Outlander Book Club: Book 1, Chapter 35 breakdown

Connecting to the TV series

A lot of the chapter was used for the TV series. The only part that wasn’t was the ending. We didn’t see Claire fight off the wolf. I’m sure the reason for that was more about the budget.

Trying to do a CGI wolf wouldn’t have been realistic. It links to the reason Jamie didn’t fight a real bear in Outlander Season 4. In Season 5, a CGI buffalo was used, but many fans commented on how it didn’t look real. Could you imagine the comments back in 2014/15 when CGI wasn’t as good?

So, it makes sense not to use the wolf part. It wasn’t all that necessary. The focus needed to be on Wentworth Prison and saving Jamie.

What we did get was some invention to see what Jamie had been through. Instead of leaving too much to the imagination or having to have Jamie tell us, we were shown it. It was graphic and this part of the show is definitely difficult to watch, but it was an important invention for the series to develop this storyline. We could feel everything Jamie did.

The rest of the chapter played out as it did in the book. Claire saw Sir Fletcher, Rupert found out the layout of the prison, and Claire went back under the pretense of the letter to get to Jamie.

The only difference in this part was Claire leaving a door to the prison unlocked so they could go back in for Jamie. That would have been to shorten the discussions of getting back in and possibly due to the layout of the building used for filming.

What did you get during your reading of Outlander Book 1, Chapter 35? Share in the comments below.

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