#TBT: Did Claire expect too much asking Jamie to wait a year on Outlander Season 2?
In Outlander Season 2, Claire had a request for Jamie. Wait one year before dueling with Black Jack Randall.
When Claire learned that Black Jack Randall had survived the stampede at Wentworth Prison, she feared how Jamie would take it. He was still struggling to deal with the horrors of that fateful night and she didn’t want to lose him even more. Of course, Outlander Season 2 threw fans for a loop when Jamie was actually happy about it. Black Jack being alive meant that Jamie had his chance to get his revenge.
Realizing that Black Jack’s death now could mean the loss of Frank, Claire requested one year. However, fans debate whether this was too much of an ask. Why would she constantly put Frank before Jamie?
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The time travel issue never brought up
Something that I ask a fantasy fan thought was about the time travelling loop. If Frank wasn’t born, would Claire have even been in Scotland to go to Jamie? Would she disappear from his time? How much could things change?
This was never brought up on the show, but could have been an excellent argument. It still remains a go-to argument when the question of Claire requesting a year comes up. Claire not being in the 18th century would have changed everything, including the fates of Jamie, Murtagh and the others due to the ambush from the top of that hill!
Frank still meant something to her
Just because Claire chose Jamie doesn’t mean that she stopped loving Frank. He was an innocent man in all this; someone stuck in the future with no idea what his wife was living through. There was still a part of Claire that was connected to Frank. After all, she never took her wedding ring off because of this.
And as mentioned, Frank was an innocent. Did he really not get to live because his ancestor was the worst man alive? Should he have suffered because his presumed ancestor was sadistic, malicious and the downright devil? Of course not! What Claire requested wasn’t something out of the ordinary. Granted we now know that Black Jack wasn’t Frank’s direct ancestor after all, but Claire didn’t know that at the time.
It would have completely messed with history
Jamie knew that Claire was from the future. Everything she did at this point would have changed history. Had she let Jamie go off and kill his rival, potentially getting killed, injured or imprisoned too, he would have changed history. This wasn’t just about Frank but about the whole of history. One small change could have been catastrophic.
Granted, Claire was trying to change history by preventing the Battle of Culloden from happening. What did Black Jack matter in the grand scheme? But this was still Claire’s life. That change goes back to the time travelling issue and could have been catastrophic for her and Jamie.
There was nothing wrong with asking Jamie to wait a year. She just wanted to wait the minimum time to ensure that Frank’s line would continue. That was it. Plus she knew that Black Jack would die at Culloden anyway. In the end Jamie agreed anyway because of Frank—well, because of Claire and ultimately because of Frank. He wanted to make sure Frank was there for her when she went back to look after her.
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Do you think Claire expected too much by asking Jamie to wait for a year? Why or why not do you think that? Share in the comments below.
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