Outlander Book Club: Voyager Chapter 36 breakdown

Foreshadowing in the Outlander chapter

There isn’t too much in the way of foreshadowing in this chapter. The only thing that stands out a little is the use of penicillin. Claire doesn’t have a lot of it. Nor does she have many syringes. Once she’s done, that’s it.

I do wonder if this foreshadows Claire’s need to make penicillin in the past. She just can’t live without it knowing how good it is for treating infections.

So, this may have been a hint that penicillin would come up again.

Adapting the Voyager chapter

Let’s get into how Outlander Season 3 adapted this chapter. As mentioned in the previous chapter breakdown, Claire never left Lallybroch on the show. Everything was contained to the one episode and in the one location.

Would Jamie’s infection have come about as quickly as it did? Possibly considering we watched Claire’s surgery. I had my wisdom teeth out and a day later the infection showed. We don’t even know how long the surgery actually took on the TV series, so I’m not getting nit-picky with the timing.

The TV show had to follow the book when it came to the infection. This is the moment Claire brings something that is only available from the modern day to the past. It’s the moment that she saves a life with something that isn’t available yet. And it starts the need for Claire to “invent” penicillin, even if she doesn’t know it.

I also think the surgery and the use of the penicillin is the start of Claire fully returning to Jamie. She just doesn’t know it yet.

The injection part was the only bit of the chapter that was used from the book, suiting the way the story was adapted for the show. It was the most important part of the previous two chapters.

What did you spot while reading Voyager Chapter 36? Let us know in the comments below.

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