Outlander episode 9
Outlander returns with a new episode on 4 April on the Starz Outlander/Facebook

Outlander returns with its midseason premiere episode on 4 April and fans of the popular fantasy drama are eager to find out how the remaining episodes of season 1 unfold.

Actor Sam Heughan, who plays Jamie Fraser on the show, recently spoke to People magazine about the return of the Starz series. The Scottish actor dropped some interesting hints about what's in store in the second half of season 1 and teased a "great climax."

"I think the relationships, all of them, are tested," he said. "It's a real roller coaster, and the momentum from the first part of the season really carries through until this great climax."

His co-star Caitriona Balfe, who plays Claire, told People that Claire and Jamie's "honeymoon phase" is over and now there will be a lot of "internal friction" in their relationship.

"They married very quickly," she said. "It was love and like a honeymoon phase, and now, not only do they have all these external forces coming into play that are going to test them, there's a lot of internal friction because they're two different people from different times."

According to Entertainment Weekly, the midseason premiere episode will feature the tumultuous aftermath of Claire's rescue from the clutches of dastardly Black Jack Randall. "Which is to say, Jamie (Sam Heughan) isn't quite feeling the love for his new bride at the moment."

Because Claire's wandering afield and disobeying orders (she was trying to get back to the stones and back to the future) led her to get captured by the Redcoats, and thus to mortally endanger Jamie and his fellow band of highland clansmen, the men won't talk to her. They shun her. The only way to right things, Jamie explains, is for him to give her a good hiding with his belt. (via Flavorwire)

Being a feisty modern woman (a modern-day woman of the 1940s, that is), she objects but this is what eventually leads to the (much-talked about) 'spanking scene' in the premiere episode.

The official synopsis for the midseason premiere episode reads, "Jamie and the Highlanders rescue Claire from Black Jack Randall. Back at the castle, politics threaten to tear Clan MacKenzie apart and Jamie's scorned lover, Laoghaire, attempts to win him back."

Outlander season 1 episode 9 titled The Reckoning airs on 4 April at 9pm EST on Starz.

Click here to watch the episode live stream online.

Meanwhile, you can watch the opening scene of the midseason premiere episode that was released earlier this year, below:

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