Outlander Book Club: Lord John and the Hellfire Club Part 3 breakdown

Lord John and the Hellfire Club part 3 brings an end to the short story. Of course things were going to wrap up quickly in a short story.

The chapter starts with John being brought into the club, and it ends with a reveal of the murderer. There are also other reveals that come out throughout the chapter, and we get a chance to see Harry Quarry as a savior.

This certainly sets up a friendship for John and Harry. It also sets up some intriguing people to come back into John’s life in later chapters. After all, there are clear signs that someone managed to help protect John’s reputation, and at this point, I think we can all believe that it would be Hal.

Breaking down Lord John and the Hellfire Club Part 3

We pick up a couple of days after John gets the initial invitation to join the club. Two days pass with nothing, and John is trying to get a few details about Gerald’s murder. He has to be careful with his questioning, though. All John finds out is that Dashwood had an alibi for the night of Gerald’s murder, so it wasn’t him.

Harry is watching from a house opposite, and he and John have a way to communicate. John passes by the window with a candle three times to indicate that he is okay.

On the third day, he talks to George about Gerald. It’s clear that George knows something more, but he doesn’t want to talk about the man. This certainly suggests something, and it’s that night that it all comes to a head.

John is awoken to monks surrounding his bed. It turns out that it’s the Hellfire Club members who are dressed as monks. They take him to the basement and go through a ritual that John finds amusing and then a little boring. However, at the end, he’s forced to drink wine spiked with opium and then locked in a room.

As he sobers up, he sees a dead naked woman. George comes in to share that the last part of the initiation is to kill a woman. George has already done that, though. He came in for another reason: to kill John.

It turns out that George believed Gerald would out him to the Hellfire Club. George is shocked and hurt to find out that Gerald had turned down the invitation to join the club. Had he known that, he may not have killed Gerald after all.

While the Hellfire Club deals in questionable actions to gain power, they don’t accept homosexuality. George couldn’t lose the influence he’d gained through the club, so he couldn’t risk having his sexuality exposed. He needs to kill John now, who also knows the truth.

Fortunately, Harry comes in and kills George with a sword before he gets a chance.

Could the chapter be used in an adaptation?

If this book was every adapted into a TV show, would this chapter be used? Most definitely. I could see Lord John and the Hellfire Club working as an episode for a Lord John Grey spin-off, as a chance to get to know him when he was younger.

This whole short story would work as one episode, and that would mean we’d need the conclusion to it. It’s a simple set-up, and it would be great to see the John and George tease since this could come up at another point. We could even have a few flashbacks to flesh this part of the story out.

Then there’s the way Harry comes in for the epic conclusion to the story. We see that this man cares about John’s safety.

I would love to see it all play out. A Lord John Grey spin-off is a great way to continue the world of Outlander.