Graham Menzies appeared in Outlander Season 5, but he is a character from the books. When did he appear in the Outlander novels and why?
Outlander Season 5 introduced us to Graham Menzies, a character in one of Claire’s flashbacks. However, he appeared in the novels much earlier. When was he in the Outlander novels and what was the storyline?
Mr. Menzies was one of Claire’s patients in “Voyager.” He was in the hospital in Boston and accidentally misdiagnosed by Claire. It was due to his death because of his misdiagnosis that Claire went on administrative leave and took Brianna to London.
Of course, the series changed the story a little. There would have been a couple of reasons for this. The full details of Menzies’s death weren’t important. After all, the end result was still the same: Claire took leave and went to London. It was always because of Graham that Claire found out about Jamie and got back to him. As long as that’s the end result, it doesn’t matter.
But why would the show include it in Season 5 when the character was included in “Voyager?” Why wasn’t Graham Menzies included in Outlander Season 3?
This would certainly be due to time. The 20 years from Culloden to Claire going back through the stones took up five episodes. Four really if you consider the fact that the fifth episode was when Claire actually went through the stones. There wasn’t a lot of time to fit the stories of all events that happened.
It was actually something I was disappointed about. Something I’m always curious about is those gaps that are left open. The reasons why characters make certain decisions. And why Claire was in London and then went up to Scotland was always something that I questioned while watching Season 3 (I was a show-first fan at the time).
But there just wasn’t the time. It was bad enough people were so impatient to see Claire and Jamie back together that they couldn’t just enjoy the first four episodes. There was so much development for the characters in these four episodes and so many people were complaining that Claire and Jamie were apart. The writers simply couldn’t have left it any longer.
And so, we had to have a few storylines skipped over. Fortunately, Graham Menzies was one who has found his way into the series after all.
Outlander airs on Sundays on STARZ.