Outlander team explains the shocking season finale

The New York Times

A lot of discussion went into filming a graphic scene in Sunday's Season 5 finale. "One of the shows that did that really well was Netflix’s Unbelievable. That was something we talked about, in terms of how we were going to shoot it," says star Caitriona Balfe. Showrunner Matthew B. Roberts adds: "But our intentions are not to be gratuitous. We’re not after water-cooler moments. We’re trying to be true to characters and the books. Sometimes the books are more graphic, and then we pull back a little bit." Author Diana Gabaldon admits the show is actually more explicitly brutal than the book. "Some readers of the books will come after me and say, 'Don’t you think this is rapey?'" she adds. "It depends on your perspective. You should take a step back and ask, 'What was the aim?' Was I just trying to be sensationalistic? Well, no. I don’t need to be. But I had a point, and it has a lot to do with the resilience of the human spirit. We’re not treating rape as just a destructive thing that ruins a person’s whole life. We’re showing it as it is. It is terribly traumatic and damaging, but people do recover. How did they get over it? What happens to them as a result? The story offers you a wide emotional canvas for exploration, most of which is not concerned with the actual violent encounter." ALSO: Outlander has made sexual violence an oft-used trope in the saga.