Outlander Book Club: The Fiery Cross Chapter 28 breakdown

Foreshadowing in the Outlander chapter

The foreshadowing isn’t really too prominent in this chapter. What we do get is a sense that there’s a bigger story involving this Morton character.

We don’t really know Morton up to this point. Honestly, I don’t remember a mention of his name up to this point. However, it’s clear that the Brown men don’t like the guy. They’re even willing to kill the guy for something that he’s done.

I think the real foreshadowing is in Roger having to continually think about what to do. He can’t just act on instinct because he wasn’t raised as an 18th century Highlander. He can’t think like Jamie because that’s not in his nature. However, that doesn’t mean he can’t get things done. He just has to do it all in his own way.

Adapting The Fiery Cross chapter

The chapter was used for Outlander Season 5, but there were some changes. Roger didn’t charge in quite the same way in the series as he did in the books. That’s mostly because up to this point in the show, Roger didn’t get the development that he got in the books.

In The Fiery Cross, Roger realized within that he needed to be a warrior during the burning of the cross. He realized that he needed to step up as a warrior to protect Brianna and Jemmy, even if he wasn’t raised that way.

Roger never got that moment in the series. He’s still a professor. In fact, during the season, he has that conversation with Claire about whether the inability to shoot something is psychological because of the way that he’s been raised. It’s something that would naturally play on his mind two episodes later. The idea of Roger suddenly being a warrior without making that realization when the fiery cross was burning wouldn’t make sense on the show.

Another adaptation was introducing Morton a little earlier. He was there for the burning of the cross, and this was important. We actually got to see the guy rather than just have this surprise that the Browns wanted to shoot someone we didn’t know. Why would we care about a character we’d never met before? I do think the show got it a little better with this storyline.

What did you spot while reading The Fiery Cross Chapter 28? Let us know in the comments below.

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