Outlander Book Club: Book 2, Chapter 5 breakdown

Adapting Dragonfly in Amber’s chapter for the Outlander TV series

There is a lot of this chapter that didn’t make it to the show. The main reason would have been time. Story threads from this point come up in later books—not just later chapters in this story. The St. Kilda part doesn’t come up until Drums of Autumn if I remember rightly.

The writers would have had to bring in a story thread now and then covered it in Outlander Season 4. They’d have had to make sure there was time in Season 4 and hope that they would have got that season. Instead of potentially leaving a hanging story thread, it made more sense to just leave the St. Kilda part out of the story.

Our biggest focus, after all, is Brianna and Roger learning the truth about time travel and Jamie. St. Kilda wasn’t necessary with the way the Outlander Season 2 finale was written. Brianna and Roger found the newspaper clippings at the same time and worked out the truth together. That opened up the need for the conversation.

We did get more focus on Brianna learning the truth and her understandable attitude towards Claire. Imagine finding out that the man you thought was your father for 20 years wasn’t biologically your dad. Brianna was a Daddy’s Girl. She was loyal to Frank. It’s no wonder she reacted with venom towards Claire when finding out the truth.

The show also kept how Roger was the one more perceptive of the idea of time travel. He even looked excited about the idea of it. It’s important for the future, when Roger continues the research to find Jamie when they realize that he’s still alive.

Overall, I was really impressed with how the five chapters of Dragonfly in Amber Part One were adapted for the TV series.

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What did you spot when rereading Outlander Book 2, Chapter 5? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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