'Outlander' Season 2 spoilers: Why Diana Gabaldon wrote episode 11 script; Murtagh scene changed

A new video released by Starz reveals why Executive Producer Ronald D. Moore chose Diana Gabaldon to write episode 11 of “Outlander” Season 2. The video also reveals the minor changes from the books that had to be made in the TV series.

[Spoiler alert]

“One reason why Ron gave me this particular episode was because what you see in the episode is all stuff that you’ll recognise from the book,” Gabaldon said in the video. The author did not write any of the scripts in the first season, and this is the first time she took up the responsibility.

In spite of Gabaldon herself taking up the role of writing the script, there had to be some changes in the TV series. The author pointed out that in the book Rupert (Grant O’Rourke) dies in the chapel. That, however, did not happen in the TV series because they had to kill Angus Mhor (Stephen Walters) in an earlier episode of “Outlander” Season 2, to show the effects of war.

There were also other minor changes in the TV series. Gabaldon said that one of the producers approached her and explained that they were unable to find any chapels that allow horses inside. In the books the horses were taken inside the chapel. The author then agreed to take the horses off in the scene.

Moore said that editorially the most challenging scene in the episode was the death of Duke of Sandringham (Simon Callow). The scene was actually filmed showing Murtagh (Duncan Lacroix) taking his time, measuring the distance between him and the head he’s about to chop off.

During editing it was made to look like the scene happened at a much faster pace. When the Duke turns his head in episode 11 of “Outlander” Season 2, the axe comes down very quickly and he dies.