Outlander fans had to wait more than a year for the second half of Season 7, without access to the good old-fashioned Outlander time travel to try and cheat the length of hiatus. Season 7B has rewarded viewers with twist after twist so far, but those twists weren’t too great for William Ransom in the most recent episode to air in the 2024 TV schedule. After the chaos of the previous cliffhanger resulted in William finally learning the truth that Jamie is his father, he spent Episode 12 spiraling… and he didn’t handle it well, lashing out to the point of forcibly kissing Rachel.
I spoke with actor Charles Vandervaart about what happened, and playing William definitely didn’t mean that he would try to justify any part of what the character did ahead of the finale in the 2025 TV schedule.
How William Became A Villain
Outlander has of course had its fair share of totally, completely, 100% dastardly villains over the years, with characters like Black Jack Randall and Stephen Bonnet. When it comes to William, fans have gotten to know him over the years, and he generally had the best of intentions up until Episode 12 of Season 7B, called “Carnal Knowledge.”
Reeling with the knowledge that he’s truthfully Jamie’s illegitimate son, he lashed out first against the prostitute who was kind to him and then forced a kiss on Rachel after learning that she was engaged to Young Ian and having Ian arrested. Not one to sugarcoat what had happened, Charles Vandervaart weighed in on his character’s actions, saying:
Hurt people hurt people, and that’s what happens in this episode. William’s a hurt person, and he hurts people, kind of irredeemably. There’s not really an excuse for what he’s doing. There’s an explanation, for sure, but he’s going to have to do a lot to make it up to those people in this episode.
Now, actors may sometimes have more generous views of their characters’ actions than fans do, but Charles Vandervaart was quick to drop “irredeemably” about William. I then asked if he thinks there’s a way that William even could be defended after the events of “Carnal Knowledge,” and the actor quickly said “No, no” and shared an interaction he had with his cast mates:
A little while ago, we were going around, and the cast was asking about villains and what villain is their favorite. And I remember Izzy [Meikle-Small] said William Ransom. And you never really think of him as a villain, but in this specific episode, absolutely he is. He does horrible, horrible things, things that are unforgivable. It’s an interesting thing, because sometimes you empathize with him, because he is just this broken kid, essentially, that’s acting out of impulse. I think he gets away with it a lot because he’s Jamie Fraser’s son, because everyone sees the good in him. Everyone sees the Jamie Fraser in him, but he is as much of his dad as he is his mom. I think there’s some darkness there, and you can see that in this episode. He’s acting selfishly.
Interestingly, Jamie also did some “horrible things” in Episode 12, depending on where you fall on his reaction to Claire and Lord John sharing a bed when he was (as far as they knew) dead! As the actress playing Rachel, Izzy Meikle-Small having a take on William as a villain certainly tracks. Him forcing a kiss on Rachel was bad enough; his actions also prompted her to betray her principles and slap him. When I mentioned that the scene between the characters got pretty ugly, Vandervaart agreed, saying:
That’s most of what I’m talking about. That’s probably William’s low point, I’m imagining. I hope it’s William’s low point. I hope it doesn’t get worse than that. I think his identity was completely shattered in front of him. He’s not the Ninth Earl of Ellesmere. At least, he’s not the rightful heir of that title, and I think he tied maybe a part of his identity to Rachel, and that was maybe something he was just holding on to after losing everything else. And you could see him act in a very, very bad, borderline unforgivable way after finding out that he wasn’t really the third part of that love triangle. He was just like an extra, spare part.
Charles Vandervaart previewed ahead of Season 7B that “William really thinks it’s a love triangle” with Rachel and Young Ian; the latest episode proved that William needed to get awfully close to rock bottom and make some pretty horrible decisions before really figuring out that the other two only have eyes for each other.
William And The Love Triangle
While heartache is a feeling that most viewers can probably relate to, William mishandled his feelings in just about every possible way. Hitting Young Ian unprovoked was bad enough; having him taken into custody for fighting back was an even lower blow, and then kissing Rachel! Charles Vandervaart elaborated on what his character realized in the scene between the trio in Episode 12, saying:
He’s not the third wheel. He’s the small tricycle wheel that’s not even touching the ground, that’s barely important. He really thought he was the main man, but oh well. He’ll find love hopefully, or at least learn to love himself.
William was already upset with Young Ian for keeping the secret about his true father, so it really didn’t take much to set him off. According to Vandervaart, learning about Young Ian and Rachel stung even more in light of how he’d just discovered that they were related. The actor shared:
And it was his cousin too. I think that’s probably another reason why he feels so mad, because Ian represents Jamie Fraser in that moment. He represents that family tie that he doesn’t want to be a part of. So there’s just a lot of layers of self hatred and outwards hatred that William’s experiencing in that moment. He needs therapy. Get him a therapist.
It remains to be seen what William does to try and make up for his actions in Episode 12, if he does at all. Sharing a bed with Jane just made him feel worse, because he felt that she’d made him lose his honor, and it’s possible he hasn’t actually hit rock bottom yet. I’m curious to see what will happen if/when he finds out that Jamie brutally beat Lord John and then left him to a band of enemies to the British crown.
Find out with the next new installment of Outlander on Friday, December 20 at 8 p.m. ET on Starz. Called “Hello, Goodbye,” the episode is one of the last before the end of the year, so be sure to tune in!