Outlander Book Club: Drums of Autumn Chapter 25 breakdown

Foreshadowing in the Outlander chapter

Onto the foreshadowing in the chapter. Of course, this chapter is just the stepping stone for a bigger storyline to come. That’s not the foreshadowing—tiny details that you don’t notice until it all comes up.

The first foreshadowing is in the snake storyline. Jamie points out the difference between poisonous and venomous to Ian. That doesn’t seem all that important at the time, but there’s a snake bite to come during The Fiery Cross. Roger is with Jamie and is the one who needs to suck out the venom to save Jamie’s life.

Really, the use of the snake just looks like a little bit of drama to then lead to something funny at the end of the chapter. It’s actually a reminder that there are dangerous creatures out there.

The second bit of foreshadowing in Claire’s constant thoughts of how Willie is Jamie’s son. There’s a mention of whether Willie would ever remember Jamie for who he is, foreshadowing that all these secrets are about to come out.

We get just a hint of how Willie reacts to grief and confusion in this chapter, foreshadowing just how he’ll react when it comes to learning the full truth about his parentage.

There is also a third element of foreshadowing while we discuss parentage. Claire notices a cowlick on Willie that is just like Jamie’s. It all comes down to hair or marks on the head. A mark on the head is exactly how Claire realizes Jemmy’s parentage in a later book.

Adapting the Drums of Autumn chapter

While this chapter was used, it wasn’t adapted directly. The snake in the privy wasn’t used, which meant the humorous part at the end was also skipped over.

I don’t mind it because there was a big change in Outlander Season 4 that had to be included somehow in this chapter. In the episode before, Jamie and Murtagh were reunited. Murtagh is at the cabin when Lord John Grey is there, opening up a conversation between everyone as it’s clear John continues to protect Jamie and those close to him.

He may not like Murtagh, but he understands Jamie’s closeness. John will always try to make Jamie happy, and trying to avoid too many disagreements with Murtagh is the way to do that.

The conversation of what the Regulators have done comes up in the show, too, instead of being used at the dinner party at Jocasta’s like in the book. With Murtagh as the leader of the Regulators, it made a lot of sense to do this for the TV series.

The important parts of the chapter were included—Claire still interacted just with Willie and Lord John Grey arrived to the cabin.

It was just a stepping stone for the main part of the chapter: John getting the measles.

What did you spot while reading Drums of Autumn Chapter 25? Let us know in the comments below.

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