Welcome to Long Live the Sex Scene, a special project by Cosmopolitan that explores why these steamy television and movie moments truly matter, especially right now. Join us as we rewind, replay, and then rewind them all over again.
When my older sister convinced me to start watching Outlander, I was feeling meh about it. There were seven and a half seasons to catch up on, and that seemed like a big commitment for someone so busy that she’s triggered by first-date questions like, “So what do you like to do in your free time?” (Umm, what is “free time,” silly Hinge match?)
And yet, it took me literally only 30 days to parse through 83 episodes of the show. (That’s 83 hours, btw.) It was…well, addictive. If you love Game of Thrones, know a little something about history, and enjoy watching sexy men walk around in skirts, you’ll stan the romance between a hot Scottish man and his gorgeous English, aka “Sassenach,” lover. The plotline—which is GOOD!—isn’t even the best part. It’s the titillating sex scenes that are seriously the best porn you’ll find with your Netflix or Starz subscription. Just take a peek at this YouTube compilation:
So obviously, I dedicated an entire article to all the juicy sex scenes this show has given us these past seven seasons. And now that there's a prequel series, I decided to add the scenes from Blood of My Blood to this list, too. This list goes in chronological order, so feel free to read and watch with or without a vibrator right next to you. Light spoilers ahead, my friends:
Outlander scenes
1. Frank and Claire explore Castle Leoch (season 1, episode 1)
The first episode of the series takes place in the 1940s. Frank Randall (Tobias Menzies), an English historian, wanders around an old castle with wife Claire Beauchamp (Caitriona Balfe). During the scene, Claire sits on a wooden table and Frank shines a flashlight on her as she spreads her legs. “Why, Mrs. Randall, I believe you left your undergarments at home,” he says, and homeboy proceeds to go down on her.
2. Claire and Jamie’s wedding night (season 1, episode 7)
War Chieftain Dougal Mackenzie (Graham McTavish) convinces Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan) to marry Claire in order to avoid handing her back over to the English military. While Jamie and Claire’s sexual tension builds and builds and builds throughout all of season 1, nothing sexual happens until they have to consummate the marriage in this episode.
The scene starts with light touching and the undressing of each other, which then accelerates to a super-heavy make-out and animalistic sex. (FWIW: I rewatch this scene on the reg.)
3. Jamie tells Claire a blacksmith fashioned her wedding ring from his key to Lallybroch (season 1, episode 9)
“I had the blacksmith fashion your ring from my key,” Jamie tells Claire after literally pledging his loyalty to her with a sword (aww, cute 1800s shit!). Claire looks lovingly into Jamie’s eyes as he says, “You are my home now” and if that didn’t already make you horny with all the feelz, the next few minutes will: They strip each other of their clothes and have sex right there on the floor—with Claire on top because she’s very clearly HBIC.
4. Jamie refuses to answer the door because he’s too busy going down on Claire (season 1, episode 10)
Yeah, this scene is about as sexy as it gets. The camera pans from Claire in the midst of her orgasm to shots of Jamie in between her legs. When Claire becomes distracted by the pounding on their door, Jamie drags her legs back down and says, “No.” So, yeah, it’s pretty much one of the best scenes in, dare I say, cinematic history.
5. Jamie fingers Claire on their way back to Lallybroch (season 1, episode 11)
On their way home to Lallybroch, Claire and Jamie share an intimate moment by their campsite one evening right after Jamie learns Claire’s low-key actually from the 1900s. Jamie starts kissing and touching a sleeping Claire until she wakes up. Claire says, “I want you inside me,” to which Jamie responds, “No, I want to watch you,” as he PG-13 fingers her.
6. Jamie and Claire do the deed one final time before she passes through the stones (season 2, episode 13)
Knowing what the future entails for The Battle of Culloden, Jamie takes Claire back to the stones so she can pass through and return back to her time safely. Before she passes, Jamie and Claire spend a moment in the grass for what they think is essentially I’m-never-going-to-see-you-again sex. Yes, this scene will make you horny, but you may also have tears in your eyes.
7. Claire masturbates to thoughts of Jamie while lying in bed with Frank (season 3, episode 2)
Claire lays beside a sleeping Frank as she masturbates to thoughts of Jamie. She pictures him lying beside her as she touches herself and moans increasingly louder. (A bit of a risky move with another guy lying in bed with you, but alas).
8. Claire and Frank have sex again…but Claire won’t look Frank in the eyes (season 3, episode 2)
In an attempt to move on with her old life, Claire promises Frank that she’s going to try to be more present. After a dinner party with another couple, Claire and Frank have a nightcap in the living room where they start fumbling with each other’s clothes and lying by the fire. It’s hot…until Frank tells Claire to open her eyes and look at him, which she obviously doesn’t do because, spoiler alert, she’s thinking about Jamie the entire time they’re effing.
9. Jamie has sex for the first time since Claire left (season 3, episode 2)
Six years without Claire, a broken Jamie tries to feel pleasure again with Mary, the maid at Lallybroch. She offers herself to him as tears stream down his face in his first attempt to be intimate with someone besides Claire.
10. Jamie takes Geneva Dunsany’s virginity (season 3, episode 4)
Okay, NGL, it’s a little hard watching sex scenes between Jamie and anyone besides Claire. But alas, here we are in this episode when Geneva Dunsany (Hannah James) decides she’d rather have Jamie take her virginity than the old-aged suitor her father arranged for her to marry. If I didn’t ship Jamie and Claire so hard, this scene would be pretty hot (despite it being initiated via blackmail): Jamie meets her in her room late one night and essentially shows her how to sex with slow, long kisses.
11. Claire and Jamie find their way back to each other’s worlds (season 3, episode 6)
In what seemed like an excruciatingly long wait, Claire is finally reunited with Jamie back in his time and nearly 20 years later. I mean, the dude literally faints as soon as he sees her. As they catch up on their child and the nearly 20 years they lived apart from each other, the buildup becomes painfully excruciating. When they make their way to Jamie’s place, which is ironically in the upstairs room of a brothel, they share dinner together and Jamie asks her to bed. Claire tells Jamie, “Do it now and don’t be gentle” and that’s exactly the sex you can expect to watch.
12. Young Ian loses his virginity to a barmaid (season 3, episode 7)
Jamie’s nephew Ian (John Bell) joins a quest to lose his virginity after learning his friend and confidant Fergus (César Domboy) lost his virginity in a ménage à trois. He serenades the barmaid in his uncle’s print shop as he tells her, “I’ll do whatever you want.”
13. Claire and Jamie get frisky on the boat (season 3, episode 11)
Jamie and Claire are reunited after both coincidentally washing ashore an unfamiliar island. On their voyage back to Paris, Claire gets tipsy off of Mr. Willoughby’s turtle soup (made with “special” broth—which is maybe a reference to an aphrodisiac back in the 1800s? Unclear). But for the first time since Jamie and Claire were reunited, they ditch the romantic/passionate sex and trade it for fiery, steamy sex on a literal desk.
14. Brianna and Roger consummate their marriage (season 4, episode 8)
Claire and Jamie’s daughter Brianna (Sophie Skelton) follows her mother through the stones, which prompts Brianna’s love interest Roger (Richard Rankin) to follow her through the stones as well. Once Roger finds Brianna in the 1800s time period, he asks for her hand in marriage and conducts the ceremony himself. There, they lie beside a fire in the living room on a blanket. Good luck making it through the few minutes of this titillating scene without having to excuse yourself to your room....
15. Brianna catches Lord John with the lawyer at Aunt Jocasta’s house (season 4, episode 11)
In one of the very few non-hetero sex scenes in this series, we *finally* have a glimpse of Lord John Grey (David Berry) getting it on with a lawyer he met at Jamie’s Aunt Acosta’s dinner party for Brianna’s suitors.
16. Claire sings a frisky “Happy Birthday” to Jamie (season 5, episode 7)
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As Claire and Jamie wake up on the morning of his 50th birthday, Jamie is taking stock of all of his body parts, making sure everything hasn’t turned to dust with his old age. Claire, seeing that his most important part is still fully functioning, uses the opportunity to initiate some birthday sex. She sings a sultry “Happy birthday, dear colonel” à la Marilyn Monroe’s serenade of JFK, and obviously Jamie doesn’t get the reference at all, but that doesn’t stop him from getting into the moment.
17. Jamie makes a hot flash even hotter (season 5, episode 11)
Claire was anticipating a steamy night with her man, but instead Jamie comes in from the barn and falls fast asleep. When he wakes up, he sees Claire sitting by the open window, deep in the sweaty throws of a hot flash. He gets up, goes over to her, and more than makes up for falling asleep earlier by promptly going down on her.
18. Claire gives Jamie the angelic treatment (season 6, episode 1)
While lying in bed, Jamie tells Claire that even when she wasn’t with him during the years she had returned to the future, he could still feel her there and he wonders if she’s an angel. Claire, in response, straddles Jamie and asks, “Would an angel do this?” before undressing him. The love and desire these two have for each other is still going strong all these years later and we love to see it.
19. Brianna and Roger make it work in close quarters (season 6, episode 8)
Brianna and Roger have set up camp for the night while traveling through the woods to Roger’s ordination, and under the cover of the tiny canvas tent, the two manage to create a surprisingly steamy (albeit kinda funny from trying to move around in that tiny space) scene.
20. Roger is feeling a bit territorial over Brianna (season 7, episode 7)
While making their bed inside their trailer, Roger reveals that he’s heard Rob Cameron might have the hots for Brianna. Brianna, taking in his jealousy, starts to undress and asks if he’s feeling “a wee bit territorial.” Roger says he knows he shouldn’t be possessive, but he can’t help but feel a little bit primal. What ensues on their very 1980s floral bed sheets while Phil Collins plays in the background is maybe the couple’s hottest moment yet.
Blood of My Blood scenes
1.Henry and Julia celebrate their engagement (season 1, episode 2)
When Henry and Julia meet in person for the first time, sparks fly, and I do mean that in the most cliché way. They go back to Julia’s apartment and start to hook up, and Henry asks, “You’re not worried that we’re not married yet, are you?” To which Julia replies, “Yet? Not exactly up there with the proposals of great literary masterpieces.” They proceed to consummate their engagement in the hottest way imaginable, and Henry is so caught up in the moment, his hands are literally shaking.
2. Brian and Ellen seal their handfast (season 1, episode 5)
Brian and Ellen’s love is absolutely forbidden, which is why it is so sexy when they hook up for the second time. They meet in secret in an abandoned chapel near the Needfire celebration, and first, they commit to each other with a handfast ceremony. Then they seal that commitment with a six-minute intimate scene.
