Foreshadowing for future Outlander storylines
During the talk in the field, there’s a lot of foreshadowing about what’s to come. We hear about the Gathering, and it’s clear that Claire is still going to be at Castle Leoch when that happens. However, we don’t get to know what the Gathering is.
All we know is that it’s going to be somewhat dangerous for Jamie. He needs to decide whether he’s going to change his name to MacKenzie. There’s this sense that he’s still figuring out how to deal with the situation and some foreshadowing that he wants to stay away from it all.
There’s also the foreshadowing of Claire’s life moving forward. She will make the most of life in the 18th century as a healer. There has been a lot of foreshadowing of this, but it’s clear as she goes through Beaton’s items.
She throws out the items that she knows won’t help at all, like dried feces. Then she keeps the herbs that she finds, knowing that they will have some medicinal purposes.
However, she gets rid of the saws and other items that would be used for amputation. I’ve always felt like this was tempting fate or foreshadowing that she’d have to do things that she’s not all that comfortable with. I did find it odd that she chose to send everything to the carpenter. As a war nurse, she’d know that in this time, she’d have to amputate.
My only thought about why she did this is that she wanted fresh materials. After all, there’s a bit of foreshadowing that, eventually, she’s going to have to amputate limbs.
Then at the very end, there’s the foreshadowing that Claire isn’t getting back home. She’s not going to leave Castle Leoch freely, and that means she has to settle into life as the castle healer.