The Malva mystery is finally solved in Outlander Book 6, Chapter 122
After chapters of the question hanging over them, we finally get to know who killed Malva in Outlander Book 6, Chapter 122. It may not be the person anyone initially expected.
The chapter sees Claire head out to Malva’s grave. She wants to pay her respects, but it turns out that she’s not the only one. There’s someone there feeling a lot of sadness and guilt.
Allan Christie is the person at the grave. This will be surprising to some, especially as he tells the full story. After all, I never really saw any clues as to what was going on in the Christie household up to this point.
This is also the end of Allan Christie’s part in the story. He’s killed, but not by Claire. There is someone else who has presumably heard the full story and has decided to act in revenge.
I fully expect this chapter to be used in Outlander Season 7. After all, we still have questions about who killed Malva, and we need to see the full story play out. I’ll get to my thoughts on the matter in the adaptation section.
It doesn’t really foreshadow anything, though. We’re at the end of A Breath of Snow and Ashes, so this is more about wrapping up the storylines from the books as best as possible.
Let’s dive into A Breath of Snow and Ashes Chapter 122.
Just the Outlander chapter
The chapter starts with Claire heading to Malva’s grave. I love that despite everything Malva lied about, Claire still leaves wreaths at the grave. She doesn’t want this young girl and her baby to feel alone in the cold.
She isn’t the only one visiting the grave. Allan is there with a loaded pistol on the ground. Claire doesn’t fear for her life, despite the pistol. She is worried about Allan, fearful that he is going to kill himself. It turns out that that was his plan.
Allan finally confesses. He shares how he struggled after watching his mom hanged, and the only person he loved in life was Malva. That love was an abomination, though. He sexually abused and raped his sister, and she ended up pregnant from it. Allan forced her to sleep with other men on the Ridge so that she could claim they were the father and force a marriage.
However, when it came to it, Allan couldn’t see his sister married off to someone else. So, he forced her to claim Jamie was the father. This made it like that Jamie would pay Malva off and the two Christies could get away. Eventually, Malva felt bad. She loved Claire and decided to tell Claire the truth. Allan couldn’t allow that to happen, so he killed Malva.
Claire is shocked and angry to learn all this. Rather than allowing Allan to die, she tells Allan that she forbids him from killing himself. He must live with all this pain and guilt.
If only someone else thought the same. Ian shoots Allan in the heart with an arrow, and we’re left to presume that he overheard everything while in the woods. We see that Mohawk side to Ian. He isn’t going to let Malva’s unfortunate life go without justice being served, and to him, justice is killing Allan.
I’ll admit that I wanted to feel for Malva in this chapter. However, I was reminded of the fact that she tried to kill Claire and her own father during the sickness. I’m still not sure she was as innocent as Allan made her out to seem in this chapter.
Foreshadowing in the Outlander chapter
There isn’t any foreshadowing that I see in this chapter. This is more about wrapping up the Malva storyline, finally getting confirmation as to who the murderer was. This doesn’t change anything for Tom, and I don’t think the chapter even suggests that. Tom is likely already executed—at least, that’s what Claire believes now. She and Ian will keep Allan’s secret.
Adapting A Breath of Snow and Ashes chapter
I do think we’ll see this chapter. We need to see Tom take the fall, but we also need to get the full truth. Alexander Vlahos was back in Glasgow filming Outlander Season 7, which certainly suggests that he’s going to show up again. That should mean this chapter.
Even if we just get the confession, I’ll be happy. However, I do think it’s important to see Ian kill Allan. At one point, Ian thought he was the father of Malva’s baby. There is going to be some personal anger there, and he’ll want justice for Malva. Since he’s accepted he’s both a Highlander and a Mohawk, we need to see him give into the Mohawk side of him. It’s also somewhat a Highlander thing to do, too.
What did you spot while reading A Breath of Snow and Ashes Chapter 122? Let us know in the comments below.
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