Outlander Book Club: Voyager Chapter 57 breakdown

Foreshadowing in the Outlander chapter

There is certainly some foreshadowing within Voyager Chapter 57. It’s all about Mrs. Abernathy.

Rosie brings up the rumors about Mrs. Abernathy killing her husband after just six months of marriage. We know of one character in the Outlander books who loves to kill her husbands. She killed them in the 1960s and she was at it again in the 1740s. Well, she’s also at it in the 1760s.

Oh yes, it’s Geillis Duncan. All the pieces fit together when you find out who she is.

There’s also foreshadowing that the Campbells will become a bigger part of the story coming up. And with the mention of the Governor’s Ball and Lord John Grey, you just know that all these storylines will converge into one.

Adapting the Voyager chapter

While Mrs. Abernathy was used in the series, we got to meet Geillis differently. The entire dinner scene was skipped over, and we didn’t even get to hear about her husband. Instead, Outlander Season 3 gave us a look at what Geillis was doing with the young men and that she did, in fact, have Young Ian. I admit that I loved the use of the blood bath, but I immediately understood the Elizabeth Bathory reference as she is someone I’ve looked into a lot over the years.

Why would the TV show change things, letting us know who Mrs. Abernathy was? Wasn’t this part of the fun trying to figure it out? For a book, yes. TV shows do work slightly differently in the storytelling format. Seeing the villain’s story play out at the same time as the heroes piecing it all together is common.

Plus, for the book-first fans, dragging out the mystery of who Geillis was didn’t make a lot of sense. It would have been a pointless mystery, so opting to show us her story at the same time as the Frasers worked well.

We didn’t need the backstory about Barnabas. Nor did we need the storyline of Margaret Campbell going missing. Keeping things succinct was important considering there were just two episodes to fit the last seven chapters of the story in.

What did you spot while reading Voyager Chapter 57? Let us know in the comments below.

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