Outlander Book Club: The Fiery Cross Chapter 60 breakdown

Foreshadowing in the Outlander chapter

There are elements of foreshadowing in this chapter. While it does help to set the story for the upcoming Battle of Alamance, there is also foreshadowing of how things will go. Jamie notes that the men and women aren’t ready for battle through his description of them, and it’s clear that this is going to work in favor of the British Army.

There’s a sense of doom to the story. We don’t even need to know anything about the Battle of Alamance to know that this is going to be disastrous for the Regulators.

Then there’s the foreshadowing of Bonnet’s storyline. It’s clear that is not over yet, but it’s going to be some time before it is completely over. There’s still a lot Jamie doesn’t know about the pirate, and he needs to find out as much as possible.

Adapting The Fiery Cross chapter

The Bonnet storyline wasn’t used in Outlander Season 5. He wasn’t after the French gold, and it wasn’t until after the Battle of Alamance that Jamie put his focus back on the search for the pirate. The whole Bonnet storyline was adapted and pulled forward, which works for the TV form of storytelling.

Remember that there are always concerns that guest stars won’t be available for future seasons. Rather than risk it for something as important as Bonnet’s end, the writers chose to pull the storyline forward. It made a lot of sense in this form of storytelling, and I had no problem with pulling the storyline forward.

The part that was partly used in the series was the bit about the Regulators. Jamie wanted to prevent the battle for other reasons, and it wasn’t just Jamie who wanted to prevent it. Brianna rode in as she realized what was about to happen. She realized that this would be a bloodshed for the Regulators, and that leads to Jamie, Claire, and Roger trying to prevent the Regulators from fighting.

Instead of Husband, it’s Murtagh they turn to. With keeping Murtagh alive because he became such a fan-favorite character, he needed an important role in the series, and this was just right for the character.

After 20 years of firstly being an indentured servant and then being disenfranchised because of the actions of the Crown, it wasn’t really that surprising that Murtagh would become a Regulator. He became their leader of sorts, and I loved that instead of getting to know another character (even one from real history), the story focused on a character we’d already come to know and love. It meant the focus could be on the Regulator war and not getting to know another character at the same time.

For me, we don’t get to know Husband enough to get this sense that he would be able to get the Regulators to stand down. We’re told things about him in the book, but that’s it. That wouldn’t have translated well on the screen, but seeing Murtagh and knowing the bond between him and Jamie, we could see why Murtagh would want to get the Regulators to stand down. He wouldn’t want another Culloden.

What did you spot while reading The Fiery Cross Chapter 60? Let us know in the comments below.

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