Outlander Book Club: Voyager Chapter 3 breakdown

Foreshadowing in the Outlander chapter

This chapter certainly foreshadows the events that we’re about to read about Jamie. We get this theory that he is the Dun Bonnet. There’s also a mention of a young boy who is taking a cask to Jamie but is followed by soldiers. We have no idea who this young boy is at this point in the story, but it’s clear that it will come up.

Now, we know that it was Fergus. There was more than a cask lost at the time. This is how Fergus loses his hand.

I think we also get this foreshadowing that Claire and Frank try to make things work, but they just can’t. The connection between them has been lost. Frank was Claire’s first love, but he’s not her strongest love. However, that doesn’t mean they stop caring for each other.

Adapting the Voyager chapter

Claire’s return to the 20th century was handled very differently on the TV show. We don’t see Claire tell Frank everything at the hospital. Part of this was I’m sure to offer Tobias Menzies more screen time. After all, he was one of the biggest stars on the series at the time.

I do appreciate that the show gave us more of Frank. We didn’t just get Claire’s opinion of him. Instead, we got a look at what Frank was really like as a person, the struggle he had with accepting Claire’s story, the fact that in his eyes she’d had an affair, and the fact that she was pregnant with another man’s child. It was a lot for him to take in, and I love that the show was able to give us that.

I have always felt we got to know the side characters a little more in the TV show. They weren’t as one-dimensional as they can seem in the books. Again, it’s just my opinion of the downsides of writing from the first-person POV. We only get Claire’s opinions and thoughts.

The research is also done a little differently. This chapter was split between the Season 2 premiere, the first four episodes of Season 3. The show opted for a chronological method of storytelling, which would make more sense for those who hadn’t read the books and also make the story flow a lot better for TV. I did prefer it the way the TV show did it, although I do wish there was more time to flesh out the friendship between certain characters.

However, there was a part of Voyager Chapter 3 that was completely missed out. The show opted not to give us the perpetual adoration section. This would have partially been due to time. There just wasn’t enough time to fit everything in, and time was needed to give us Jamie’s storyline, the search for Jamie in 1968, and enough of the 20-year separation for Claire to fill in the blanks. It was an impossible task for the writers, but I do appreciate all the work they did.

What did you notice while reading Voyager Chapter 3? Share in the comments below.

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