When it comes to reveals in the Outlander season 8 teaser, Jamie Fraser potentially dying in the Revolutionary War caught our attention. It’s written in Frank Randall’s book, so it must happen, and it’s something we’re preparing for.
Except, there is something niggling at the back of our minds. Is it possible that Frank made it all up? Did he want Claire to fear the worst so that she wouldn’t go back to Jamie after his death, or is there something more to this?
Could Frank have lied about history on Outlander?
This is something that comes up in the Outlander books. After Jamie reads the historical text, he asks Claire if historians would have lied about the events. Claire knows that Frank was a renowned historian, and there would have been many others writing about the same time period. If there was something falsified, the other historians would have mentioned it, and it would have ruined Frank’s reputation. There is a chance he would have risked something like that.
So, it suggests that what Frank writes is real. He has found evidence that Jamie will die during the Revolutionary War as the war reaches the backcountry. It’s something that Claire and Jamie will fear until it happens.
Could Frank have made a mistake on Outlander?
While Frank wouldn’t have lied, he could have made a mistake. There are plenty of times that historians have collectively gotten something wrong. There are times when the full truth isn’t really known, and so historians try to fill in the blanks. So, Frank may have gotten it wrong.
James Fraser is a popular name for the time. There could have been another fighting for independence in the backcountry, and that could have been the man whom Frank ended up writing about. He wouldn’t have known it was a different James Fraser.
On the other hand, people could fake their deaths back in the day. If someone didn’t know Jamie was who he was, someone else could have been given the name. Bodies could be so badly injured that it wasn’t clear who they were, but people wouldn’t want to bury them without a name. Had any of this happened, Frank could have ended up mistaken when writing the book, and other historians may not have picked up on that mistake.
Yes, Jamie could end up dying. In Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone, Jamie is close to death, but Claire starts to be able to heal with that blue light. Nobody would have countered that, and if Jamie looked dead on the battlefield, many may have reported that he had died. Let’s not forget that people reported Claire and Jamie had died in the fire at Fraser’s Ridge even though it wasn’t true!
So, it’s not that Frank lied intentionally — he’d have no reason to do that — but he may have made a mistake.
Outlander season 8 premieres on Friday, March 6 on STARZ.