Outlander Book Club: Voyager Chapter 5 breakdown

Foreshadowing the Outlander chapter

Part of me feels like this chapter foreshadows the connection Young Ian has to his uncle. That moment in the closet seems to bond them a little. It’s clear that Jamie and Young Ian will pull each other out of trouble many more times in the book. Young Ian is going to become a much bigger character than he seems as a baby.

There’s also the foreshadowing of Jamie eventually handing himself into the English. Things are getting too close for comfort. He needs to keep his family safe, and hiding out in the cave isn’t doing that.

We know Jamie will do whatever he can for family. He doesn’t want to see the inside of another prison and he doesn’t want to be executed, but there’s nothing else he can do now. It’s going to take just one more thing to push him over the edge.

Adapting the Voyager chapter

This is one of the chapters that was used heavily in the show. It had to be adapted considerably, though.

There are some elements of the chapter skipped over, such as Jamie looking through the book of the family names. The focus was purely on the drama, the birth and then Jamie holding the baby. This was necessary to create the tension in the episode, but it was also essential to show the danger everyone at Lallybroch is putting themselves in when it comes to hiding Jamie.

They will all do it, of course. However, Jamie won’t let them do it for much longer.

There was also a conversation between Jenny and Jamie in the bedroom. Jenny is the one that mentions Claire in the show rather than Jamie mentioning her in the books, but that’s to bring up that Jamie doesn’t want to talk about her. He’s told everyone that Clare is gone, but that’s it. He can’t tell Jenny the truth.

Jenny wants Jamie to move on and have children of his own. Jamie won’t entertain the idea at this point, but it’s all to come. There’s no way this conversation could be skipped, but it was changed slightly to suit the characters included.

Not all the characters from the book could be in the story. They weren’t all that important overall, so it made sense to cut them out and reduce the need to cast them. Young Jamie also wasn’t in the bedroom when Jenny lied about the baby’s death, but that would have been to reduce the need to work with children and put Jamie with Fergus and Rabbie outside instead.

It was the boys who shot the raven, giving them more to do. Why change that? It was likely to give some of the actors something extra to do in the episode.

What did you spot when reading Voyager Chapter 5? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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