Outlander Book Club: The Fiery Cross Chapter 17 breakdown

Foreshadowing in the Outlander chapter

The foreshadowing in this chapter of The Fiery Cross has a little bit of foreshadowing of the trouble to come. Jamie mentions Culloden, and it’s clear that something similar is sure to happen. It’s not surprising considering how disenfranchised the colonists felt.

Jamie doesn’t want to consider it, but he knows something is coming. Brianna has told him a little, and he trusts her with what’s to come up in the Colonies. We know the Battle of Alamance is coming up.

Adapting The Fiery Cross chapter

This is one of those chapters of Outlander Book 5 that would have been difficult to adapt start. Everything is so internalized that there would have been barely anything happening on the screen. We needed a way to allow Jamie to talk through his thoughts, even though that’s not necessarily the type of man that he is.

Outlander Season 5 managed it. After speaking to Tryon, Jamie talked to Claire about his options. He needed to figure out what to do, especially with them knowing what is to come. It led to that moment of Jamie putting his kilt back on, something book fans had been waiting for.

I really loved the way the show handled Jamie putting his kilt on. It was this bold moment. While kilts weren’t outlawed in the Colonies, many had already been so used to not wearing kilts that they didn’t make the switch. And I guess with that in mind, it’s understandable why Jamie wouldn’t wear his kilt right away in the series. We needed this big moment to give him a reason to put the kilt back on, and that came with this summons.

There was already so much that was similar to Culloden, that of course Jamie was going to think back to that. We got the visual representation through the use of the kilt again.

What did you spot while reading The Fiery Cross Chapter 17? Let us know in the comments below.

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