“We’re closer now because we choose to see each other.”
The first time I heard that line, I raised an eyebrow.
By the eighth time, or honestly I’ve lost count by now, it became very clear this was not some spontaneous, heartfelt answer. This is a talking point.
And since we’ve already talked about the obvious PR talking points in this promo cycle, especially around Caitriona suddenly being very open about her husband, her child, her family life, evil shippers, and her carefully labelled “working relationship” with Sam, I think it’s time we talk about this specific one.
Because it keeps coming back.
Again and again.
The line is basically this:
Now that they no longer work together every day, they are closer than before, because now they have to choose to see each other.
Sounds lovely, right?
Very mature. Very polished. Very safe.
But let’s actually unpack it.
They are asking us to believe that during eleven years of filming, when they spent months together, hours every day, in one of the most intimate working environments imaginable, there was somehow pressure that got in the way of the relationship. And now, when they no longer see each other daily, when Sam has an extremely busy schedule, when they presumably only meet every now and then, the relationship has deepened.
A bit strange, no?
Even stranger when you remember they were never just two co-workers who met from nine to five and then went home to separate lives.
From the very beginning, they were spending time together outside work. A lot.
And we only know the tip of the iceberg.
Pubs, both in groups and alone.
Hikes, alone and even with her sister.
At least three theatre outings that we know of, one with his mother.
Coffee shops.
A London meet-up with Graham.
Beach picnics.
Tennis.
Games.
Restaurants, including the double date with the Nicks.
A cocktail night during Covid.
And I’m not even including all the trips and overlaps we only discovered in hindsight.
So let me understand this.
All those times they spent together outside filming, they weren’t “choosing” each other?
Because that’s what this talking point seems designed to imply.
From a PR standpoint, it does two things.
First, it minimizes the relationship they had during filming. It gently reframes it as professional proximity, something created by work, pressure, and circumstance.
Which is absurd, considering everything listed above.
Second, it prepares the ground for any future sightings. If they are seen together now, it can be explained away very neatly:
“They’re just very close friends who choose to spend time together now.”
Convenient.
Now let’s go back about a year.
Around Sam’s birthday, he started being spotted in Battersea. Later, we find out he lives there. Conveniently, in the same area as his co-star.
Then there was that sighting by a Spanish fan outside a pub in the neighborhood, where someone sitting across from him looked very much like that same co-star.
Not long after, in at least two interviews, Sam mentioned that he had seen Caitriona in London for “one lovely lunch.”
Caitriona, meanwhile, framed their relationship as mostly texting.
So which is it?
Are they so close post show that Sam feels like she has brought him into her family?
Or are they mostly texting and meeting once in a while for a lovely lunch?
As they say, the math ain’t mathing.
And then, a couple of months after that sighting, the husband reappeared publicly after nearly a year of absence, alongside a new player that entered the game.
Timing is everything.
You’d think that if this is truly just a close friendship, and nothing more, they wouldn’t mind taking a quick selfie during one of those meetups and making millions of fans happy during a very long Droughtlander.
After all, that’s what close friends from pretty much every other show do.
And yet, for some reason, they haven’t posted a photo of themselves together outside of set in years.
Lastly, just because whoever is advising them apparently thinks none of us have actual social lives, I’d genuinely love to know: have you ever felt that a friendship in your life became deeper because you only saw that person once every few months?
And more than that, have you ever spoken about that “deepening” so openly, not just to each other, but to millions of strangers?
Food for the masses . That’s all it ever is.
I thought, after Outlander ends, that we would see the end of all the contrived, weird disclosures about them and their supposed partners. I don’t think they know how to unwind the narratives. Nor do they see a reason to do it and then have to cope with the backlash. They’re not ready to get out of the public eye either. So I suppose they will keep trying to cover up what was so obvious from the beginning.
