Outlander

Claire Beauchamp Randall Fraser's Story
1746/ 1948 to 1968/ 1766
Her Separation from
James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser

These are the twenty years of separation, on her story only, chronologically, through the television series 2 and 3. This is for people who have seen the first three television series, and, better still, read the first three books: Outlander/ Cross Stitch, Dragonfly in Amber and Voyager, all by Diana Gabaldon. It also helps if the reader has looked at her book 4, The Drums of Autumn, in its references back within its continuing story.

Therefore this is all 'spoilers'. If you don't want to know, do not read.

What follows is almost like an alternative to the novel, as set out in the rewrite in the television series - here as if in novel form. However, it isn't, of course. Treat this as a reference. The fact is television script works in television: short bursts of dialogue. A novel can explain more, and whilst dialogue should drive plot, dialogue in a novel is not 'reminding viewers' unless necessary to refer back.

The television series and the books are not the same story. The clue is to the extent that books 2 and 3 focus on 1968. All the 1948 onwards material is in the form of flashbacks in book 3. In the television series, 1948 to 1968 are given their own part-episodes along with the Jamie separation pieces. But 2:1 jumps to 1948, before 2:13 jumps further to 1968, to be followed by 1948 in 3:1, then 1948/9 in 3:2, a run through to 1966 in 3:3, and 3:4 takes off where 2:13 left off, to be followed by 3:5 and Claires return back in time. 2:1 into 1968 would have been 'too big a leap' for viewers, says Producer (and writer of 2:1) Ronald D. Moore.

1968 in the books is about a whole different reason given for Claire and Brianna being in Scotland. In the TV series it is clear that Claire intends to travel back from the wake for the Reverend Reginald Wakefield and return overnight to England. Frank is dead, but she is sure that Jamie died at Culloden and is not investigating him herself. In the book, the express reason is given. Although she could have come earlier, she says, she is in Scotland before Beltane in 1968 in order to warn Gillian Edgars/ Geillis Duncan. This all stems from (in my British book 1) Dougal speaking carefully:
'She said if ever I saw you again, was to tell you two things, just as she told them to me. The first was: "I think it is possible but I do not know." And the second - the second was just numbers. She made me say them over, to be sure I had them right, for I was to tell them to you in a certain order. The numbers were one, nine, six and seven."' [page 704]
In Book 2, Dragonfly in Amber, she states to Roger Wakefield:
'But she threw away any chance she might have had, in order to save me. and she left me a message. Dougal gave it to me, in a cave in the Highlands, when he brought me the news that Jamie was in prison. There were two pieces to the message. A sentence, "I do not know if it is possible, but I think so," and a sequence of four numbers - one, nine, six, and eight.' ... Claire continues after Roger's response: 'This is 1968, the year she went back herself. Except that I think she hasn't yet gone.' (Gillian Edgars waits for the Pagan day and moment to go.) [page 929]
So once again, there is a mistake, 1967 instead of 1968, but given that the British version of book 1 has her cross a year later in 1946, one would think the mistake might be a year later, as in 1969. When did 1967 beceone 1968? Why was the change to 1968 never edited one way or the other?
Anyhow, on travelling to Scotland in book 2 she has this project for Roger Wakefield, knowing that the Fraser men of Lallybroch were sent home: with a list she asks him, what happened to them afterwards? But her focus is to intercept Gillian/ Geillis, in what can be seen as her own debt of honour. Incidentally, Claire knows that Geillis did not die immediately by flame because, while pregnant, she was held at Castle Leoch until the birth - when then she ought to have died. In the TV series, the opportunity to warn Geillis comes about as a by-product of staying in the area, seeing the sights, and because Roger and Brianna encountered Gillian Edgars stirring the locals in the 1960s. Unlike in the book, where Roger and Brianna go to Culloden Moor, in the television series, Claire goes there to say goodbye to Jamie. When in the TV series Brianna discovers the 'miraculous return story' and that she had a different biological father, she asks if their stay is to be introduced to him, if this is, 'what it is all about?' But such was not Claire's express intention, and Brianna seems to have forgotten that the intention was simply to return to England. In the book, the turning point is the discovery of Jamie's gravestone (undated - the earlier point is they are weathered), close to Jack Randall's at St. Kilda's church yard. Claire gets overawed by this gravestone, and she rejects going to hospital, and so they return her to the manse, where her explanation causes Brianna to be angry, the anger of which continues in scene from the front of the Dragonfly in Amber to the chapters at the rear. The deed of sasine regarding Lallybroch does not feature in Book 2, Dragonfly in Amber, on which which the television series 2 is based. In book 3, Voyager, it is obtained by Roger, and comes along with proof of Jamie's whereabouts in Edinburgh, and is shown to Claire after she has resigned from the hospital, after she alone returned to Scotland to rejoin her daughter and Roger, in order to go back in time again.

The separation twenty years is also tackled in Series 4 episode 7. Frank, in 1966, obtains from Reginald Wakefield a copy of a Wilmington Gazette (21 February but precise year obscured: 1770s) report of Claire and Jamie's death by fire. Roger gets his copy from Fiona, who says her granny had it and did not go to Reverend Wakefield. Its memory or reason to remember it propels Brianna through the stones. [Whilst the book also has Roger and Brianna discovering the death report separately, and it is clearly 21 February, 1776, Frank does not have this; Frank though has evidence of Jamie Fraser's continued existence after Culloden and thus makes arrangements with Reginald Wakefield - for Brianna to find the grave.] In the TV series Frank takes it that Claire will leave him; but Brianna sees his report and at that time the name Jamie Fraser and his wife means nothing to her. [In the book, Claire as his wife is named and her status given.] Yet this is a big incident: her father does not trust her to tell him, she thinks. But why does she not recall this later in the document chase? Why do they end up not finding Jamie after Ardsmuir when there's a document to say that Jamie Fraser and wife died in North Carolina? We see Frank finds Brianna walking with friends and she gets in the car; Frank then asks Brianna in the car to go with him to England and she refuses: she gets out; he subsequently crashes in that car and is killed. Yet in series 2:13 Brianna is silent on the divorce and intended destination England. "Retrofit" backwriting does not always fit at all.

[The events in the book are somewhat like this: On April 16th, 1746, Claire, 29, goes through the stones and emerges April 16th 1948. Frank (40) comes to the hospital after driving overnight, and Claire tells all immediately. By autumn, Claire and Frank live in Boston, USA, where Frank lectures in History. In October Claire is 30; in November Brianna is born. Claire resumes sex with Frank in February 1949. About Autumn 1954, when Brianna is 6, Claire starts training at the Medical School. It is thus when she first meets Joe Abernathy.
Aged 17, Brianna is in her final year at school, and with her friends. Frank had wanted to take Brianna to England and a boarding school to finish her education but on January 1st, 1966, Frank dies in a car crash in icy conditions. Claire had said no.(Note that in the TV series, school is over when Frank would get a job and take her. So his death is later.) Brianna begins university in September, and is 18 in November.
In April 1968, Claire (49) and Brianna (19) go to Scotland, covered in part in Dragonfly in Amber: the timing is to encounter Geillis as she would become (and used in her Grimoire, read by Roger in Drums of Autumn). Gillian Edgars goes back 135 years, whereas Claire went back 202. Claire in 1968 goes to Roger with a list of soldiers from the Lallybroch estate, and asks Roger Wakefield (28) at the manse what happened to them. (Roger Wakefield was orphaned aged 5 1945 and adopted by great uncle Reginald Wakefield, and thus is at the manse.) On May 2nd Roger discovers Jamie did not die at Culloden.
Thus the tale continues in Voyager. On May 9th Brianna finds and works out the legend of the Dunbonnet (Jamie) at the place of the Leap o' the Cask. May 25th they see the final entry of Lord Melton's diary, that Jamie went from Culloden to Lallybroch so that Lord Grey's honour exchange was implemented: Jamie might well die anyway. On June 1st Claire spots Jamie's name in the Ardsmuir prisoners' list. Mid-way through September, with Claire alone back in Boston, the telegram arrives from Roger that Jamie was found a year back in the parallel time line, thus 1766.
Claire sees the 1765 article by Jamie and the Deed of Sasine releasing Lallybroch to the Murrays on October 5th, so that on November 1st Claire (50) goes back through the stones, walks to Inverness, gets a stagecoach, finds Jamie (44) in Edinburgh, and it is not long before they make for Lallybroch.
With the news of Jamie's marriage to Laoghaire, Claire attempts to leave Jamie and return to the future on horseback, but after considerable distance is called back because of news of Laoghaire's murder attempt on Jamie and his fever from the wounds, when penicillin is used to cause a recovery and a reconciliation happens. In the attempt to pay off Laoghaire with the treasure at Silkie Island, the adventure turns and emerges into leaving Scotland altogether. It is only in March 1767 that Jamie tells Claire about his son, William, adopted and raised by Lord Grey. Later that month Claire kills Geillis Duncan, given her threat to sacrifice Brianna. Even later that month they are washed up at Georgia - for the tale to continue in Drums of Autumn as colonial settlers.]

The television series for the separation years is more dramatic, more engaging, less of a flowing historical documents and evidence search, and involves Brianna in her own discovery and shock, but it is also a considerable rewrite to change the basis of the story.

However, by not using St. Kilda's as the means for Claire to reveal all, the television series has missed something regarding the location of the gravestones. I won't give this plot twist away here: but the questions in the books reader's mind are, inevitably:

a) How is it that Jamie apparently died back in Scotland, buried in the St. Kilda churchyard near Broch Mordha (by my memory a churchyard not mentioned until series 3 episode 6 of the television series), the village nearabouts to Lallybroch, all in the vicinity of the stones?
b) Readers will ask why are these gravestones close? Would it be because Fraser killed Randall on Culloden Moor (surely not). (For the answer, one has to read Chapter 71 of Drums of Autumn) when Roger tells Jamie (yes!) about this future gravestone.
c) How come a date would be so faded that it was missed by Claire for Jamie's death? (Also Chapter 71 of Drums of Autumn)
d) Why wasn't the corpse of Jack Randall taken back to Sussex so a dated gravestone exists? (This is easily answered, I think: Randall's appalling reputation - and the death of the influential Duke of Sandringham - had caught up with him.)

(The answers to the above actually relate to Claire's marriage to Frank, Claire's claims made about Jamie, what Frank actually knew about Jamie and Culloden - what Frank discovered and withheld from Claire and therefore Claire did not know until 1968 - and what Brianna should know about her genealogy via the Randall archive once her father Frank had died, which he did early by accident in 1966.)

There is also, still, the issue of the ghost or presence of Jamie in Beltane 1945 (American version) or Beltane 1946 (British version, that leads to continuous confusion in later books) or Samhain 1945 (television series version). Jamie as presence is able to see Claire through her accommodation window during the second honeymoon.

Where are these transporter stones, apparently influenced by Clava Cairns? As Claire returns into 1766, we read that Craigh Na Dun is forty miles or so from Inverness by foot, no more than an hour by car in 1968, to then get her stagecoach to Edinburgh. Really? Come on! It's 68 miles to Fort William and 103 to Aberdeen! (At one point, page 268 hardback, the American book 1 puts the stones 65 miles away at 3 miles near Fort William!)
The first TV series suggests Claire could view Inverness from the locality, once with its post Second World War street lights flickering (not exactly today's powerful street lamps), and then in 1743/ 4 as if gone into the dark. This is consistent with the first British (at least) book, where early on Frank and Claire walk to the stones from Inverness, and later Claire goes by bicycle.
In the TV series the police find the car Claire used; in the first book it's a bicycle, although in book 2 the bicycle becomes a car and Geillis records in Book 4 that Claire Randall left a car.
Then in series 4 episode 7 Brianna has a map, and Craigh Na Dun is well over 50 miles away by modern car, which is not an hour away but nearer an hour and a half. So the TV series now contradict themselves, as do the books.

The location of the fake stones for filming may be Dunalastair Reservoir Crossmount, east of Kinloch Rannoch, 80 miles from Inverness, but that's the same location-finding illusion for the Lallybroch building being actually near Edinburgh on flat land at Midhope Castle. Cottages added by CGI at one view are missed on other views that should include part of them. The whole Hopetoun estate is used for the Duke of Sandringham's residence, Lord Ellesmere's house, Paris street scenes and Helswater stables. Who would have thought that the inside of the nuns' hospital in France would in fact be the crypt of Glasgow Cathedral? Inverness College is the University of Stirling, and the university's walkway is used for the airport at Boston. In the books, sometimes Lallybroch is in the Great Glen, and sometimes it seems further east. Book 1 has the borders of the MacKenzie lands at Loch Ness - but other times the boundary is unclear.

Claire's Separation Story: Chronological Order

Imagine if the television series 2:1 had removed 1948 for the first half of the episode and had started instead with the second half of Jamie and Claire arriving in Le Havre (actually, Dunure in Scotland, same as the port for leaving Scotland, same as the location on land for inside Silkie Castle). Imagine that these episodes then shove forwards the French and Jacobite war content each time, so that 2:13 instead of jumping between 1746 and then 1968, unrelated to each other (except by the deed of sasine), had in 2:13 put 1746 at the beginning, complete, and then followed with 1948? In other words, the drama would have been Claire with Jamie, forced to go through the stones in 1746, and then Claire emerging, in 1948, to come off the hill, see a metalled road, and confront the car driver, asking what year it is and who won. The dramatic effect on the viewer, of then Frank Randall's appearance, and Claire's condition, and her eventual telling of her past, and being pregnant, would have been far more dramatic. Television should not have copied the structure of the second book: linear story telling is how television works best. So below follows a chronological presentation. It is not written as it would be in a novel, simply because a novel would be more descriptive, and a novel's dialogue, whilst informing a reader and driving a plot, can be more subtle than a dialogue that is clipped for television and rather more crudely informs a viewer by saying things that the persons involved already know.

Some Television Names

Creator: Ronald D. Moore

Consultant: Diana Gabaldon, author of the books; Executive Producers: Ronald D. Moore, Andy Harries, Mungo Kehoe, Jim Kohlberg, Anne Kenney, Matthew B. Roberts, Toni Graphia; Co-Producers: Elicia Bassette, Michael O'Halloran, David Brown; Editor: Liz Cardinale; Supervising Producers: Shannon Goss, Joy Blake, Karen Campbell; Co-executive Producer: Luke Scheelhaas.

Actors include: Caitriona Balfe as Claire Beauchamp Randall Fraser; Sam Heughan as James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser; Sophie Skelton as Brianna Randall/ Fraser (later MacKenzie); Richard Rankin as Roger MacKenzie Wakefield; Tobias Menzies as Frank Randall/ Jonathan "Black Jack" Randall; Lotte Verbeek as Gillian Edgars/ Geillis Duncan; Duncan Lacroix as Murtagh Fraser; Graham McTavish as Dougal MacKenzie; Gary Lewis as Colum MacKenzie.

Remember: if you haven't read it and/ or you haven't seen it, you ought not to read on.

Preamble: at Television Series 2:13
Dragonfly in Amber

Writer: Matthew B. Roberts & Toni Graphia; Director: Philip John

1746

The relevance to Claire's story of separation preambles with Claire assisting Jamie in killing Dougal, but it frustrates the regicide plan of Claire regarding Prince Charles Stuart. Rupert - loyal to Dougal - appears, and Jamie promises he will be back to face him. The fight also gives Jamie a knife injury on his left hand, that has a basic wrapping around it. [In the book, Dougal wants to kill Claire directly as the witch undermining Jamie's loyalty to the cause. Jamie stands in the way, so Dougall says he will give him a quick death for his mother' sake - a line used in the television episode. Dougal's death in the book is more an accident of the fighting: Claire is not directly involved.] This means Jamie is in trouble with the MacKenzies, as well as with the British, so he may as well return to die on the battlefield. It is where he will kill Jack Randall, on the date that Claire as a 'witch' 'predicted' to Randall. With Murtagh leading the Lallybroch Fraser people away from Culloden, Jamie demands that Claire goes to the Craigh Na Dun stones.

April 16th 8:45 am

Claire and Jamie walk around Jacobite troops in directed movement on a field. There are tents and flags are held raised aloft. As we look at them, a house as headquarters is behind this point of view. They head towards a more wooded area. Jamie is pulling Claire along by gripping her hand outstretching her arm. She is in tartan flowing cloth, he is in gear for presentation and battle.
Claire asks, 'Where are we going?'
Jamie replies, 'Red Jamie won't get far, but you - I can save you and I will.'
Claire says, 'Well, we can leave together. Now. We could sail somewhere, anywhere.'
Jamie points out, 'The country is roused and the ports are closed.' They pause. 'I'm not afraid to die, Sassenach.' She looks directly at him. 'A musket ball, maybe a blade. It's better than a hangman's noose or the wrath of the MacKenzies. I'm a dead man already, so I choose the battlefield.'
Claire responds, 'No. Then I will stay here with you.'
Jamie states, 'No you won't.' He drags her within the wooded copse, as troops are passing.
Claire remembers: 'At the witch trial, if I'd have gone to the stake with Geillis, would you have left me?'
He replies, arriving at his horse, 'Left you? I would have gone to the stake with you, to hell and beyond...' He walks towards her, and continues, '...if it had come to that. But I wasn't carrying your child.'
Claire pauses. She says, 'You can't possibly know that. It's much too soon. It...'
'Sassenach, you have not been a day late in your courses and in all the times since you first took me to your bed, but it's been two months now.'
Claire is wide eyed, and moves them side to side. She says, 'You kept track? In the middle of this bloody war, you kept track?'
'Aye. How long have you known?' he asks.
'Not long,' she says.
'This child, this one,' he says, as he touches her to her right of her belly, 'is all that will be left of me, ever.' They pause, and look at each other. 'But now we must go, so I beg of you, Claire...'
'No, no, I can't leave you.'
Jamie asserts: 'You heard me give my word to Rupert, and you made me promise to spare Randall's life. You promised me that if it came to this, ye would go back through the stones - back home.'
Claire, close to Jamie, looks desperate. 'But you are my home.'
He responds, 'And you are mine, but this home is lost. And now you and the bairn - you must go to a safe place.' He moves to the horse. 'To a man, a man that could care for you both.'
As Claire speaks, he gets on to the horse. 'No, no, I...'
'Claire. Claire, there's no time.'
Jamie's hand is outstretched to lift her up on to the horse. Claire closes her mouth and realises she must, looking to the side.

Jamie and Claire are on the galloping horse, moving through woodland, and they come to the stones from the left, probably the east (so we are looking roughly south). It's frosty. He leads her, his right arm pulling her along to walk. Her left arm is out, their hands gripped, her right is around her middle: it's almost as if she is being dragged along. They come to between two stones, where his right hand releases her left hand. She stands, looking at the main stone that she knows will be her passageway. He now looks back at her, over his right shoulder. Her right hand on her stomach holds her shawl together.
Claire asks, 'How will I explain all this?' Her hands have come together, one on the other. 'How can I go back?'
Jamie looks from her back towards the stone, somewhat in front of him. 'To Frank.' He looks back at her. 'All that I leave to you. Tell him what you will about me - about us.' Facing her he puts out his right hand. 'It's likely he'll no want to hear, but if he does...' Claire had not come forward with her hand to take his, so he comes further to her. 'Tell him I'm grateful.' Now he holds her left hand. 'And tell him I trust him.' Claire looks down and appears miserable. 'And tell him that I hate him to the very marrow of his bones.' He pulls her. She looks down and is resisting.
Claire says, 'The buzzing. It's so loud. I'm not ready, Jamie. I'm not ready.' Distant sound could be large gunfire. 'Come with me. Come with me through the stones.'
Jamie responds, 'Nah, I can't.'
She looks directly at him wide-eyed. 'You could try. You hear it, right? The buzzing?'
Jamie says, 'I don't hear anything, Claire. And even if I could,' walking to the stone, 'go back through the stones,' placing his hand on the main stone (which would have seen him pass through), it's not my place.' Claire is now washed out, open-mouthed, eyes welling up. 'My destiny lies on Culloden Moor.' She looks down. Looking at Claire he says, 'But I'll find you. I promise. If I have to endure two hundred years of purgatory, two hundred years without you, then that is my punishment that I have earned for my crimes. For I have lied, killed,' - he puts his right hand to her left cheek - 'betrayed,' - now his hand touches her hands - 'and broken trust.' Closer to her, he says, 'But when I stand before God,' - she looks directly into his eyes - 'I'll have one thing to say against all the rest.' He kisses her and its a noisy removal. 'Lord, you gave me a rare woman.' They kiss strongly, her right hand, with its Lallybroch key origin ring so visible, comes to his shoulder before he pulls away, and he says, 'And God, I loved her well.'
They kiss again, and fall to the ground, her back to the ground and he above, so that he gets his hand to go into her many layers of cloth, so that her left knee rises to welcome him in, for him to enter her and grunts as he holds her around her neck, and riving and grunting, until his assumed ejaculation to end the encounter, as they are closely looking at each other from their horizontal position. [In the book, the final lovemaking is in the cottage where they stay overnight.]
There is the sound of cannon fire. Jamie looks to the side and then down again. He kisses her. There is more cannon fire. He gets off her, moving to his right side. Claire sits up. She takes from a pocket the dragonfly in amber.
Jamie says, 'It has begun.'
Claire uses her dirty white scarf to wrap it up. She says, 'Our wedding gift, from Hugh Munroe.' She is wrapping it. 'You keep it with you.' She places it into his right hand with hers', again showing the Lallybroch ring, of course. Then she quotes the line from their wedding, in the chapel, when Dougal slit their arms and they mixed their blood. 'Blood of my blood.'
'And bone of my bone,' continues Jamie.
'As long as we both shall live,' concludes Claire.
[In the book, this is said when, in the cottage, Jamie carves a J into her thumb base.]
They kiss. There is more sound of cannon fire. Claire is crying as both look to the side, his left and her right. That's where the battle noise is coming from. She is miserable. Both are sat as more such battle noise is heard.
Jamie says, 'Come on,' and pulls her up. From around his right side, he produces a ring. 'This... belonged to my father. Give it to the bairn, when he is old enough. He places it on to her ringer with the Lallybroch ring. She looks down at it, and then up to him. (This gift turns out to be essential: she needs a stone to avoid personal injury in transport through.) There is more heavy gunfire.
Claire says, 'I will name him Brian, after your father. His injured left hand goes to her neck. He looks again to the distance and the cannon fire noise. He looks back at Claire and their heads touch.
Now, under his direction, they move anti-clockwise. He is pushing her backwards.
Claire says, 'I love you.'
Jamie responds, 'And I you.'
She nods a little and he kisses her, with a noisy decoupling.
Claire is at the main stone, and Jamie turns her with his left hand at her waist. Now his right arm like hers is outstretched, his right hand and ring on his little finger above hers. These hands are reaching forward. She looks forward, and he is behind her, behind her head.
Jamie says, finally, 'Goodbye, Claire.'
His right hand grips her right hand from above, as these hands reach further forward. He looks down and pushes her hand on to the stone.

[In the book 2 (Dragonfly in Amber) it is daylight when Claire makes a run for the stones and dodges Redcoats very close in the vicinity to go through, including one making chase, whilst Jamie must dodge the Redcoats to get to the battlefield.]

2:1 Through a Glass Darkly

Written for television by Ronald D. Moore. Director: Metin Hüseyin

1948

Claire has gone through, and is on the other side of time. She narrates:
I wish I were dead and if I'd kept eyes shut, I could have almost touched the edges of oblivion; but I'd made a promise and had to keep it (to raise the child in safety), even if it meant living a life I no longer wanted.
At the stones, she looks down her cleavage for the ring from Jamie that was his father's. It isn't there, so she looks into the nearby grass. She finds it without its stone, and there is no stone to find nearby. She screams aloud and screams again. She walks down the hillside from the stones.
He was gone. They were all gone. The world I'd left only moments ago was now dust.
[In the book this Craigh na Dun and metalled road scene does not exist: the emphasis is on her wearing rags; in the TV series the clothes are authentic to the past.]
She walks on a metalled road, looking down as she goes. A car hoots twice and halts behind the woman walking in strange, ancient costume.
The driver gets out, not quite closing his door. He asks, 'You all right ma'am?' She pauses, looks to her right and back, showing her raised dress above her bottom. 'Are you all right, ma'am,' he asks further. He comes towards her. 'Do you speak English?'
Claire asks, quietly, 'What year is it?'
'The year?' he asks, in his Scottish accent.
So Claire walks towards him. 'What year is this?' she asks in a flat voice.
'Why, it's nineteen hundred and forty eight.'
Claire prepares her words on her lips. 'Who won?' He is mystified. 'Who won the Battle of Culloden?' She gets closer to the man.
'Do you not feel well? Perhaps I could take you...'
She shouts, 'Tell me! and grabs him by his lapels. 'Tell me, who won the Battle of Culloden? Tell me now!'
'The British! Cumberland and the British! Would you let me go?'
Claire lets go, withdraws, and, completely miserable, starts to moan and break down. She drops to the floor, bends over her hands, and sobs.

So Claire is at the hospital. (Perhaps the driver took her.) Frank Randall bangs open the door, to his right in a set of double doors, into the hospital corridor and walks with speed and determination. He tells a nurse his name, and that he received a call from a Dr Edwards.
'Yes sir. One moment please, Mr Randall,' says the nurse.
'Thank you.' He removes his trilby hat.
The nurse opens the door to a single person patient room. 'He's here,' she says. Frank looks into the side distance and strokes his hair, getting himself ready and looking pensive.
The nurse stands and the doctor comes out of the room. 'Ah, Mr Randall.' Frank turns and goes forward towards him. 'I'm Dr Edwards.'
'Where is she?' Frank asks.
'She's resting comfortably. Some dehydratrion, and superficial cuts and bruises notwithstanding. Ah, she appears to be in good health.'
'Right.'
Emotionally, she's, um... Well, she's better now, I should think.' Frank walks further. 'We gave her a sedative last night, and today she's much calmer.'
Inside her room, the radio set is playing American jazz. Frank pauses outside the closed door. He looks in. Claire is alone in bed, to the back wall, with a window to her left showing a busy street scene of traffic. Frank comes in slowly, and pushes the door back behind him to close it. He pauses further to look at Claire.
Claire says, 'Can you turn that bloody thing off, please?' He pays attention to the controls and turns it down and off. Claire, sat up in bed, has her arms folded and looks out of the window as a bus passes. 'It's so noisy, here,' she comments. Frank is still stood, holding his hat. He comes forward. Traffic passes and there is a ghostly figure of a man through the window, and Claire seems fearful. She says something indistinguishable, like, 'How?'
He says, 'Claire.'
Claire turns to look more forward, but still down, then sharper to Frank, showing her messy hair. She says, 'Frank,' and then, after a pause, 'Hello,' and then after a further pause and slight side to side head movement, 'I'm back.'
'And I'm so grateful.'
'Are you?' she asks in flat speech.
'Of course.' He looks concerned and puzzled. 'With all my heart.' As he approaches her to kiss, she sees Jack Randall, and so jumps back as she can in fear, with her right hand raised. He stops, and she looks cold and afraid. He looks at her, and sees that there is a problem. 'I'm sorry.'
She recovers from her fear. 'No.' A man from the press comes in, while she is saying, 'It's not you.'
Holding a camera with a large flash bulb in a reflector on top, the press man says, 'Mrs Randall.' The flashgun goes off, Claire jumps, and Frank turns a little slowly.
'Hey!' The nurse comes in and asks, 'What are you doing? Get out of here!'
He says, 'Easy now! I'm just doing my job,' as he is removed. He says, 'Watch the camera!' from beyond the room.

[In the first book she tells the hospital staff little but her name. Outside the room the doctor tells Frank that she is pregnant. Inside, she first lets Frank take her hand and tells him that she is pregnant pretty much immediately. She wants him to leave, immediately. She tells him that she fell in love with someone else and married him - in that order. She then says she went back in time to 1743, and laughs at his reaction. Frank grabs her arm and she frees herself and insists on her account - adding that she met his ancestor Jack, a "bloody, filthy, nasty pervert." Then she gives the correct order: that she had to marry to escape Jack Randall, and fell in love, and did not mean it to happen. She tells Frank to go away, but he won't. He asks who is this Jamie. The doctor tries to take her pulse. She gives Jamie's full name, discovered at the marriage, and that he was a Highlander killed at Culloden. The doctor thinks she should rest as she appears upset. Now Frank sees the silver ring on her fourth finger and tries to remove it, so she says, "No!" and pulls her hand away and she cradles it. She says it's her wedding ring. The doctor injects her, with Frank still saying he wants to know what happened as she is forced into a dreamless sleep. (Note that this ring is not the Lallybroch key-origin ring of the television series; received later, it contains inside its circle the opening of the love poem on the wrapping for the dragonfly in amber from Hugh Monroe: Da Mi Basia Mille.)

So the book Frank is a much more possessive husband Frank, that this wife is his to reclaim, and the doctor as much speaks to Frank as his patient. Equally, Claire is reckless to get rid of him, to presumably begin her own life. Jamie's assumption that she'd need a man is not shared by her, at this point in time.]

Claire is still and puts her face down, so Frank, with his hat behind him on a trolley table across the bed, drops to crouch low to look up at her. He says, 'Claire.' Her left hand grips the top of her right arm, and she looks away. He looks up and says, 'I've spoke with Reverend Wakefield...' She looks towards him. '...and he's prepared some rooms for us while you convalesce.' He thus smiles and looks to her. 'No one will bother us there.'
Claire asks, 'Do you know if Mrs Graham is still in the reverend's employ?'
'Mrs Graham?' Frank pauses and continues, 'I didn't ask, but I would assume so.'
'I need to speak with her.' (This is because Mrs Graham danced with others at the stones at Samhain in 1945 [Beltane in the books: 1946 in the UK and 1945 in the US, thus a source of error for UK only readers in later US-only books] - and Mrs Graham knew stories of travel through them and so is likely to believe her account of where she has been.)
Frank looks down and then gets up from his crouching. Claire looks to her clothing beyond her left side, and he looks at her. Thus he sees the clothing, and then goes around the foot of the bed to the display. She is not now looking at the clothes. Frank picks up the corset and seems puzzled. Claire says, 'I'm going to need some clothes.' She raises her eyes to see him further raise the corset and look at it closely using the light from the window. She looks away.

The scene moves to the manse. (Inside Hunterston House, 30 miles south west of Glasgow.) Reverend Reginald Wakefield is in the right foreground and Frank is in the left background reading a letter next to those clothes. Claire is out in the garden, on a wicker chair, with a wicker double seat facing the window, and a low wicker table holding some books. Claire is reading and turning pages.
Reverend Wakefield asks, 'Has she, um, said anything?
Frank replies, 'No, only pleasantries. I've received a letter from my friend, Professor Atkins.'
The reverend says, 'Oh, er,' and takes the letter. He reads: '"Examined the clothing you sent; appears to be a marvellous example of authentic eighteenth century Scottish woman's wardrobe.'" Frank sniffs at the shift. '"Incredibly valuable. Where did you find?" Well, that's a good question,' the reverend says, turning to Frank. 'What are you gonna tell him?'
Franks folds the shift. 'What can I tell him? He puts the shift down. 'This is not the sort of outfit she could've just walked into a shop and purchased, is it?'
'No, sir. It's puzzling , that.' The reverend sees Mrs Graham approach Claire in the garden. 'Well, she's nearly exhausted my collection on Culloden and the Jacobite rebellion. Why this sudden obsession with Scottish history?'
'I have no idea.' Franks shrugs his shoulders and shakes his head. 'She never showed much interest when she was with...' He swallows. 'Before.
'So many questions. (In series 1, episode 1, Reverend Wakefield shows that he does not believe the stories that Mrs Graham does believe - and neither did Frank when Mrs Graham gives the possibility that she went through time.) She's been back nearly a week. Don't you think it is time she gave you some answers?' (This comes across as forced: the dialogue suggests something like the first full day, or second, as does the coming dialogue outside with Mrs Graham. Is it necessary to suggest clumsily - for the audience, the fourth wall - that nearly a week had passed? It has also set up a clash with one newspaper report that she was in rags - an inheritance from the book. See later regarding what Frank does with these unique clothes.)
Franks says, 'I believe she will when she is ready.'
Well, my sermon is not going to write itself.' The reverend picks up a newspaper temporarily. 'You know, you're not the only one with questions.'
Frank says, 'Um?'. So he picks up the newspaper' The newspaper has the photograph from the hospital. KIDNAPPED BY THE FAIRIES, is its headline. 'Devil take the press.' (This becomes a yellowed clipping that Brianna will find twenty years later in the manse.)
The reverend says, 'Oh that's not likely. Even the devil has standards.
Frank reads the text, and then looks outside to the two in the garden.

Thus, after Mrs Graham's point about actuality now, Claire at last, at bedtime, invites Frank retiring to his room into her adjacent room to talk.
It was like being at Mrs Baird's, says Frank - there were candles.
She says there was a power outage and it was their last day together.
She tells him the whole story until dawn breaks, asking him to leave questions to the end, although he says she does not have to do this.

With Frank adding another log on to the fire and taking a stretch, Claire says it must sound like she's gone mad.
He says it takes belief, and looks at the clothing again. (The clothing does not feature in the book, and one thinks it should.) It is a leap of faith and one he is prepared to make.
So she says not to patronise her: it is insane, like magic, like fairy dust. From the perspective of his rational mind, it is like she has lost hers or fabricated the whole story.
When she refers to herself as his 'ex-wife' and he picks this up, she says she married another man.
Yet, he says, she is (also) still wearing their wedding ring. It defies logic, and beyond natural law (Catholicism?) but the main thing is that she is back.
She says she was with another man, whom she loved deeply, as his wife.
This makes him angry (to her semi-apology as she is cut off). She has said this several times already. She had said a great deal and he needs only some minutes. People said she had left of her own volition with another man. He wanted to believe this, to fill the void with rage, betrayal and hatred. But he could not believe it, and what she had said at least confirmed that she did not choose to leave him. He doesn't understand her feelings about Jamie, but is prepared to accept that she has felt this way and was her experience, and that leaving him broke her heart.
She says, 'I don't think you understand.'
He says it will not change him: as he once said, he will love her unconditionally and they can still have a life together. And so it is here (in the TV series) that Claire tells him that she is pregnant.
He reacts with joy, then asks, 'How is this possible?'
'It's Jamies. It is another man's child. You need to think about in what it means for all of us.' (Why 'all of us'? At this point there is no assumption that Claire will stay with Frank. They are clearly sleeping in separate rooms: Frank is not possessing Claire as in the book but pleading for a future; it is Mrs Graham who has said that Frank is living and breathing and a real husband who loves her.)
Frank comes over with rage, as he shakes his fist to her and she does not flinch, probably because she has faced fear in the past life with his ancestor.
He gets himself out of the room, passes Mrs Graham who starts to say when breakfast will be ready, and breaks out into a rage in the shed, smashing up items.

Whilst Frank would pay for damages, Rev. Wakefield tells Frank he destroyed only a load of old junk.
The reverend with Frank goes into a sermon about the nativity.
Frank says that he is not Joseph, his wife is not Mary, and he is sure that the father is not God almighty but another man who fucked his wife.
At this point the boy Roger asks if he can go out to play and calls the reverend 'father', allowing his great uncle to say to Frank that children accept what is given to them.
Frank fears another sermon, relating to his nephew Roger.
The reverend says, to meet his low expectation, he will say that here a child can have a father and a father can have a child and it is, at least to him, part of God's eternal plan, however Frank sees it.
The father is dead, Frank says, in that her grief seems genuine. He had confirmed too his own impotence, having seen a doctor in what was, with Claire gone, an academic question (Claire had first told Jamie that she might be infertile, but gets pregnant and has a miscarriage in France). [In the third book, Frank informs his wife of his impotence just before he drives his car to his death in 1966. There is ice on the road.]
(The TV series strangely involves some dialogue there that goes over his joy and disappointment that we saw for ourselves. Usually such repetition is cut under time constraints.)

In the room with Claire, she says, 'Just like that? We pick up where we left off?'
He surely needs more time to think but he responds that he has had plenty of time so far.
[In the book Claire wishes Frank would just go, but he refuses to let her go without resources, although she had a little money inherited from Uncle Lamb, the archaeologist who adopted her. In the third book, just before he drives for the final time, he says only a cad would have left her when pregnant, and after that there was Bree, his only child he could raise.]
Frank says he was going to turn down a job offer at Harvard, but regarding the story of being taken by the fairies, the press would continue to 'flog it.'
She interrupts him to say, 'Never use that word in my presence again.'
So, closing the door, he says he also has conditions: that they will raise the child as theirs, and that she must stop her research and not search the libraries of the world for this man - he cannot share her with another man.
She says this is living a lie for the child.
But he says no, the child must have a living and breathing father, and not an echo the child cannot catch.
She says, 'Not a ghost.'
He says, 'Precisely.'
She admits (though I can't see when) Jamie told her she must promise to let him go. (She promised to go back through the stones if the disaster of history arrived.) She will do as Jamie wanted: she accepts Frank's conditions. She hands over the period clothes, but has a slight difficulty and reluctance to remove the Lallybroch key made into a wedding ring.
Frank says, 'When you are ready.'
Indeed, she puts into her suitcase the stoneless ring that came from Jamie when she left him, that was his father's.

Claire looks out of the window at Frank burning these (precious)clothes, and looks up to the sky, and then she is looking up from the aeroplane window with optimism, and he comes out and goes down the steps, and she comes out on to the aeroplane steps to see the New York skyline. (The aeroplane and the skyline are CGI.) As she descends and pauses, he raises his arm for her to grasp it, and says, 'One more step.'

3:1 The Battle Joined

Chronologically, series 3 episode 1 follows on from series 2 episode 1 continuing in Boston in 1948.

(This episode emphasises for Claire the sexism of post-war America and her realisation, despite her liking it as a young country, that she is more limited in this modern life than she was in eighteenth century Scotland.)

1948

It opens for Claire in the Boston apartment and both seem happy. Frank says he can have the professor's study where the lady of the house demands it, and adds the kitchen where she demands it. As for 'rustling up' meals, she says he should not get his hopes up as she is a little out of practice; he'll accept whatever she does.

Visibly more pregnant, she cannot get the flint to light the gas cooker, and says, as from her combat nurse days and moments since, 'Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ.' She goes and sits in a chair in the lounge and sees her face in the mirror above the hearth.

In Furey Street, Boston (utilising the sandstone houses with steps, at the northern end of Dowanhill Street, west Glasgow, a one way street going towards Victoria Crescent Road), Millie Nelson appears to help Claire carry in some wood logs. She says that Jerry Nelson was lazy and never helped her when pregnant.

Inside Millie is fascinated that Claire cooks on the fire, that Claire attributes to Uncle Lamb (rather than her time in the eighteenth century, obviously). It gives a smoky flavour.
Millie says that if Claire's husband likes it, then that's all that matters. She's surprised that a meal can be a surprise: if Jerry had a surprise outside his routine, he'd have a heart attack - and this suggests an idea!
Claire says, 'Frank is very liberated and progressive.'
Jerry is typical, says Millie, and a wife should cook, clean, raise the kids and look pretty when meeting the boss. 'You're lucky. You won't find another man like Frank again.'
This causes Claire to pause for a second: she attends to her pans and closes her eyes.

With Claire more pregnant and in night gear, Frank calls out that there is twenty minutes to leaving. She says she's coming, and applies make up to: 'Look pretty when you meet the boss.'

They are at Harvard. (University of Glasgow! It's the Melville Room, at the Chaplaincy in reality.) Inside the Dean attacks Truman as the haberdasher from Missouri. Claire is sat opposite with Frank stood behind her. Frank won't count out Truman yet, whom he prefers to Dewey. Claire says she read that Truman has more support.
Surprised she expresses a view, the Dean says, 'Beg your pardon?' Claire read in The Globe that Mr Dewey offers platitudes.
The Dean advises that Prof. Randall pays attention to his wife's reading habits: next they'll try and get women into Harvard Law School. She says they enrolled women into Harvard Medical School three years earlier. The Dean calls this a bone tossed in the direction of Eleanor Roosevelt and her cooterie of agitators, and that female students are barely adequate and few succeeed as physicians. So Frank points out that Claire was a combat nurse during the war, which the Dean praises as patriotic and doing her bit in an emergency but now she would be more happy to return to fitting domestic concerns for a lady. She says she's 'Very Happy,' and he says she must be with maternal bliss on the way.
He stands up and approaches Frank Randall about Prof. Holloway overloading the Wars of the Roses schedule. Claire grimaces and breathes. Alongside and behind her a man and wife stayed stoney silent throughout.

Frank and Claire walk under the unique Harvard arches. (So unique they do not exist: they are at the University of Glasgow!) 'You all right?' he asks. She humms, and he says she is very quiet.
She smiles, says, 'Fine,' but looks neutral.

Back in the domestic space she is heavily pregnant and the cooker is a problem again, but it does work. The milk is off. She sees a bird outside. (Callum/ Colum at Castle Leoch keeps a caged bird [caged birds in the book] and with the murmation spoke about before the witches' trial, birds represent the memory of freedom for Claire, as does a rabbit for Jamie.) She half smiles regarding the bird.

Frank comes through and says after eight years of rationing he could wake to the smell of eggs and bacon for the rest of his natural life - but it was the last of the bacon before she might get some more. He asks if she slept well, implying the separate sleeping arrangements. He gets the whistling kettle. She smiles and she gets the food. [This is a lift from book 3 - a flashback from 1968.] He describes tea bags as going tasteless in "diapers" and she smiles. (Is this because he didn't say 'nappies'? In the book this point seems missed.) He prefers tea in a tin. This reminiscing is important. He says everything in America has to be new, new, new. It's why she likes it. It's young, eager, seeks the future. She would like US citizenship.
'Really?' he asks.
She says, 'I want our child to have a real home.'
'Our child,' he says, and touches her shoulder, but when he tries to touch her bump she recoils slightly. He pauses and realises.
She says, with her adopted travels, that she was never that attached to England.
'Since when were you not attached to England?' Can she walk way from her heritage that easily: the Battle of Hatings and Magna Carta, Drake, Marlborough, the Tudors, the Stuarts - she looks at him at the mention of them - and the Plantagenets? These are what he fought a war for.
She says, regarding citizenship, 'It's just something I want to do.'
He says, 'Well, there's no need,' and his job gives indefinite residence for both of them (i.e., she is attached to him).
She looks down and says, 'That's not what this is about.'
He repeats the phrase and takes her wrist saying and she pulls away. 'It's about that. A wife who won't let me touch her. Admit it. You are using this pregnancy to keep me at a distance.' She has retreated further and further into her shell since arrival.
She says, 'I'm sorry.'
He says, 'Don't walk away,' and shows anger (that he contains) saying they should treat this like adults.
She says, 'As opposed to the way I've been dealing with it?'
Stop, he commands, and says talk to him.
'Say what? What do you want from me?'
He asks when is she going to come back from the 'fucking past'?
She says, 'You asked me to leave behind everything that truly mattered to me.' Yet he can talk about things missed in the good old days. She says the bargain was to never talk about the past, and she has kept to that to the letter.
He says, 'No. The bargain was we raise the baby together. Our child.' It's not been born yet and she will not let him in, let alone touch her.
She asks if the problem is sex. 'Need a good fuck and you can't find one?' There are girls at Radcliffe College who'd die over his English accent.
So he says, 'Well, I'm not the one who's been fucking other people.'
At this point, she yells and throws an ashtray at him, and he ducks. He tells her that he did not force this bargain on to her, or force her to come to Boston, and he's not forcing her to stay.
She replies, 'I never thought otherwise.'
'Go or stay,' he says, 'but do it because it's what you really want to do.'
He goes out, and she stands and cries.

It looks like she is trying to make her own base in a new country, to be a citizen and her daughter fully American, not connecting with Frank, whereas he is there in a job and she is attached to him, an Englishman abroad, possessive of her role rather more as in the book.

Frank is trying to sleep alone. There are domestic machinery noises. [This is taken from the book.] He sets about writing to the reverend, if he can indulge him to do further research on an eighteenth century Highlander called James Fraser. But at this point Claire enters his room, and says her waters have broken. He says he will warm up the car.

Claire is in hospital. Frank tells her to breathe but she says this is perfectly normal. She was glad she missed him with the ashtray, but he says her aim was spot on and she missed due to his cat-like reflexes.
Doctor Thorne, a replacement for Dr. Bell, comes in and says, 'No need to panic'
'I'm not panicking,' says Claire.
However, he speaks to Frank rather than Claire about her contractions.
She says, 'Every three minutes.'
'First child?'
So Frank says, 'Yes.'
She says, 'No.' She had a miscarriage about a year ago. (This was in France.)
Frank says, 'Of course,' when presumably it was unknown to him - she did not mention Faith being stillborn?.
The doctor says this complicates things a little and raises the risk factor. 'Give your wife a kiss,' he commands, and he will take over. He first goes out.
Claire apologises regarding the miscarriage.  (Obviously this was not in their overnight explanation at the manse.)
He asks her to promise not to throw an ash tray at the doctor.
She cannot so promise!
The doctor is back, and sends Randall away.
Frank says he loves her, but she does not reply.

The doctor says she will feel nothing, and when awake she will be a mother.
She says she does not want to go under.
He says not to: 'worry your pretty little head,' over anything.
She tells him not to tell her what she needs. She is perfectly capable of deciding how she wants her baby delivered.
But the nurse is told to inject her.
'What was that?'
'Goodnight Mrs. Randall, leave everything to us.'
'You bastard.'

Claire wakes, and fears of France again take over as her stomach is down but there is no baby.
'Is it dead? Where's my baby?'
Frank walks in holding the baby. 'She's all right.'
'She's perfect.'
'You are beautiful,' he says. 'She is just like her mother,' he says.
Claire says that she has been horrid to him.
He says forget that for this baby is all that truly matters. He says everything will be all right and kisses her again.
She says that this can really be a new beginning - 'for all of us.'
He says yes and let's make it so.
However, a nurse comes and says she's an angel but asks from where the daughter acquired her red hair. Frank thus looks glum and swallows.

3:2 Surrender

1948

In a double bed with Frank, Claire masturbates. She imagines Jamie alongside her.

1949

Claire is with her baby put into her cot. Here is bunny. (Bunny is a symbol of freedom associated with Jamie.) She reads The Globe on Ireland joining free nations, and tells baby Brianna to hear this as history is being made. [In material taken from the book:] The baby turns over herself on to her tummy.
Frank enters in a middling towel and says the water (heat) has cut out again in the middle of his shower and the boiler must be out. He asks what happened.
Claire holding the baby says baby turned over by herself, and its a month earlier than Dr. Spock says.
He asks, 'What does Dr. Spock know? Come here to daddy. Give me a kiss.'
Claire smiles at the baby, looks at him, and puts her hand on to Frank's bare shoulder. [In the book Frank's towel falls and she sees him naked.] He bobs the baby up and down and gives a sideways look.

In the double bed, after touching Frank and disturbing him, Claire declares, 'I'm missing my husband,' but she does not say which one. She climbs aboard him, to insert him, removes her top, and nevertheless her eyes are closed as she grinds him.

Millie and Jerry Nelson join Frank and Claire for dinner. "Eton Mess" is declared as a cheerful name for a failed Pavlova.
Jerry suggests that Millie is given the recipe.
Mille asks Jerry when has she baked anything: if it is not in the frozen section then she does not do it.
Jerry responds that her talents lie elsewhere. She slaps his hand and they kiss.
Claire smiles at Frank, and he places his hand on her shoulder.

After dinner, with their guests gone, Claire and Frank agree to a nightcap.
She asks to which of Millie's talents did Jerry refer?
He says her encyloepaedic knowledge of the complete works of Shakespeare.
By the fire, Claire says to Frank that he is a snob.
He says that she asked the question.
She looks at him, and then faces away to put down both glasses, and with him looking at her back and rear she raises her skirt, lowers her slik knickers and he feels her behind. Turning, she removes his tie harshly. She jumps up on to him, and then she is lowered to the floor on her back. He thrusts into her, missionary position.
'Claire, look at me,' he says. 'Baby... Claire, open your eyes.' He stops.
Claire asks, 'Why have you stopped?' in a high voice.
He replies, 'You never used to close your eyes whever we made love.'
She responds, 'It doesn't mean anything. I'm enjoying this.' She kisses him.
'Are you?'
'Of course.' She kisses him again.
He asks, 'Then why can't you look at me?'
She stops, puts her head back, rolls it, and says if he is not in the mood then he just had to say.
So he points out: 'Claire, when I am with you, I'm with you. But you're with him.'
She looks at him with a darker reactive face, and moves away.

Outside there's a red haired growing baby in a yellow woolly hat being pushed in a pram. (This is Kelvingrove Park, west Glasgow.) Claire narrates that she threw herself into her new role as best she could.

Transferring to a domestic scene of clearing the table, she continues to narrate that there was still something missing in her life. Once she had been able to love a man, bear a child, heal the sick. She reads in a newspaper President Truman appointing the first woman Treasurer, Georgia Neese Clark. She continues to narrate that all these things were a natural part of her. But the man she had loved was Jamie, and for a time she had been part of something greater than herself. She wanted that again, and was why, eventually, she knew she would have to do something more. Picking up a knife, it becomes a scalpel she holds as the first person gathered in a semi-circular rising lecture hall at the medical school. (This is the historic Summerhall Building old anatomy lecture theatre that became an arts venue at the Summerhall building in Edinburgh.)
[The narration comes from the Voyager book, and it is there when Claire is considering giving up medical school not starting it. In the book, Claire starts medical school when the child starts school. They had yet another babysitter, who left when Claire was late back with instructions to Brianna to wait. Brianna became afraid of the dark, got into the street and was hit by a slow-moving car. However, Frank, aware that Claire was eager to pursue her medical studies - even though she narrates that in effect she'd been a 'doctor' in situations in past and present times - decides that he would receive Brianna between her school leaving time and his university leaving time.]

The lecturer asks if he can help her. He confirms that it is the anatomy classroom. Is she looking for someone, he has a class about to start. He must be Dr. Simms, and, also declaring who she is, he says that the Dean informed him a woman would join the incoming class: 'A woman and a negro. How very modern of us.'
So Claire's broad optimistic smile lessens. Other students start to arrive. One man won't let Claire move past. Joe Abernathy, black, enters, pauses, avoids others and goes to her, sat alone at the far end.
'Is this seat taken?'
'No, it's all yours.'
'Thanks.'
He introduces himself and they shake hands.
Claire gives her name. 'Pleased to meet you,' she says.
He repeats this.
[In the book, but not in the series, Frank later makes racist statements and fears that Brianna might date a black man.]
People look at them and one shakes his head.
'All right gentlemen,' says the lecturer, ignoring the woman and probably Joe, 'let's begin.'

It's night time and Frank and Claire have single beds.
Claire arrives. 'Bunny was wedged behind the bed again.'
Frank responds, 'I think Bree might be trying to tell us something.
(Again, the bunny is a symbol of freedom - mainly associated with Jamie.)
She gets into her bed. 'Good night,' she says.
He says 'Good night,' with a smile.
She puts her light off. He looks to the distance, and then at her; he swallows and looks away. Here the single beds are revealed. He puts his light off.

Claire is walking alone towards her medical school in the distance somewhere. She stops to give money to a bagpipes player playing 'Scotland the Brave'. She walks on. (This is Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow.)

3:3 All Debts Paid

The title card is of Brianna's 16th birthday in 1964. [Thus, as I write this in 2018, aged 59, Brianna would be 70! Claire would be 100!]

Boston 1956: Brianna is 8 years old.

Frank is making full English breakfast, showing again his nostalgia for home. It includes black pudding and bread fried in bacon fat. She asks the occasion and Frank says that Brianna came home from school the other day asking for "eggo toaster waffles", and so he decided that she needs more Englishness in her life. Claire asks if he'll force the Americanness out of her.
He laughs: Either that or he will replace her Dr Seuss with Dickens.
(Indeed, a Christmas family tradition, dropped later but revived by Roger's visit, is to Read Dickens' A Christmas Carol.)
Frank calls for Brianna; Claire says Delicious and it has been missed, so Frank says, 'Good, perhaps I'm on to something.' He smiles and so does she.
So, in good mood, she says she has no class in the evening and perhaps they could see a film. Joe Abernathy had called a western, The Searchers, "fantastic," but if not a western then there's Carousel.
Frank, however, says, 'Sounds lovely - I've seen them both.'
Clare asks, 'Really?'
Frank confirms, smiles, and looks pensive so that she stops smiling and looks away.
She apologises, and agrees that they are free (to go with others) and he adds that he is being discreet.
Claire says, 'Yes, you are. Thank you.'
At this point Brianna enters with a drawing, and Frank says, 'There she is!'
Brianna says, 'For you.'
Claire says, 'That's wonderful, darling, really lovely.'

(We gather later that in 1957 Jerry and Millie divorced, and Jerry saw his children less and less.)

1958: Brianna is nearly 10 years old

It's Claire's Medical School graduation party with a gathering at their house, prior to going to a restaurant. Brianna is taking a photograph of Claire and Joe, and asks her mother to raise up her diploma (Joe does not hold one, though presumably he graduated as well.)
Frank asks Brianna, 'Who's next, maestro?'
Brianna answers, 'Just you and mummy now.'
Mother and father stand together, she holding her diploma. Frank wants her to leave for Fontaines (restaurant) and does not want her (them) to be late.
'Plenty of time,' says Claire, as it's 7 pm.
Brianna says about daddy coming with them, but he says no because he has some work to finish.
So Brianna says if he's not coming with them, she isn't going (showing her attachment to him).
Mother says, 'Bree!'
Frank again thought the reservation was 6 pm, and she says no, 'We'll be out of your hair soon enough.'
Joe calls her over for his salvation elixir, a cold Martini, and she says if it is his prescription for everything he'd make a horrible doctor. At this point the doorbell goes, and thus why the 6 pm and 7 pm confusion matters.
Claire answers the front door, and asks, 'Can I help you?' smiling to this woman.
Sandy says, I'm sorry, I...'
Frank himself walks, and Brianna follows, and he turns to see Claire at the door. Claire turns to look at him, with a concerned face, and Joe is also looking on.
Frank tells the girl, 'Bree, go and play.'
Claire's look at Sandy is now one of shock, and turns, and passing Frank says, 'Your work, I presume?'
But then she smiles at Bree, and suggests everyone goes to the restaurant now, and if they can't be seated early they can entertain themselves at the bar. She takes Brianna past Sandy and Frank. People leave. (One clutching his diploma was the person who would not budge to let Claire in at the first class.)

Frank arrives back at the house drunk and reaches the staircase. Claire is sat, back to him, with a cigarette (the only time seen with a cigarette).
Claire says, 'You invited her here, where our daughter lives.'
Frank says she was taking the car and Sandy was just picking him up.
Claire now gets out of her seat, this time holding a drink in the same hand. 'You really dislike me that much? It's my graduation for God's sake, Frank. You humiliated me in front of my new colleagues.' (And some old ones, clearly.)
So Frank replies, in a slurred speech, 'Welcome to the club.'
'What the hell does that mean?'
He tells her to keep her voice down as she'll wake Brianna, but she repeats the question less the 'hell'.
'It means... It means you're not as good an actress as you think, Claire. Do you honestly think anyone at Harvard believes that we're happily married? You convinced no one. And let's not forget, it was your idea to lead separate lives.'
She reminds him he was going to be discreet, and having 'your blonde harlot' turn up is the opposite.
He responds, angrily, 'Do not call her that. Sandy has a Ph.D fellowship in historical linguistics. She's no fucking harlot.'
'Does she? Well, I'm sure you two will have plenty to discuss now.'
He asks if she's envious (says 'jealous') 'Green ain't your colour, Claire.'
She tells him to go to hell, and he knew how important the day was to her. 'You wanted to hurt me.' (The evidence of course was it was Frank's mistake.)
Frank says, 'Maybe I did. Maybe I wanted to give you a taste of your own medicine, Dr Randall.'
So Claire asks, 'Have you fucked her in our bedroom?' Frank makes choking breath sounds. 'Have you?'
Frank sits down on the same sofa at its left end. 'I think our bedroom is far too crowded already. Wouldn't you agree? (He means Jamie's presence.)
So Claire says, 'Fine. Let's stop this pretence, Frank. File for divorce.'
'Divorce?'
She asks why not and he would have his freedom.
He agrees. He would, but when Jerry divorced Millie a year ago, he lost his children to gain his freedom. The court noted that a child needs its mother more than its father and so Jerry rarely sees the children (rather quickly?) and he won't let this happen to him.
Claire says she would never keep Bree from him, and they could work out a compromise.
At this Frank says, 'Forgive me Claire, if I don't risk everything on your promises. You have not been very good at keeping them. Anything else you'd like to discuss, while we're here?' At this point he retrieves and throws what is probably Brianna's bunny. 'Jesus Christ,' he says, 'There is a reason why we are so terribly bad at charades, my darling.'
Her eyes well up, and she is close to crying.

(Series 4 episode 7 revisits this time in a flashback from Brianna back in time at Laoghaire's house. It is 1958 and Brianna is nearly ten years old. Brianna hears some of the argument below after Claire's medical school graduation. She is under the covers, holding on to her toy bunny rabbit, awake. Much of the argument is unclear, but some is audible.)
Claire is heard to say, 'Do you really hate me that much? It was my graduation, for God's sake. You humiliated me in front of my new colleagues.
Frank is heard to say, 'Welcome to the party then.'
'What the hell does that mean?'
Frank responds, 'Keep your voice down, for God's sake, you'll wake Brianna.'
Claire is heard to ask again, 'What does that mean?'
Brianna hears him reply, 'It means you're not as good an actress as you think you are, Claire.'
Brianna squeezes her eyes.
Claire is now heard saying, 'You knew how important this day was. You did this deliberately. You wanted to hurt me.'
'Perhaps I wanted you to have a taste of your own medicine, Doctor Randall.'
Brianna covers her ears. Brianna fails to hear about Sandy Travers, Franks lover, or him rejecting the suggestion of divorce.

1964: Brianna is 16

Both sing (to the regular actor from now on for Brianna) 'Happy birthday to you' as the dog goes past, the cake sits above. (This is similar to the Brianna-free title card of the episode).
To our right, Claire kisses Brianna. To our left stands Frank.
Brianna says, 'Well, I know what I'm wishing for.'
Claire responds, 'Well, don't waste it on a car, because you're not getting one.'
Frank however undermines this by saying, 'Oh wish away. You never know.'
Thus Brianna looks to her right at Frank, and beams a smile. Frank looks at Claire, who is closed mouthed. Brianna blows out her candles. Claire smiles and Frank smiles.

1966: Brianna is 17 going on 18

At school, Brianna picks up her graduation scroll. In the audience, facing, to our left is Claire and our right is Frank.
Frank says, 'That's my girl.'
Brianna looks at them with her scroll, sits, and turns around to look at them again.
Claire mouths and says, 'I'm so proud of you.'
Claire glances at Frank, and he looks longer at Claire. It seems he is wearing his spectacles permanently now.

At about this likely point, according to series 4 episode 7, Brianna finds her father in his office at Harvard. She strides into her father's office, and asks him, 'Why didn't you answer the phone? Mama and I were worried.' Frank moves to his desk and pours out a glass of whisky. On the desk is a letter from Reverend Reginald Wakefield accompanied by a copy of Jamie and Claire's obituary press report.
Dear Frank, I found evidence to answer your question...
Brianna looking at Frank looking at the letter asks, 'What's that?'
Frank replies, 'Research from a colleague in Scotland.'
Brianna picks up the obituary. The words 'Jamie Fraser and wife' mean nothing. So she asks, 'Who died?'
Frank takes it from her with care and answers, 'It's complicated.'
Frank folds the letter and obituary report, and slides them into a drawer.
Brianna asks, 'Do you want to talk about it? You know, "complicated" is a relative term, Daddy. Depends on your perspective.'
So Frank says, 'My daughter the psychiatrist.'
Brianna smiles and reaches for a pen and notepad and then goes on to the couch to deepen her voice, saying, 'So Professor Randall, it seems you've been working very hard lately...'
Frank responds, 'You could say that.'
Brianna continues, 'And your research is, hmm... let me think... what's the term that Freud would use? Going nowhere?'
Frank responds further, 'You could say that as well.'
Brianna returns to her normal voice. 'That doesn't sound like you, Daddy. What is it?'
Frank comes to her on the couch and holds her hand. 'Listen, Brianna... I... There's something I want to tell you...'
Brianna says, 'You can tell me anything.'
Frank does not. Instead he says, 'I'm sorry. Not this.'
Brianna, feeling somewhat annoyed, responds, 'I'm not a child, you know.'
Frank says, trapped, 'Sweetheart, please.'
Brianna can certainly say, 'Whatever you were working on was obviously very important to you.'
Frank responds, cryptically, 'It was everything to me. Besides you.
Brianna ccorrects him by adding, 'And Mama.'
Frank says, 'You should be getting home. Your mother will be worried about you.'
Brianna says instead, 'She'll be fine...'
So Frank instructs her to: 'Go home.'
Brianna gets up sharply and grabs her coat, saying, 'You can trust me.'
As she proceeds to the door, Frank adds, 'Someday, I promise, you will understand everything.'
Brianna, being headstrong, replies, 'Maybe someday; I won't care. Brianna closes the door as she goes.
Frank then picks up a pen and starts writing.
(The problem is that in subsequent 2:13 and series 3 searches, this document does not come to light. It would have proved a very great deal. And there are likely two of these, because Fiona said that the one she gave to Roger was her granny's, Mrs Graham's, and she considers that it did not land in Reverend Wakefield's hands. Yet he sent Frank a copy. Instead, at the end of 3:4, for Claire, Roger and Brianna, the search is fruitless for Jamie beyond Ardsmuir prison, and both Claire and Brianna return to Boston as she stops searching for Mrs Graham's 'ghost'. But, the question arises, how close did they come to Claire discovering, not only that Jamie had lived on, but he'd moved at some point to the colonies, and that Claire herself dies with him? Such are the perils of back-writing! [In the book Frank has no idea of this document, and Roger finds it in Oxford as a small obtuary notice alongside the publishing of a folk song in an obscure publication.]) The effect of television back-writing is to spoil the watching of series 3.)

Still 1966, Frank comes down the stairs at their house. He asks if she had tough surgery, and she says they all are these days. She did what she could, and worrying about it won't change it. He's said it before. She agrees all along.
Claire realises there is more here. He says, 'I'd like to take Brianna to England.'
'That's lovely. How long would you go for?'
Then it seems it's not for a holiday. Frank says, 'Well, I've been offered a position at Cambridge. A good one.'
With this confirmation, Claire asks, thinking she'd have to go as well, 'What about the hospital? My patients? Frank, I can't leave Boston and move to England.'
He says he wasn't asking this, and she looks concerned.
'I want a divorce, Claire.'
After confirming this, she reminds him that they said about this years ago (1958).
'No, I know what I said, but Brianna is eighteen now.'
'Does she know about this plan?'
'No, not yet. But I think she'll come. Between med' school and the hospital, you've barely been here.'
Thus she says, 'How dare you?'
He says, please, there are fine universities there, like Oxford, where he still has influence.
So Claire asks about 'Candy' and correcting her to Sandy, Frank says they'll marry as soon as he is free.
'You're going to marry her? For God's sake Frank, be serious.'
Frank says, 'I'm finished with this, Claire.'
Claire looks angry. 'You've been waiting. All this time, you've just been waiting for the clock to run out. Well, Brianna is my daughter. And you will not take her anywhere.'
He does not think he'll have to, so she says, 'You bloody bastard.'
He asks her to be reasonable, and she says fine if he wants to divorce her, and use whatever grounds that exist, but not [her] adultery, as it does not exist. [In the third book these words reflect a suspicion he has of a relationship between Claire and Joe Abernathy.]
She now grapples him physically and he withdraws. She states, 'If you try to take Brianna away from me, I will have a thing or two to say about adultery, Frank.'
So he says, 'This isn't about you and me any more; Brianna is a grown woman. She can make her own decisions. She has her own life. I would like to live the rest of my life with a wife who truly loves me.' Claire nods and he continues, 'You couldn't look at Brianna without seeing him. Could you? Without that constant reminder... Him. Might you have forgotten him, with time?'
Her eyes well up, and says in a breathing speech, 'That amount of time doesn't exist.'
Frank nearly nods. He walks away and she closes her eyes. Frank picks up his car keys. As he leaves, the telephone rings. Claire puts her right hand with Lallybroch ring to her mouth. She answers the telephone and asks if they are prepping for surgery, as we hear the faint sound of a car revving its engine. She'll be right there.
(But how does she get there? When back from Sandy, in 1958, she'd taken the car. We presume they now have two cars, because Frank isn't giving Claire a lift!)

Here is another insert by back-writing from series 4 episode 7. In between Frank walking out and dying, a scene is slotted in where Brianna learns that her father wants to take her to England and divorce.

Brianna is walking down the street with a couple of friends, talking with them. She notices Frank's car. Surprised, she lets her friends wait for her as she approaches, opens the car door and leans in.
Brianna asks, 'Daddy. What are you doing here?'
Frank replies, 'I need to talk to you, sweetheart.' He looks serious.
So she gets in and closes the car door. Brianna asks, 'Is everything OK?'
Frank makes his point: 'Do you remember when I mentioned going to university abroad?' [When?]
'Yes...'
Frank now asks, 'How would you feel about going to school [University? She's finished at school.]in England?'
Brianna asks back, 'England?' She is rather puzzled.
Frank says, 'I've been offered a position at Cambridge. I want you to come with me.'
Brianna, realising the word used was 'you', therefore asks, 'What about Mama? She's all right with this?'
Frank replies, Your mother and I... are getting a divorce, Brianna.'
Brianna responds, 'What are talking about? Don't be silly, you're too old to get a divorce.'
Frank says, 'Bree, listen to me...'
Brianna responds, 'I don't want to listen to you.'
Frank says further, 'Darling.'
Brianna enquires with the point, 'So you don't always get along; who does? But... you don't just get divorced. You love each other. You can't throw that away. We're a family.'
Frank's response to that is to say, 'You're my family. And that will never change. But your mother and I... This cannot be a complete surprise to you.'
Brianna takes the other view: 'It is... So, poof, you're over, and I get no say?'
Frank replies, 'You are at the centre of our lives always... We both love you very much and that will never change either. But your mother and I have decided that this is the best way forward for the two us.'
Brianna asks, 'You decided this - tonight?'
Frank says, 'Yes, but it's not for want of trying.'
Brianna starts crying; Frank wraps his arms around her. After a moment or so, Brianna sits back up and wipes her eyes.
Frank asks her again, 'Will you come with me?'
Brianna replies, 'We had a plan. We were supposed to go to Harvard together, Daddy. I'm studying history and we were going to share your office...'
Frank responds, 'I know we did, and a thousand years ago your mother and I had a plan as well. But sometimes life takes unexpected turns. And when it does, we soldier on.'
Brianna has a different view: 'So giving up is what you call soldiering on, then?' Brianna looks out the window at her friends. 'I have to go.'
A sighing Frank asks, 'Can we talk later?' Silently, Brianna opens the door. Bree?' As she looks back he says, 'No matter what you decide, I love you.'
Brianna does not reply, and rejoins her friends.
(This raises the question: why does Brianna not mention the divorce and her daddy's plans to her mother afterwards? Because it was back-written in series 4, as if denying series 3 watchers the full account.)

[In the third book, Voyager, Frank proposes to take Brianna to England with months before her graduation. He suspects a possible affair between Claire and Joe Abernathy, and there is gossip about it because of the time she spends with her colleague. He is concerned about other black men around him, and that Brianna might go out with a black man. None of this is in the TV series: there is no racism of his, no hint of a romance between Claire and Joe, nor its suspicion. He thinks boarding school will do Brianna good as discipline. He thinks he can insist on her going, as a minor. She says he will not do this. It is Claire who raises the issue of divorce, and that Frank won't find adultery with her, but she can raise it: she claims many mistresses have asked her to leave him, and she would if he would (but did not because of Brianna). This takes place in and around the double bed, and it is from the double bed that Frank puts clothes on over his pyjamas and goes to the car for the final time to skid on icy roads and is killed.]

Claire is telling a patient's partner that Frances is in recovery and is table, and her vitals are good. The best thing he can do for her is rest. She gives him a hug. Thus is shown the personal relationship Claire gave her patients. However, Joe Abernathy is walking towards the doors with intent; she cannot see him although she is looking beyond her patient, who says thank you to then go.
Joe comes in through the doors. He has a glum face and pauses. 'It's Frank,' he says. 'There's been a car accident.'
After a long pause Claire goes out through the doors and turns a sharp right, to run. Pausing at a door that breaks up her image (a filmic device!), she opens the door to where Frank is laid. She looks, goes in, and goes to his side. She looks down and her eyes well up.
She drops down and says, 'Frank.' She kisses his neck. She looks at him. Tearful, but not crying, she touches his face. 'If you're still close enough to hear me, I did love you. Very much. You were my first love.' She kisses him slowly on the mouth.
The scene cuts to the door. She walks away and walks back. She pauses at the doors before, in half view only.

Some people, e.g. Hangoutlander folk, and me, think that a trick was lost here. Instead of repeating the plot device of killing Frank, this time without ice on the roads, they should have kept him. This would then have been incentive for Brianna to stay at home while Claire goes back in time. But then it changes the story!

Here is another insert by back-writing from series 4 episode 7 located in time after Frank's death. (To me, this is adding to a sense of confusion, not loyalty, in the daughter.)

Brianna is at her father's grave. She says, 'If I would've just agreed to go to England with you, maybe we would've gone to celebrate and you wouldn't 've had... the accident. And then we could have talked Mama into going with us too. But you changed our plans by dying... one unexpected turn too many. I'm going to soldier on - like you said. You're my hero, Daddy.'
Brianna takes a flower from the grave, and puts it in her pocket. She turns and leaves.

Chronologically, 2:13 is next.

2:13 Dragonfly in Amber

This is a long episode, where the 'modern' story is 1968, the first of three. [The book, Dragonfly in Amber, has 1968 at both ends, rather than 1948 at one. In the book, Claire and Brianna stay at Mrs Thomas's guest house, and Claire has a list of people, excluding Jamie Fraser, as a task for Roger to discover what happened. These were all survivors, and Claire, as in the TV series, is convinced Jamie Fraser is dead. All three find a grave of Jamie at St. Kilda's church away from Culloden, there is no Claire talking to clan stone on Culloden Moor. In fact the whole discovery that Jamie is alive is much more dramatic in the television series - in 2:13, 3:4 and 3:5.]

The sound of the doorbell is from the television showing The Avengers with John Steed and Emma Peel. The TV set is shown with a boy watching among other children, and adult Roger Wakefield stood watching, legs apart.
Fiona, Mrs Graham's granddaughter, comes in and says that Roger should really get back to his guests  They keep asking for him. This is the funeral wake for the Reverend Wakefield. [In the book, Claire and Brianna call well after the funeral, when she comments on knowing Roger when small, and he invites them in and fancies her project of identifying the fate of names rather than clearing up the reverend's archive, for which he planned to take a month to complete.] So he leaves.
In the room with the guests he taps a glass and says thanks to them all for coming. It would have meant a great deal to his (adopted) father, who did not leave things to chance, including the toast at his own wake.
'To death' - a man raises his glass too early - 'The jolly old bouncer now. Our glasses let's be clinking. If he hadn't put other out, I trow, Tonight we'd not be drinking.' Claire is behind others. Roger pauses and says, 'The Reverend.'
They respond the same. Claire looks serious. She drinks and looks towards the light coming in from our left.

A woman shares her memory of the reverend with Roger when leaving. He thanks her but he spots Brianna going into the next room as a man recalls his memory. After his thank you, Roger asks to be excused, but, when wanting to pursue her, another says sorry about his loss. He sees Brianna again and gives his thanks elsewhere again. More speak. Brianna is seen again, and Roger will speak in a minute, but he sees Tom to ask how he is and Tom will be here for him. Brianna wanders back into the room behind Roger, so when he enters the room he saw her enter before, she's not there.
As he returns, she asks, 'Are you Roger Wakefield?'
Roger answers, 'Yes. Definitely. That's me, Yes.'
At this point, Claire says, 'Roger.'
'It is.'
Claire says, 'Well, I can't believe it after all these years.' Claire is alongside Brianna.
So Roger asks, 'I'm sorry, but do I know you?'
Claire says, 'Of course, you would not remember me.' She tells him she saw him last time when he was seven or eight years old. [In the book she states he was five.] She gives her name, her condolences for the reverend's passing, and after his thank you says, 'I see that you've met my daughter.'
Roger saying that they haven't been formally introduced, Brianna says, 'Brianna: the daughter.'
He says, 'A pleasure, Miss Randall.'

Claire tells him they were staying in London with relatives when they heard that the reverend died of heart failure, she believes, and he confirms that it was very sudden: the reverend was in high spirits at Christmas. Claire says, even if not seen for a very long time, that she was very fond of him.
'So was daddy,' says Brianna.
'Yes, of course, er, my late husband, Frank. They were very close.'
Roger looks puzzled and is thinking. He says, 'Randall. Frank Randall. Of course. I remember you now, Claire. You... You're a nurse, as I recall.'
She confirms that she was, but she is a doctor now.
Brianna says, 'She's being modest; she's a surgeon.'
After Roger's humm, Claire says, 'Bree and I are visiting from the States.'
Roger says 'I thought I detected an American accent.'
Brianna says it's of Boston, to be exact, and Claire adds that she's a History student at Harvard, so Roger says he's on leave from the History Department at Oxford University. Brianna calls that 'Impressive.'
Claire asks if Mrs Graham is still in the reverend's employ, but he says she passed away a few years ago - and that Fiona, her granddaughter, is around somewhere.
Brianna looks at Claire a little puzzled when she says, 'So many things are the same, and yet things are so different. There are quite a lot of memories here.'
Claire asks to be excused, to look around. Brianna still looks at her mother. Roger looks at Brianna, who gasps, and she looks away.
So Roger asks, 'First time in Scotland then?'
'Aha.'
'And will you have much time to take in the sights while you're here?'
Brianna says (important for later!), 'We only came up for the day so mother could pay her respects. We're meant to be headed back to London this evening.'
So Roger says, 'That's a shame. Beautiful, wild country.'
Brianna states that she was always curious about Scotland as it was a special place for both her parents. Fiona comes and points out that the Browns are leaving and it's time to say goodbye - she nods at Brianna. Brianna looks at Fiona, and then towards Roger, who asks to be excused. Brianna wanders off.

Claire has gone to the fireplace and its mantelpiece of objects. She narrates that Mrs Graham had warned her not to spend her days chasing ghosts, and so she hadn't, but now here, the ghosts were beginning to chase her. She sees a pistol. She puts her hand towards it and touches it.l (Was it the one that was unloaded when Jamie rescued her from Fort William and Jack Randall, or - less likely - maybe it was one in the Duke of Sandringham duel.)

Roger is saying goodbye to three men in a row. Claire with Brianna follows them and says to him, 'Well, we should be going.'
'Not all the way back to London?' replies Roger.
Claire says, 'No, we'll drive as far as we can and then stop at a pub for the night. [In the book Claire has time to see the result of Roger's task. She reveals late on her decision to come to Scotland was because of the time of this specific year: Beltane is close.]
Roger responds, 'There's plenty of room here if you'd like to stay,' the result of which mother and daughter look at each other.
Claire responds that they could not possibly impose, but Roger says, 'Och, you woudn't be. In fact I'd welcome the company.' Looking at Brianna, he continues, 'It's a big house.'
So Brianna says, 'Sounds better than jolting down the wrong side of the road in the dark.' Roger smiles. 'Besides, it'll give me a chance to take in the sights.' Her mother smiles a little. 'I hear it's a beautiful, wild country,' says Brianna, repeating Roger's earlier words, who cocks his head and receives Brianna's stare and in turn her mother looks aside at Brianna.
So Claire says, 'All right. Just so long as we're no bother.'
Roger says, 'I'll fetch your bags from the car. The guest room's just...'
'Top of the stairs,' says Claire.
Roger goes immediately, and Brianna looks at her mother, and both go back into the room.

It's dark. Claire is in night clothes and a dressing gown in a seat by the lounge fire. She drinks. Roger comes in. Claire says, 'I couldn't sleep, so I helped myself to a dram. I hope you don't mind.'
Roger replies, 'No bother. I'll have one with you.' He pours her another and has one himself. They raise their glasses. 'That's better,' he says, and continues: 'You know, I pestered him for years to throw things away and clean up the clutter. Now I can't bear to part with any of it.'
Claire says, 'There's a lot of history here.'
'Not just the family's, either,' says Roger, 'but Scotland's as well.' The college in Inverness had asked him to donate the reverend's library to its archives. 'I'm not going to donate everything. He was quite fond of several rare editions of Prince Charles Stuart and the Battle of Culloden.'
Claire looks at him and says, 'Culloden.' (We know from 2:1 [but definitely not at all in the book!] that Claire read these books back in 1948, fresh from her move from 1746.)
Roger says, 'Final battle of the "45."' Claire smiles. He says, 'My ancestors fought and died there, actually.'
'Really?'
'Yes, my true name's Roger MacKenzie. My parents were Jerry and Marjorie Mackenzie. The reverend adopted me after they were killed in World War II.'
'MacKenzie,' says Claire. 'I used to know quite a few MacKenzies... Once upon a time.'
'It's a common name here,' says Roger. She smiles and jerks her head (At this point the dialogue involves misdirection!) Roger asks, 'May I ask you something personal?' Claire looks. 'How did you do it?' Claire moves her head to the side, a little. 'Finally say goodbye to that one person you loved the most in all the world.' (Ah, so it wasn't about how she went back in time, and returned, but about grief.)
Claire pauses. 'Truth is, I've never been very good at saying goodbye, but that's the hell of it, isn't it? Whether you want to say goodbye or not, they've gone and... you have to go on living without them.' Roger looks to the side, showing his grief. Claire gives a restricted smile. 'Because that's what they would want,' she says. Roger gives a restricted smile and Claire does, taking a final drink. 'Thank you for the whisky.' Roger gasps. 'Goodnight Roger.' (Thus Claire's answer has been about Jamie Fraser.)

In the guest room, Claire looks at the full moon and at Brianna, who is asleep on her right side of the double bed, left side of her face and body downwards. 'God, you are so like him.'

Roger is driving Brianna in his car down a curving two laned road, They are laughing. Then they have arrived.
Roger says to Brianna, entering this complex of a fort: 'Fort William. Built in the 1600s. The Gaelic name is An Ghearasdan Dubh - the Black Garrison.' [Fort William in Gaelic signs is An Ghearasdan.] He explains that it was used by the British as a command post and to restrain the 'savage clans' and 'roving barbarians'. They enter into a space where prisoners - including Jamie - were flogged.
Brianna states that military history is not her speciality.
Roger responds, 'It was your father's, though, right? The reverend has a couple of his books in the library.'
Brianna recalls one of her earliest memories of dropping an ice cream cone off the ramparts at Fort Ticonderoga, while her father held forth on the heroics of Ether Allen and the Green Mountain Boys.
Roger says, 'Ether Allen? "I regret I have but one life to give..."'
Brianna corrects him: 'Nathan Hale. Common mistake.' She smiles and he grimaces.
Roger thus states, 'Never quote American history to an American.'
Brianna points out that: 'The Revolutionary War is practically a religious text in Boston.'
Roger considers George Washington as the Messiah and Bendict Arnold as Judas...
Brianna says, 'Benedict Arnold is a deeply misunderstood historical figure.' Roger says he thought she did not like military history. So impersonating a Scottish accent, Brianna says, 'We Randalls are a very comlicated clan, laddie, which Roger thinks is the worst Scottish accent he had ever heard. Both laugh. So Brianna asks, 'Do you remember my father very well?'
Roger replies, 'Bits and pieces. He was a snappy dresser. Wore his hat down over one eye, very dashing, and seemed very kind.'
Brianna responds, 'He was the kindest man in the world,' showing her devotion to his memory.
They look at the flogging mechanism. 'Your mother seems very kind as well,' Roger says.
But Brianna says, 'My mother lives in another world.' Then she says, 'This place gives me the chills.'
'With good reason,' says Roger, both looking at the mechanism. 'Many Scottish prisoners were flogged here. A lot of blood was spilled on this ground. (Jamie's was especially.) They leave.

Claire drives a Rover three litre (Mark 2) 4 door Coupe made in 1964 (in the real world!) to Lallybroch or Broch Tuarach. The narrow (apparently) metalled road goes alongside and past the archway in. She looks at the ruin of the building. (The real building is Midhope Castle, about two and a half miles to the west of South Queensferry, near Edinburgh; in the TV series CGI makes it physically more ruined; it is a pity they didn't film it in the 1980s prior to restoration!) Taking her spectacles off, she gets out of the car. She recalls hearing Jamie say his father built this place, his blood and sweat in the stone. She recalls asking a child if he is playing with the apples and Jamie's sister Jenny introducing him as her "Wee Jamie", and that Jamie here is his uncle, mo chridhe, the one he is named after. Claire climbs the steps she once climbed before. She remembers her congratulations to Jenny's bonny little lass, little Margaret Ellen Murray, named after her grandmother. She recalls a child's voice saying the potatoes are giant, that Claire advised should be planted (to avoid a famine): Jenny says she was right to tell her to plant them.
Claire recalls saying, 'I'm beginning to feel like I actually belong here,' and Jamie saying that he knew she did belong here with him since he first laid eyes on her.
Claire, looking concerned, sits on the steps. She recalls saying, 'Come let us live, my dear, let us love and never fear.'
He says, 'Then let amorous kisses dwell...' She sees Jamie as if under the arch. '...on our lips begin and tell...' She puts her gloved hand to her lips '...A thousand and a hundred score...' He has vanished from the arch. '...A hundred and a thousand more.' [This poem was etched into the wrapping of the Dragonfly in Amber. In the first book, Claire receives this from Jamie as a wedding gift from his meeting with Hugh Munro, two days after she has seen the Loch Ness Monster, which she thinks is evidence of a second time portal that the animal comes through.] Claire continues to sit and remember, and then with a sniff gets up.
She drives away, the ruin behind her, and looks back.

Roger and Brianna are by a loch. Brianna asks, 'Do you have any memory of an incident that happened with my parents when they were here?'
Roger asks, in turn, 'What do you mean: "incident"?'
Brianna (hardly) clarifies: 'Something that happened between them when they were staying with your father.'
'I was just a wee lad,' he replies, as they sit together. 'I don't remember all the details, but I do recall finding Mrs Graham crying in the tool shed. There were lots of broken things lying about, and I think she said your father lost his temper and smashed everything up. (This is seen in 2:1 after Claire declares her pregnancy, something Frank knew in the book from the beginning.)
Brianna says, 'My father smashed...'
'Yes, but that wasn't the reason she was crying. I'm certain of that.' (In 2:1 Mrs Graham does not feature in any shown scenes after encountering Frank on the way to the shed.)
Brianna says, 'My father definitely had a temper, but he kept it tightly under wraps. When did this happen? What year?'
'Your mother said I was seven or eight when she last saw me, so it must have been 1947 or 1948.
Brianna first thinks of what to say, and then tells him, 'My father kept this lockbox on the top shelf of his closet. I knew where to find the key, so one day I opened it.' He drinks. 'There were letters in there from your father, mostly academic stuff, but there was this one letter.' She pauses. 'The reverend mentioned an incident involving my mother and my father, and the way he phrased it made me feel like it was something big, maybe something terrible - definitely something he didn't want to spell out on paper. It scared me for some reason. I put the letter back in the box, locked it, and never looked at it again.'
Roger responds by saying that his father kept a journal. 'He wrote it every night after supper. There are boxes of them in the storage room, if you wouldn't mind getting a bit grubby.' [In the book, the location is the garage.]
Brianna states: Grubby doesn't bother me. You should see my bedroom.' He laughs and she laughs.
She says, 'That didn't come out right.'
Roger says, 'No, no, but, I, er...' He scratches the back of his head. '...get your meaning.'
Brianna takes a sandwich. They return to the car.

(This is why series 4 episode 7 inroduces a huge problem. If the reverend kept a journal, then everything is in it - including the obituary notice. He might also know that Mrs Graham has a copy of the obituary notice. All Roger and Brianna have to do is keep reading.)

Claire arrives in a market square, presumably Inverness. There is Free Scotland graffiti on the public records building opposite, where she goes.
Inside a woman comes from shelves to tell her: 'So I've traced the chain of title for the estate known as Lallybroch or Broch Tuarach and found this. It's the earliest document we have in our file, a deed of sasine, transferring the title from James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser to James Jacob Fraser Murray. The property was transferred in 1745...' (This was 1746, made to appear a year earlier before Jamie Fraser was classed as a traitor.) '...witnessed by Murtagh Fizgibbons Fraser and Claire Beauchamp... Well, it's a bit smudged but I think her surname was Fraser as well. (It was smudged because her tear fell on to her signed surname - as seen in the 1746 story of 2:13.)
Claire looks at it and the date given as 1st July 1745. Claire says, 'Yes, I believe it was. And, after that?'
The assistant says, 'Various Murrays, it seems. The property stayed in that family for many generations. I've made a copy so this one is for you to keep.'
Claire thanks her and asks, as one last thing, whether it is possible to do a genealogical search, and she says yes, and it's to be on Roger MacKenzie.

In the house, Claire is in the guest room when Brianna comes in. Claire asks, 'How was your date?' Brianna says it wasn't, but mother says one has to admit that he is rather handsome, intelligent and has a lovely physique. Brianna asks who says "physique" and tells her to 'stop'. Claire says of his deep blue eyes (meaning a Mackenzie trait).
Brianna says, 'Maybe you should date him.
Claire is sat cross-legged massaging her foot. She asks where Brianna ended up going.
'Fort William.' To this Claire looks around sharpish. Brianna asks, 'Have you been?'
Claire pauses. 'Once. Didn't care for the place.' Brianna turns around and looks puzzled. Brianna, brushing her hair, asks what Claire did this day. 'I just puttered around the village.' (Where is this village? Already Falkland doesn't look like Inverness, but Inverness is no village.)
'Places you and daddy went before?'
'Some.'
Brianna pauses and looks at Claire - who adjusts herself - to ask, 'Do you miss him?'
Claire looks around and stares: 'Of course.' [In the book, Claire says to Brianna that she knows they had problems.]
Brianna reacts, 'Sometimes it doesn't seem like you do, or... You ever loved him.'
Claire shifts about and says, 'What a thing to say,' and gets up.
Brianna presses the point (after the non-answer), 'Well? Did you? Love him?'
'I did.' Brianna gives a long look, and Claire picks up her bag, puts it on the bed and looks through some documents in it.

Roger and Brianna approach Inverness College (actually, Pathfoot Building of the University of Stirling). They go inside. Roger tells Brianna he is meeting the Curator on the second floor, that he won't be long and afterwards they can start 'the great excavation' of the journals. Asking if she'll be OK, she says she'll 'hang out' and so Brianna walks up some stairs.
Arriving at the top, she passes a number of people and hears a female Scottish voice. It is saying, 'And we can no longer allow their vision to dictate ours. When Scotland was united with England under a single crown, it was the beginning of the end for us. We lost more than our independence. We lost our spirit. The government in Westminster, the bankers in the City, the Newspapers of Fleet Street, have stolen our money,...' Brianna is listening and so is the crowd. '...our voices...' Here is Geillis Duncan, of Claire's encounter in 1743/4, here known as Gillian Edgars. '...our futures. Where are the rulers of old who knew how to look after their people? The kings who have become legendary: Arthur of Wales, Richard the Lionheart, Prince Charles Edward Stuart - our Bonnie Prince. We've all heard of the Battle of Culloden. But imagine how different Scotland would be now had we won.' She is speaking in front of a large poster of the White Roses of Scotland. 'Where is our Bonnie Prince Charlie today?' Brianna looks curious. 'I... am... Bonnie Prince Charlie.'
The crowd shout, 'Yes.'
'You are Bonnie Prince Charlie.' Brianna grins at the enthusiasm shown.
'Aye,' some say.
A chant led by Gillian Edgars starts, of, 'Scotland! Scotland! Scotland!' etc. and Brianna beams at the chanting and then there is clapping among themselves.

Gillian/ Geillis stands for photographs with supporters. A woman says thank you and she receives a single folded leaflet of the White Roses that has Gillian's picture on inside right and on the back.
Brianna says, 'I like your speech, but wasn't it the Scottish king, James VI, who united the crowns? And Queen Anne, the Scottish granddaugher, who signed the Acts of Union?'
Gillian answers, 'Aye, but Anne was raised Anglican, already under the influence of Westminster. Prince Charles and his father King James wanted to undo all that.'
(But did he? Charles was never interested in Scotland alone but in the united crown. "Anglican" does not work as a broad brush. It is true that Anne gave Episcopalians legality if they gave loyalty to her and used the Church of England Prayer Book, but Episcopalian Anglicans contained a declining majority of Jacobite non-Jurors. The Catholic bias in Outlander does not reflect the actuality of religious loyalties. Jacobites were mainly Anglican, then Presbyterian, then an outlawed fragmented minority Roman Catholic.)
Brianna says, 'Sounds like they would have been trading one king for another.'
Gillian replies, 'Charles was Catholic and a Scot. Unlike German Gordie and his Hanovers, his loyalty was to us.'
'Maybe.'
'You're an American. Are you a student here?'
'Brianna Randall. Just visiting.'
Then Gillian asks a pertinent question (previously asked of Claire, later to be asked by Gillian, in the same witches trial) in the past. 'So, why are you here?'
Roger approaches. Brianna says, 'I'm a history student - I like watching history being made.'
Roger says, 'There you are,' and looks at Gillian. 'Roger Wakefield.' He shakes Gillian's hand.
She gives him her name and says that there is a rally later nearby, giving Brianna a White Roses leaflet. She says, 'We'll be making history. Cheers.'
Roger and Brianna move backwards and walk away.

Claire is visiting the Culloden Visitor Centre and Museum. [In the second book, it is Roger and Brianna who visit this centre and the moor.] There is a wax statue of Bonnie Prince Charlie and a man with a camera approaches. Claire is looking at it.
He says to her, 'Tall fellow, wasn't he?'
She replies, 'Wasn't that tall in real life.' He looks at Claire. 'He could have been great. He had the name, the cause, the support of good men willing to lay down their lives for him. They've taken a fool, turned him into a hero.'
Claire walks away to a far display cabinet. In the foreground a woman and a man look at a display cabinet. The woman says, 'And what's that then, inside there?' The man says, 'Not sure. Looks like a dragonfly, maybe?'
Claire looks around sharpish. (She had given this back to Jamie in 1746 at the stones, having kept it on her person. He left it on the battlefield when lying injured.) They vacate, and so she moves across to view it. She sees the object. The notice says, "ARTEFACTS FOUND ON CULLODEN BATTLEFIELD." Claire is reflected in the glass, looking at what once was theirs, from Hugh Munroe.

Brianna and Roger are in the storage room, in the attic. Brianna asks how long it's been since anyone had been here, and Roger expects for ages.
Brianna asks, 'Are these his journals?' There is a 1948 Scribbling Diary.
Roger replies, 'Aye. Aye, if there's anything here about what happened back in 1948, we should be able to find it.'
[In the second book, Roger alone sees the diaries and newspaper clippings. He knows Brianna's age because her mother has said she has eight months to go before she can legally drink whisky at home, twenty-one. So he realises that Brianna was conceived while she was missing, and therefore Frank was not her father. When Brianna gets to see the clippings, after the discovery of Jamie's grave, husband of Claire, she throws them on the fire and sends the poker through the window.]

As she opens the journal, a rat runs off. Brianna asks, 'What was that?'
Roger replies, 'Probably a rat.' He gives her a torch so that at least she won't be taken by surprise.
She says, 'too late for tha-at.' [In the second book, the archives are in the garage, and this is where the rat runs out, on the ground floor.]
The book is open. Roger asks, 'Would you rather I did a rat satire?'
'A what?'
So he says it is an old Scottish custom to make a rat go away by singing to them that the eating is poor here and better elsewhere.
She says, 'You're kidding, right?'
With both smiling, he bursts into song. 'Ye rats ye are too many, If you would dine aplenty, Ye must go, Ye must go, Go and fill your bellies, Dinna stay and gnaw my wellies, Go ye rats, go!'
Brianna says he made it up, and he says 'obviously' and 'any good rat satire must always be...' At this point he sees the old aeroplane toy he had as a seven/ eight year old. '...original.'
Brianna says, 'Well,' as he picks up the aeroplane, 'after that performance, there shouldn't be a rat within miles of this place.' He smiles while she points her torch and lights up a box file named Randall. She says, 'Randall,' and moves to it. She opens the file, and the first photo she sees is Claire and Frank's Register Office wedding. [In the first book, Frank and Claire marry at a Catholic chapel in the Scottish Highlands, and we know this because she says so when she marries Jamie in the very same place - a co-incidence that the TV series ignores and rewrites, as indeed the TV series also ignores Loch Ness and the time-travelling monster.]
However, Roger says, 'Now there's an heirloom for you. A letter of commission in he army, signed by His royal Majesty, King George II. Dated 1735.'
Brianna reads, '"Jonathan Wolverton Randall". I remember daddy talking about him. He was one of our ancestors.'
Roger finds a letter. 'Here's a letter from your father.'
Brianna states, 'The reverend was doing research on the Captain and my father told him to abandon the project.' She reads, '"He is not the man I thought he was."'
Roger says, 'Odd.' (This implies that Frank listened to his wife about the treatment Jamie and she received from Jack Randall. One might call the primary source using the school of oral historiography!) Roger adds, 'Then let's take the boxes into the library.'

Claire is on Culloden Moor. [In second the book, only Roger and Brianna visit the moor.] (The TV series avoids using Culloden Moor itself ou of respect for the real dead.) She comes past one small stone and towards another. Frank's voice echoes in her mind, from their previous visit: how flat and boggy it is, that the Highland army was completely exposed, and they charged into the teeth of musket fire, cannon and mortars. At was all very quick and very bloody, and effectively the battle marked the end of the Clans. A woman is at a small stone, and she lays down some heather in front of it. It says, "Clan Fraser."
She asks Claire, 'Are you a Fraser?'
Claire replies, 'Yes, I am.'
The woman leaves.
Claire says into the air, 'I swore I'd never set foot in this horrid place, but here I am.' She looks semi-tearful. 'And you're here too; or your bones at least,' she says (mistakenly). 'I'm not going to cry.' She manages a smile. 'Because you wouldn't want that, and besides...' She bobs down, and touches the stone. '...I've come with good news. You have a daughter, Brianna, named after your father, just as I promised.' She is near tears. 'Jamie. I... was angry at you for such a long time. You made me go and live a life I didn't want to live. But you were right, damn you.' Claire smiles. 'Brianna was safe and loved and raised well. But, sometimes, when she turns and the light catches her red hair or I see her smile in her sleep, it takes my breath away.' Claire's grey hair is evident. 'Because I see you. She was born, 7:15, on a rainy Boston morning...'
Claire is sat, mainly on her left buttock. 'And that's everything. Everything I can remember.' She smiles. 'See? No tears. Bet you didn't think I could do that, did you?' Claire looks to the distance. 'That day at Craigh Na Dun... We said a lot of things, but there was one thing I didn't say. Couldn't. Huh. I haven't for twenty years. But I am here, and now it's time.' She has liquid-filled eyes. 'Goodbye Jamie Fraser. My love.' She gets up to crouch. She puts her brown-gloved hand on the stone. 'Rest easy, soldier.' She removes her hand as she stands.

Roger and Brianna are looking at documents.
Brianna picks up the newspaper cutting, reading, '"Kidnapped by the Fairies? Claire Randall, wife of noted historian Frank Randall,..." Holiday in Inverness. Car found. Police thought she was possibly murdered.'
Roger says, 'Well, obviously not. She turned up.'
'Three years later. "Mysteriously found wandering, dressed in rags, disoriented, incoherent." (But in 2:1 she was not dressed in rags, but in a unique example of eighteenth century clothing.)
Roger responds, 'I think you've found your incident.'
Brianna wonders, 'What about the reverend's journal? Maybe he says more about this.'
Roger asks, 'Are you sure you want to do this? You may not like what you find.'
'I want the truth,' she says. 'No matter what.' Roger looks to the side.

Claire is pouring tea. Brianna comes down the stairs with a strong light through the window up behind her. Claire says, 'Oh, there you are. Would you like some tea?'
Brianna has her own demand. 'What I'd like... is to know exactly what you have been doing these past two days.'
'As I've told you, I've just been...'
Brianna completes the sentence: 'Puttering around town, collecting 'erbs; is that all?'
Claire looks puzzled and concerned, and asks, 'What's going on, Bree?'
'Did you see him?'
Claire still being concerned, folds her arms. 'Who?'
Brianna states, 'My father. Did you see my father?'
'What kind of question is that to ask?' Her arms are still folded. Brianna says, 'Not daddy. No, he's dead. I know that. I'm talking about my father, the man you had an affair with. The man you were with for three years.'
'Bree.' Her arms unfolded, Claire walks away, around and sits. Bree is stood, holding the papers including the news clippings, looking directly. Claire continues: 'It's complicated.'
Brianna says, 'No, it's pretty simple, actually,' and drops her newspaper clippings and papers on top of the leaflet from Gillian Edgars. 'Newspapers say your "miraculous return" was in April 1948. I did the math, and it turns out you were three months pregnant when "the fairies" brought you back to daddy.'
(Some of these phrases seem in excess to direct speech: "I know that," and, "I did the math." Would these be said? remove them and the dialogue improves I suggest.)
Roger is coming towards the room. 'Bree, I found something else in the reverend's correspondence. I'm not sure what it means, but...' There is quite a pause. 'Oh... I'm sorry, I should let you...' (Roger seems very calm about something he surely knows is going to change everything between mother and daughter!)
Bree responds, 'No, stay. It's your house, and you haven't lied to anyone.'
After a long pause herself, Claire says, 'I think we should talk alone.'
Brianna reacts, 'He's my friend, and he stays.'
Claire says, 'All right. But I think you should sit down.'
Bree sits to the left of Roger, who crosses his leg.
Claire thinks a moment. She says, 'Yes, there was another man. And I loved him... very... much. And yes, he was your real father. [In the book, the explanation happens back at the manse after the graves were seen at St. Kilda's church (never mentioned in the TV series), after Brianna and Roger considered taking her to hospital.]
Brianna says, 'You lied. All my life, you've lied to me.'
Claire says, 'Frank didn't want you to know.'
Brianna reacts: 'Don't you dare blame this on him.'
Claire corrects how to say this. 'He wanted to raise you as his own, and I agreed. It's why we moved to America. So we could put all this behind us.'
Brianna puts it, 'Until you found an excuse to visit Scotland? Is that really why we're here? So I can have some kind of surprise introduction to my real father?' (Now we have to allow for the emotional accuser to forget details, but it was the case that Brianna knew that Claire was going to drive back overnight and stay in a pub!) [In the second book, however, Claire is present to warn Gillian Edgars/ Geillis Duncan to save her life as Claire had her's saved. Claire has deliberately arrived ahead of Beltane, though she also claims to Roger early on that she'd have (also?) come earlier (presumably after 1966) but the hospital emergency forced a cancellation.]
Claire tells Brianna that it is not possible to meet Brianna's father.
Brianna asks, 'Because he has no interest in meeting his daughter?'
Claire pauses. 'Because he is dead. I promised Frank I wouldn't tell you about him, so for twenty years, I... I haven't uttered his name out loud.' Brianna's eyes show some welling up. Claire continues: 'But now you know, and I need to tell you about him.' Claire has a tear on her face. 'About your real father, Jamie Fraser.'
At this, Brianna says, 'I don't want to know anything about him.' Claire looks distinctly unhappy. 'Not one single thing,' and Bree gets up.
However, Roger says, 'Bree, Brianna,' and puts his arm out to gently stop her with his left hand at her right wrist. He says, 'You told me you just wanted the truth, no matter what. This is it.'
Claire looks; Brianna looks too, sits and Brianna puts her hands together.
Claire says, 'Most important. Jamie loved you very much. Even though he never met you, he loved you with all his heart. And he would have raised you... Well, if it wasn't...' Another tear falls and she breathes. 'If it wasn't for the Battle of Culloden.'

An explanation has taken place. Brianna looks puzzled, shakes her head and Roger frowns.
Brianna asks, 'So how long have you been cooking up this story?'
Claire says, in an echo of how she explained this to Frank in 1948, 'No, I... I know this must sound crazy, but...'
Claire gets up. Roger gets up.
Brianna asks, 'Did you really think I would swallow this fairy tale? Do you think I'm still five years old?'
Brianna now gets up. They become closer to each other, stood. Claire says, 'It's not a fairy tale, Bree.'
'The man I grew up with, who loved me for twenty years, isn't my father. My real father is some six foot three inches redhead guy in a kilt from the eighteenth century. What is wrong with you?'
Roger is stood, holding an empty wine glass. Claire says, 'Listen to me. Frank was your father in every way that matters, except one: he didn't make you. Jamie and I...' Claire tries to touch Brianna's arms but her daughter moves back. '...did.' Raising her voice, Claire calls out, 'You're just like him. Your hair, your mannerisms.' Brianna looks down at an angle. 'Oh, he would have loved you and raised you if...'
Brianna interrupts: 'If it hadn't been for the Battle of Culloden? Oh my God, stop.'
Claire now says, 'It's true. Look at this,' as she goes to get a document, Roger to the side. 'The Deed to Lallybroch. Claire Beauchamp Fraser. It's my maiden name, my signature.'
Brianna says, 'Just admit it. Admit that you are not a perfect person. Own up to the fact that you fucked someone else while you were married to daddy, just like a million other bored housewives.'
Claire reacts by raising her voice in anger and almost shouting, 'I was not bored and what Jamie and I had was a hell of a lot more than fucking! He was the love of my life!' Claire withdraws somewhat.
Brianna asks, 'Why are you doing this?'
Claire responds, 'Bree, I... I am doing this... because it's the truth.'
Brianna responds, 'Only two people know what the truth really is, and one of them is dead.' Tears are in Brianna's eyes. 'Too bad it wasn't you.'
Claire shows a face of despair. Roger stands as Brianna walks out. He goes. Claire looks to the side, quite miserable.

In a pub, Brianna responds to a letter and slides it back as she says, 'That doesn't mean anything.' (This must be the letter that features later at the stones that later Brianna regards as very important.)
Roger says, 'Well, I don't know what it means, to be honest, but the reverend obviously thought it meant something.'
Brianna says, instead, 'She's insane. That's all that matters.'
Roger then says, 'Now, don't lash out at me, but that deed of sasine did look authentic.'
Brianna responds, 'So some woman back in seventeen-whatever had the same name as she does, or she read about someone and is fantasising it was her own life.'
Roger says instead, Or, what if there's something to her story?'
Brianna reacts, 'Keep that up and I might just lash out at you after all.'
Roger says, 'Now look, you told me that you could never get close to your mother, that she lived in another world. Well, maybe she is trying to show you that world.'
Brianna puts it, 'So you believe she travelled two hundred years into the past?' He cocks his head. 'Through a stone?'
Roger, like a good historian or sociologist (!) states, 'It's not important if I believe it. She believes it... I'm just saying, maybe we should keep an open mind.'
He drinks, and Brianna proposes, 'How 'bout we keep an open tab instead?' She drinks and gives him his empty glass. (One wonders about the drink-driving laws in 1968: they did exist! The mode of transport seems to be the car in this drama.)

In the house, Claire picks up the newspaper clippings and papers held together. The second sheet shows "Missing" and her photograph and a (huge, in 1948) £1500 reward. Then picking up Gillian Edgars' White Roses leaflet, including her photograph on it (twice), Claire narrates: 'There were ghosts around me everywhere since I had arrived. The face was unmistakable: Geillis Duncan. I remembered the date she's told me at the trial, the year she came through the stones. 1968. This was no ghost. Geillis was here, a yonger version of her, but she was here.'
(The text identifies Gillian Edgars with the White Roses of Scotland, that the white rose is the symbol of Charles Edward Stuart and inspiration of the Jacobites, and long time a symbol of Scottish heritage. The White Roses want independence, sovereignty and a Scottish economic future.)

Claire gets out of her hired car. She walks past one. She climbs some concrete steps. Inside this house, there is a wedding photograph of Gillian and her husband, who, now looking dishevelled, comes to answer the door after Claire rings the doorbell. She is looking for Gillian Edgars and asks if this is her residence. The man says it is. He asks what she wants with her, and Claire claims to be an old friend of Gillians. 'Claire Randall. And you must be?'
'Greg. Her husband.' Claire smiles. He nods her to go in.
[In the second book, Claire is rejected and has to walk away, so a wheeze takes place later where Roger goes with Brianna and a bottle of alcohol, which gets them inside. Brianna isn't in with this scheme.]
Drinks are poured. Claire says, 'I'm not going to be in the area long. Do you know where she might be? I'd love to say hello.'
Greg says, 'Aye. She will likely be with the Roses, but I... I've not kept up.'
He hands Claire her drink and gives the Gaelic greeting. He sits, she stands.
Claire says, 'The Roses.' She circulates and sniffs the drink under her nose. She clarifies: 'The White Roses of Scotland.'
Greg says, 'Aye. Aye, bloody nationalists. She spends all her time down the institute, day and night, spendin' my money on courses. Folklore, they call it. She filled up a million notebooks with her findings.' (The folklore courses were her grounding for going back.)
Claire spots three of them. [In the second book, Claire retrieves the notebooks information from her theft in the Institute itself.]
'Why not learn to type?' he says he asked her. 'Get a job if she's bored, that's what I told her. So she left. It's been weeks now.' He drinks.
Claire seeks clairification: 'So you say she's been gone for weeks.'
'Aye,' putting his head aside to sleep. 'That's what I said. Like... If you do see Gilly, tell her to come home, eh? Tell her I love her.'
Claire says, 'Of course.' He drifts towards sleep, and so Claire views and then picks up the three notebooks.
One book has Craigh Na Dun, Gaelic Creag Na Diun. Concealed by a wooded area on a hill near Inverness. Archaeological excavation in the 1950s proved that the main circle... 4500 - 5000 years ago. A cult of religion swept through the British Isles at the time of erection. It also carries a diagram of eleven stones, four to around '2 pm' and one about 5 pm in positional terms.

Back at the pub, Roger is telling Brianna that, honestly, the pub has been present since 1820, but further talk is stopped by Gillian Edgars coming by.
Brianna says, 'Gillian. Hi.'
Gillian says, 'You missed a great rally earlier.'
Brianna says they're sorry they'd missed it, they've been having a whisky, and Roger adds that it's been a bit of a tricky day.
Brianna says to this, 'My mother's insane.'
Gillian responds, 'A sentiment echoed by daughters everywhere.'
Brianna says that maybe she'll catch her again at the next rally, but Gillian responds, 'Afraid I'm leaving tonight to further the cause. But don't stop asking the hard questions. That's the way the world changes.'
Gillian leaves.

Claire is reading Gillian's notebooks, as taken. She narrates: 'For hours I read Geillis's notebooks. I tried to make sense of the convoluted pages. They contained formulas of the art and science of time travel.' (e.g. Calcedony, Nagina stones - not as powerful. Stones for protection. Bhamas.) Claire continues to narrate: 'Unlike myself, Geillis had studied and prepared for her journey. I was stunned to learn she believed you must have a human sacrifice to move through the stones, and gemstones to protect and guide you.' (Bhamas are ash from stones/ crystals. These can be used to aid but only when no stronger, more powerful is available.) 'From what I could tell, Geillis planned to pass through Craigh Na Dun, and soon. Sadly, I knew how that trip would end, with Geillis burned on a pyre in Cranesmuir. (In fact she wasn't: being pregnant, they were forced to delay, and then Dougal MacKenzie organised her escape.) (The text also states: Central stone. Central monolith stands 0.8 metres west of the true centre of the stone circle. 4.8 metres high, 1.5 m wide and 0.3 m thick. Largest sides of the stone are perfectly oriented to the north and south. 7 tonnes.) She narrates further: I had to try and stop her. (The leaflet is evident.)

In the guestroom Claire is looking in the mirror.
Brianna comes in. Claire turns. Brianna says, 'I don't want to argue. Let's just agree we have a father who... isn't daddy. I don't want to discuss your whole time travel delusion, but I do want to know more about this... Jamie Fraser. Tell me about him.'
'Of course.' Claire gets up from the dressing table with mirror. 'All right.' She places her hands together, and repeats what she must have said before: 'He was tall, and had red hair just like yours.' She touches it. 'His father's name was Brian, and that's where your name comes from.' (Presumably, being under instruction from Frank that Frank cannot be shared with another man, Claire never told Frank why she wanted such an unusual first name!) 'He spoke French, and he loved to play chess. He had a sister, Jenny, who's your aunt... Huh.' She takes Brianna's hand with her Lallybroch ring hand. Sympathetically, she says, 'It would take too long to tell you everything about him. But I promise I will. Huh. Today, I visited his grave on Culloden Moor and was telling him all about you...'
Brianna interrupts: 'This is the point where you lose me.' Brianna gets up; Claire grasps her hand and she returns and sits. 'I didn't intend to fall in love. In fact, I fought against it.' Brianna looks puzzled, as if this is worth hearing. 'But I couldn't deny what I felt for him. And I tried, but I couldn't. It was the most powerful thing that I have ever felt in my life.'
Brianna is looking intently.

(A question next is how Brianna was left when Claire comes through to the room in which Roger is sitting. The assumption is that Brianna has been left to sleep, or rest.) Roger is looking at a letter, perhaps in a study. Claire knocks on the door, and points at him as if this is private, for his quiet attention.
Roger asks, 'How is she?' He gets up from his desk.
Claire says, 'Well, we're talking.'
Roger says, 'It's a fair improvement on shouting.'
Claire asks, 'Roger, do you know Gillian Edgars?'
'Not really. I know she gave Brianna that at the...' (He is referring to the leaflet.)
Claire says, 'Brianna's actually met her?'
At this point, Brianna comes in and says, 'Yeah. Gillian's great. I mean, she's a little crazy on the Scottish nationalist thing, but I liked her.' (Brianna cannot have been left to rest.)
Claire asks, 'Do you know where she is now?'
Brianna says, 'No. Why?'
Claire asks, 'Are you sure? I need to find her. It's important.'
(This dialogue seems 'arse about face' - these questions might have been asked before Claire went to see Greg. Roger here indicates a short time since being back. The assumption is a longer time. Claire was reading for hours; they came back, Claire spoke to Brianna.) 'We just ran into her at the pub. She said she was leaving town tonight. Something about going somewhere to "further the cause." Didn't sound like she wanted to be back.'
Claire says, 'She's going through the stones.'
Brianna reacts: We're not talking about this again.'
Claire then states, 'Gillian Edgars is Geillis Duncan from the witches trial. This is her.' (The leaflet.) 'She is the one who saved my life. And if I can stop her going through the stones, then perhaps I can do the same for her.' [Her afterthought on discovering Gillian is in the area - unlike in the book.] She then looks at Roger. 'Except I can't.'
Roger asks, 'Why not?'
Claire answers, 'Because of you.'
Roger says, 'Me?'
Claire explains, 'When you told me that you were a MacKenzie... I... I looked up your family history. Your seven-times great grandparents were William and Sarah MacKenzie. They couldn't have children, so they were given one to raise as their own. That child belonged to Dougal MacKenzie and Geillis Duncan.'
Roger responds, 'So you're saying that my ancestors are actually the war chief you spoke of and the witch?'
Brianna says, 'Don't bring Roger into this.'
Claire reacts, 'He has the same right as you to know who he is.'
Roger says, 'Well, if all this is true then we have to stop her, don't we? If she's going to be burned alive.'
Brianna says, 'You're kidding me.'
So Claire asks, 'But what if she never goes back, never meets Dougal MacKenzie, never has her child? What if you're never born?'
Roger asks the obvious time-travel dilemma question. (It is solved through divergent multiverses!) 'How can I not be born? I'm here. I can't just evaporate.'
Claire answers him by saying, 'I don't know how this all works.'
Brianna says, 'Roger, you're not buying this, are you?'
He answers, 'I don't know. But to be on the safe side, I say we find her, warn her at least.'
Claire sees this as an option: 'Yes, I could warn her not to draw attention to herself in the past.' (This in fact would go against Geillis's purpose in going back, to stir things towards the Jacobite cause.)
Brianna says, 'Do you see what's happening here? Roger, you are feeding her delusions.' So Bree leaves, and Roger follows.
Claire calls out, 'Brianna!'
Roger outside the room grabs Brianna's arm. He says to her, 'Maybe I am. But this could be our chance to make her actually face it.'
Brianna asks, 'Face what?'
'Gillian. See what Gillian says about all this?'
So Brianna asks, 'And what if Gillian is as crazy as she is? What if she really thinks you can travel through solid stone to the past?'
Roger answers, 'Well then maybe we all get to watch her slam her head into a five-ton block of granite. Either way, this gives a chance to put a stop to it all.'
Brianna gets the point, saying, 'Okay.'
Roger says, 'I'll get my keys.'

Petrol is poured on a clothed body. A car is parked, in the dark, and a car arrives with its headlights on.
Claire in the back seat says, 'That's her husband's car.' (Claire had been to their house!)
A lighter shows its flame, and it is tossed on to the the man's hair.
Out of the car, Claire leads. 'It's this way. Come on.'
Roger says, 'It smells like a fuckin' barbecue. (The same latter two words were used at the witches trial in the church by Geillis Duncan when she herself was definitely going to face a guilty verdict, thus giving the sense to Claire that Geillis had time-travelled - the statement regarding 1968 would come later.)
They run. Geillis has her hood up, watching the flames. She is in eighteenth century costume, and turns, arms out wide. She looks towards the stones, and we see a stone.
Claire shouts, 'Geillis, no!'
Gillian is running in her costume. She gets to the stone and touches it. She is not there: it is the stone alone.
Roger asks, 'Where did she go?'
Brianna says, 'Oh my God. She went right through the stone. She went right through it. Can you hear that? That buzzing!
Roger says, 'Aye. It's getting louder.
Claire looks at the flames on the body close to the stone; Brianna comes closer; Roger goes backwards.
Brianna says, 'Oh my God.'
Claire tells Roger to go and get help, so he does. Brianna looks at Claire, Claire looks at Brianna; Brianna looks at the stone.
[In the book the experience of Gillian going through exhausts Claire in particular and is found separated on the ground, with an implied fear she might have been dragged through. She needs a period of recovery. Regarding Geillis, the book states she spent ten years in the past before Claire arrived. Thus Geillis had gone back 135 years. She became the witch, married Arthur, had an affair with Dougal and became pregnant with Dougal's child, the ancestor of Roger.]

Brianna says, walking with Claire, 'It's true then. Everything you said is true. Claire agrees with a yes. 'Was that her husband?' Claire thinks so. 'And someone has to die to travel through the stones? Is that how it works?
Claire replies, 'Geillis believed that she needed a human sacrifice, but no one died when I went through.'
Brianna, in her determined way, says, 'Wait. Is this the last place you saw my father?' (She means Jamie Fraser.)
'Yes.'
Brianna says, 'I believe you. I don't understand it, but... I believe you.' Claire gasps, comes to Brianna and touches her. Brianna says, 'No more lies. From now on I only want the truth between you and me. All right?'
Claire smiles. 'Oh, you are so like your father.' She puts her gloved hand to Brianna's face. 'Yes, only the truth from now on.' (This echoes the truth commitment made between Jamie and Claire.) The mother hugs her daughter.

Roger pulls up in his car behind the Edgars' car. He gets out and climbs the hillock. 'I've called the police, anonymously, of course. [But not in the book. The police investigate, including interview them, and the suspect has gone missing.] Claire and Brianna are sat on a log together. 'And God knows how long it'll be before they get here.'
Brianna stands up, and says, 'Roger. Tell her what you found.'
Roger says, 'Some research the reverend did at the request of your husband Frank. I'm not certain he ever sent it on to Boston.' (This is presumably because the letter was in the manse. It's the same as the one in the pub, earlier.) Roger has it out of his pocket.
Clare asks, 'Well, what does it say?'
Roger explains: 'After the Battle of Culloden, a few Jacobite soldiers, all seriously wounded, took refuge in an old house for two days, then they were taken out to be shot, but one of them, a Fraser of the Master of Lovat's regiment, escaped execution.'
Claire says, 'There were a lot of Frasers on the field that day.'
Roger says, 'But only five Fraser officers, and four of them have their names memorialised on a plaque in the church in Beauly, so... We know for certain that they were killed.'
Claire asks, 'Who was the fifth?'
Roger looks to Brianna, and it is Brianna who says, 'James Fraser. My father.'
Claire gasps a few times and smiles. 'Jamie. He didn't die at Culloden?'
Roger confirms by saying, 'Well he meant to die but... He didn't.
Claire walks backwards a little, turning to her right towards the stones. She says, 'He survived. He... He survived.'
Roger and Brianna are together as Claire walks towards the stones. The sun rises between the stones and Claire's face lights up.
With her face to the light, Claire says, 'If that's true then...' Her eyes are bluer in the light. 'I have to go back.' The sun rises above the centre stone, and her blue irises glimmer to the light and the central stone is very present.

Chronologically, 3:4 is next.

3:4 Of Lost Things Scotland 1968

[This is the equivalent of 1968 in Book 3, Voyager. It is not the same, of course, as should be clear by bringing the deed of sasine forward into series 2 - at the least.]

There is a chart on the cork board on the study wall. A date is up on attached paper: 1745.
Roger says, 'So if our theory is correct that Claire spent three years in the past, and when she returned, three years had gone by here, it follows that time passes and the same rate in both centuries.' Claire and Brianna are on opposite sides of a desk. 'Since you've been here for twenty years Jamie's alive twenty years after Culloden. So, 1766.'
Brianna says, 'There's no record of him at the Tolbooth. Nothing in Stirling, either. Or Arbroath or Blackness. You're sure they recorded the names of every single prisoner?'
Fiona appears with a refreshments tray. She controbutes, 'If Red Jamie was the Dunbonnet from Granny's tales, he'd have been a very well-known outlaw.'
Claire responds, 'I always loved your grandmother's stories. She was a very special friend to me.'
Fiona meanwhile wants Roger to add cream on his scone, commenting that he is too thin.
Brianna adds a sceptical note: 'The Dunbonnet is only a legend. Even if such a person existed, he was an outlaw. What's to say that Jamie was...' [In the book, the Dunbonnet is Brianna's achievement: the hat to cover his red hair.]
Claire interrupts her; 'I've found him.' They all pause, and come to her, including Brianna around the desk. 'Ardsmuir Prison.'
Brianna adds, 'There he is: James Fraser.'
Roger looks at the lists by year. '1753. '54. 1755. His name appears on each of the annual rolls. The prison closed in 1756.'
Brianna asks, 'What happened to the prisoners?'
Roger tries an answer: 'I don't know. But this is a cause for celebration, no? It's never too early for a whisky.' Brianna smiles openly at that; Claire looks up and forward, her eyes moving side to side indicating thought.

Roger has his car bonnet up, and he is looking at the engine. Brianna, standing outside alongside the car, mimics Fiona: '"Will you have some cream on your scone, Roger?" You know she has a crush on you.'
Roger responds. 'Fiona? Och, no. She just likes being helpful.'
Brianna, grinning, says, 'You know, at first I thought maybe Fiona was your girlfriend?'
'Fiona?' He bangs his head on the bonnet. 'Girlfriend? Fiona?' Brianna grins. 'No, me, I have girls who are friends, but not one I'd call a... I don't... There's no... I don't have a girlfriend.'
Brianna is still grinning, and Roger warmly grins back. She says, 'Move aside.' She goes to the engine, makes an adjustment with a click and says, 'All right. Try it now.' [In the series, the suggestion is she prefers architecture to history; in Book 4 we learn she moved to engineering with a strong maths component.]
Roger says, 'Okay.' He reaches through the driver's window and it starts first time. 'What did you do?'
Brianna explains, 'Distributor cap was loose.' She closes the bonnet.
Roger asks, 'What do I owe you?'
Brianna answers, 'I'll think of something.'
They get into the car.

Roger comes down the stairs in the manse (filmed inside Hunterston House) to pick up the telephone that has been ringing. He tells Claire that the call is from the hospital in Boston. Claire gets up and receives the call. She says, 'Hello. This is Doctor Randall.'
It's Joe Abernathy, her colleague, calling. 'Lady Jane!'
Claire smiles. 'Joe. Well it's lovely to hear your voice'
In Boston, he smiles. He begins by asking, 'Guess what I'm eating?'
Claire can guess: 'Well, let's see. It's Tuesday so it would only be chicken cattiatore.'
Joe laughs, saying, 'Well, you may not miss me, but I know you miss Jevell's.'
'I miss both.'
'So I'll make a reservation for two. When should I say?'
Claire grunts, 'Soon.'
'What month is "soon" in?
'I can't say yet.'
He says he rang because he saw Harry Greenbaum about his abdominal pain, and to her question he says he found Positive Murphy's Sign and calcifications on the x-ray, to operate in a week. She says he can do it, and he can, but he's surprised she is not insisting on doing it herself.
'Let me know how it goes,' she says, followed by 'Goodbye Joe,' and putting the receiver down. She pauses and looks pensive.

Also in the manse, Fiona approaches Claire. 'Pardon, Dr Randall, I believe these belong to you.' Fiona gives Claire a small box.
Claire opens and empties the box and reveals a pearl necklace. Claire says, 'I gave these to Mrs Graham years ago. I never thought I would see these again.
Fiona says, 'My grandmother told me of your special relationship as well. She left the pearls to me, but I know she'd want you to have them back.
Still emotional from receiving this gift, Claire says, 'Thank you, Fiona. Truly.'
Fiona smiles and leaves. Claire herself walks into the study where Brianna is sat.
Brianna says, 'Hey! Good news. We just found out the National Archives has the most extensive collection of ship manifests in the country.' Showing a big smile, Brianna adds, 'We can take the train to Edinburgh tomorrow.'
Less ecstatic, Claire says back, 'That's wonderful, darling,' and strokes Brianna's shoulder.
'Mama, are you all right?'
'Smiling, Claire says, 'You haven't called me that for a very long time.' She hugs Brianna, and holds her head with her right (Lallybroch key) ring hand.

Brianna and Roger are by a fire together, in the lounge. Brianna says, straight out, 'I'm a terrible person.'
Roger reacts by laughing. 'finally,' he says, 'something we can agree on,' a comment that causes mutual laughter.
Brianna explains, 'Ever since my mother told me about Jamie, it's like this wall between us has started to come down. And now the closer we are to finding him, I'm afraid of losing her.'
Roger unfolds his arms and turns to look at Brianna directly. 'I think that just makes you a daughter who cares about her mother.'
Brianna asks, 'What if something happens to her there? What if she can't come back. Or... What if she doesn't want to?'
'Well, if that makes you a terrible person, then so am I. Part of me doesn't want to find him either, because... Well, once we do, you'll go back to Boston.'
At this, Brianna gives a long kiss to Roger on the mouth. Roger breathes audibly. She looks at him, her hand on his collar. She smiles, he does, and he looks to the side.
Roger says, 'That was...'
'Unexpected?'
'Unexpected, yes.'
Brianna gets up.

The three investigators are sat at a large table in the National Archives of Scotland in Edinburgh. Roger sits with a large book. Roger with Claire says, 'Here's the last of them.' Claire smiles at Brianna, who smiles back. But the pages turned by Claire show 1624, 1625.
Claire asks, 'Roger, what are these?'
'Ship manifests, but...'
'The dates are all wrong.'
Brianna too looks concerned.
Roger looking further at the book says, '1635, 1636...'
Brianna says, 'Wait! All of them?'
Claire says, 'It's off by over a hundred years.'
Brianna says, 'There must be some mistake.'
Roger says, raising a finger, 'Let me check,' and goes to consult a woman, saying they were looking for manifests from the period of 1757. Claire looks depressed as the woman apologises and says they have everything available. Roger returns and reports that, 'She said those were the only manifests they have.' Claire looks at Roger somewhat upset, and Brianna looks to the side.
So Claire bangs down the book, saying, 'Christ,' and folds her arms.
(In other words, the attempt to find whether Jamie was removed to one of the colonies fails, and they would have to go to several ports to examine later manifests, should they exist.)

They are at a bar in an Edinburgh public house with a female entertainer off to their left reciting poetic lines. The entertainer is saying, '"But bring a Scotsman's frae his hill, clap on his cheek a highland gill, say such is royal George's will..."'
Roger tells them, Rabbie Burns. The old Bard knew how to turn a phrase.'
Brianna asks, 'Why are people staring at us?'
Claire answers, 'Because we're not supposed to be sitting at a bar, you and I.'
Brianna responds by asking. 'What are you talking about? There's a woman right there.'
Roger replies, 'Well, that's the entertainment. Maybe we could move to the other lounge were women are more... accepted.'
Claire argues: 'This is 1968, and we have as much right to sit here as any man.'
The entertainer continues: '"But tell me whisky's name in Greek, I'll tell you the reason. Scotland."'
Roger refers to their disappointment. 'It was just a little setback. We can always go to every port of call on the west coast. There must be records.'
Brianna adds, positively, 'We will find him.'
The entertainer has arrived at, '"Freedom an' whisky gang thegither! Take aff your dram!"' (From Robert Burns' poem, The Author's Earnest Cry and Prayer, published 1786.)
Among everyone someone shouts, 'Hey,' and the folk about clap.
Claire says, '"Freedom and whisky" - I used to quote that to Jamie.'
Brianna says, 'And you will again, mama.' Claire looks at Brianna, her smile ending. 'We are not giving up.'
But Claire says, 'This is what Mrs Graham warned me about. Spending my life chasing a ghost.' Brianna looks at Claire. With a glass containing drink to finish, Claire says, 'To all those we have lost.' Claire taps her glass with Brianna and then Roger, and then Brianna taps hers with Roger's. Claire looks up, and drinks up, but then pauses before saying, 'It's time to go home.' Brianna looks at her, after this decision.

Claire takes down the informing notes on the corkboard at the manse.

Brianna comes down the manse staircase with suitcases, and looks at the old Scotland flag framed on the wall.

Roger sits in the manse alone holding his old toy aeroplane as a real British European Airways (BEA) aeroplane takes off. Claire occupies a window seat and Brianna is sat alongside her. [In the book, only Claire returns. Brianna stays in Scotland, carrying on the search with Roger. Is this the more realistic option, or giving up?]

3:5 Through a Glass Darkly
Boston 1968

Claire and Joe Abernathy are involved in surgery. Dr Abernathy wants to 'pack' the patient, but Claire takes a risk because she sees some necrosis. Calling for more retraction, she digs into the opened body, and the systolics drop to 80 and later to the very dangerous 70. Joe wants to control the bleeding and start packing; Claire insists on getting the necrosis and and then tie off the bleeder. At 70 Claire calls for two seconds, but Joe says she does not have two seconds. At 69, Claire uses scissors and declares, 'That's it.' A lump of flesh is placed on a cloth. She finds the bleeder, uses a clamp, ties it off and the pressure rises again, a voice declaring 75 and rising. Claire looks at Joe and Joe stares across at her. [This or similar is not in the book.]

Brianna hears her history lecturer, Professor Brown, say, 'Listen my children of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.' (The lecture actually takes place in the University of Glasgow Joseph Black Building, a chemistry room.) Brianna is sat penultimate to the back row, centre-right from the lecturer's perspective, and rather than paying attention is drawing the arches of the university (of Glasgow!). The event in question for the lecture is April 18th, 1775. [This is a year before a fateful recorded obituary date declared in Book 4.] Revere single-handedly saved the day, states the lecturer, from his source, except the lecturer shuts the book (causing Brianna to pay attention) and declares it a lie, because Revere had company, making it to Lexington, and in any case was captured by the British Redcoats. Prescott completed the mission, but he was lost to history (obviously not), because Revere had a better publicist. Whilst the students laugh, Brianna does not. [This is not in the book here, but the next point is discussed: this is clearly of relevance to Diana Gabaldon.] The lecturer states that after Christmas they will discuss how fictional prose can alter the perception of history. Brianna is looking forward with interest as the class is wished a happy Christmas. (Was the lecturer thinking of Outlander by any chance, starting twenty three years later?) [In the book, Claire's return to Boston is not prior to Christmas.]
'Er, Miss Randall, a word.'
After she is alongside Professor Brown, he says, 'You're failing.' Brianna looks at him, but then closes her eyes. This can't come as a surprise. I've spoken with your other professors, and it's not just History.' (This puzzles me. Surely she was doing other history, not a range of subjects, even as a History Major. Maybe not.)
Brianna replies, 'Maybe I'm just not as smart as everyone thinks I am.'
'You wouldn't be at Harvard if that were the case. Your father was more than just a colleague. He was my friend. So I've always felt a responsibility to look out for you. Last semester your grades were outstanding.' Brianna looks down, up and smiles openly. 'What's changed?' BHrianna still smiling, he says, 'You can talk to me.'
Smiling boldly, Brianna says, 'Everything's fine.'
Professor Brown says, 'You've got to turn this around, Brianna, or your future here is in jeopardy.'
Brianna nods in understanding and then leaves.

In the house the door goes, keys rattle and Brianna comes in, placing some books down alongside the stairs. She looks into the living room and then goes in. She puts her hand on to an old Christmas decoration on the tree that says, in her mother's silver-pen handwriting, "Brianna's first Christmas." She looks at it and gives a little smile. She then looks to a chair with the tree decorated behind and rubs her hand along the chair's arm. (Presumably this is daddy's chair.) She sits near the chair and opens a wooden box. From the box she holds a pipe and sniffs it. (Outlander has never showed him smoking.) Opening another metal box, she looks at old photographs of her mother and father. One shows her mother holding her as a baby. Another is her mother's graduation in 1958 stood alongside her father. Another is of her father and her as a baby. She looks sad.

In Claire's and Joe's hospital office, Brianna wearing an academic cap is in a photograph on Claire's desk. Claire looks at it while holding a pencil.
Joe says, 'Got that look.'
Claire responds, 'Hmm?'
Joe explains, 'The same look you had when you came back from Scotland.' Claire looks at him and takes a drink in a glass from him. 'You ever gonna tell me what happened over there?'
Claire looks at him, pauses, breathes audibly, and says, 'There's nothing to tell, really.'
Joe asks, 'Did you meet a man, Lady Jane?'
Claire grins and says, 'Not exactly.'
'Jesus. I can't believe you held out on me.' Now Claire gives an embarrassed grin. 'Well?' he asks.
Claire pauses. 'Well. There was someone - from my past.'
'So he's Scottish?
Claire smiles and looks down and to the side. 'As Scottish as they come.'
'Sounds serious.'
Claire nods a few times very slightly. 'As serious as it comes.'
'Hell, what happened?'
Claire looks down and shakes her head once. 'We... We went our separate ways. And I had hoped that we would be able to find each other again, but' - speeding up - 'fate had other ideas.' Claire drinks.
'Fuck fate,' says Joe, and Claire acknowledges with a grin.
A nurse comes in with documents for Joe Abernathy. They are post surgical reports that he wanted.
Claire says, 'I'm off the clock. See you tomorrow, Joe.' She acquires her coat.
'To be continued,' Joe states, nodding at her, receiving her smile, and he reads the notes.

In Furey Street, at the Randall's residence, a taxi arrives. (It's Dowanhill Street in Glasgow's west end!) Roger Wakefield gets out as the driver goes to the boot.
Roger says to himself, 'I've come this far. No turning back now.' He gets his wallet to pay. 'This is either the most daft thing I've ever done, or the most brilliant.'
The taxi driver says, Ah yeah. Two fifty, pal.'
Roger pays, and says, 'Keep the change.'
He then climbs the steps to the front door, and stands to adjust his coat collar and his tie. He rings the bell.
He can hear Brianna say, 'Professor Brown told me...'
Claire responds, 'Brianna, if that is the issue, then you do not go out. You buckle down.
Roger grimaces, breathes audibly and rings again.
Brianna responds to Claire, 'You're not listening.' The bell goes again and so Brianna opens the front door to Roger. 'What?!'
Roger looks at her, Brianna stops and gives a positive look, and Roger smiles back.
Roger says, 'Happy Christmas,' and Brianna smiles further and he smiles, wondering.
So Roger comes into the house, Brianna bringing him in so that he can put his suitcase down.
Brianna says to Claire inside, 'Look who's here.' Roger is stood to Brianna's right, facing her mother.
Roger smiles and Claire rapidly changes her face after being angry. Claire looks to the side, and then forward as part of this transition. 'Roger,' says Claire. She smiles openly. 'What a wonderful surprise. What are you doing in town?'
Roger replies, 'I should've sent word. Clearly, I've come at a bad time.'
Brianna looks pensive.
Claire says, 'No, not at all.' She gives Roger a kiss as Brianna looks to her left side away from Roger. ' We're just...'
'Yelling,' says Brianna.
Claire's face changes back to concern. 'Well, Brianna has decided to withdraw from Harvard and is moving out.'
Brianna says, 'Which is my decision to make.'
Roger can only say, 'Well, I er...'
Claire is saying, 'Let me call Dean Tramble. I'm sure he can have you reinstated.'
Brianna responds: 'No, you're not listening! I need a break.' Claire looks despondent. Brianna continues, 'You expect me to just come back to Boston and be who I was? I tried, and it's not working.' Roger also looks glum, and a car horn is heard outside. 'Look, I have to go. I'm sorry Roger. It's good to see you. Let's hang out tomorrow, okay?' Claire looks and Roger looks at her go.
Claire says, 'I'm so sorry, Roger. Let me take your coat.'
He replies, 'Thank you, but perhaps it's best if I check into my hotel. I don't want to...'
'Nonsense,' says Claire. 'No, you'll stay here.' She touches his left arm and leads him. (Did he even have a hotel?)

They are at a table, having eaten, and are having drinks.
Claire asks, 'Have you been back to Inverness?'
'No.' Roger picks up a glass. 'With father gone, well... There's nothing there but books and dust.'
'It's your first Christmas without the reverend?'
He replies, 'Aye, aye. He, em... He always liked to bring toys to the children's home. We were known to sing a rousing round of "O Come All Ye Faithful" for the children, and then eat Mrs Graham's plum pudding.' He laughs and Claire smiles. 'So I suppose that's one of the reasons why I took this trip. I'd like to try an American Christmas.' Claire looks and smiles. Maybe make some new tradition of my own.'
Claire says, 'We used to read "A Christmas Carol" to Brianna every year. Till she grew out of it, I guess. Or maybe Frank and I did.' She smiles and drinks. 'Hmm. You seem to be a magnet for our family quarrels.'
'You were quarrelling? I hadn't noticed,' he jokes.
Claire goes to the sink, putting crockery into it and grins, she leans back as Roger smiles openly. 'You didn't come here just for an American Christmas, did you?'
Roger replies, 'Is it that obvious?'
Claire nods. 'Well, I'm glad you're here. Brianna needs someone to talk to, and you're the only one who understands what she went through during the summer.'
Roger gets up from the circular table. 'Aye, she puts up a good facade.'
They both tuck in their seats at the table as the clock shows 9:30 pm.
Claire says, 'Well, I think it's finally hitting her.'
Roger asks, 'Can I pour you a whisky?'
Claire says, 'Sure,' and both walk over to the settee, Claire sitting.
Roger now says, 'I have some news, that might put a smile on your face.'
Claire from the settee, says, 'Well, I could do with some good news.'
Roger brings the whiskies so Claire has hers; and, still standing, he says, 'I'm a historian; that's what I do.' He retrives a folder from his suitcase and brings the folder over. 'I pursue. I'm like a dog with a bone.' He sits on a chair at right angles to the settee.
Claire smiles and grins, and places her glass down on a near low table. 'Now, what are you saying?' She beams in anticipation.
'I found him' - and with that her smile is gone. 'Well, I found an article written in 1765 in a journal called Forresters. it advocates the repeal on the restrictions of the import of spirits to the Scottish Highlands.' Roger raises his finger and moves to sit alongside Claire. He turns some pages. 'Look at this line.' Claire is not smiling. '"For has been known for ages past, Freedom and whisky gang thegither."' Claire takes the photocopies Roger was using. 'At the hotel in Edinburgh, you told me you quoted that line to Jamie.'

(The visible text shows: Impose restrictions on Trade without limiting the Freedom of Virtuous Men. For has been known in Ages past, Freedom and Whisky gang thegither.
Consider those who Labour from Dawn 'til Dusk, wearied with the Toils and Burdens of the Day. Doth not the Lord say unto them,
"Come unto me all ye that are weary and I will refresh you?")

Claire reads the above with her mouth firmly closed. 'You think he wrote this?' she asks.
'I do,' Roger replies. Look.' He turns some pages back. 'Even in the opening of the article, he quotes the poem again, addressing the ruling classes. "Ye Knights an' Squires, Wha' represents our brughs and Shires...'
Claire turns her head to him, 'But this is a poem by Robert Burns. Anybody could have known this.'
Roger points out: 'Robert Burns was only six years old in 1765. The poem wasn't written until twenty-one years later. Only someone with knowledge of the future could have quoted lines that hadn't been written yet.'
Claire is in deep thought, and then says, 'But it doesn't indicate an author.
'Have a look at the printer's name,' Roger responds.

(Under a picture of a stocky man in period costume and a Scottish National Archives stamp, is:
"Edinburgh.
Printed by Alexander Malcolm.
1765")

Roger continues: 'Alexander Malcolm. Jamie's middle names, no?'
Claire's look is still fixed, and looks at it further. Then her mouth opens slightly, and turns her head to look to her left at Roger. 'He was a printer?' she asks.
Roger says, 'And living in Edinburgh in 1765. According to the parallel timeline on our calendar...' Claire looks forward, in realisation. 'That's only a year ago.
Whilst Roger retains his small grin maintained throughout, Claire's eyes are filling with tears. Her eyes move side to side, and then looks to Roger sharpish. Roger smiles back. Claire's eyes move side to side again, and then back to Roger. Claire gets up quickly, places her hands on her hips and walks around clockwise.
She stops. 'Now, I never asked you to do this.'
Now Roger looks concerned. 'I thought you'd want to know.'
'Well, I don't,' Claire snaps.
'I'm sorry.'
'I could have lived the rest of my life not knowing.' Roger looks to his right, and back again. 'Twenty years ago,' she continues, I shut the door on the past. And it was the hardest thing I have ever done.' Roger is staring at her. 'And when you told me he srvived Culloden... I began to hope.' Claire pauses for a long time, with her head shaking a little. 'I can't go through that again.'
Roger jumps up from the settee, holding the document. 'But this isn't just hope. This... This is... This is real. You can go to Jamie.' Roger grins positively, but Claire is tearful.
'And leave Brianna?' she asks him. 'With everything that she is going through now? How? How could I do that to her?' Claire is walking again, so Roger turns about anti-clockwise. 'I am her mother and she needs me.' Claire's right hand is on her chest. 'And I cannot abandon my daughter.'
Roger asks, 'How can I help? What can I do?' (Why does he ask this? It looks like a leading question for narrative purposes, except that Claire had said he is the only person who understands and can talk to Brianna.)
Claire upset, shakes her head slightly: 'Just don't tell her. It will only confuse matters.
'I wont say a word,' he says.
Claire looks at him leftwards. 'I know you meant well, Roger.'
Roger breathes in. 'Thank you for a lovely dinner. I think I'll retire now. A bit of jet lag, I'm afraid.' He leaves the photocopies based document.
Claire has her arms folded, looks leftwards, and then side to side.
[This does not happen in the book! Instead, Claire alone in Boston receives the news from Roger and Brianna in Scotland that Jamie has been found. The poem written before its author wrote it is then coupled with the deed of sasine as further proof once Claire has returned to Scotland, she simply intent on going back.]

Claire in her yellow pyjamas looks at her pearl necklace. This was originally from the late Ellen MacKenzie Fraser, Jamie's mother. [In the book, these pearls - never threatened by the stones in time travel as other rocks were - were displayed in the National Portrait Gallery. When Brianna continues to be sceptical about her mother's story after the St. Kilda's graveyard revelation, Claire tells Brianna to go to the National Portrait Gallery to see these pearls in a painting of who is Brianna's grandmother and take a hand mirror to compare the portrait and Brianna's own features.] Claire breathes and gives a smile, with the Christmas lights outside. [It is in book 4 and 1970 that Brianna and Roger share Christmas, as part of their continuing and frustrating long distance letter writing and coming together attachment.] Claire looks outside.
[A note about the pearls. They vary from the book in their form. In the first book - gifted before the wedding, but on television given as an erotic addition for her breasts in the third sex encounter on the wedding night - they were baroque pearls with gold rondels strung between them, with smaller pearls dangling from the rondels. These are what are displayed in the National Portrait Gallery, on Jamie's mother Ellen.]

The hospital is shown outside, and inside there are bones on a table. [This scene is much later in the book, just prior to Claire leaving in her definite return to Scotland to join Roger and Brianna.]
Claire asks, 'What's all this about?'
Joe Abernathy replies, 'A friend of mine, Horace Thompson, sent these over for a second opinion.' Claire folds her arms and Joe takes a skull from out of a box. 'Pretty lady. Full grown, mature, maybe late 40s. [In the book, this late scene has Horace Thompson of Harvard's Anthrpology Department coming into their office, and Joe asks Claire to stay, and Claire gives her felt opinion. The age range goes to middle fifties.]
Claire looks puzzled. She picks up the skull and shows a slight jump in her neck and face. 'He sent you an over 150 year-old murder victim.' [In the book, Joe thinks Dr Randall might do "it" to a dead person - her ability to diagnose and whether the female was in good health. Holding the skull, Claire feels a "shifting sadness" and that she was killed but did not want to die.]
Joe looks at her and puzzled. 'You're only off by 50 years. Horace is an anthropologist, and he's looking for a cause of death; what makes you think she was murdered?'
Claire shakes her head, breathes out and says, 'I don't know.'
Joe says, 'She's from a cave in the Caribbean. There are artefacts found with her.' Joe lays out some bone fragments in a box. 'Aha. Lookie here.' Claire's arms are folded. 'You were right.'
Claire asks, 'Broken neck?
Joe replies, 'More than that: bone's not just cracked, fracture plane's right through the centrum. Somebody tried to cut this lady's head clean off with a dull blade. (Later the viewer learns who that was.) Claire looks at him sideways. 'How did you know?'
Claire shakes her head. 'She just felt like it,' Claire says, looking serious. [Asked by Horace Thompson how she knew, she says, 'I - she - felt like it, that's all.'] Joe looks at her through the corner of his eyes. Claire continues, 'Found in a cave, you said?'
Joe says, 'A secret cave burial, they think. But his lady's no slave, no siree. She wasn't black. See her tibia? Short, relative to the femur.'
'The crurel index,' says Claire.
Joe says, 'This lady was white.' (Who it is gets revealed later.)
Claire grasps her own throat. 'Bones don't lie.'
Joe says, 'They tell all. Now... What were you telling me about your man in Scotland?'
Claire breathes and looks pensive. 'He's...' She sits. 'He's Brees real father.' Joe looks at her. 'And I told her when we were in Scotland. That's the reason why she's been struggling so much at the moment.'
Joe comes forward towards Claire. 'I'm glad you told me. Explains a lot.' Claire appears sad and looks down. 'Do you still love him?'
Claire looks up at Joe. 'I never stopped.'
Joe says, 'No one thought you and Frank were Ozzie and Harriet. I've watched you live a half-life for fifteen years. If you have a second chance at love, you should take it. Brianna will come around.'
Claire looks a little tearful and swallows. 'Thank you, Joe.' She puts her right arm to Joe's left shoulder.

In Claire's house a television dialogue states: She was desperate to be reunited with him, no matter what sacrifice she had to make. Even her life? says a man. Yes, Barnabas, even a life, says a woman. She just wanted to be with him that much.
A door in the house opens and shuts.
The television dialogue continues with the woman saying: I know it is very difficult for you to accept.
Roger is watching television. Brianna comes in. [This is not in the book at all; after all, Roger and Brianna are in Scotland.]
Brianna says, 'You're kidding. Dark Shadows?'
Roger responds, 'Shush. Barnabas has just lost Victoria. Chris is worried he'll change into a werewolf, and... and Elizabeth, she thinks she's gonna be buried alive.'
Brianna is taking her coat off in the kitchen diner and calls out, 'What would your posh colleagues at Oxford say if they knew you were rotting your brain on daytime TV?'
Roger replies, 'Those troglodytes wouldn't understand the travails of the House of Collins.'
Wearing a white sweater and holding a beer bottle, Brianna says, 'Sorry about yesterday.'
Roger, who looks to his left side at her with a smile and says, 'I shouldn't have dropped in unannounced.'
Brianna says, 'I'm glad you did.'
Roger, smiling, says, 'I came for an American Christmas, and lobster rolls, and Boston cream pies, of course.'
Brianna says, 'You know, I might know someone who can help you with that.' She smiles openly and so does he. 'There's this thing for my father at Harvard later today. They're naming a fellowship after him. Maybe you could come. We could go early, and I could show you the hallowed halls.' She grins.
Roger nods. 'I'd be honoured.'
Brianna moves from the arm of the blue chair to sitting alongside Roger. 'We could watch the rest of this episode first, of course.' She offers him one beer bottle, and looks at him with a large smile.

Roger and Brianna are at the University of Harvard (Glasgow!).
Brianna says, 'These are the Robinson Cloisters, one of the only examples of Gothic Revival on campus.'
Roger responds, 'I wonder how many people have wandered through here over the years: the conversations that took place, the secrets etched into its nooks and crannies? Brianna is wearing a very stylish Scottish outfit. (This is a script writer's bit of fun based on the television location. The answer is precisely none wandered through, with no conversations, the secret being that Harvard has nothing like them at all.)
Brianna says, 'It's funny. I've been coming here since I was a kid. My dad used to bring me, and I've never once thought about that.' (It is funny! And she would never have thought about that...)
Roger says, 'You never wondered whether John Adams or Teddy Roosevelt or John Kennedy stood under these same arches?' (This is rubbing in the joke.)
Brianna replies, 'Nope! No, I was always always fascinated with with how this was built... That every single stone is held in place by the pressure of the one next to it. It's based on measurements, calculations, precisions. There's a truth to this building.' [In the book, Brianna gives up History based on her father's preference and moves to Engineering instead.]
So Roger says, 'That doesn't sound like the daughter of a historian.'
Brianna replies, 'Well, I'm not, am I? I'm the daughter of an eighteenth century Highlander.'
Roger is walking and then turns slightly. 'I had few memories of my real father. There are boxes in the garage.' [Really? The boxes are in the garage in the book. In the TV series 2, the boxes were in the attic!] Roger continues, 'His letters, his things, but the reverend told me a story about what he was like as a child: how he made a martin house, but he made the hold too big, and a cuckoo got in.' (The point is both had cuckoos as fathers...) Brianna is laughing. 'It's a silly story, really, but he made my father real to me. And knowing my father helped me to know myself. Everybody needs a history.'
Brianna, being a historian again, like at the before Christmas lecture, asks, 'But how do you know it's true? What if he made it up to make you feel better?' (Is this why she prefers Engineering?)
Roger asks, 'Does it matter?'
Brianna responds, 'But that's my point. What is history? It's just a story. It changes depending on who's telling it. Like Paul Revere's, like Bonnie Prince Charlie's, like my parents', like my own. History can't be trusted. We should get going. The ceremony is about to start.'

Dean Tramble is conducting the ceremony. (The location is not a studio set but the Melville Room in the Chaplaincy of the University of Glasgow. It was also used for the 1948 reception of Frank and Claire.)
The Dean says, 'We're here to honour the exceptional work of the late Professor Frank Randall, who served this University for nearly twenty years...' Claire is dressed in black, looking across soberly. '...and to announce the newly-named Frank W. Randall Fellowship in the field of European Studies. But first, let's talk about Professor Randall and his ground-beaking research.'
Brianna, Roger and Claire are stood in a line side to side, all looking ahead.
A brass plaque declares:

THE FRANK W. RANDALL FELLOWSHIP Est. 1968. Professor Frank W. Randall (1906-1966) came to Harvard in 1948 and served the History Department for 18 years until his death in 1966. During that time, Professor Randall's seminal research in the field of EUROPEAN STUDIES, in particular his work charting the rise and fall of European dynasties in the early modern period, cemented his position as a leading historian on both sides of the Atlantic...
Brianna is saying something indistringuishable and, 'No thank you,' alongside Roger.
Claire is speaking to the Dean. 'Dean Tramble, it's wonderful of you to honour Frank in this way.
Dean Tramble says, 'It's the least we could do after all he did for the University.'
Claire says, 'Thank you,' as Sandy Travers, his long term lover, walks by and Dean Tramble glances at her.
He says, 'Oh, Professor Travers. I'll need your grant proposal by Monday.' She turns and Claire looks at her. 'The endowment board waits for no man or woman.' (Here we have an improvement in the attitudes towards women compared with back in 1948.)
Sandy says, 'It'll be on your desk first thing, sir.' Claire looks down as Sandy looks at Claire.
The Dean says to Claire, 'Oh, I'm sorry. This is Sandy Travers, one of Professor Randall's former students.' Claire looks directly at her, as the Dean continues for Sandy's benefit, 'This is his wife Claire.'
Sandy says, 'Pleased to meet you,' and Claire nods.
The Dean adds, 'Professor Travers is undertaking research on the influence of Colonial English on autochthonous languages.'
Claire says, 'That's fascinating.'
A voice off says, 'Dean, can I have a word?'
Dean Tramble says, 'Excuse me.'
Claire looks at Sandy, to her right side. Sandy says, 'Frank would have hated all this fuss.
Claire responds, 'I think he would have rather liked it,' and takes a drink.
Sandy responds back, 'He always told me, "The work is the reward."'
Claire now says, being civil, 'If you'll excuse me.'
Addressing Claire's back, Sandy then says, 'You should have let him go.'
Claire turns as Sandy looks, and says back, 'I beg your pardon?'
Sandy now makes her point: 'All those years. You never wanted him, but you wouldn't give him up.'
Claire says, 'Now I don't see that's any of your business.'
Sandy adds, 'He told me he stayed with you for Brianna, but I know. A part of him was still in love with you and always would be...' - Claire looks at her directly - '...no matter how much you broke his heart. I had to live with that because he was the love of my life.' (These words echo what Claire said about Jamie first time she revealed to Brianna about her and him.) Sandy's eyes are liquid-filled. 'And I wanted him, even if it meant I had to share him with you. I could've made him happy. But you were selfish. You wanted it all. So you lived a lie, and you made Frank and Brianna live it too. You threw away twenty years with him.' A tear falls down Sandy's face. 'I would give anything to have just one more day.' Sandy moves away, leaving Claire to look at her, and Roger and Brianna look across at this.

Still within the University, Brianna is walking with her mother Claire down a corridor.
Brianna says, 'That blonde woman at the ceremony. I recognised her. Who is she?'
Claire replies, 'She was a student of your father's.
Brianna says, 'I remember her. We were at this bookstore once, and daddy stopped to talk to her. Something about it: the way he looked at her. It was the same way he used to look at you.' They stop and look at each other. 'Back at the stones, we said, "No more lies. Only the truth between us."'
Claire nods. 'Frank loved her. It went on for many years, and he was planning on marrying her.'
Brianna looks down to her right, and Claire examines her reaction. 'You told me I looked like Jamie. All my life, daddy had to look at me and see another man. The man you really loved.' Claire is reacting to this. 'He must have hated me.'
Claire says, 'No, darling,' and grasps hold of Brianna. 'No. You were the one thing that was really important to Frank. Raising you: that was his life's work, his greatest joy.'
Brianna reflects in response. 'What about you? There must have been a part of you that resented me. I was the reason you lost Jamie.'
Claire shakes a little. 'Never. What I resented was that I had to leave Jamie. But the day you were born, and I held you in my arms, and nursed you for the first time...' She strokes Brianna. '...and you looked up at me: I've never felt anything else like it. I love you for you, Brianna, not for the man who fathered you.'
Brianna says, 'You must still think about him.'
Claires eyes open wider and she nods. 'I do.' Now Claire looks into her bag. 'There's something else I need to be honest about.' She reveals the photocopies that show text authored by Jamie.
Brianna says, '"Alexander Malcolm." This... This is Jamie. You found him?'
Claire says, 'Well, Roger did.'
Brianna looks directly at her mother. 'Then you can go back.'
Claire says, 'That's not why I am telling you this. My life is here, with you.'
Brianna responds, 'I'm all grown up, mama. I can live on my own.' She pauses. 'I love you, but I don't need you: not the way I did when I was little.'
Claire's eyes are watery, and she smiles. 'I know.' Both pause. 'Come on.'

[The next scene is actually derived from the fourth book, Drums of Autumn, and not the third. As a result, the scene of Brianna, Roger, Joe Abernathy, and Mechanical Engineering students, watching the Apollo 11 landing (after the Roger and Brianna faux clans-gathering in the hills outside Boston) is brought forward to when the Apollo 8 craft is only circulating the moon in an earlier mission. Later on, Jamie asks Brianna about the moon: Claire had said they would land on it. Did they and what did they say about it? She says they did land on the moon, and they did not have to say anything about it because people saw it for themselves, and Jamie has great difficulty in perceiving how people could see this themselves.]
There is the live television transmission from Apollo 8.
The voice of Captain James Lovell is heard. And God called the light 'day', and the darkness he called 'night'. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Doctors and other medical staff are looking at the screen.
Joe Abernathy says, 'How do you take a trip like that and come back to life as you knew it?' Claire looks at him.
And let it divide the waters from the waters.
Claire reflects on Joe's words in her own past and present situation.
And God made the firmament and divided the waters...
Claire narrates: I had been, in many ways, further than the moon, on an even more impossible journey. And the answer was, "Yes," you can come back to your life, but it is never the same. But maybe it was enough to have gone once. How many people can say they have had that?
The Apollo pilot says, And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you, all of you on the good earth.
The medics clap.
Apollo 8, Apollo 8, this is Houston. Three minutes...
People are getting up and Claire puts off the television. She looks around, and then she looks up to the moon in the night through the window.

Claire is with Brianna at home.
'Bree,' Claire says, 'have you thought this through? If I go, I may never be able to come back. It's not like an elevator, where you can just jump on and off.'
Brianna says, 'But you've done it before.
Claire says, 'But there are no guarantees. It's possible that we may never see each other again. Can you live with that?' Brianna looks down. 'Cause I don't know if I can.' She pauses. 'To not see you get married, walk you down the aisle, or to watch you become a mother, hold my first grandchild. [For these possibilities, see Book 4 Drums of Autumn.] (Also see Seasons 4 and 5)
Brianna says, 'I know. It won't be easy.' She breathes to pause. 'But... I have been trying to figure out if I was more Randall than Fraser. And what I realised is that I am more you than I am either of my fathers.' Claire's eyes fill with tears. 'And if I can be half the woman you are, then I'll be fine.'
Claire smiles. 'But I'm the one who knows you better than anyone.'
'You know who doesn't know me? Jamie. You owe it to him to go back, and I want you to go.' They are holding each other's hands. 'Tell him everything.' Claire looks intently. 'There's something else,' Brianna says, seeing her mother's expression.
'What if he's forgotten me?' Claire asks. 'Or... what if he doesn't love me anymore?'
'You told me what you felt for Jamie was the most powerful thing you ever felt in your life. Has that changed?' Brianna asks.
'No.'
'Then you have to trust it's the same for him. You gave Jamie up for me. Now I have to give him back to you.' [These two lines come from the third book as Brianna and Roger see Claire off at the stones. Brianna there is also dressed in a Jessica Gutenberg historical dress, like Claire, saying that if Claire is not prepared to go back she will.]
Both hug.

Doctors Claire Randall and Joe Abernathy encounter each other in the hospital corridor near their shared office. [This is a continuation of the late scene in the book, split and much made earlier in this television episode, just after Horace Thompson leaves the office with the bones back in his box.]
Claire says, 'Joe, I need a second opinion.'
'What's the case?' he asks, as they go into their own office.
Claire adjusts her request, saying, 'Well, actually, what I need is an honest opinion.' She shuts the office door. 'From a friend.'
'Okay.'
Claire folds her arms. 'Am I attractive? Sexually?
'It's a trick question, right? he asks.
'No. I need a male point of view and, well, you're the only man I can have this conversation with.
'Is this about your man?'
Claire nods. 'I'm thinking of giving it a go.'
Joe says, 'And you wanna look like you never left?'
She says, 'Well, I haven't seen him in twenty years. Have I changed terribly since I first met you?'
Joe laughs and comes forward towards her. 'You're a skinny white broad with too much hair, but a great ass. He'll be in heaven when he sees you, Lady Jane.'
[In the book, in asking her direct question, Joe says it's a trick question because some liberationist will pop out from behind the door to declare him a male chauvinist and sexist pig who needs castrating. The adaptation also takes out his added words, 'Nice tits too.' And thus, he says, 'Lady Jane, you've got a man!' - and, of twenty years back, will be Brianna's father, he declares, because genetically she had nothing of Frank's appearance. Claire's genes mean she'll stay thin, he declares.]
Claire says, 'That's exactly what I needed to know.'
Joe grabs his suitcase and proceeds to the door area. Claire turns to look at him, as he collects his coat. Joe asks, 'What?'
Claire says it is nothing and might have said something, but thanks him. As he puts his coat on, he wishes her a Merry Christmas and she does the same back. Joe nods and goes. Claire breathes and her concern is resolved. In other words, this was her goodbye to Joe Abernathy. [In Book 4 Joe knows that Claire has gone back in time when Roger rings him.]

In her Boston House, it is Christmas with presents being given, and Claire opens a box from Brianna and Roger. The box contains ancient money.
Brianna says, 'we found them in an antique store.'
Claire fingers the coins. 'These certainly will be useful in Edinburgh.
Brianna says, 'I wanted to get you a flashlight, but Roger said you'd end up in another witch trial. (In 1968 the flashlight would need many batteries, surely: it wouldn't be useful for very long in 1766!)
Claire responds, 'Hmm.'
Roger says, 'Well, I figured, this would come in handy.' Claire receives a wrapped box. Inside it is a book, Rosalind Mason, A Short History of Scotland the Nation. (Imagine her being caught with that!)
'This would've been helpful the first time around,' Claire responds, as Roger smiles in acknowledgement. (This book is never seen again!)
I've been thinking about what else I'll need. I've borrowed some scalpels and penicillin from the hospital.'
Brianna grins and Roger says, 'Clever.'
Claire says, 'Well I thought, "1766 Edinburgh will need it more than 1968 Boston."' Brianna smiles and nods. 'Thank you both. It's incredibly generous.'
Brianna has more: "Wait." From her right she obtains a small box. 'There's one more.' Brianna looks at her mother, and she looks back at her.
Claire says, 'Bree, it's beautiful. Topaz. It's your birthstone.' Brianna and Claire hug.
Brianna says, 'You'll need it to go through the stones. Gillian mentioned it in her notebook that gemstones were necessary.'
Claire puts the topaz on a chain around her own neck. 'I lost one both times when i went through before. First my jewelled watch, and then the stone from Jamie's father's ring.
Brianna smiles and asks, 'How are you going to carry all this?'
'I suppose I have to make something.
Roger drinks. Brianna asks, 'You're going to make it?
'After fifteen years of making your costumes and pageant outfits, I think I know my way around a sewing machine, than you very much.' Brianna grins. [In the book, Claire makes purchases: the zip down corset in the sex scene with Jamie is unexplained in origin; in the book the Jessica Guttenberg dress is zip down. The cloak has unstated origins.]
Roger says, 'Aha. That's brilliant. You could have your very own utility belt, just like the Caped Crusader himself.'
Brianna comments at Roger: 'You really do watch a lot of TV.'

Claire makes up a dull blue coat of many pockets inside, using a sewing machine. Scissors are present and a pattern book. There is a dummy for hanging as she produces an 1800s coat and dress.

With Brianna and Roger coming in, Brianna says, 'Mama! Youve dyed your hair.
Claire is packing her case. 'Well, I just touched up the grey, with a little help from Miss Clairol.'
Roger says, 'That looks very natural.'
Brianna says, 'You look beautiful, with or without Miss Clairol.' Claire smiles.
Roger asks, 'So, is this it?'
Claire responds with her specific question: 'The Bat-Suit? Yes, I... I put some secret pockets in so I can bring everything that I need.'
Brianna comments, 'You made it out of raincoats.'
'Well, it rains a lot in Scotland, no matter which century. The hem's a mess and one arm is longer than the other, but...
Brianna interrupts: 'Mama, I promise no one is going to care. Especially Jamie. Is that my...'
'Blouse,' says Claire. May I borrow it?'
It'll look perfect,' says Brianna.
Roger says, 'Pardon me. I have to fetch one last provision.' He goes and Brianna follows his movement with her eyes.
Claire says to her, 'He's a good one.'
'I know,' says Brianna.
Claire picks up an envelope. 'I want you to give this to Joe Abernathy. It's, em, my resignation letter. He'll know what to do with it, And this is the deed to the house. Your name's on it now, along with all the bank accounts. [In the book, the resignation letter is given directly to Joe as Claire is there in Boston alone.]
Brianna smiles, looks down, takes the documentation, and looks seriously at Claire: 'I can't believe you're not letting me come to Scotland.'
'This is how I want to do it,' her mother says. 'First time I went through, I was terrified. Second time: heartbroken. This time, I want it to be peaceful. If I had to say goodbye to you there, I might never go.'
Brianna smiles in recognition. 'Well... This is not an option.'
Claire says, moving her right hand to Brianna's left side of her head, 'Oh, my beautiful girl.'
Brianna says, 'I am gonna miss you so much.' Claire is tearful. 'But I'll be fine. Find my father. And give him this.' Thus Brianna kisses Claire.
Claire says, 'I have something I want to give you.' Claire picks up a bag containing Ellen Caitriona MacKenzie Fraser's pearls. She moves Brianna's hair, puts them over Brianna's head and moves her hair back. 'Scottish pearls. Jamie gave these to me on our wedding night. They were his mother's: Ellen, your grandmother.' Brianna smiles. 'You could wear them on your wedding day, if you like.' Brianna looks at Claire, rather than at them.
Brianna says, 'They're beautiful.' They hug. There are sniffles, breathing when hugging, and Brianna's watch shows 12:30.
Roger arrives with a bottle and glasses.
Claire says, 'Thank you, Roger - for being a dog with a bone.' Roger laughs a little. 'For everything. I'll miss you.'
Roger says, 'One last thing. A wee nip for the road?'
Claire has a tear looking at Brianna. They hug. Claie declares: 'To freedom and whisky.'
Claire and Brianna, Roger and Brianna, Claire and Roger, tap their glasses. They all say, 'Freedom and whisky.'
And so, a taxi man goes ahead of Claire as she leaves the house. She goes down the steps. She touches the right gatepost. She turns to her right and looks back, and looking through the window are Brianna on the left, wearing the pearls, with Roger on the right and a little behind. Brianna nods. Claire touches her mouth with her gloved hand. Claire touches the post.
Inside, Brianna turns to her left to Roger and holds on to him. With her crying, he holds her head.
Outside, Claire gets into the the Express taxi on its left at the back. It travels down the Christmas decorated street to the right.
Back inside, Roger holds Brianna, but she says, 'Stay here a minute.'
Roger asks, 'Are you all right?'
Brianna walks past the modelling dummy to go into the kitchen. In there she wipes her eye. Touching the pearls, she resets herself by putting on a Santa hat. She picks up a plate with food from by the sink and returns to Roger in the living room.
Roger says, 'Lobster roll and Boston cream pie?'
Brianna says, 'Maybe later, we can watch A Charlie Brown Christmas?'
'What's that?'
'Part of your new American Christmas tradition.'
Roger says, 'I have something for you too.' He gets a wrapped box from behind the Christmas tree. He gives it to Brianna, who smiles.
Brianna opens the box and inside it is a book, A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, which was a Christmas reading tradition in the Frank and Claire household with Brianna. Brianna looks at Roger, and they have hand on hand as her looks at her.
On the settee, they kiss on the lips. Brianna picks up the book and holds it. They kiss on the lips. She puts the box on the low table, resits, and puts her legs back. He picks up the food, opens the book, snuggles up to Brianna, his left arm around her. She reads: '"Marley was dead, to begin with. There was no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker."'

Claire is in the taxi.
She narrates: When I was small, I never wanted to step in puddles. I couldn't bring myself to believe that the perfect, smooth expanse was no more than a thin film of water over solid earth. We see the side of the moving taxi and rain on the windows. I believed it was an opening into some fathomless space... Inside, Claire pays the driver. ...and if I stepped in, I would drop at once and keep on falling. There is a puddle below, and Claire looks into it. Even now, when I see a puddle in my path, my mind half halts, though my feet do not, and I hurry on Claire is moving to get out of the taxi. Her booted foot below the made coat hits the Edinburgh puddle in 1767. With only the echo of the thought left behind. Claire's hair is back and up, her make up is no more, and she has exited a stagecoach.
Claire looks about seeing people and food; she smiles and is glad. She views an eighteenth century Edinburgh road where the back of the stagecoach carries luggage. She walks forward into the busy dark street. She approaches a boy. 'Pardon. I'm looking for a printer. Uh, Mr. Malcolm, Alexander Malcolm?'
'Aye, just down the way and to the left. Carfax Close, madam.'
'Thank you.' He is gone and Claire looks in the direction of travel. She walks into the main street scene. She comes through an archway slowly, past some barrels to the side. She sees the "A. Malcolm" sign, ahead, and beams a smile in optimism. Her left hand (with the Frank ring) touches the red sign. She looks at it and climbs the steps outside, holding the outer left rail. She turns to her right at the top, and opens the door on her right. Inside the print shop, she is coming in, and a bell catches and rings above the door.
'That you, Geordie?' says a low Scottish voice in the distance. Claire looks to the left. 'Took you long enough.' Claire breaths sharply and walks towards the voice, where she has a view down from the gallery. Jamie Fraser below has his back to her; he is looking at a poster on a paper. 'Where'd you go to get the ash? All the way to Glasgow?'
Claire looks down. She has a strong, open smile. She finds her words. 'It isn't Geordie.' Jamie freezes. 'It's me... Claire.' Jamie collapses to the floor.

3:6 A. Malcolm

Edinburgh 1767
Written by Matthew B. Roberts

We are in the brothel parlour where a madam is attending to James Fraser's apparel. She says to him, 'There. Cannot have you strolling along High Street with your stock half done.'
Jamie says, 'Well you have the advantage of peering directly at it.'
The madam says, 'Or perhaps it takes a woman's touch to do things properly.'
Jamie says, 'I'll no argue that matter.'
The madam calls Jamie a 'wise man' - and with that Jamie heads towards the front door. He leaves the brothel and is in an Edinburgh street. He walks along as Alexander Malcolm, making greetings, and turns into Carfax Close (Bakehouse Close). At the print shop he wipes the printer's sign: "A. MALCOLM, PRINTER and BOOKSELLER. He goes up the steps and in, and crosses an inner bridge but is alerted to pull his knife, to then go down the steps slowly.
Jamie says, 'The stench of seaweed and whisky betrayed you.'
Lesley and Hayes emerge, with a story of having to sleep there on the say-so of young Ian. Jamie tells them that they are a risk to his business, but Hayes reassures him that they arrived when it was pitch black outside. So Jamie decides that they can be useful. He opens a secret storage area of pamphlets and broadsheets for the two to take to The Three Thistles at Arbroath, where the owner is a papist. These leaflets are treasonable, he says, and therefore they should avoid women and drink and be attentive, otherwise, if caught, their necks could be in ropes.
Geordie arrives and calls these two 'riff-raff', after which banter follows. Jamie sends the two out the back and to act quickly before any customers arrive.
Jamie says, 'Before you start your day, Geordie, [we] need more soda ash for the presses.'
'Of course. Perhaps this evening, before I leave for the day, you might share any chores or errands you care to have done so I can carry them out on my way into the shop, so I'm no retraveling my steps.

After a time, doing some printing, Jamie says, 'That you, Geordie? Took you long enough.' A door is heard closing. 'Where'd you go to get the ash? All the way to Glasgow?
Claire above, at the balcony, answers, 'It isn't Geordie. It's me, Claire.'

Having collapsed to the floor, Jamie looks to Claire and says, 'Thigearna dhia. You're real.
'So are you.' She puts her hand to his face. 'I thought you were dead,' she replies.
'Claire,' he repeats, but he glances down, feeling his crotch to find it wet.
Claire asks, 'What is it?'
'I thought I'd lost hold altogether and pissed myself, but it's all right. Just spilled the alepot again.' Both get up. 'Do you mind?'
It's all right. We are married. At least, I suppose we are.'
Looking at each other, Jamie says, 'Aye.' They pause. 'We are.'
She still looks to the side, then looks at his legs as he kicks off his breeches. He looks at her, up and down, and takes her right hand. Noting the ring on her hand, Claire says, 'I never took it off.'
'I want... I would... very much like to kiss you. May I?'
Claire smiles and nods. 'Yes.'
Jamie pulls Claire closer and says, 'I haven't done this in a very long time.'
'Neither have I.' Her right hand to his neck, they kiss.
The kiss becomes an embrace. He says, 'I saw you so many times. You came to me so often: when I dreamed sometimes' - he looks closely; 'when I was in a fever; I was so afraid and so lonely, I knew I must die. Whenever I needed you, I would see you smiling' - he grins; your hair curled around your face. You never touched me.
Claire says, 'I can touch you now. Do not be afraid.' Claire's fingers explore Jamie's head.
'There's the two of us now,' says Jamie, followed by a second long kiss
With a bell ringing, Geordie stares down at them, declaring: 'I quit! I'm Free Church. Working for a papist is one thing, but working for an immoral papist is another. Do as you like with yer own soul, man, but if it's come to orgies in the shop, it's come too far.' Outside, the Tower Clock and Toll Booth sound. 'Oh, God's tooth. It's not even noon.' Geordie moves away quickly, with the bell going and the door slamming.
Claire says, 'I hope I haven't caused you trouble.' (These are prophetic words, as in the coming episodes a theme emerges of her bringing him trouble.)
'Oh, he'll come back. He lives across the way. I'll explain it to him. God knows how.'
Claire asks if Jamie has another pair of trousers. He does, in the back. Claire is invited to follow him, if she doesn't think it's immoral. Into the back room Jamie finds a pair of trousers in drawers as Claire notes the absence of a female hand.
Jamie says, 'It's very fine to see you again, Claire. I never thought that... Our child?
Claire moves to a seat they can share and produces a small plastic bag of photographs. 'Come here,' she says, and he does. 'I thought you'd like to see your daughter.'
'Daughter?' He exhales. 'Our daughter?' Claire nods, smiling. 'She... she knows?'
'She does.'
Claire shows the first photograph. Jamie is surprised to see something never encountered before - photography. Jamie says, 'What the devil are...?'
'They're photographs. They're made with something called a camera. It captures a person's likeness, like painting, but with light.'
But his eyesight needs the assistance of spectacles. ''I'm afraid if I'm to see, I'll need these. Hmm. Only for reading and such. For years, I had the eyes of a hawk, but my sight is not what it once was. Hmm.'
As a result of his admission, Claire says, 'You look as dashing as ever.'
'I don't look like an old man?'
'Of course not. I know we've both seen a few years and all that goes with it. My hair has some grey. I dyed it. I wanted to look well, the same as when you last saw me.'
'Time doesna matter, Sassenach.' He puts his hand to her face. 'You will always be beautiful to me. Now show me my daughter. Her name. What did you name her?'
'Brianna.'
'Brianna.' he smiles broadly. 'What an awful name for a wee lass.'
she laughs a little. 'It's not an awful name. It's beautiful. I promised you I would name our child after your father, Brian.' He smiles.
Suitably informed, Jamie changes his mind. 'Bree-anna.' He holds up the birth time photograph. 'Beautiful. Tell me about her. What was she like as a wee lass? What did she first say when she learned to speak?'
'"Dog." That was her first word. And "no" was her second one.'
'Aye. They learn that one fast.'
'She was such a tiny thing. She was such a good sleeper. She used to smile in her sleep just like you. She has your red hair.'
'Like her sister Faith,' says Jamie.
Claire nods. 'Yes.'
Jamie's attention returns to the photographs, so Claire says, 'She was seven there. It was at the graduation. My graduation from medical school.'
'You're a doctor now?'
'Surgeon.'
'Oh, you always were one. Now you have the title to go with it.'
'This is her at home. And that's her with Smoky, our dog.' Brianna and dog are by the fire.
'Dog? What sort of dog is that?'
'Newfoundland.'
'Ah. Splits wood, does she?' Brianna is stood with an axe and log.
'Well, winters in Boston can be as cold as Scotland, but when it's warm, she likes to swim. This is one from when we were at the coast during the summer with her friends.' Here is a colour photo at the beach with a male friend.
'Christ. Don't tell me she goes swimming in that rigging and with a lad?'
'It's a bikini. All the girls wear them in 1968.' The next colour photo is Brianna holding fishes, but Jamie pauses. Claire says, 'If it's the bikini, I can assure you It's actually quite modest for the time.' (This later becomes a contentious issue: Jamie moralising about Brianna's appearance when he is discovered to be a smuggler.)[No bikini photo features in the book.]Jamie walks to the mantelpiece.
'There's something I need to tell you, Claire. I have a son Willie. I havena told anyone about him, not even Jenny. It's when I was in England in the service of the Dunsany family. I couldna say he was mine. He's a bastard. Havena seen him since he was a wee lad. I never will see him again... except perhaps in a portrait like this.' He hands her the painted image. [In the book this is not revealed until much later; the television series decided to reveal it as part of their mutual honesty, and to point up his still concealing the marriage to Laoghaire - yet the book made more of it as a disaster than the TV series.]
'Did you love his mother?'
'No. She died in childbirth. I am guilty of her death before God. Perhaps more than that because I did not love her.'
'What's he like? Your son?'
'He's spoiled, stubborn, ill-mannered, loud, with a wicked temper; and braw, bonny, canty, and strong.'
'And yours.'
'Mine.'
'I knew when I decided to come back you would have had a life.' He pauses, gets up and puts the image back. (This is a theme - the past life - that repeats.)
'Claire, did you leave Frank to come here?' (Another theme: has Claire come to inform Jamie of Brianna, or has she come to make a life again with him?)
'No. He died a few years ago.'
'But when you returned, he took you back? He still loved you?'
'Yes.'
'What did you tell him about me?'
'Everything. Then we never spoke about it again. It was hard for him. But he loved Brianna, so we made it work.'
'So you were happy with him?'
'I was happy raising Brianna with him. He was a very good father to her.'
A bell tolls in the distance, causing Jamie to say, 'Christ. The tavern: I forgot.'
'Forgot what?'
'I meant to be there at 1:00. Clean went out of my head. You'll... You'll come with me?'
Wild horses couldn't keep me away.'

(And with this Claire follows Jamie outside, meets Fergus, and explains that she left for America to not bring harm on to Lallybroch, and she meets Mr Willoughby. Jamie and Claire's adventures begin again, with again a three-part lovemaking session in Jamie's room at a brothel, where Claire introduces a zipper, and Claire suspects being a printer does not give enough income. After the print shop fire, Claire and company go to Lallybroch and she discovers that Jamie had married Laoghaire.)

(Season 3 then becomes a coincidence ridden series of adventures over to the West Indies to deliver Jamie, Claire and a few others to the colony of North Carolina. In season 4 Brianna makes her own way and meets Jamie in person; in the television series this is in Wilmington and she joins her mother too immediately after finding Jamie.)

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