This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but with a… gasp? Don’t mind the riff on T. S. Eliot, the Outlander series finale has this writer inspired. Spoilers ahead. From the quoting of poets to the resurrection of James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser, let’s get into it!

The finale starts with a fiery cross summoning Jamie’s militia to battle against British Major Patrick Ferguson. The opening credits roll, and it’s the original credits of the series premiere, complete with Raya Yarbrough’s rendition of “The Skye Boat Song” and the title card showing the blue forget-me-nots at the stones of Craigh na Dun, which will play a pivotal part at the end of Jamie and Claire’s story.

Ahead of the battle, Jamie is writing his last will and testament. He bequeaths his possessions to Claire, Brianna, his grandchildren (Fanny included), Roger, his sister Jenny, Young Ian, Marsali, and his “natural son” William, the only time Charles Vandervaart’s character is shown in the finale. The point clearly being that if Jamie does die at the Battle of Kings Mountain, as Frank wrote, his descendants will be OK.

Jamie and Claire wake up in bed together on the day they will set out for the battle. They try to act as if it’s any other morning, with Claire sharing an anecdote of a pair of sleeping bees holding each other’s feet in a flower. Jamie quotes “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” by William Butler Yeats, and Claire can’t believe he remembers her telling him that poem. (Interestingly, the title for Episode 410, “The Deep Heart’s Core,” came from that poem, but the scene referencing it ended up being cut per writer Toni Graphia.) Jamie wonders if he dies, if he’ll be able to watch over his family as a ghost. He says he’ll only do a wee glance at Claire, so as not to frighten her — yet another nod to “Sassenach,” where Jamie’s ghost looked at Claire in the window of the bed and breakfast in Inverness in 1945.

Claire remembers the blue vase she saw in Inverness and how the very next day, the stones led her to him in the year 1743 while she was looking for forget-me-nots. Jamie asks if she ever regrets touching the stones and time traveling. “Never,” she replies. “I have everything I never knew I wanted.” She hopes Jamie has had everything he’s wanted, and he says no… because he would like to sleep in a flower with her, holding her feet — an outrageously sweet sentiment and directly pulled from Book 9 of the Outlander series, Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone.

The rest of the residents of the Ridge are also worried about Jamie’s fate. As Brianna and Roger look out on the land where they’ll build their family home, Bree makes Roger promise that he’ll return home from Kings Mountain and bring her Da back with him. And Fanny’s upset that Jamie and Claire are leaving for the battle after saying they’d always be there. Without explicitly stating they are time travelers, Claire tells her granddaughter that there’s something that connects their family beyond time and place, and they’ll always be together. 

Brianna and Jamie share a tearful goodbye as he gives her back Frank’s Soul of a Rebel book. Jamie says he’s smiling because Bree looks “like your mother in love” — something Brianna never hears given her physical similarities to her father. Through her tears, she tells him she loves him. More emotional farewells come in the form of Rachel and Ian, and Brianna and Claire. Jamie even says goodbye to Claire’s bees and asks them to watch over her if she tells them he’s gone, and quotes “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” again. From there, Jamie’s army, with Claire riding by his side, heads to Kings Mountain.

With Ferguson only a day away from the site of the battle, Jamie requests three things of Claire if he dies — the biggest being that Claire will take their family back to her time. But with the reveal that baby Davy is probably not a time traveler like the rest of his family (based on his big sister Mandy sensing him like “water,” which is how she also perceives Jamie), Claire refuses. This time is her home, and if Jamie does die, she wants to be in a place where she can feel him all around her. As is only right, Outlander then delivers one final sex scene between Jamie and Claire, an intimate and potentially final moment between these two lovers. 

It’s the day of the battle, and Jamie gives a rousing speech to his army, and Roger says a prayer. Jamie asks Roger to look after Claire before telling her, “Tha gràdh agam ort, mo chridhe,” translation: “I love you, my heart.” Claire repeats the Gaelic for “I love you” back to him. Then, he’s off with Claire saying she feels like poet Alfred Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shalott.”

The battle begins, and though Claire is supposed to be hanging back and treating the injured soldiers, would it be our girl Claire if she stayed behind? “Don’t you try to fucking stop me,” she tells Roger, as she unwisely charges onto the battlefield after Jamie. Classic Claire!

Claire thinks she sees Jamie shot, but it’s another soldier. There are a few close calls with one of the Beardsleys saving Jamie, Jamie saving Buck, and Claire shooting a Redcoat. She almost gets shot again, but she’s saved by a tree. And just like that, the Patriots have won! with Ferguson and his whistle defeated. Jamie is still alive, but as he turns to Claire, Ferguson does one last charge on his horse. Jamie successfully overthrows him, and the British major is taken away. “It’s over, Sassenach,” Jamie says. “Frank was wrong,” Claire replies. The reunited couple shares a kiss. 

But they’re not out of the woods yet. As Claire goes to tend to the wounded, Jamie demands Ferguson’s surrender. But the devious major declares, “I will never surrender!” and shoots Jamie in his chest. Claire feels the shot in her own body.

Even with her medical expertise, it looks pretty hopeless for Jamie as he bleeds through his shirt. But Claire won’t accept his death, even when Jamie says he’s not afraid. “Forgive me, Sassenach,” Jamie says as he dies. Ian, Roger, and the other men all fall to their knees while Claire wails. Can it be?! Is Jamie really dead?!

Well, Claire’s not giving up. She sits with Jamie’s body and refuses to leave him, even as Ian and Roger try to convince her he’s gone. Night falls, and she’s still holding Jamie. “Where are you?” she cries into the star-streaked and blue-tinged sky, putting her face on his wound.

The next day breaks, and still, Claire can’t be swayed even by Roger telling her they should take him home. “He is home,” Claire says, before lying next to him on a stone and seemingly letting out one last breath of her own…

Then, the show flashes back to the very first episode with Claire brushing her hair in the window in 1945 as the mysterious Highlander watches on. Jamie’s face is shown, confirming he was the Highlander all along — something devoted fans knew in their bones all along, but it’s nice to make it official. As Frank approaches the figure, ghost Jamie disappears. The ghost then walks from the stone streets of Inverness to the actual stones of Craigh na Dun. As he touches the magical, time-traveling stones, the blue forget-me-nots grow at the base of the stone that Claire will travel through… proving that it was Jamie’s ghost that led Claire to him for a true full-circle moment.

Flashbacks of Jamie and Claire through the past seasons show some of the couple’s most iconic moments before returning to them seemingly dead on the stone. Now, Claire’s hair is stark white, which can be interpreted as she’s reached her full power! And in the last moments, both Jamie and Claire open their eyes in unison and gasp. They live!

The credits roll. But a post-credits scene full of Easter eggs gives fans one last tidbit. Author Diana Gabaldon herself is at a book signing in the present day, signing copies of Outlander. A fan asks her about the journal she has with her — Claire’s journal. “Well, it’s just a wee bit of inspiration,” the author replies.

With Claire presumably bringing Jamie back to life, Jamie being the ghost that led Claire to time travel, and Claire’s journal being the basis of the story, the series finale embraced the love and magic of their epic story. And with that, Outlander is officially over… well, at least this chapter of it.

Caitlin Gallagher is a New Jersey-raised, NYC-based entertainment writer. When not writing about or watching TV, she can be found planning her next Halloween costume, crying over rescue animals, or praising Season 2 of The Leftovers.