“I just love seeing the debate of Malva and this frustration over her,” Reynolds tells EW.
“Let’s keep up this chat about her and whether she’s good or bad.”
Warning: This article contains spoilers about Sunday’s episode ofOutlander.
Jessica Reynolds as Malva in ‘Outlander’.Robert Wilson/Starz
But everything came to a head on Sunday night’s episode, “The World Turned Upside Down.”
JESSICA REYNOLDS:When I was auditioning, I didn’t.
When I got the part, I found out from the book because I read my whole book.
That’s how I found out.
And I was like, “Oh, my good god!”
It’s just pure tragedy, isn’t it?
Yeah, I think so.
As far as I’m concerned, she found out she was pregnant between episode 2 and episode 3.
In the filler of that.
It starts quite early on.
I don’t think it’s as evil as the surface maybe sees it as.
She could accuse a number of other people and have a much more valid claim.
We will find out more.
There’s obviously a solid explanation.
And I don’t want to give away too much.
But there’s reason behind the madness.
What is your take on her thoughts about or beliefs in witchcraft?
Because we’ve seen her dabble in it herself.
And obviously there’s her history with her mother as well.
We see at the start she’s a good Protestant girl.
She’s learned a lot.
There’s a part of her that’s, like, fearful and thinks this could be real.
She sees the science as a magic, as you see in the ether scene.
She could have gone to Claire for help to begin with.
But instead she chooses to accuse her of witchcraft and turn against her.
No, I don’t think she does believe that.
Especially not at this stage.
At the start, potentially.
She’s almost scared of touching the book and everything.
There’s still those doubts, but by that stage, no.
Malva’s got a big hold over her.
But it will all become unraveled.
And we’ll see.
Why was she so promiscuous?
Is that out of trauma?
These are all such brilliant questions, but it will be explained.
We saw that she was approaching Claire’s surgery before she died.
Did you have a specific thing in mind that she was going there for?
And could have continued as an apprentice or an assistant to Claire maybe.
That’s the ideal scenario.
I guess that’s all she wanted.
To have some sort of purpose of her own that didn’t rely on men all the time.
And that didn’t involve a life of abuse, basically.
I think that there was that potential for her.
Yeah, I’m sure we’ll find out at some point.
It’s in the books, isn’t it?
it’s possible for you to look it up.
But no, don’t.
But yeah, there has to be some sort of conclusion, right?
I just love seeing the debate of Malva and this frustration over her.
Let’s keep up this chat about her and whether she’s good or bad.
Or justified or not.
It’s so interesting to discuss, even on a psychology level.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
