Frank clearly wanted to make things work on the Outlander Season 3 premiere
Frank’s requests of Claire were reasonable on the Outlander Season 3 premiere
There isn’t a lot of love for Frank Randall from the Outlander fandom for various reasons. However, his requests of Claire during the Outlander Season 2 finale and Outlander Season 3 premiere weren’t all that unreasonable.
Frank was a man who wanted to make his relationship worked. He agreed to raise a child that wasn’t his; raise a child of a man Claire loved more than him. It was never going to be easy. Having the baby around was always going to be a reminder of what happened to Claire and the choices she made, so he needed to minimize other reminders.
Up until Claire’s waters breaking, Frank tried to do everything he could to make his marriage to Claire work. He got them a house that would be tight financially but would be a home for Claire. He asked her where she wanted things place in the house. And I don’t think he complained about the food cooked over the fire since it never came up!
All he wanted to do was be a part of Claire’s pregnancy. Yes, a woman’s body is her own, but he wanted to be a dad. That meant being part of the journey from the beginning; being able to feel the baby kicking. Claire had let Jamie feel Faith kick (although Frank wouldn’t have known that) but it was clear she was purposely keeping Frank out of the pregnancy with Brianna.
Frank wanted a family
There’s no doubt that Frank wanted a family in the Outlander Season 3 premiere. From the very beginning of the series, he and Claire discussed this.
His one request was that Brianna not know that Jamie was her father. For as long as he lived, he wanted to be her only father, and that isn’t an unreasonable request. As Claire pointed out in Outlander Season 5, there’s no way Brianna would have understood the truth at a young age. While it hurt learning the truth when she was a young adult, it allowed her to rationalize things after the anger passed.
When Frank made the request, he didn’t think he’d be able to deal with questions about Jamie. And he certainly didn’t want others knowing that he wasn’t the biological father. That would have raised all sorts of questions in the 1950s. He moved Claire away from the UK to avoid problems with the stories of fairies and the judgment from people.
It’s essential to remember the time period. It wasn’t the norm for women to raise children as single mothers. There were plenty who were successful at it (my grandmother was one after divorcing her first husband), but not many did.
But Frank researched Jamie in the Outlander Season 3 premiere
After the fight Claire and Frank had about Jamie and the baby, Frank couldn’t sleep. He made the decision to write to Reverend Wakefield to undertake some research for him. It was all about Jamie.
Maybe this is the part that paints him in a bad light. He wanted Claire to forget about Jamie but did his own research, but I’ll argue that this came about because of the argument. Frank knew that Claire would never forget and move on. He needed to find out more about the man who had fathered Brianna, possibly just to put his own mind at ease.
That didn’t stop him from wanting to be in a loving marriage to Claire. It didn’t stop him wanting to have a family. He just didn’t want the third person to be in the marriage between Claire and him. I still don’t think his actions were entirely unreasonable.
Next. 5 best Claire moments from the Outlander Season 3 premiere. dark