While life for the younger Fraser generation hasn’t been without its trials and tribulations, the couple never fell out of love and has four babies as proof. But in Season 6 of Outlander, Fergus, who lost his left hand as a child in a confrontation with a British soldier, is on a downslide. A shadow of his former feisty self, he has taken to drink to compensate for what he feels is missing from his life—specifically, the ability to support his family and protect them. “I think Fergus and Marsali are in a super different place to where we’ve found them before,” Lyle tells Parade in an exclusive new interview. “They are going through a lot of turmoil, a lot of stress, all due to the fallout of last season, the big event of getting attacked. Fergus couldn’t step in and help, and then Marsali having to kill Lionel because that was all she knew to do. I think the trauma of all of that, just piles and piles of stuff, has made the two of them fractured and they’re trying to find their way back to each other, both on quite dark, sad paths.” That said, Marsali, with four children to parent, is taking care of business as usual, but Fergus is rarely sober these days. And what he doesn’t realize is that by over-imbibing, he is creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of not being around when Marsali actually needs him. “We’ve never known them as this,” Lyle explains. “They’ve always been known as the fun, cool, young couple that are really in love and don’t fight. I think both of us find that it’s a challenge in a wonderful way, a real blessing as an actor to get to play something that’s so different, especially with characters that we know so deeply. We know these people, and to do something that is not something we’ve done with them before, has been brilliant but challenging.” For all the street smarts Fergus developed during his childhood (he was brought up in a Parisian brothel), Marsali, it turns out, is the more logical of the two. She knows that there was no way that Fergus could have protected her from the beating she took at the end of Season 5, when Lionel Brown and his band of men came to kidnap Claire. Fergus just wasn’t physically present at that moment. Then, the stress he feels is compounded when their fourth child, Henri-Christian, is born a dwarf. During his time at the brothel, Fergus had seen dwarves treated as freaks and abused, so he reacts strongly—and badly—to his first sight of his new son, spiraling downward so far that he tries to take his own life, stopped only when Jammie arrives on the scene to save him. Then, when Jamie brings Fergus home to his wife, Marsali lovingly accepts him, which begs the question: Why is she so forgiving? “I really, really, really struggled with it during the season,” Lyle admits. “I had conversations with the writers saying, ‘But I would never forgive this guy.’ Now, me, I would walk out. I’d be like, ‘Absolutely no chance am I sticking around.’ But on a base level, women at the time, they couldn’t, that was not an option. She, of course, has to stay. But I also think she loves him deeply and this is stressful for both of them.” Lyle also is of the mind that Marsali takes her wedding vows seriously, wanting her marriage to work. She knows theirs is a strong bond that goes both ways, and she wants the Fergus that she married back and the happiness they had found together. “It’s that thing, that bond when you marry someone that you say, ‘Whatever happens to you happens to me, and together we deal with it,’ " she says. “I think she’s trying to get through to him and she knows that she’s the only one that can. I think it is just love. That’s what love and choosing to stay is. And also, she has her own fight, she doesn’t just sit back and let it happen. She does fight back in a sense, in both a physical and emotional sense. So, she doesn’t outright forgive and just let it passively go by.” From her life story, we already know that Marsali is a woman who understands forgiveness. When Claire returned to Jamie after their 20-year separation, Jamie was married to Marsali’s mother, Laoghaire (Nell Hudson). Claire’s return invalidated their marriage and Laoghaire didn’t take it well. In fact, she shot Jamie (not to worry; Claire, a trained surgeon by that point, tended to his wounds). Marsali, out of loyalty to her mother, was predisposed not to like Claire initially. But over time and several continents, the two women have overcome their initial squabbles. “I think that’s been one of my favorite things about being on the show, is that they have had this really natural bond and this relationship that’s grown,” Lyle says. “People always ask me if I had to choose, Laoghaire or Claire, which would I choose? You can’t ask! Obviously, Laoghaire is her blood, but Claire becomes such a sustainable, solid force and mother figure in her life. Also, Claire’s so formidable. They match on that level and that’s why they respect each other. They do respect each other and that’s why it works.” It also helps that Balfe and Lyle’s working rapport has developed into a great friendship offscreen as well. “I’ve worked with Caitríona so much now and it’s been amazing,” Lyle concludes. “We really have a great time. We get to flip between playing cheeky and little daughter. We’re two women that come together and work together and the match has been such a joy.” Outlander Season 6 airs new episodes on Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on STARZ. Next, Will There Be an Outlander Season 8? Here’s What Executive Producer Maril Davis Told Us
