It’s finally here: “Outlander The Wedding” episode

Only two episodes remain before Outlander goes on hiatus, returning in 2015 with the second half of Season 1, but it’s Episode 7 — Outlander The Wedding (airing on Starz Saturday at 9pmET) — that we’ve all been waiting for. And let’s just say, you won’t be disappointed, as the wedding is exquisitely translated to TV in smoldering and endearing detail (no spoilers here, but we loved it). Watch the Starz preview.

The events leading up to this episode have found Claire (Caitriona Balfe) struggling to make sense of this 18th century world she’s been cast into, and desperately trying to make alliances with people who can help her return to 1945 and her husband. Last week’s episode delivered, quite literally, a gut punch to Claire, as well as a brutal kicking at the direction of the sadistic Captain Black Jack Randall (Tobias Menzies), who believes Claire sympathizes with the Scottish enemy and her newfound clansmen. Dougal (Graham McTavish) interrupted the beating and demanded Claire be released to him — after all, she is a guest of the clan — and Randall agreed, but warned that if Dougal didn’t return Claire to him he would be accused of and punished for harboring a fugitive.

RELATED: Our interview with Sam Heughan who plays Jamie Fraser

So the only “legal” option the clan had was to change Claire from an English woman to a Scot via marriage, and who better (the clan’s motives included) to marry the mystery woman than the ruggedly handsome Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan)? And that’s where “The Wedding” begins — preparing for Claire to take on Jamie’s name, clan and family.

As series writer and executive producer Ron Moore told earlier this year, the series will always put the book first. “In the writer’s room, we always start with the book. We put the book up on the board first. What’s the book version of events, what are the scenes, and then we kind of go from there. OK. Well, that doesn’t quite play here in the hour format. How do we bridge that? Maybe we change or maybe we add some things that could have happened, but aren’t mentioned there. Maybe we have to change something, but we always take pains to get back to where the book takes us because that’s sort of our job.”

So what did you think? Did the book or the TV show capture it better? Was it everything you were hoping for?  Did it leave you blushing? Comment below.