When Jamie dies at King's Mountain - and during the days and nights Claire breathes life back into him - he flashes back to the first moment he saw her.
“ In fact, he seemed terribly unhappy about something. Not that I could see his face well; just something about the way he stood. I came up behind him, and when he didn’t move, I asked politely if I could help him with something. He acted at first as though he didn’t hear me, and I thought perhaps he didn’t, over the noise of the wind, so I repeated myself, and I reached out to tap his shoulder, to get his attention, you know. But before I could touch him, he whirled suddenly round and pushed past me and walked off down the road.”
“Sounds a bit rude, but not very ghostly,” I observed, draining my glass. “What did he look like?”
“Big chap,” said Frank, frowning in recollection. “And a Scot, in complete Highland rig-out, complete to sporran and the most beautiful running-stag brooch on his plaid. I wanted to ask where he’d got it from, but he was off before I could.”
- Outlander
Only interaction with Frank and Jamie in the whole story.
Theories:
A fetch (Irish Folklore) the apparition of a living person
Jamie’s near death experience at Culloden
When Jamie actually die and look for Claire in her timeline
I’ve spent a bit of time pondering this question. I’ve looked at speculations in various blogs and forums, consulted friends, and took all those perspectives into account in trying to come up with a workable possibility. Despite this, quite honestly, your guess is as good as mine, gentle readers. Since Diana is verra creative, I expect the ending will have some unexpected elements to it. Diana has also stated that she knows what the last scene will be but she isn’t quite sure how she will get there. That makes perfect sense to me, especially given the organic manner in which she writes books. So if even Diana isn’t sure how she will get to the ending she sees for the book series, how are we supposed to know?
SPOILER ALERT: Some plot details from the later books and one novella will be discussed in this essay. Although I don’t believe what will be revealed will destroy anyone’s reading experience of the later books, if you are one of those people who doesn’t like to know anything about future books before you have a chance to read them, you might want to stop reading here, before the cut.
A HINT FROM DIANA. Diana has said that the book series will end around 1800 in Scotland. She mentioned that it will be a happy but tear inducing ending. Therefore, I assume someone dies, and I would assume that someone is Jamie. Now, that does not necessarily mean the last page of the book is in 1800 Scotland (my guess is there will be some sort of epilogue).
CLAIRE GOES BACK TO THE FUTURE. Given the above hint from Diana, I think that Jamie dies in Scotland in 1800. In an epilogue, Claire decides to go back to her own time to be with her daugher, son-in-law, grandchildren (and possible great-grandchildren), assuming Jem and Mandy (or their children) have decided it is safe to return to the future (in MOBY Roger, Bree and the kids have sought refuge in the past because of some dangers in the 20th century). I believe that Claire decides this for three reasons:
Jamie always wanted Claire to go back to the future if he died first because he continued to fear she could be killed as a witch or Auld One in the past if he was not there to protect her.
There is the whole problem about Claire’s soul. She cannot have two souls at any one time period. Say she died and went to a heavenly place, her soul would then have to be yanked back and reborn in 1918. Or suppose that she and Jamie were stuck on earth in some sort of purgatory--same problem. (Yes, it could be argued that heaven exists out of time, but since I think that Jamie is stuck in purgatory for 200 years--I’ll get to that in a minute--I’m going to assume that in the Outlander universe heaven doesn’t exist out of time.)
Assuming the rest of Claire’s family had returned to the future, why wouldn’t she want to join them?
JAMIE IN PURGATORY. My Wise Friend said she always thought there was something significant about this quote:
“I will find you," he whispered in my ear. "I promise. If I must endure two hundred years of purgatory, two hundred years without you - then that is my punishment, which I have earned for my crimes. For I have lied, and killed, and stolen; betrayed and broken trust. But there is the one thing that shall lie in the balance. When I shall stand before God, I shall have one thing to say, to weigh against the rest."
His voice dropped, nearly to a whisper, and his arms tightened around me.
Lord, ye gave me a rare woman, and God! I loved her well.”
My friend thought that Jamie would probably have to wait 200 years as a ghost for Claire to die in her own time and her soul to join him. The more I have thought about that, the more that makes sense to me.
GHOST JAMIE. So what about the 25 year-old Jamie ghost in the first book? (Diana reportedly said the ghost was about 25 years old). Well, I used to think it had to do with Culloden, because that would roughly be the time when Jamie “died” briefly during that battle.
There is a possibility that Jamie did “make a ghost” at Culloden. My theory is based on a passage from a Dragonfly in Amber regarding Alex Randall’s will to survive long enough to make sure that Mary Hawkins would be okay:
I had seen that a few times before, too; the man— or woman— whose will was strong enough to override for a time the imperatives of the body.
I thought that was perhaps how some ghosts were made; where a will and a purpose had survived, heedless of the frail flesh that fell by the wayside, unable to sustain life long enough.
–Diana Gabaldon (2004). Dragonfly In Amber (p. 673). Kindle Edition.
The only problem I have with that theory is the whole there-can-only-be-one-soul-for-a-person-in-any-given-time-period dilemma that Diana has established. (Remember how Roger almost dies when he starts to go back to a time where he was a child.) Assuming that Jamie is the ghost that Bree and Frank sense hanging out watching over the family, then it seems to me Jamie’s spirit stayed in this world after he died. Therefore, Jamie couldn’t also have come forward in time as a “ghost” from his brief death at Culloden or there could be some sort of paranormal collision.
So why does Jamie look to be 25 years-old? I would imagine that a ghost could appear to be any age. Maybe Jamie’s “essence” has the energy of a 25 year-old. Maybe he thought it was a good look for him--who knows?
There is still a remote possibility that Jamie’s ghost at Inverness wasn’t really Jamie’s “spirit” but just a “ghost” (or an “echo” of Jamie) that Jamie set into motion at Culloden. If that’s the case, then both Jamie’s real spirit and the “ghost” could co-exist on the same plain.
gif (w/out captions): outlandian
Regardless as to whether “ghost Jamie” was just an “echo” of Jamie or his “real” spirit, I imagine that he was verra excited to see Claire in 20th century Inverness. However, he was also probably not verra pleased to be interrupted by Frank when he was gazing up at Claire. I wondered for a while why he seemed so upset when Frank appeared (other than the obvious--he doesn’t like the idea of Claire’s first husband Frank interfering with his viewing Claire in peace and maybe bedding her later that evening).
I also thought for a while that perhaps Jamie’s ghost was trying to figure out a way to warn Claire not to go back in time, so she could have an easier life in the 20th Century. Still, that only makes sense if the ghost is from Jamie’s brief “death” at Culloden, because he wouldn’t necessarily know that Claire and their unborn child were able to survive the trip back to the future.
However, if “the ghost” is Jamie’s “real” spirit from his death at a ripe old age as opposed to an “echo” from Culloden, certainly Jamie’s spirit wouldn’t want to warn Claire against going back in time, because that would mean no Bree, or Jem or Amanda. So forget that theory.
Anyway, I think Jamie’s “real” spirit is stuck in purgatory and stays in the 20th century after Claire goes back in time. Maybe he haunts Frank a bit. (He probably previously watched over Claire when she was growing up as well.) So I see him hanging out for 200 years, watching over Claire and Bree and the rest until Claire dies around the year 2000. Then his purgatory is over and the two are reunited.
WHO PLANTED THE FORGET-ME-NOTS? Okay, but who planted the forget-me-nots that lure Claire to the stones so she can go through?
screencap (w/out caption) via source
Well, since I fear Diana is going to throw something out at us from left field, here’s my theory: it was a younger version of Frank (along with an older version of Jem) who planted the flowers. FRANK?! FRANK YOU SAY?! Relax Frank haters. I’m probably wrong but it is an interesting theory, so take a breath and hear me out.
At one point in the books, Jem asks his mother if they could go back in time to meet Grandpa Frank. This startles Bree. Something tells me that Diana didn’t have Jem ask that question for no reason. Undoubtedly there will be some trip in time back to Frank by one of the kids. Given that possibility, I wonder if Jem goes back in time (or forward in time, depending on where he starts from) as a young man and meets his grandfather when HE was a young man. Perhaps they meet some time after he weds Claire and is working in special ops for Britain during the war. Frank knows something is wrong with that pilot that was missing from that spitfire. Maybe his investigations take him to the nearby standing stones where he meets Jem.
Once they meet, Jem might take the time to prove to Frank that he is his adopted grandson (perhaps by showing him photos). What if Jem explains everything to Frank and gets him to go on a wacky adventure with him to plant some forget-me-nots by the standing stones that Claire will eventually go through. Frank isn’t sure if Jem is crazy but he is so fascinated he helps Jem plant the flowers. Jem tells Frank that he won’t be able to have his own children but that if Claire goes to the stones on a specific date she will go back in time and get pregnant and she will return to raise the child with Frank. Jem tells Frank that it is imperative that he convince Claire to go alone to the standing stones on that specific date if he is ever to have a family.
Frank doesn’t fully believe what Jem told him, but after having been married to Claire for a while (despite lots of time apart) but no pregnancies, he figures, what does he have to lose? Remember, it is Frank that urges Claire to go back to the stones to check out those forget-me-nots. She even asks him “Why are you so interested in that plant?” Frank says actually he’s not interested in the plant but if she is going back to the stones anyway she could check out if there were any signs that there was a fire outside the stone circle related to the Beltane ritual they had both observed earlier.
screencap (w/out caption) via source
But what if that was not the real reason? Maybe the real reason was Frank wanted to see if Jem’s theory was true. Maybe that is why after Claire comes back through the stones saying she is pregnant with another man’s child that Frank takes her back and raises the child as his own. Maybe that’s why he falls immediately in love with Bree--because Jem told him they would have a good father-daughter relationship.
I know, it’s a crazy theory but I thought I’d put it out there. It seems that as the book series has gone on we have found out little by little that Frank knows more than we think he does about Claire and Bree and the past. I also believe at one point Diana said that Frank was important in the scheme of things. I assumed that she said that because of the gravestone he sets up (that ultimately reunites Claire with Jamie, etc.). But maybe somehow Frank sets everything in motion! Now wouldn’t that be a plot twist from left field?
Anyway, those are my thoughts. I’d love to hear readers’ theories. I look forward to hearing what you think!
NOTE: Transcripts of dialogue are from henricavyll and foreverdreaming.org.
Frank meets the ghost of Jamie in ep 1. What's your interpretation? He was a sign of things to come? Claire was with jamie before Frank and he's coming from the past to the future? What's your interpretation?
I think it’s Jamie’s ghost. I think we’ll get a better explanation about why he’s there later on in the series, but I think that it is his spirit and it will always seek out Claire.
There’s a really great passage from The Drums of Autumn after they were separated by time and then reunited that I think explains it:
“I was dead, my Sassenach - and yet all that time, I loved you.”
I closed my eyes, feeling the tickle of the grass on my lips, light as the touch of sun and air.
“I loved you too,” I whispered. “I always will.”
The grass fell away. Eyes still closed, I felt him lean toward me, and his mouth on mine, warm as sun, light as air.
“So long as my body lives, and yours - we are one flesh,” he whispered… “And when my body shall cease, my soul will still be yours. Claire - I swear by my hope of heaven, I will not be parted from you… Nothing is lost, Sassenach; only changed.”
"That’s the first law of thermodynamics,” I said, wiping my nose.
Seriously guys, major spoilers not just for Outlander but for the entire series.
Lots of speculation floating around about Jamie's ghost and that Diana has said this will be the scene where the story ends. She says Ghost!Jamie is 25.
Jamie went to fight at Culloden at that age, we know he almost died. What if he had a near death experience and he then went to visit Claire? Thoughts?
