Caitriona Balfe confirms Jamie can’t time travel on Outlander

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Have you ever wondered why Jamie couldn’t go through the stones in Outlander season 2?

There are plenty of questions surrounding the time travelling aspect of Outlander and there have been from the beginning. Diana Gabaldon has done her best to explain it without giving away spoilers for the future, but there are still many wondering whether Jamie could go through the stones or not. Who didn’t really want him to be pulled to the 1940s with Claire in the season 2 finale?

Well, Jamie can’t time travel and that was established in the second season. Now Caitriona Balfe has confirmed it and tried to explain why.

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During an interview with Britain’s This Morning, Balfe explained to presenter Holly Willoughby (who is a huge fan of the Outlander series) that Jamie isn’t able to time travel. There’s a point where it sounds like she’s going to say Jamie doesn’t have the “time travelling gene,” but she stops herself. However, this is the way many fans have tried to explain it to others in the past.

Balfe confirms that only certain people are able to travel through time. This ability can be passed down through generations, which explains why Brianna and Roger were able to hear the hum in the stones in the season 2 finale. Brianna gets the “time travelling gene” from Claire and Roger’s is passed down through his Geillis ancestry.

She didn’t go into the physics of time traveling or too many gory details. All she confirmed was that Jamie can definitely not time travel, so he will not pop up in the 1940s anytime soon.

Catch the full interview below. The discussions about Jamie time travelling start at around 1 minute 50 seconds.

There is a little disappointment that Jamie couldn’t time travel. While he did make a point in the second season finale that the 20^th century isn’t his time, it would be interesting to see him react to future technology. The benefit of the 1940s would have been that some elements were still the same, but the 1960s technology had started to grow considerably and he would have found it much harder to fit in.

Jamie would have likely struggled to cope with the knowledge his family were dead. While Brianna is in the 1960s, he would have the knowledge that Jenny, Ian, Young Ian, Fergus, Marsali and others had lived their lives and were gone. Losing someone close to you is hard, but to have that knowledge they died 200 years in the past would be even harder.

Next: 7 times Caitriona Balfe proved she deserves the Golden Globe win

What do you think would happen if Jamie could time travel? Would Claire take him to the 1940s? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Outlander returns in 2018 on Starz. Follow Claire and Jamie on Twitter for all the latest updates.

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