Outlander Page #6

Season #1 Episode #1 - 'Sassenach'

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dawn and I don’t want to miss them.

CLAIRE:

Must I ask?

FRANK:

The vicar told me there’s a circle

of standing stones on a hill just

outside the village -- their own

Stonehenge, as it were -- and that

a local group still observes

rituals there.

CLAIRE:

And tomorrow being Beltane, the

witches will be out in force, I

imagine.

FRANK:

Well, not witches, actually.

Although there have been witches

all over Scotland for hundreds of

years -- they burnt them ‘til well

into the eighteenth century -- but

this lot is really meant to be

Druids, or something of the sort. I

don’t suppose it’s actually a coven

of devil-worshippers, or that sort

of thing.

Claire snuggles in to her husband’s arms.

CLAIRE:

More’s the pity. Can’t imagine

anything I’d rather do than rise

before dawn to watch a coven of

devil-worshippers prance about in

the Highlands.

(yawn)

Where, exactly, will we be enjoying

this spectacle?

FRANK:

A place called Craigh Na Dun.

(CONTINUED)

27.

CONTINUED:
(5)

He blows OUT the candle.

EXT. CRAIGH NA DUN - PRE-DAWN

The MISTY flat-topped green hill abounds with natural rocks

and crags that jut out here and there, but the dominant

feature is artificial: a circle of STANDING STONES smaller

than their more famous cousins on the Salisbury Plain, but

which still are more than twice a man’s height. The henge is

made of giant rocks flecked with mica, which are obviously

not part of the area’s natural environment.

Claire and Frank, bundled against the chill are easing

themselves into a hidden vantage point where they can observe

the festivities about to take place among the stones in the

slowly gathering light of dawn which is just starting to

pierce the low-lying night mist.

FRANK:

... the Reverend didn’t know much

of the real history of the site

beyond the local folklore, which

maintains that the stones were

carried here from Africa by a race

of Celtic giants.

Claire is looking around, trying to be tolerably pleasant at

this hour.

CLAIRE:

(dry)

I wasn’t aware the Celts made a lot

of visits to Africa.

FRANK:

Only the giant ones, it would seem.

In any case, the true origin of the

stones is lost to antiquity as well

as their original purpose.

Claire sees something o.c.

CLAIRE:

Is that Inverness?

Frank follows her gaze -- the twinkling LIGHTS of the city

are glowing in the misty western horizon. A few CARS and

TRUCK HEADLIGHTS move along the roads, a TRAIN WHISTLES in

the distance, even the blinking lights of an AIRCRAFT groping

toward an unseen landing strip in the fog, all testify to the

presence of a modern city just beginning to stir.

(CONTINUED)

28.

CONTINUED:

FRANK:

I should think so, yes.

(sees something else)

Oh! We should take cover.

He and Claire bustle into the shadows, just as -

THE CELEBRANTS:

15 WOMEN, ranging in age from late teens to sixties, appear

dressed in crude WHITE SHEETS. Silently, they walk in a line

through the stones, their LEADER guiding the way.

CLAIRE:

(sotto)

Is that... Mrs. Graham?

They peer closer and sure enough, it is the housekeeper.

FRANK:

(delighted)

The Vicar’s housekeeper is a witch.

CLAIRE:

Druid, remember?

Claire giggles softly and they turn their attention back to

the ritual. At a signal from Mrs. Graham, the women take

their places in the shadows of the stones, completely

disappearing from view for the moment.

THE SUN:

Begins to rise above the distant mountains, sending a SHAFT

of LIGHT across the terrain.

IN THE CIRCLE OF STONES

The SHAFT of light perfectly bisects the space between two of

the massive stones, cutting directly across the diameter of

the circle and straight into the face of a WOMAN standing

there waiting in the dark.

Her ENORMOUS distorted SHADOW is cast back onto another

plinth, and as she slowly raises her arms, the image on the

sloping stone face seems to reach out with clawed hands in an

image both strange and threatening.

The rest of the women form lines within the circle and begin

to DANCE. Their expressions are blank, still -- almost as if

they were in some kind of trance.

(CONTINUED)

29.

CONTINUED:
(2)

As Claire and Frank watch in fascination, the women move in

and out of geometric formations as the sun continues to rise

above the distant hills.

CLAIRE (V.O.)

They should have been ridiculous,

and perhaps they were. A

collection of women in bedsheets,

many of them stout and far from

agile, parading in circles on top

of a hill.

(beat)

But the hairs on the back of my

neck prickled at the sight... and

some small voice inside warned me I

wasn’t supposed to be here... that

I was an unwelcome voyeur to

something ancient and powerful.

Claire’s right, there is something unsettling about the

ceremony, something that seems to touch onto deeper chords of

memory and prehistory than simple village tradition. The

shadows seem filled with whispers, the night air alive with

ancient sprites -- something old and powerful being venerated

and awakened in these hills.

Suddenly she begins to hear a HUM in the air. Can’t make out

what direction it’s coming from.

CLAIRE:

(sotto)

You hear that?

FRANK:

Hmm...?

But then, the ceremony ends and the hum FADES AWAY. The

single woman’s shadow on the stone finally reduced to

something more familiar and mortal. The sun’s light now

strikes the great SPLIT STONE on the opposite side of the

henge. The dancers now all join the woman and follow her in

a careful line, walking though the cleft in the split stone

and out down the hillside.

FRANK (cont’d)

Fascinating.

MOMENTS LATER:

Frank and Claire are down amid the stones themselves, the

women now gone. Frank is taking notes in his journal,

sketching the stones, making diagrams, etc.

(CONTINUED)

30.

CONTINUED:
(3)

Claire, meanwhile, is more interested in the various PLANTS

growing around the stones. One in particular catches her

attention:
a VINE growing around the base of a stone with

deep blue flowers and an orange center.

She’s starting to bend down to examine it closer when Frank

suddenly grabs her arm and pulls her quickly into hiding

behind a stone. Her question is immediately silenced by his

finger to her lips and she waits breathless for a moment

before peering around the corner to see -

-- a WOMAN has returned to the henge. Now back in her street

clothes and looking much more like the housewife than druid,

celebrant, she walks the grounds for a moment looking for

something. Finally, she locates a lost HAIR CLIP in the

grass. Rather than make her way back down the path, however,

she decides to sit down and contemplate the beauty of the

area in the quiet morning sun.

Frank and Claire manage to creep away without getting her

attention and make their way back down the hill unobserved.

The woman stays on the hill, bathed in sunlight.

INT. MRS. BAIRD’S BED & BREAKFAST - PARLOR - DAY

Later. Claire sits in an armchair, leafing through a BOOK.

Frank comes down the stairs, sees her and comes over.

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