Outlander: Why was the date smudged in the series?
Outlander Season 4 opted to smudge the date in Claire and Jamie’s obituary. Why would the show change this from the books?
In Outlander Season 4, Episode 4, Roger learned that Claire and Jamie had died in the fire. Whether the obituary is right or not (book fans know the full truth) wasn’t important. It was all about the date — or lack of date.
The series opted to smudge the date, but in the books, Brianna and Roger knew when Claire and Jamie were fated to die. So, why would the series change this? Was it just to set up drama?
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In a way, it was. The production needed a reason for Brianna to race to get through the stones. Brianna and Roger’s storyline had been condensed to get the two into the past as soon as possible. With just 13 episodes to tell the tale, it’s not surprising the production wanted to speed up a few elements.
Without a smudged date, Brianna wouldn’t have needed to race through the stones. In fact, it could seem odd from a TV viewer point of view that Roger would keep the obituary from Brianna. Traveling through the stones to go to the past wouldn’t have seemed so urgent. The idea of not planning ahead too much for the journey would have seemed much more ridiculous.
Sure, Brianna went through the stones shortly after finding the obituary herself in the books, but it hadn’t seemed as urgent. She had time to see her family at Lallybroch without the fear that she wouldn’t get to her parents in time.
TV needs drama in every single episode. The smudged date would help to continue a sense of urgency throughout Brianna’s journey until she reached her parents in a way we wouldn’t have felt had we all known the date.
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Did the smudged date annoy you in Season 4? Did the change make sense? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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