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OUTLANDER: ON CHANGING THE PAST, PART 1: Adso steals a wig and "the Devil is in the details"

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.]

The Devil is in the Details

In ABOSAA Epilogue II: The Devil is in the Details, we learn that the original death notice that had been submitted to the newspaper reported that the fire had happened in December, but Sampson, the "new printer's devil" (i.e., apprentice) didn't have slugs in the right font for December and so he changed the date to January.

“What’s this, then?” Amos Crupp squinted at the page laid out in the bed of the press, reading it backward with the ease of long experience. “It is with grief that the news is received of the deaths by fire … Where’d that come from?” “Note from a subscriber,” said Sampson, his new printer’s devil, shrugging as he inked the plate. “Good for a bit of filler, there, I thought. [...] “Hmph. I s’pose. Very old news, though,” Crupp said, glancing at the date. “January?” “Well, no,” the devil admitted....“ ’Twas December, by the notice. But I’d set the page in Baskerville twelve-point, and the slugs for November and December are missing in that font. Not room to do it in separate letters, and not worth the labor to reset the whole page.” --Diana Gabaldon (2005, p. 980)

At first glance, it appears that DG had implied in ABOSAA that Roger and Bree didn't change history--that the newspaper had just printed the wrong month because of missing slugs in the proper font.

So the mystery about the wrong month in the death notice was solved--or was it?

Maybe More Was Afoot Than the "Printer's Devil's" Mistake

One might think that the books and show diverge here. In the show, the explanation for the erroneous month in the obituary is rather straight forward. It's because Roger and Bree had changed history. But in ABOSAA, we have a logical explanation for the incorrect month in the death notice--or do we?

Because in ECHO, Roger and Bree discover upon their return to the 20th century that one thing has changed in the death notice--the date. Although, they don't say which part of the date (the month or the year or both), at the very least, the YEAR had to have changed.

in ABOSAA, the Big House burned on Dec. 21, 1776. Therefore, news of the fire couldn't have appeared in the Feb. 13, 1776 newspaper like it originally did--because that would have meant the death notice was published slightly more than 10 months BEFORE the fire. Consequently, in ECHO, after they returned to the 20th century, Roger and Bree must have noticed that the YEAR that the newspaper printed the death notice had changed to 1777.

Confused? All I have to say is: Where is "Back to the Future's" Doc Brown when you need him? 🤷🏻‍♀️

In ECHO, Claire realizes that something is amiss with time when she talks to Tom Christie in Wilmington in April 1977. Tom told Claire that he had heard about the fire in "late January" from "a man named McCreary" who "had just come down from the mountain." Tom then asked Claire:

"Was there a fire?" “Well, yes, there was,” I said slowly, wondering whether—and how much—to tell him of the truth of that. Very little, in a public place, I decided. “Maybe it was Mr. McCreary, then, who placed the notice of the fire in the newspaper—but he can’t have.” The original notice had appeared in 1776, Roger had said—nearly a year before the fire. [emphasis added] “I placed it,” Christie said. Now it was my turn to blink. “You what? When?” I took a good-sized mouthful of whisky, feeling that I needed it more than ever. “Directly I heard of it. Or—well, no,” he corrected. “A few days thereafter. I … was very much distressed at the news,” he added, lowering his eyes and looking away from me for the first time since we’d sat down. --Diana Gabaldon (2009, p. 189)

So Claire knows something is wrong with the time line. The Big House burned down on Dec. 21, 1776 but the original notice about the house burning was printed on Feb. 13, 1776--months BEFORE it happened.

Bree and Roger must somehow have changed Claire's and Jamie's fates after all--in BOTH the book series and in the show.

This is likely why the show runners chose to simplify the plot by obscuring the the last digit of the year of the obituary's publication. By making the year vague, the audience does not have to work through all these steps that book readers have had to do over the years to reconcile the date of the death notice being about 10 months before the Big House burned down.

Still, that isn't the end of the questions about changing the past in the Outlander universe. Roger raises more religious questions in both the book series and the show. Part 2 of this two-part essay series will explore those questions.

________________ IMAGE SOURCES: 1) All Outlander gifs are mine--they were made from Starz Outlander episode 703, as was the screencap of Jamie's April 1776 letter. 2) Winona Ryder confused gif source (before edits). 3)* Jamie's December 31, 1776 letter was a direct quote from ECHO, reformatted to replicate a handwritten letter. 4) the obituary screenshot source (before edits); "Sabbath evening last" inset source (before edits); "21 January, 177X" inset composite sources: 01 + 02 (before edits). 5)* The Feb. 13, 1776 death notice was a direct quote from DOA reformatted to replicate a colonial newspaper death notice. 6) The Adso manipulated image was made from these sources (before edits): 01 + 02 + 03. 7) The illustration of an 18th century printing shop source. 8) The Back to the Future Doc Brown video source for gif (before edits). 9) The Claire and Tom Christie screenshot source (before edits).

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