'Outlander' season 3 video: Caitriona Balfe trained for operation scene

The producers of “Outlander” season 3 have appeared in a new video to share insight on episode 7. They talked about preparing for the episode, including the props and cast training. This article contains spoilers.

The choice of the title for episode 7 was a little whimsical, according to co-executive producer Toni Graphia. The main focus of the plot was the dead body hidden in a barrel of Crème de Menthe.

The dead body in the episode was that of Barton (Ian Conningham). In the video (see below), co-executive producer Matthew B. Roberts revealed they had different prosthetics built. There was a replica of the head of the actor playing the role of Barton, and his body as well. The scene where Claire (Caitriona Balfe) drills a hole in the skull also utilises the prosthetic head.

The producers strive to make scenes as realistic as possible. Balfe had to go through some training for the operation scene. There was also a medical advisor, whose name interestingly is Dr. Claire, present on standby to answer questions the cast and crew might have had. Dr. Claire is an emergency room surgeon in Glasgow.

The other challenging scene in episode 7 was the fire in Jamie’s (Sam Heughan) print shop. Roberts revealed that the scenes related to this shop were filmed in a museum, so they had to build a replica at another location then burn it. The production team spent three nights burning this set, Roberts said.

There was CGI used for the interior shots of the burning building. Executive producer Ronald D. Moore wanted to show the progression of the smoke build-up inside the shop, and the way this was achieved was by adding the smoke in some scenes. At the beginning of the scene, when the fire was starting, they used comparatively little smoke, which they couldn't digitally remove.