My heart breaks reading A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows section 18. Just as Jerry finds Dolly and Roger, they don’t get the reunion that we would all have loved to see.
This section certainly focuses on the horrors of the Blitz. Not only do we get a visual look at London, but we also feel the terror of being in the Tubes during the Blitz. There’s also that heartache as it seems like Jerry just didn’t make it to Dolly and Roger in time. Instead, he was just in time!
Breaking down A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows section 18
As Jerry walks through London, he takes note of how much it has changed during the Blitz. I still don’t think he realizes just how long it has been for Dolly and Roger, but the look of London gives him an idea.
We finally get to know a little bit about why Dolly’s mom was probably a little pushy about Dolly moving on quickly. It turns out that Jerry and Dolly married on a bit of a whim, and that was the first time he met her mother — to say that they were married! What a first meeting! After that, it was to tell her that he would still look out for Dolly even though he had joined the RAF.
Dolly’s mom knew that her daughter wouldn’t survive much without Jerry around, although I think her mom probably didn’t give her much credit. However, Jerry refuses to allow Dolly to be alone for much longer. He is getting back to her.
As he gets to Bethnal Green, he is forced back into the Tube for “safety.” Oh, if only that place was safe. Well, it was the safest place when the air raid sirens went off, but in this case, it was dangerous. As Jerry looks at a set of stairs that are about to crumble under the weight of people on it, he spots Dolly and Roger on the stairs.
Dolly sees Jerry and smiles big. She knew that her husband wasn’t dead. The problem is that she can’t get to Jerry, but she can throw Roger to Jerry. He realizes what she’s going to do, and he gets ready to catch Roger. He stumbles back, and then he falls backward on the tracks.
There are huge screams as he falls down and hits his head, and the stairs above give way with everyone falling down.
Could this section be used in a TV show adaptation?
This is one of the most important scenes of A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows as it tells us exactly why Roger doesn’t have memories of his dad. Jerry always made it back, and it’s because of Jerry that Roger is alive. If Dolly hadn’t seen Jerry, she wouldn’t have thrown Roger down for Jerry to catch him.
The issue with this is that Outlander season 7 showed us a scene of Dolly and Jerry together with Roger in the Tubes, as if they were calmly waiting for the air raid to end. Roger did say that he wasn’t sure if that was a memory or something that he made up, though, so if A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows is used, we could see that it is a memory.
At the same time, we could see that the two are reunited for a short time, but then they’re forced further into the Tube and they end up separated. This allows the show to stick to the short story, while staying true to the story already created within the TV series.
Let us know what you spotted in this chapter via Facebook and Twitter