Tobias Menzies had difficulty making 'Outlander's' darkest scene 'loving' 

Tobias Menzies had difficulty making \'Outlander\'s\' darkest scene \'loving\'

"Outlander" reached its darkest day yet with the penultimate episode of Season 1, "Wentworth Prison," and the story is only getting darker heading into the Season 1 finale.

While Jamie (Sam Heughan) was prepared to die by hanging, he was "rescued" from his fate at the last moment by Black Jack Randall (Tobias Menzies) -- and ended up in a situation far more dire. This episode, more than any before it, shows how much of a sadist Black Jack truly is, as his goal was to break Jamie physically and emotionally, even if it meant inflicting as much pain as he possibly could.

Sadly, his goal may have been achieved. While Jamie withstood Randall crushing his hand with a mallet, it was Claire\'s (Caitriona Balfe) capture after a failed rescue attempt that forced him to finally submit to his captor in a heartbreaking moment. He promised to fully submit to his tormentor if it meant his wife could go free, and Black Jack asked for a sign of his commitment.

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What followed was more horrifying than watching Randall put Jamie\'s good hand on his erection earlier in the episode after using the mallet to shatter the other. To prove Jamie was good to his word, the British officer drove a nail through Jamie\'s hand and kissed him -- something the Scot couldn\'t resist -- all while Claire clung to her husband\'s side sobbing. In this moment, Randall beat the two of them -- a victory he will savor, even if it\'s only temporary.

"I think he\'s intrigued by them because they can match him, in a way. Claire is smart as a whip, and that piques his interest. Jamie is a man of considerable physical and moral rectitude and ability," Menzies explains to  Zap2it. "I think he likes a challenge."

While the physical and emotional torture Randall puts Jamie through is disturbing to watch, it\'s one of the episode\'s quietest scenes that may be the most haunting.

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In September 2014, Zap2it visited the Scotland set of "Outlander." There Menzies and Heughan were filming the scene where Randall asks Jamie if he "softens" when his wife touches the scars on his back during sex, before offering him an easy death if he would simply admit he\'s scared.

It was a dark moment to watch, set against the backdrop of what was actually a hopeful day: that specific scene was filmed on Sept. 17, the day before the historic, and ultimately failed, Scottish independence referendum vote.

While the crew and certain cast members on the Scottish set buzzed with hopeful electricity, the material they were filming was anything but. How ironic that while the country was waiting to possibly vote itself out from under U.K. rule, they filmed a scene in which Jamie -- a Scot -- was being tortured by a British soldier.

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The crew watched as Menzies delivered his monologue again and again, each version darker than the one before. The final take they filmed was bone-chilling, as Randall smiles with a gleam in his eye when asking if Jamie can\'t help but think of the damage that\'s been inflicted upon him during sex.

With scenes so intense, it was interesting to observe Menzies and Heughan during breaks from filming. Even when sitting right next to one another, the two completely ignored each other. "We didn\'t talk a lot outside of doing the scenes," Menzies reason. "We tried to keep it as fresh as possible." Taking it one step further, he refrained from interacting with just about anyone, instead keeping his mind trained on the character and scene.

After all, there was a lot going on in the episode for him to focus on. While many will look at Randall\'s treatment of Jamie as pure hatred, Menzies sees it from a different angle. "I think the most difficult thing about it was to, in a way, make it curiously loving -- to stop it [from] being just brutality, really," he says.

"Ultimately it\'s not about Black Jack just being evil or nasty; it\'s about Black Jack wanting to break Jamie and wanting to break this love he has for Claire," Heughan tells Zap2it of the prison cell scenes. "The tragedy of this whole story -- which I find really exciting -- is we\'ve got this beautiful relationship, this beautiful romance that ultimately gets completely tainted and destroyed by Black Jack. Maybe it\'s irreversible, who knows?"

The Season 1 finale of "Outlander" airs Saturday, May 30, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Starz.

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