Something that I love about Virgins is that we get to see Jamie as a younger man. That means he hasn’t gained the wisdom of being part of an army by Virgins section 7.
He ends up being given an order, and as the heir to Lallybroch, he’s used to giving orders rather than taking them. We get to see Ian step in quickly so that Jamie doesn’t end up getting in trouble, and this is a great learning experience for him.
Breaking down Virgins section 7
The start of the section has an uneasy feeling to it. The mercenaries are hearing everything that’s going on with the Jewish man, who in the previous section was being forcibly baptised. At least, I get the sense that it’s by force, because there was nothing to tell us that this Jewish man was interested in becoming Christian.
Jamie wants to ease some of the tension, though, and he does that by moving the conversation back to a discussion of male genitalia. He goes through all the different words for it, making it clear that he knew the fun that they were poking at his family motto was to make him part of the group. Ian decides to get in on it by telling Jamie that he’s a know-it-all, but it doesn’t do a lot to ease things off.
A man named Mathieu comes over. He is someone in charge, and he orders Jamie to be part of the burial party. Jamie doesn’t take well to being ordered, likely because he’s never had to deal with that before. Ian can tell that his friend is about to argue back, and so he steps in. Ian knows that Jamie can’t stand up against Mathieu, and Jamie has a lot to learn about being part of an army.
In the end, Ian says that he will also help with the burial party, and he gets Jamie to come with him. This is going to be an interesting next section.
Could this section be used in a TV adaptation?
If there was an adaptation of Virgins, I could certainly see some of this being used. More specifically, I could see the end of the section being used. We would need to see Jamie learning how to take orders, as it is a culture shock for him.
I would also want to see more of Jamie trying to rally the men as they all get uncomfortable with the events happening to the Jewish man. However, if there was a lack of time in the episode, then I could accept that this would be cut short.
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