‘Outlander’ First Look: David Berry Teases Shocker for Claire and Lord John Grey (PHOTOS)

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We still don’t believe it. Outlander delivered a horrific shock on November 29 with the news of heroic Scottish Highlander Jamie Fraser’s (Sam Heughan) death in a shipwreck. But there are more twists coming. According to actor David Berry, who plays Jamie’s friend Lord John Grey, who long carried a torch for the hot Scot, there will be a major jaw-dropping moment when the saga next airs on December 6. “It is going to shock audiences,” Berry told us.

Lord John closed out last week’s tragic hour with what may have been the gloomiest marriage proposal in television history. He asked for the devastated widow Claire’s (Caitriona Balfe) hand to protect her from being arrested and hanged as a spy by the British. Her response: “This is cruel.” John explained that shielding Claire was his final way to serve Jamie and she seemed to consider accepting.

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Berry says that what happens next between the heartbroken pair “shocked us as actors and anyone who’s read the books. I think Diana [Gabaldon, who wrote the bestselling novels on which the show is based] just comes up with this massive bombshell. The way to prepare for it is [as an actor], well, how do you inject a sense of believability into it and humanity, and how do we get these characters through this massive moment? And there were a lot of competing ideas and a lot of it was a really difficult thing to put on screen.”

Difficult, yes. But Outlander is legendary for pulling off unfathomably tough scenes. Ultimately it brings Claire and Lord John closer together, and more is revealed about his private life.

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“Claire’s starting to learn that Lord John is not just this person who pines for Jamie in a very one-dimensional sense. He is a three-dimensional person with needs and wants and loves and hopes and dreams that exist beyond the Frasers,” Berry says. “He even has a love or a liaison with somebody that isn’t Jamie. That is really surprising to Claire, the way that he, as a man of his time, negotiates that kind of relationship.”

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'Outlander's Caitriona Balfe on Lord John Grey's 'Chivalrous' Proposal

There will be potentially deadly fallout from the two people who loved Jamie most trying to find a way forward together. In the December 13 episode, “It blows up in a way that is the worst possible thing for Lord John. He gets brutalized and beaten within inch of his life,” Berry says. (Come back for more from Berry in our after show, Inside Outlander, which posts following each episode.)

Outlander, Season 7, Part 2, Fridays, 8/7c, Starz (Midnight on the Starz App and On Demand)