Outlander Season 7: Dissecting Plot Twists in Comparison to the Books
The current season is apparently adapting more than one book.
Starz's Outlander became a huge hit in 2014 for many reasons, including great direction and heartfelt performances from its lead duo. However, there's no denying that the popularity of Diana Gabaldon's original novels helped the show find its footing, with millions of book fans supporting the Starz series over the past decade.
In Outlander's previous seasons, the producers made a few minor changes to the story that were mostly welcomed by the fandom, as they made the adaptation more enjoyable for both fans of Gabaldon's book series and those who haven't read them. However, it looks like Season 7 will take more creative liberties with the original Outlander story.
At the end of Season 6, Claire was in prison awaiting execution after being falsely accused of murder and witchcraft. Since the season was based on the sixth novel in Gabaldon's series, A Breath of Snow and Ashes, most viewers thought that the book ended on that cliffhanger as well.
In reality, Claire's imprisonment had already ended in Book 6, but the adaptation was forced to postpone the resolution of this storyline until the next season due to COVID restrictions derailing the production of Season 6. So this raises the burning question — which book is Season 7 actually based on?
As it turns out, the current season is based on two books at once — both A Breath of Snow and Ashes and An Echo in the Bone, the seventh novel in the Outlander series. While the show's main couple proceed with the events from Book 7, other pairings, such as Brianna and Roger, are still stuck in their plotlines from the sixth novel in the cycle.
'Book 6 for Brianna and Roger, not for Claire/Jaime though. Wendigo Donner literally said a line that I had just read in Book 6 earlier that same day. It was wild,' one fan shared.
Evidently, mixing up the events from different books is going to cause some confusion for fans of Diana Gabaldon's novel series, and we can expect the adaptation to digress from its source material even more in the coming episodes of Season 7 and Season 8, which will be the show's last.
Episode 2 of Outlander Season 7 will land on Starz on June 23, 2023.
Source: Reddit.