Outlander Book Club: A Breath of Snow and Ashes Chapter 33 breakdown

Foreshadowing in the Outlander chapter

This chapter doesn’t foreshadow too much. If we look carefully, I guess it’s that there will be a story of revenge. Arch offers his own life for that of his wife’s. When Mrs. Bug is killed, we know that Arch is going to cause problems. He won’t let anyone get away with that.

However, the chapter is mostly plot development for the next part of the story. We need to get Lionel Brown’s body back to Brownsville, and it’s time to wrap up a few things.

Adapting A Breath of Snow and Ashes chapter

The chapter was used in the TV series but in a vastly different way. It wasn’t Mrs. Bug who killed Lionel Brown. It was Marsali.

I actually liked the way the TV series handled it. For one, it brought back the hemlock root, which Marsali knew would be a death sentence to Lionel. Another thing is that Marsali would have wanted revenge of some sort. She’d been attacked and knocked out because of Lionel and his men in the TV series.

Plus, this wasn’t just for her but for Claire. We got to see just how strong that bond between Marsali and Claire has grown over the years.

There is also the end line when she asks Jamie if she’s going to hell. I think this is going to play a strong part in Marsali’s storyline with Henri-Christian, and if it plays out how I think it will, it’s going to make a lot of sense.

There isn’t a lot of time in the series. We haven’t had the chance to really get to know the Bugs, so having Mrs. Bug do the killing wouldn’t have made sense in the series. It was better giving that task to an already established character. I am looking at it from a TV series development standpoint here.

What did you spot while reading A Breath of Snow and Ashes Chapter 33? Let us know in the comments below.

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