#07x03

not the guy wearing a utrh t-shirt

Hi Purgatory Pals,

I confess, time travel dilemmas have always confused me. And in he case of Outlander, such dilemmas became even more confusing when the show differed slightly from the book series. Especially regarding the details of Jamie and Claire's obituary/ death notice, and the time line for the Big House fire, Mandy's birth, and the return of Roger, Bree and the kids to the 20th century.

In the show at least, the question about whether Roger and Bree changed Jamie and Claire's fate in the past was quickly settled in the affirmative. In episode 703, Roger explains to Bree that the match sticks she created in the past, "caused a fire" in December that her parents survived. So there was nothing left of the Big House to burn down and kill them the following January.

However, things were not so simple in the book series.

WARNING: Outlander book series spoilers ahead.

1776 VERSUS 1775: Divergence in the book series' and show's time lines

I realized part of my confusion with this plot was that the show and the book series had two slightly different time lines.

THE BOOK SERIES TIME LINE. In the official Outlander book series time line, Mandy was born in April 1776, and Roger, Bree & the kids returned to the 20th century on November 1, 1776. Furthermore, in An Echo in the Bone (ECHO), Jamie's letter to Bree announcing that he and Claire survived the fire was dated December 31, 1776. Consequently, there was no doubt in the book series (at least initially) that all these events happened in 1776.

THE SHOW'S TIME LINE. In episode 703, Jamie's same letter to Bree is dated April 1776. So in the show--unlike in the book series-- the Big House fire must have happened the previous December 1775.

Consequently, in the show, Mandy must have been born in 1775 and Bree, Roger & the kids must have returned to the 20th century in 1775.

The Show's "Obituary" vs. the Book Serie's "Death Notice"

THE "OBITUARY." In the show, a full obituary was written for the Frasers. But in the copy of it that Roger and Bree found in the future, the last digit of the year in which the obituary was published was blurred. The date of the obituary was therefore 21 January, 177X, and the obituary said that they died "On Sabbath evening last." Without the exact year, Roger & Bree couldn't extrapolate the exact date on which "Sabbath evening last" fell. As we shall see, in some ways, this made the plot simpler.

THE "DEATH NOTICE." In the book series, a simple death notice was written for the Frasers, rather than a full obituary. In Drums of Autumn (DOA), Diana Gabaldon tells us that the death notice was published in the Feb. 13, 1776 issue of a NC colonial newspaper, and the date of the fire was "January 21 last":

As we shall see under the cut of this post, it turns out that knowing the year when the Frasers' deaths reportedly occurred makes a lot of difference--at least in the book series.

ABOSAA: Adso and the January 21st Fire

Given the exact date of their deaths in the death notice in DOA, by the time of A Breath of Snow and Ashes (ABOSAA), the family assumed that Jamie and Claire would die in a fire in the Big House on January 21,1776.

Consequently on Jan. 21st they all gathered in Brianna and Roger's cabin (with Bree & Roger, who were still living on Fraser's Ridge, according to the book series' time line), to avoid being in the Big House that evening.

Then a mishap with Rollo caused the visiting Major MacDonald to fall in the snow. Claire put his wet wig in the pantry behind the phosphorous to keep Adso from getting it, to no avail, as she discovered when she later went to get the Major's wig for him:

“Oh, your wig! Just a moment, Major—I’ll fetch it.” I rushed out and round to the pantry—just in time to hear a crash as something fell inside. I jerked open the door, left ajar from my last visit, and Adso streaked past me, the Major’s wig in his mouth. Inside, the lean-to was in brilliant blue flames. --Diana Gabaldon (2005, p. 907)

Further damage of the pantry and the cabin by fire was prevented by Major MacDonald sacrificing his wet coat.

That's how Jamie and Claire "survived" January 21st in ABOSAA. Although DG never explicitly states it (at least that I recall), I always assumed that at least initially everyone thought the newspaper got it wrong about which house caught fire. And perhaps, they also assumed that because they had been forewarned about the fire, Adso's little escapade didn't end with the cabin burning down.

Regardless, Jamie and Claire must have thought they were finally safe from a fiery death--until Dec. 21, 1776, when the Big House caught fire.

[See more below the cut about why the death notice in the book series reported that the fire happened in January and not December, and why knowing the year the death notice was printed in the book series helped Bree and Roger realize they did in fact change the past after all.]