Outlander Book Club: Book 2, Chapter 22 breakdown

Foreshadowing within the Outlander chapter

There isn’t too much in the way of foreshadowing within the chapter, but there are two elements that stand out the most.

The first is an obvious one. Claire is worried about the bleeding. It’s another element of foreshadowing that Claire is going to lose the baby.

Of course, we know that she has Brianna. However, it doesn’t take too much to realize that Brianna isn’t the baby Claire is currently carrying. We’re in the summer 1744 right now and we started in the winter of 1744. Claire is going to have this baby sometime in 1744.

In her own time, if she went back now, she’d go to 1946. Brianna is born in 1948, and Claire doesn’t return until 1948. It’s how Roger knows that Brianna isn’t Frank’s daughter. Surely Claire would bring this baby back too, and there’s been no mention of another baby. So, something has to happen.

We also get an element of foreshadowing again of how Fergus will become part of the family. Jamie protected Fergus like a son and not a boy on a runaway horse.

Adapting the Dragonfly in Amber chapter

Some of this chapter was used for Outlander Season 1. The Duke doesn’t give Jamie the ultimatum for the pardon. He writes one during the first season, which Black Jack Randall gets hold of and burns in Wentworth.

Jamie looking at the horses is also done at a different point of Outlander Season 2. It’s during the garden party from what I remember (I’ll admit that it’s been a while since I’ve watched the second season and I’m coming up to a rewatch for that soon).

Changing the placement will be partially to keep book readers on their toes. Elements are included, but we’ll never get to know when. Another part will be to work out how the story can be told in the time the writers have. Combining this and the Duke’s inclusion in Season 1 together made more sense for the sake of the story, a little like pulling Stephen Bonnet’s death forward in the show.

The rest of the chapter was mostly left out. The salve with hangman’s grease was mentioned and Claire had already learned Forez was the king’s executioner, but that was it. Fergus on the runaway horse would have likely been cut out for time’s sake. Leaving out the bleeding could have partially been for timing, but also because there were other ways to show problems with the pregnancy.

What did you get while reading Outlander Book 2, Chapter 22? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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