Outlander Book Club: Drums of Autumn Chapter 42 breakdown

Foreshadowing in the Outlander chapter

We keep getting this reminder that Brianna will head back through the stones. However, we know it doesn’t happen right away. In fact, Bree gets to the point where she doesn’t want to head back through the stones and it’s to save Mandy’s life rather than for herself.

The biggest bit of foreshadowing though is in Brianna’s story of getting to Jamie. She tells him about Lallybroch, the trip across the seas, meeting Lizzie, and everything else. Jamie realizes that she is holding back in a certain part of the story. Something’s happened and she doesn’t want to talk about it.

Jamie doesn’t push her, but it’s clear that there’s a story still to come out. We don’t know it yet at this point, but it’s all foreshadowing Brianna telling Claire that she was raped by Stephen Bonnet.

Adapting the Drums of Autumn chapter

Some of this chapter was developed. Part of Outlander Season 4, Episode 9 was focused on Brianna getting to know Young Ian and Murtagh as well, which wasn’t in the books. Murtagh wasn’t around, so of course it wasn’t!

However, the bee hunting and the shooting scenes were in the book. They were important to show some bonding between Brianna and Jamie. It’s been a while since I’ve watched the episode, but I also think this is the point the “call me Da” part was included in the show rather than just after Jamie and Brianna meet.

The changes made sense. There’s no point in keeping chapters or sections of chapters that don’t really have a bigger role in the story. A lot of this chapter involved internal thoughts instead of dialogue, which works for a book but doesn’t work very well for a TV show. This chapter was adapting just right for me.

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

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