Sam Heughan and Caitríona Balfe return as Jamie and Claire Fraser one final time in the eighth season of Outlander
NEED TO KNOW
Balfe tells PEOPLE how the cast felt when filming wrapped on the season and why they all took time off to process the experience
New episodes of Outlander premiere Fridays on Starz
Creating the final season ofOutlander— and then saying goodbye after more than a decade — was no easy feat.
StarsCaitríona BalfeandSam Heughan, who have led the hit Starz series since 2014, spent nearly a year filming the eighth season — and thenhad to return for some reshootstoo.
Balfe, 46, tells PEOPLE that she and her costar "felt so much responsibility to make it right, and everything felt heightened."
"It was an emotionally taxing nine months," she says of filming.
When production wrapped, she, Heughan, 45, and their costars all needed to decompress. "We all went and did something right after," she says.
"I went off and did a retreat, and [Heughan] went and climbed the Himalayas," she reveals. "Sophie [Skelton] went to Africa, Richard [Rankin] learned how to fly. I think we all had that initial ... I wouldn't say exorcist, but it's like that [process] of releasing it."
A retreat wasn't all that they did to move on from the career-defining roles. "All of us took some time off as well," Balfe adds. "Because I think you do — well, at least for me, I'll speak for myself — but I wanted to process it and I wanted to honor the experience of the character by letting it go, in a healthy way."
"I don't know, I think you can maybe make yourself a bit mad sometimes if you don't sit in the experience for a while," she says.
Her final moments on set were particularly emotional, she told PEOPLE at the season 8 premiere in New York City earlier this month. "I burst into tears," she admitted of her final scenes. "That moment was very, very emotional."
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She took a few things to help remember her run as Claire, though: her character's rings. "I had a lot of weddings. I had a lot of marriages. I deserved the hardware," she said.
The final season brings "some answers" for fans, Balfe said, as well as some "new locations." She also teased that "a lot of reunions are going to be very exciting for fans."
Going into season 8, though, she said she "had no idea what was going to happen," given author Diana Gabaldon hasn't released the 10th and final book of the series yet.
"Obviously, we have diverged from the books more, because Diana's still writing, so it wasn't clear where [showrunner] Matt [Roberts] was going to take the story, and I wouldn't have wanted to have had his job, because it's a really tough job to have," she told PEOPLE. "Every single person wants their character to have their moment or whatever, so it would be hard to listen to everybody. So he kept his cards very close to his chest, which I totally understand."
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In the final season, Jamie and Claire realize that "the war has followed them home to Fraser's Ridge, now a thriving settlement that has grown and flourished in their absence" and "the Frasers are confronted with the question of what they are willing to sacrifice for the place they call home and, more importantly, what they would sacrifice to stay together," per a synopsis.
"While the Frasers keep a united front against outside intruders, family secrets finally coming to light threaten to tear them apart from the inside. Although they've left the war for America's freedom behind, their fight for Fraser's Ridge has only just begun."
New episodes ofOutlanderdrop Fridays on Starz.
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