Outlander Book Club: Drums of Autumn Chapter 9 breakdown

Foreshadowing in the Outlander chapter

There is a lot happening within this chapter, but it’s not really foreshadowing. The only bit of foreshadowing that I can spot is how Bonnet took Frank’s ring.

At first, it could seem like Bonnet would never show up again. However, he’s going to be a much bigger problem for the Frasers, and the ring has a lot to do with it.

Brianna recognizes the ring. That’s what leads to her being raped by Bonnet. If that hadn’t happened, Bonnet could have probably just disappeared and not been an issue for the Frasers again.

There is a mention of the land. It looks like Jamie is going to accept it, but now he will need to find some money again. We get this foreshadowing of what could be on offer to him. We also get the foreshadowing of the Frasers being a part of the uprisings and the Revolutionary War, whether they want to be or not.

Adapting the Drums of Autumn chapter

The chapter was used at the end of the Outlander Season 4 premiere. The show opted to keep the speaking parts silent, just having the song American the Beautiful playing over the top of the scenes. It was a creative choice that didn’t work for all, but sometimes in TV, you have to take risks like this to make a mark.

That’s not what I want to talk about. What I want to discuss is the switch of the rings. This was one of the biggest changes to the book.

Instead of taking Frank’s ring, Bonnet takes Jamie’s ring. Honestly, when I read the books and found out how Brianna met Bonnet, I didn’t quite find it believable. A plain gold band on the outside wouldn’t have caught her attention all that much for her to then look at the inscription.

Now Jamie’s ring was clearer. It was something that Brianna would have recognized at a glance, and I do agree with this change.

The other change was the death of Lesley on the boat. This was a character not in the book, so I did wonder what the TV show would do with him. He could have arguably replaced Duncan Innes slightly, but the writers clearly wanted a romance between Murtagh and Jocasta to blossom, so Lesley would have just ended up being a forgotten character.

Instead of risking that, the writers opted to kill him off, making the attack all the more devastating. Also, it would have been harder to have a scene with Rollo being injured—never work with animals!—so working Lesley’s murder in was arguably easier.

In Season 3, he and Hayes could have been another Rupert and Angus, but then the fourth season had to start with Hayes’s hanging. Opting for this exit did make sense.

What did you spot while reading Drums of Autumn Chapter 9? Let us know in the comments below.

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