SOMEWHERE IN TIME

The Droughtlander is over! After 20 years apart, Claire and Jamie finally reunite on Season 3 of Starz's sizzling hit

- KATE HAHN

THE BEST FROM OUR ARCHIVES SEASON 3

Claire and Jamie Fraser (Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan) have failed to prevent the Battle of Culloden, which will mark the end of clan life in Scotland. As a soldier's death looms for Highland warrior Jamie, a pregnant Claire travels back to her own time—and her forbearing husband, Frank (Tobias Menzies). Two decades go by before the soulmates reunite.

FLAMES LEAP UP into the dark winter sky above a narrow cobblestone street in Old Town Edinburgh, Scotland. An out-of-breath Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan) burst through the crowd of terrified onlookers and rush toward the burning building. Yes, fans, the sexy soulmates reunite setting off serious sparks of their own-in Season 3 of Outlander. Then, of course, they get swept right back into danger.

"Their reunion is big, but so much happens to them even before that," says a soot-smudged Heughan on set during a break in filming.

The buildup is indeed as good as the super-steamy payoff. So far, the time-traveling nurse and her beloved Highland warrior have tried and failed to change history, repeatedly rescued each other from sadistic British army captain Black Jack Randall (Tobias Menzies) and left a trail of tangled bedsheets in their wake.

This season the canvas gets even bigger. "We cover more time periods, and there's more complexity in sets, costume, hair and makeup," says executive producer Ronald D. Moore. "It has such scope and spectacle." (This from a show that in Season 2 re-created the opulent French Court at Versailles!)