Defending Frank’s decision to burn Claire’s clothing in Outlander Season 2
The Outlander Season 2 premiere saw Claire go back to Frank. He ended up burning everything that came from the 18th century. Why would he do such a thing?
In the Outlander Season 2 premiere, Frank finally found out what happened to Claire. Despite his love for history, he decided to burn all the clothing Claire returned in, getting rid of everything she brought back from the 18th century.
Why would he do such a thing, especially as a historian? Wouldn’t selling it have been better? There are a few reasons I defend his actions in this moment.
Frank was grieving
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There were so many emotions running through Frank at this point. He’d just found out that his wife had traveled through time to the past. Then he found out that she didn’t want to return because she’d fallen in love with someone else. And to top it off, she’d only returned because that man was going to die in the Battle of Culloden and Claire needed someone to keep her and their baby safe.
It was a lot to accept. Frank had spent three years of his life wondering and questioning what had happened to Claire. He refused to believe that she’d run off with another man. But not only was she telling him that she was in love with someone else, but that he was from another time and there was now a baby.
He’d just got her back and he would have felt like he was losing her again. He had lost the woman he knew, and he would have been going through the stages of grief.
Grief can make us do the strangest of things. We act irrationally when usually we can be calm and methodical. When Frank was burning the clothing, he was likely going through the denial stage of grief. He wanted to pretend that nothing strange had happened.
He was protecting Claire
What would Frank have said if he tried to see these authentic 18th-century items? That he found them in an attic somewhere? Considering the country would have heard all about the tale of the “woman who had been taken by the faeries,” it wouldn’t have been easy for Frank to just sell the items on without raising some sort of suspicion.
We’ve also got to remember the line of work Frank had previously been in. He was MI6, secret service. This was a guy with skills no normal history professor would have. He knew people that were dangerous, and he would have known the things that could have happened to both him and Claire had he tried to sell those items of clothing on.
Within all the grief, Frank was also still able to think ahead. He was promising to protect Claire and this was part of it.
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Frank didn’t have to take Claire in
This was a man who could have walked away. After hearing about the tale, Frank could have even had her locked up in a mental asylum, claiming that she was insane with this story of traveling through time. It wouldn’t have been hard to get her committed.
Instead, Frank accepted Claire back. He raised Brianna as his own. All he wanted was for the past to be forgotten about.
He didn’t want Claire to go back to Jamie. He didn’t want any reminder of that time. Could we really blame him for wanting to burn every memory?
Even if he could sell the items, they would have been out there in the world. Frank would have known that someone was possibly wearing them or they were in a museum, and that would have been a constant reminder of everything that happened.
When judging a character for their actions, it’s important to put ourselves in that character’s shoes. That means thinking about the time period, the events that character would have been through that weren’t necessarily shown, and the personality of that character up to that point. Frank had a lot of reasons to burn the clothing.
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What did you think of Frank burning the clothes? What would you have done in his position? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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