Outlander Book Club: Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade Chapter 13 breakdown

We end the week with Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade Chapter 13. It’s certainly a dark look at the life in prison.

John heads to see Bates, who turns out to know a lot about John. Bates knows the right people to know John’s secrets, and he is willing to use those secrets against him. It certainly suggests that there are far more people involved in the overall conspiracy of the novel.

I do wonder if the beating was a warning from Bates and others. Have they made it clear that they have power?

Breaking down Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade Chapter 13

The chapter gives us a dark look at the life in prison in the 18th century. It’s a dark turn for the book, but not something we’re completely shocked by as readers. After all, it’s not like prison in Outlander was described as a fun place to be!

Bates sees John, sharing that he has some money to ensure he is clothed and washed. He doesn’t have the money he needs to look after his mistress, though. In fact, it was the money Mrs. Tomlinson needed that led to him gaining gambling debts.

Of course, we all know Bates is in jail under sodomite charges. Bates makes it clear that he isn’t gay, but he knows that John is. How does he know this? It all comes down to the men he knows. He knows Dickie Caswell, Neil Stapleton, and Hubert Bowles. We’ve met the first two, and we know they know about John. Who is Hubert Bowles? John describes him as someone who deals in lives.

It’s clear that Bowles knows that John is gay. It could be dangerous if it all got out, and Bates knows that too. He threatens John with exposing him unless he can do two things.

He wants to save Tomlinson from the threat of hanging, and he wants to get her to Ireland to her brother. It’s quite tiresome that Bates decides to use John’s generosity in just turning up against him like this. However, I think it all connects to something much bigger.

Could the chapter be used in a TV series?

I could see some of the depictions of the prison being excluded if the chapter was ever used. We don’t need the full visual effects. It’s easy to set a tone of what the prison is like through the state of the place and prisoners. There is a scene of John looking out of the window at an act that is repulsive. Sure, it’s a true look of prison at the time, but that doesn’t mean it has be to shown visually in a grotesque way.

The part that needs to be included is the conversation with Bates. This is much bigger for John, as there is the threat of exposure. It could be a threat for John to stay out of the business that he is currently sticking his nose into, but it could also just be the acts of a desperate man. We need to see it play out.