Roger and Brianna discuss Geillis’s books in Outlander Book 7, Chapter 46
We get a few more theories of time travel, while Roger makes his notes in Outlander Book 7, Chapter 46. This leads to a discussion about Geillis’s notebooks.
The chapter starts with Rob Cameron trying to find out more about Brianna. This is certainly suspicious and makes it clear to us as the reader that Rob isn’t someone to trust. However, the focus doesn’t really remain on this part of the chapter.
We get some time with Roger and Brianna together. They spend the time talking about time travel and the rules. Roger is putting together a book for their descendants to make sure they know more about time travel and where they can travel from. This leads to a discussion about Geillis’s books and whether Jem and Mandy should get access to those books and Geillis’s madness.
There is certainly some foreshadowing throughout this chapter. It’s a lot to break down, but it hints to things to come in the eighth book.
I’m not sure how much of this chapter will be used in the TV series, though. I’ll get to that in the adaptation section.
Let’s dive into An Echo in the Bone Chapter 46.
Just the Outlander chapter
The chapter starts with Brianna at Pitlochry Dam in a room looking out at the chamber. She is thinking about her parents. Due to the letters, she knows that somehow Claire and Jamie will survive Fort Ticonderoga, but she doesn’t know how. Why doesn’t she just read the rest of the letters?
While thinking about her parents, Rob Cameron turns up speaking Gaelic. Brianna understands him, and now Rob notes that it is her who has the Gaelic. He thought so. Now he wants to know who her father was and what his clan name is. Why would he want to know these things?
After this, we move on to Roger, who is making notes about ley lines and time travel. He uses theories from both Claire and Brianna to figure out how time travel is possible. He’s writing everything in a book, making something for his descendants.
Something that I love is how Roger is writing with a fountain pen and ink rather than a ballpoint pen. Why the fountain pen? I’ll get to my thoughts there in the foreshadowing section.
The topic of Geillis’s notebooks come up. Roger makes a remark about a footnote, but will he summarize Geillis’s notebooks or leave them in full? Leaving them in full leads to opening everyone up to Geillis’s madness. It’s clear there are also thoughts of how the madness could have a knock-on effect on the whole family. Is this something everyone in the family will suffer from?
Brianna comments on how he and Geillis have so many generations between them. This isn’t something to be concerned about just yet.
There are other connections to the past. It’s all about the songs, hymns, and incantations. Roger discusses how they could be linked to time travel, but what they could also mean. There’s also this connection to Roger’s voice, and Brianna brings that up. She apologizes for the loss of his voice.
It doesn’t take long for the topic to move back to the songs. Rob Cameron had brought up Roger’s singing, and Rob is interested in the songs Roger sang. It continues to suggest that Rob is up to something, that he knows something more. This is plot development rather than foreshadowing, so I won’t bring it up in the next section. It’s clear that he is a threat to the MacKenzies.
Foreshadowing in the Outlander chapter
The foreshadowing is all about Roger’s trips back to the past. He is going to come across Geillis again, as well as Buck MacKenzie. All of this is due to Rob Cameron. Rob takes Jemmy and Roger thinks they’ve gone to the past. Roger ends up going through the stones to follow their tracks, leading to meeting family members again.
Adapting An Echo in the Bone chapter
I can see that some of this chapter is necessary. We need to see everything with Rob Cameron play out on the TV series. We know Chris Fulton has been cast in the role, which means that storyline is going to play out.
However, it looks like parts of Book 8 are going to be used in Season 7. This would mean there isn’t time to discuss everything about time travel rules. We may just get a few mentions here and there, especially the bits about Geillis’s notebooks.
We’re going to see things with Geillis and Dougal play out in the past. A brief reminder of who Geillis is would be good for the show, and the best way to do that would be a mention of her notebooks to remind us of the time traveler that she is.
What did you spot while reading An Echo in the Bone Chapter 46? Let us know in the comments below.
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