In its second season, Outlander: Blood of My Blood is putting Henry through the wringer. When he arrives in Inverness in 1924, he’s thoroughly traumatized and desperate to find his way back to his wife and children. Hospitalized, he’s subjected to electroshock therapy and forced to recall the bloody horror of World War I.

At the show’s recent press day, Scifi Vision joined a roundtable discussion with showrunners Matthew Roberts and Maril Davis. We asked why they felt it was important to tell this part of Henry’s story.

“A lot of times we'll show mental health or PTSD or some depression or something,” Roberts explained, “and then you forget, shows forget about it and they don't come back to it. And World War I affected this entire country; you know, a generation was lost. So what they faced over there was so amazingly traumatic for this whole entire generation and not just for the people who fought, but for the people back home because they had to take care of these people.

Roberts said he and Davis didn’t want to let that go. “It's important for Henry's character to continually face that, but also Julia's character to help because ultimately she is – I don't think there's a cure, but she is the treatment. And we need to show that and we need to continually show that.”

Unfortunately for Henry, the worst is not over. “He's gonna face a lot more,” teased Roberts, “so there's that.”

Watch the video of the full roundtable discussion below, and tune into Outlander: Blood of My Blood every Friday on Starz. Episode two drops next Friday, September 25.