Exclusive: Lauren Lyle and César Domboy on the 'Hard-Earned' Return of Fergus and Marsali

Warning: This article contains major spoilers for Outlander Season 8, Episode 7, “Evidence of Things Not Seen.”

As Outlander enters its final stretch, Season 8 has carved out (albeit temporarily) a surprisingly warm and grounded space for Fergus and Marsali — one that feels hard-earned after everything they’ve been through.

In Episode 7, “Evidence of Things Not Seen,” the couple’s life in Savannah offers a rare sense of stability. Running a print shop, raising four children, and still finding moments of humor together, Fergus and Marsali feel significantly more settled than where fans last saw them, with Fergus drinking a lot, Marsali visibly unhappy, and strife within their family after the birth of their fourth child.

Men’s Journal sat down exclusively with Lauren Lyle and César Domboy to talk about stepping back into that version of the characters and what makes this chapter so meaningful, especially as it is the final chapter for the fan-favorite couple.

Exclusive Interview with Lauren Lyle and César Domboy

Men’s Journal: Now that Fergus and Marsali have returned in a much more settled place—with the print shop and family life in Savannah—what did it feel like stepping back into them at this stage of their lives?

Lauren Lyle: I thought it was just really fun to be able to sort of pick up in a happy place and to come back to set. Having left in quite a dark place... they’re really in love. They're this amazing young couple who are always sparkly and youthful and giggly and romantic—that’s what they’ve always been. They’ve always driven themselves for love, so it was really fun to pick back up in that place and still have all that energy.

César Domboy: Same as Lauren. I was just excited to show more of what they worked out since Season 6 and portray this ideal picture of a couple that has four kids and still is very madly in love with each other, accomplish their own things, talk about it. It was exciting. I think we had some really rich scenes to do this season.

MJ: Even with the world growing volatile around them, they still have that playful dynamic—like the joke about ‘populating the town.’ How important is it to keep that humor grounded in the relationship?

CD: It's part of their DNA. I think it's so inherent to Lauren and I. We became really, really close friends very quickly throughout Outlander. We always had fun doing Marsali and Fergus together, and that was part of the way we portrayed them. It wasn't really written in like that.

LL: It was never written for there to be any extra "add-on" to our relationship. I think we just found a natural wave with each other. We never chemistry read—that’s the craziest thing. We got together on the show and it luckily just worked. The combo of who we are and what we brought to our characters melded in a really beautiful way. From the get-go, we were like, "They are the kind of fun, young couple of the show."

MJ: It's interesting because both characters are rooted in a connection to Jamie, but fans have really taken to the bond both of your characters share with Claire.

LL: We kind of brush over the fact that they’re kind of like stepbrother and sister that get together! [Laughs] That "whore" line that people talk about—originally I said that in a modern way. Then in ADR, they changed it so I had to say "who-re" and roll it. That’s now become an iconic line.

CD: The show portrays a lot of really cool epic couples, and we still found a way to portray a different color of a couple. It was thanks to the things we had to do which were lighter in the first few seasons—or even the problematic ones where we were escaping or fleeing.

MJ: Their involvement in the rebellion is tied to what they’re building, but it also puts them at odds with the community. How does that pressure show up in their dynamic?

LL: Fergus is doing one thing that's dangerous, and you learn that Marsali is really for it as well. She’s supportive and wants him to do as much as he can. She finds ways she can help around the print shop and they sort of do it together. If it has to be them against the community, then that’s what it is. They’re their team and they’re their unit.

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CD: And I think what they showed that I really like is that there is no more of Marsali saying, "Fergus Fraser, don’t lie to me." No, they have a really mature, nice, articulated conversation about his issue with Comte Saint-Germain, this inheritance and all. I love the scene because it's not caricatural. This is very universal.

LL: It’s like what you would do with your partner. It’s a bit of a classic—if you were to hide a dead body, how would you do it? And you'd always hope that you could go to your partner and they would help you do it.

MJ: One of the standout moments is in the print shop with Henri-Christian, when Fergus calls him beautiful. It feels like such a full-circle moment. What was it like to approach that evolution?

CD: It was so great to get to work with Benjamin Moss, the child actor who plays Henry Christian, who is a gem of a human being and a really good actor, very instinctive. So it was great. We had a lot of fun being with our kids and doing all this wholesome content for the show. One of my favorite scenes is in the print shop when I'm teaching them how to print paper and all. It's very warm and great.

And also, yeah, as Lauren said, I think we were excited to come and to continue Fergus and Marceline's story after them going through it and the violence of season six and seeing that there's hope, you know, there's something very hopeful about it. That was great to play as an actor.

MJ: Fergus’s sense of identity has always been layered, and more recently there’s been added depth around his background. How has that shaped the way you approach his arc this season?

CD: In no way! I was more focused on where we were going with the ending of Fergus. This reveal about the Comte Saint-Germain is a weird thing, because the first time I heard about it was from a fan at a convention six years ago. She said, "Do you know who your dad is?" And as I was walking past her in a crowd, I was like, "No, who's my dad?" And she told me and I said "No way!" And that's the moment where I was shook. So I realized that years before I knew it was coming.

I'm very lucky with the way they wrote Fergus because they added all these layers of him being very loyal or romantic and all these great things, but it didn't really shape the way I approached the role for season eight, it was just like cherry on the cake. You know he's gonna refuse the inheritance to be a Fraser.

That last bit from Domboy is exactly what fans cling to amid the rattling moment where Fergus' character dies in episode 7 of Outlander's final season. His loyalty and his love for the Fraser family are what have made him a fan-favorite all these years. We will miss you, Fergus Fraser.

Outlander Season 8, Episode 7, “Evidence of Things Not Seen"is now streaming on Starz.