Outlander officially comes to an end in mere hours after the eighth and final season wraps on Starz, and there are more than a few lingering questions we’d like to see answered or addressed before the fan-favorite show concludes for good.

Various mysteries have been introduced from season to season, with the latest one having been the Faith twist, which was ultimately answered. One particular mystery remains unexplained, though, and it comes from the show’s own pilot episode, “Sassenach.” As viewers will recall, the series begins with Claire (Caitriona Balfe) taking a second honeymoon with their first husband, Frank (Tobias Menzies), but before she finds herself whisked away back in time through the standing stones of Craigh Na Dun, an interesting event occurs.

After some historical research, apart from his wife, Frank walks back to the inn where he and Claire are staying, when he notices a Highlander figure standing outside. The mystery man is peering up into the window of the building at Claire. Fans would recognize the individual as Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan).

(Credit: Starz)

Curious about the stranger, Frank approaches him, but as he goes to tap his shoulder, Jamie turns away and disappears. Puzzlement crosses his face as he realizes he’s just encountered something unexplainable. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Claire says when Frank enters their room at the inn.

“I’m not all sure that I haven’t,” Frank responds. And it’s true, it is a ghost that Frank saw, but how did this specter of Jamie Fraser make his way to Claire’s doorstep before she’d even met him?

Author Diana Gabaldon, who has penned the series upon which the Starz show is based, confirmed that the ghost was indeed Jamie Fraser but remained cryptic about the reasoning behind his appearance and what it could mean for the show later on during an interview for the Outlander podcast in 2014.

While Gabaldon’s adamant Jamie cannot time-travel like Claire or his daughter Brianna (Sophie Skelton), Gabaldon did explain during the interview that the ghost is Jamie’s and added the age this ghost would be. “Sam Heughan asked me, and I hadn’t thought about it before, but I just answered him immediately. Do you want to know?” the writer asked the podcast hosts regarding the detail before stating, “He’s about 25.”

The curious thing is that Jamie lives far beyond the age of 25, making us wonder, how does it make sense that a young spirit of Jamie is visiting Claire in the 1940s? Gabaldon seems to promise answers in her books, at least writing on the FAQ page of her website, “The ghost is Jamie – but as for how it fits into the story, All Will Be Explained — in the last book.”

It’s unclear if Gabaldon’s forthcoming tenth book in the Outlander series will address the mystery, but the Starz show has definitely condensed to fit storylines from her books as Season 8 approaches its end.

When we caught up with showrunner Matthew B. Roberts ahead of the final season and asked about Jamie’s ghost, he teased that fans “might have to live with” the mystery, adding, “I can’t say how they’re going to deal with it.”

Stay tuned to see how the series wraps up as Outlander‘s finale arrives May 15 on Starz. And let us know your theories in the comments section below.

Outlander, Series finale, Friday, May 15, 8/7c, Starz