'Outlander' Undermines Its Origins as a Heroine’s Text
In Episodes 5 and 6, “Send for the Devil” and Blessed are the Merciful,” this reversal is used for the plot design of the whole
As the titles of Outlander Episodes 5 and 6, “Send for the Devil” and “Blessed are the Merciful” imply, the overarching story is a male-centered war narrative, where males seek successful social identities, while the females attached to them are consigned to interludes or attempt to influence or to change the primary male story. What’s different this time (between these two episodes and just about all that came before) is that the male-initiated story takes over the plot design and secondary story lines.
Let’s take a step back to achieve some perspective. What began or existed in summer 2014 were 7 volumes (Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn, The Fiery Cross, A Breath of Snow and Ashes, and An Echo in the Bone) of Diana Gabaldon’s historical novel telling from a woman’s point of view the kind of structures and content found in books written for women readers by a women writer (circular, repetitive, romantic, domestic) a central continuous fantasy story of a mid-20th century British nurse, Claire Randall, who traveled back in time 200 years; she went by the force of some magical circle of neolithic stones from Inverness, Scotland, 1945, to Inverness, Scotland, 1743.
Between 2014 and 2021, Gabaldon added two more books (Written in My Own Heart’s Blood, and Go Tell It to the Bees that I have Gone) while a TV company produced 5 seasons of a TV serial video drama, with differing numbers of episodes, under the umbrella name, Outlander, from the first five books. Between 2022 and 2026, the last four had been adapted into three more “seasons.”
