Claire fights to survive and meets a time traveler in Outlander Book 6, Chapter 28
Claire has to fight to keep herself alive and mentally focused in Outlander Book 6, Chapter 28. It’s not an easy fight in her mind.
We spend some time focused on Claire’s experience with the men who have kidnapped her. If it wasn’t harrowing before, it turns all the more harrowing in this chapter. This is the moment she is beaten and raped by the men.
It’s also the moment she finds out that there’s a time traveler among the group. Wendigo Donner is there, and he is relieved to find out that others have been able to travel through the stones.
There is hope at the end of the chapter. And it’s not surprising to find out that this chapter was used in the TV series. There were some minor changes, and I’ll get to my thoughts on them in the adaptation breakdown.
The chapter foreshadows a little bit when it comes to Wendigo Donner. I’ll get to my thoughts on that in the foreshadowing section.
Let’s dive into A Breath of Snow and Ashes Chapter 28.
Just the Outlander chapter
This is a long chapter. It’s one of the longest of the whole of A Breath of Snow and Ashes.
The chapter starts with Claire still in her dangerous situation. Lionel Brown has shown up, and it’s clear that this is going to get worse before it gets better. During the journey, Lionel breaks his leg. Claire wants to help heal him, but he doesn’t want Claire coming anywhere near him. Even Hodgepile starts to think that Claire could have put a curse on them all.
When they reach a river, Claire tries her hardest to get away. She wants Tebbe to lead her to the water unbound and then allow her to float underwater. She says that the waterhorse will keep her safe, but Tebbe doesn’t do it.
That night, Claire is assaulted by multiple men. However, it’s only one man who fully rapes her, which is something different to the books. We’ll get to that. She doesn’t necessarily think of anything bad about the man who does rape her. She notes that he called her by his wife’s name and cried.
Toward the end, Claire meets a fellow time traveler. One of the men asks her about whether she knows Ringo Starr. He introduces herself as Wendigo Donner. Claire realizes that he’s a man who traveled through time with a group but they were separated. One of those men was Otter Tooth, Robert Springer.
Donner is happy that Robert made it, but he’s then disappointed to hear that his friend was killed by the Iroquois. However, Donner notes that if others have made it through then the rest of his group might have made it through, too. He just wants to know that they survived.
He’s also happy to hear that it is possible to get back to his own time. That’s all he wants now, and this is the part that foreshadows things. We’ll get to that. Donner agrees to helping Claire get away when they have a chance, although it’s clear that he’s already a coward.
At the end of the chapter, Claire hears drums. She knows Roger is playing the drum. Jamie has found her, and he’s brought men to help. All of Claire’s attackers are killed. Well, it looks that way. We know Lionel Brown isn’t, and Claire can’t tell if Donner is. She thinks that Donner will have gotten away.
When Claire is offered the chance to kill everyone, Jamie makes it clear that he kills for her since she took an oath not to. He wants to know which one to kill, but Claire can’t give him that answer. So, after Young Ian and Fergus agree to kill for Claire too, Jamie tells them to “kill them all.”
We end the chapter with relief. Claire is saved.
Foreshadowing in the Outlander chapter
There is some foreshadowing within this chapter when it comes to Donner. It’s clear that he wants to get back home. He knows a little about the ability to time travel, sharing that someone called Raymond shared details. However, he doesn’t know enough to be able to get back to his own time.
Claire has shared a little. Donner did get away, and he’s going to return in an attempt to get back to his own time.
The rest of the story is more about plot development. It’s clear that things from this chapter are going to come up in the next chapters to come. Plot development isn’t really foreshadowing, though.
Adapting A Breath of Snow and Ashes chapter
The chapter was used in the Outlander Season 5 finale. While the book involved just one man raping Claire—although Lionel Brown’s nephew tried to, so really that should count!—the show made it look like multiple men raped Claire. This was left to our imagination, though.
This change did make sense. I did think it odd that Claire wasn’t raped by multiple men, so having it all left to our imagination made a lot more sense.
One change that I know a lot of readers weren’t happy about was the lack of drums. Jamie and his men came to fight in silence. This change didn’t bother me. In fact, I’ve always thought going in with a drum doesn’t make a lot of sense. Why tell someone you’re attacking? When it came to protecting Claire, going in silence would have been better.
Either way, it worked out. Claire’s attackers were taken care of. Donner managed to get away, and Lionel Brown was the only known survivor. Jamie was the one to say “kill them all” with everyone agreeing to kill for Claire. I thought it was the perfect adaptation of this chapter.
What did you spot while reading A Breath of Snow and Ashes Chapter 28? Let us know in the comments below.
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