Outlander Book Club: The Fiery Cross Chapter 3 breakdown

Foreshadowing in the Outlander chapter

There is a little foreshadowing in The Fiery Cross Chapter 3. Some of it is within the conversation about contraception. Claire wonders why Bree would want to talk about contraception and considers that Bree and Roger having a child together (where the paternity wasn’t in question) would help to settle Roger a little more. However, she does worry about what it would mean for Jemmy.

Eventually, Bree and Roger do have a child together. It doesn’t affect the way Roger views Jemmy. He has claimed his son, and that’s the matter sorted. In fact, we later find out that Jemmy is Roger’s child after all.

I think there’s also a little bit of foreshadowing for the Dr. Rawlings storyline. Claire wants to make sure the people of the Ridge have the best advice when it comes to contraception but it does no good coming from her. She needs to make it look like the advice comes from a man. While Claire hasn’t considered that in this exact chapter, it’s clear that it and STDs are on her mind.

Adapting The Fiery Cross chapter

Without the Gathering, a lot of this chapter wasn’t used in the TV series. In fact, none of it was used directly. There have been mentions of contraception throughout the series, but it wasn’t a big conversation with Brianna that also included syphilis.

However, the topic does eventually come up. It’s all about the Dr. Rawlings storyline in the future as Claire realizes how much the women of the Ridge need this information.

While I did enjoy seeing Bree turn to her mom for some advice, I didn’t miss the chapter from the series. There simply wasn’t the need for it, and we could imagine that conversation would have happened off-screen. Not everything needs to be shown during the episodes, especially when time constraints are an issue.

We get some of the cirrhosis of the liver storyline but with a different disease. A man on the Ridge has appendicitis and his wife uses mercury to treat him. There’s nothing Claire can do for him at this point, but she realizes just how much she’s working against when there are male doctors people trust more giving out bad (although just misunderstood at the time) information.

What did you spot while reading The Fiery Cross Chapter 3? Let us know in the comments below.

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