thing, so I'm glad it looks as mean and vicious as it does.
Remember when I said that it would be important later than Jamie was wearing a kilt while Cunningham was in trousers? Well, even though the Outlander: Blood of My Blood actors shared what the kilt is “extremely practical” for while filming a TV show, it's apparently less practical in stunts that require rolling around and fighting in an enclosed space.
In fact, when speaking with Kieran Bew about the fight sequence, I noted that it did occur to me while watching that fighting in pants seemed more convenient for staging the stunt sequence. The House of the Dragon alum explained:
It just means that when you're working with each other doing a fight, you do sort of have to look after each other, and I'm very happy to protect Sam's modesty. [laughs] We were hard up against each other, and it was a tough night of work.
Anybody who watched the fight sequence – or rewatched it by now streaming on the Starz app – will understand what he means by how “hard up against each other” they were, because Cunningham and Jamie were battling with everything they had. They not only drew on their strength reserves, but also on whatever they could reach within the trading post. Bew explained how they made the most of the props around them:
It was well-choreographed by our fight team, and there's a lot of props in that shop we use. He hits me with a drawer at one point, and I managed to strangle him with a random rope off the floor. But there were canoes hanging from the ceiling, and we were devising alternative fight sequences when we could use as many props as possible. [laughs] It was fun.
By a certain point in the fight, both men were a bit too battered to start battling each other with canoes, but the trading post as the location of the fight was great for evening the ground between them. It didn’t matter which of them would be a better warrior, like if they’d met on the field of battle on opposite sides of the American revolution. For this fight, what mattered was who had the gun, who had the blade, and who had – as the case was at a certain point – a drawer.
Believe it or not, Outlander’s final season is now halfway finished as of the end of “Send For The Devil.” Jamie’s “devil” arrived too late to help in the fight against Cunningham and his Tory pals, so it should be interesting to see how he and Claire deal with Benjamin Cleveland and Co.
Jamie originally had no tolerance for Cleveland’s bloodthirsty approach, but it now seems that he’ll need the man and his supporters’ help. I do wonder if Cunningham being partially paralyzed will save his life from Cleveland. Maybe Cleveland will have no interest in killing a man who was already so grievously injured?
Only time will tell, but at this point, there’s just not much time left. See what happens for the Frasers as the American Revolution comes closer to home with new episodes on Friday. Episodes begin streaming at midnight on Fridays, then air on Starz at 8 p.m. ET.
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