'Outlander' Showrunner on Disturbing Rape Scene: We Knew It Was Going to Be Controversial
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Despite knowing that some people would object to the said scene, Ron Moore says he tried 'not to think about that too much' and tried to 'make an artistic judgment' on his goal with the storyline.

AceShowbiz - "Outlander" is the latest TV show that got people talking with its disturbing rape scene in the season finale. After the controversial Sansa wedding twist on "Game of Thrones" a few weeks ago, "Outlander" featured sexual violence scene that some might think has crossed the boundary.

[SPOILER ALERT!] In the season finale, Black Jack Randall (Tobias Menzies) raped his longtime sexual obsession Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan) after a physical torture that Jamie had to endure in the penultimate episode. While readers of the book might have seen it coming, viewers were still shocked to watch the male rape scene.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, series creator/showrunner Ron Moore realizes the said scene was tough to watch. "I knew that, [but] I kept saying to myself and saying to the people on the show, 'You have to remember, there's a big chunk of the audience that has no idea where this story's going and it's going to come as quite a shock,' " he explains his decision to include the rape scene on the show.

"Because you just don't anticipate that's where you're going to take your male lead actor. That's not something that's done on TV, that's not something that's done in movies. It's not the road that's typically traveled."

"As a storyteller, you're drawn to that as a result. That said - when you're approaching it - it's then all about, 'We're going to do this, but now we have to think about it and how we're going to do it.' We wanted to make it difficult to watch; hard to watch, but not impossible," he continues.

Sharing his consideration in the artistic decision he made for the said scene, he says, "We're trying to say that this is what happened to these men. Let's tell it as honestly as we can. And you have to be careful not to go too far in the other direction. If you cut away too quickly and you don't show enough then you're really shying away from it and you're not really telling the truth of this man's pain and understanding what he went through. So you're really trying to find that place and trust your gut on it."

Moore knew "it was going to be controversial" and that "some people were going to really object to it and others would not." However, he tried "not to think about that too much." He explains, "You try to just make your call and make an artistic judgment on what you're trying to achieve and then you hope people like it. You try not to get too outside your head and start thinking about what you're saying on a sociopolitical context or how this will be interpreted by other people. If you go down that rabbit hole you just won't come out."

Also in the season finale, after Jamie was rescued from Wentworth Prison, he and Claire (Caitriona Balfe) were headed to France. Moore says the second season will still follow the books and it's going to be "very different" from season 1. "In the very last scene, they talk about going to France to try and stop the Jacobite Rebellion and that's what they go do. They go to Paris. So we're prepping and shooting a completely different show," he shares.

He goes on teasing about what to expect in the second season, "They're in one of the most populated cities in the world at this point. It's French aristocracy, it's the court of Louis XV, it's cobblestone streets filled with people - the costumes are completely different, [as are] the sets. It has a whole different mood and palette to it. It's more about conspiracies, lies and politics. Getting caught up in the corruption and poison that's happening in Paris at that time, with history, is pushing you toward this inevitable cataclysm - the destruction of the Highland culture. Plus Claire's pregnant and there are the aftereffects of everything that happened with Jack Randall - that's still with Jamie in the second season." He adds, "It's a really different show but one of the strengths of doing this series is the evolution of it."

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