The seventh season of Outlander is winding down, but that doesn't mean the time travel drama is running out of steam with Claire and Jamie facing the American Revolution with higher stakes than ever. The upcoming penultimate installment, which will be the show's first in the 2025 TV schedule, has a big nod to Diana Gabaldon's source material that's clear even without seeing the episode yet. Interestingly, the nod also comes one week after an episode penned by Gabaldon debuted on Starz to end the 2024 TV schedule, and she had some interesting comments about the experience.
First things first! The penultimate episode of Season 7 is called "Written in My Own Heart's Blood," which fans of the books will recognize as the title of the eighth of Diana Gabaldon's nine main Outlander novels so far. This isn't an unprecedented move; the Starz series' second season finale is called "Dragonfly in Amber" in a nod to Gabaldon's second book, and the Season 5 premiere was called "The Fiery Cross" as a nod to Gabaldon's fifth book.
So, the title of the next episode being taken from the eighth book doesn't mean that readers should expect a story lifted straight from page to screen, but it does suggest that perhaps some of the biggest events of the novel could happen before the end of the season. Personally, I'm also interested to see if the last two episodes before the next Droughtlander begins will incorporate certain aspects of Book 9, Go Tell the Bees that I Am Gone. With Outlander ending after Season 8, the show had limited time to finish telling Gabaldon's story.
And speaking of Gabaldon's story, the author herself wrote the most recent episode of Season 7, called "Ye Dinna Get Used To It." I was certainly interested in seeing what she brought to the show after her comments about the Season 7 midseason finale, and this was only the third episode that she wrote for the series based on her novels. (EP Ronald D. Moore did tell CinemaBlend that the Outlander team keeps Gabaldon "in the loop," though.)
Speaking with Parade about writing the episode that aired on December 17, the author explained that even her script went through changes for the TV show. According to Gabaldon, "They did change quite a bit from the first draft" of her episode to cut some time from William and Jane, devote more time to Hal and Lord John, and cut down the story between Brianna and Rob Cameron. She went on to name another example of a change from book to screen in Season 7:
Some lines were changed—when Claire (book) sees Jamie in his new uniform and he asks whether he looks decent to inspect troops, she replies, ‘You look like bloody Mars, god of war. You're likely to frighten your men.’ To which he replies, ‘I want them frightened of me. It's my best chance of getting them out of this alive.’ That was (I believe) changed to JAMIE: ‘Do ye like it? CLAIRE: ‘I'd be lying if I said I didn't.’ OK, there's nothing wrong with either version, but it does alter the focus.
The author clarified that she sees "nothing wrong with either version," but the change "does alter the focus" from Jamie's worries about leading hundreds of troops he doesn't know personal to putting the "emphasis is on the relationship between Jamie and Claire." Gabaldon elaborated on why what works for her on the page simply can't always work on screen:
There's nothing 'wrong' with either one; it's just where you want to place the focus of a scene or story, and in some contexts, one version might be better for the other medium. (i.e., I have all the room I need to do just about anything I want; I can take the time to show Jamie's uncertainty about leading a much bigger group of men than he ever has, under urgent conditions. The show can't, because they don't have room. If they have to pick and choose between the elements of a book-scene (and they do), they'll usually go for the briefest/most condensed version.
Gabaldon certainly does have more room to flesh out characters and stories in her books than Outlander does with one hour-long episode per week during a season. In total, Season 7 will amount to about 16 hours of television; the hardcover copy of Written in My Own Hearts Blood has 825 pages, and the audiobook is listed on Audible as running for 45 hours. Is it any wonder that the TV show has to pick, choose, and condense to adapt the saga to the small screen?
Of course, not all fans of the show have read the books, so the differences between the two mediums aren't going to be apparent to everybody. Still, whether you are or aren't a reader of Diana Gabaldon's source material, you can look forward to the remaining episodes of Outlander Season 7, airing on Fridays at 9 p.m. ET on Starz.
