Outlander Book Club: Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade Chapter 8 breakdown

Lord John Grey starts to put the pieces of the puzzle together in Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade Chapter 8. He also has some questions about his own family.

The chapter is focused on Geneva’s funeral. We know why Jamie mourns Geneva’s death, and we know why he feels some guilt. Lord John is a smart man, and he’s able to some of the pieces of the puzzle together.

This chapter also gives him a chance to learn more about his own family. All he wants to know is whether his father was a secret Jacobite or not.

Breaking down the Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade chapter

The chapter starts at Geneva’s funeral, where Jamie is also a pallbearer. John notes that Jamie mourns someone. Could it be Geneva or his own wife, who John presumes is dead? That’s not clear, but John is soon able to put some of the pieces of the puzzle together.

It’s interesting because John puts all the focus of Jamie’s guilt on what happened to Geneva. He’s able to work out that Geneva’s baby is likely Jamie’s baby. What he doesn’t know is that Jamie was the reason for Ellesmere’s death. There may be double the guilt, as well as fear should he end up caught.

This leads to John having a little bit of guilt. He’s the reason Jamie is at Helwater. Could he have prevented all of this by not having Jamie paroled here? Is this part of the reason he chooses to marry Isobel? It all certainly seems to lead up to this.

John gets a chance to talk to Jamie at the stables, which is when he asks if his father was a secret Jacobite. Jamie is quite taken aback by the question. He didn’t know of Gerald Grey being involved in Bonnie Prince Charlie’s army. He even shares that if Grey was involved, he would have known. It make sit clear that Gerald wasn’t a secret Jacobite after all, and I think this helps to ease John a little.

John leaves the next day with no concrete answers as to whether Geneva’s baby is actually Jamie’s baby. He also leaves without asking about the child’s name.

Could this chapter be used in a TV series?

This chapter is important for John’s overall story. It would be hard to include the internalized thoughts running through John’s mind, though. The questions about the baby’s paternity would need to be openly asked to Jamie, and he would need to avoid answering. There could be a few comments along the way, but that wouldn’t suit John’s character all that well, and he and Jamie don’t know each other well enough for the secrets to come out just yet.

The bit that needs to be included is the part about Gerald Grey. We need to see Jamie make it clear that he would have known if the Duke of Pardloe was a secret Jacobite. That helps to ease John’s mind that his father was a traitor, and it helps to set up the rest of the storyline involving the Grey family.

One thing I like about this chapter is that we understand more about the bond that starts to form between Jamie and John. That would need to be shown. Not only is it important for the rest of The Brotherhood of the Blade, but it’s also important to understand the Outlander relationship.

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