25 Days of Claire-mas Day 14: How could Claire leave Brianna behind in Outlander?
On the 14th day of Claire-mas, I take a look at Claire’s decision to go to the past without Brianna. How can she leave her child behind in Outlander?
Claire made a difficult decision during Voyager/Outlander Season 3. She left Brianna in the 20th century to find Jamie in the 18th century.
Something that a lot of fans question is how she could leave her daughter behind. I’m going to attempt to answer that, and part of it involves Brianna’s insistence.
Claire-mas: Claire didn’t want to leave in Outlander
There’s no doubt that Claire didn’t actually want to go. When she learned found out that Jamie wasn’t on the ship to the Colonies and the hunt for him ran into a dead end, she gave up. It was almost as if she’d accepted that it wasn’t meant to be. If she really wanted to know the truth, she would have kept scouring.
It was Roger who kept looking, and Claire didn’t even ask him to do that. Once Roger had found out where Jamie was around the time Claire would travel back to, he came with the good news. Only then did Claire have to seriously think about leaving Bree behind.
Brianna was the one to encourage Claire to go. For the last 20 years, Claire had given up Jamie for Bree. Claire made sure that Brianna had a good life, staying with a man she didn’t love so Bree could have a father. It was hard for Bree to hear that Frank wasn’t her father, but Bree also wanted Claire to be happy.
Plus, Jamie had no idea about Bree. He needed to know, and the only person who could share that was Claire.
In the end, it wasn’t easy, but Bree knew Claire had to go. Claire also knew she had to go. Knowing that Jamie was alive in the time that she could go to would always play on her mind. There would always be the “what could have been” moments in her mind, and Bree didn’t want her mom living with regret.
Next. A focus on Claire's children in Outlander. dark