Connecting to the Outlander TV series
Finally, we move onto the connection to the Outlander series. This chapter is the first that has pretty much been used directly for the series premiere. There are some small changes to the characters, such as the woman in the cabin not there in the show and one of the men briefly described not included. Instead, Angus is introduced in the show at this point, immediately creating a sense of inseparable duo with Angus and Rupert.
From the run from the stones up to the end, everything mostly plays out the same but is condensed for the sake of time. After all, the first three chapters are the ones that were developed for the first episode. All together, they took almost three hours of reading and dissecting, but they had to fit into a one-hour episode. This section of the episode was probably about 20-30 minutes (without me checking on Netflix) so it certainly had to be condensed in some way.
Claire does show her use. We get a sense of the suspicion from Dougal. At the same time, we get to see Jamie and that initial connection the two share. It’s there in the show and it’s definitely there in the books, even if Claire isn’t going to admit it right away. She immediately wants to care for him, even if she is technically a captive.
The biggest difference is the lack of mention of The Watch. At least, I don’t remember The Watch ever being mentioned at this point. They do come up at another point in the season, showing how the TV series needs to make use of mentions like this rather than just quick names that would probably be overlooked due to the events happening around Claire.
What did you pick up from Outlander Book 1, Chapter 3? What did you notice for the first time? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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