Caitriona Balfe Says It Doesn’t “Get Stale” Shooting Jamie and Claire’s ‘Outlander’ Kisses

Spoilers for the Outlander Season 7 premiere ahead! Read at your own risk!

Outlander Season 7 starts with Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and Jamie (Sam Heughan) separated once more. The last season of the Starz hit ended with Claire wrongfully accused and arrested for the murder of Malva Christie (Jessica Reynolds). Outlander Season 7 Episode 1 “A Life Well Lost” — now streaming on the Starz app — opens with Jamie imagining the worst: Claire perishing at the gallows in front of a jeering crowd. He makes it his mission to storm Wilmington and take back his beloved Sassenach no matter what.

Of course, Jamie and Claire are eventually reunited. About half way through the Outlander Season 7 premiere, Jamie gallantly arrives on board the ship Claire is being held on. He climbs onto the boat and embraces his wife. For a moment, the whole world goes still as they kiss. There’s no Revolutionary War on the horizon, no one else around them. Except for, uh, one Redcoat who finally flails, “Not permitted!”

As dreamy as Jamie and Claire’s kiss was on screen — up until the solider interrupted their bliss — Outlander stars Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe found the experience a tad bit less magical.

When Decider asked the actors if shooting their iconic embraces has perhaps gotten stale over the past decade, Balfe said, “I don’t know if it ever gets stale.”

“I mean, filming on a boat is always really fun,” she said sarcastically, “because they are the most cramped small spaces ever. So I think usually what’s happening is everybody’s banging their head every five seconds.”

“I remember that I had to climb over onto the boat,” Heughan said. “So they had this inflatable pontoon floating in the water. But it wasn’t very health and safety. It was kind of remarkable that I didn’t actually fall in because it was literally about this this big [mimes how small it was].”

“They were like, ‘Come over, Sam!'” Balfe said, “And you were like, ‘Oh, God.””

“But thankfully, Jamie did manage to climb over and they were reunited even for a second.”

Yes, that pesky Redcoat ruined their reunion, didn’t he? Worse, Jamie is told that Claire will only go free if he can rally 200 men to the Crown’s cause against the colonies. It’s a horrific demand for the proud Scot-turned-North Carolinian.

In the end, it is Tom Christie (Mark Lewis Jones) who makes a noble sacrifice, confessing to the crime of murdering his own daughter, to save Claire, the woman he loves. The Outlander Season 7 premiere ends with Jamie and Claire together once more, but it’s clear that trouble looms on the horizon for our favorite time-crossed lovers. This Outlander, after all. And drama is always right around the corner.