Outlander Season 3: We Have to Wait a While to See Jamie and Claire Together Again

"Droughtlander" might be ending in under three months, but that doesn't mean that Outlander fans are going to see their favorite couple back together when the show returns.

Outlander last left off with Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and Jamie (Sam Heughan) separated by 200 years of history. Claire had returned to the 1940s before the Battle of Culloden to protect their unborn child while Jamie went back to fight with his countrymen and presumably die.

It took Claire 20 years in her own timeline to discover that Jamie had managed to live through the bloody battle. She ended the Season 2 finale declaring to her now adult daughter Brianna (Sophie Skelton) that they have to go back to find Jamie. Unfortunately, the search for him will not be that easy.

"We're going to keep them apart for a while," executive producer Ron Moore teased to TVGuide.com at the ATX Television Festival in Austin.

Claire and Jamie's separation tracks with how Diana Gabaldon's third book in the Outlander series, on which the show is based, plays out. Moore admits that some structural changes are being made to the story, but reuniting Claire and Jamie right off the bat is not one of them.

"The majority of the major events are in the season, but we are probably going to reorder them and present them slightly differently," Moore said. "The third book is a clean narrative as opposed to the second book --which was a very complicated narrative. It still went to Jamie's storyline for a very long time and then Claire catches up."

The beginning of the season will do a lot to fill in the story of Claire's life with Frank (Tobias Menzies) in Boston after she returned through the stones at the end of Season 2.

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"One of the things we wanted to do was talk about what Claire was doing in those 20 years as well," Moore said. "The way we've structured the season allows you to experience both [Jamie and Claire's lives] at the same time."

That may sound like terrible news to some fans, but luckily Claire will have some assistance in finding her way back to Jamie. Brianna and Roger (Richard Rankin) will be there to help her figure out what Jamie was doing in Scotland after he escaped the battle. Helping Claire will also help bring the young lovebirds closer together.

"[Brianna and Roger]'s relationship has to do with their relationship to each other, but also them assisting Claire in trying to figure out after [Jamie] survived Culloden -- what happened to him and the search for Jamie in history, at the same time developing their relationship," Moore said.

At least we get some romance in the first episodes of Season 3?

Outlander returns on Starz this September.