Is Frank lying about Jamie’s death in Outlander? Book spoilers explained
Outlander fans are curious to know if Frank Randall’s book is correct in predicting Jamie Fraser’s death
WARNING: This article contains spoilers from Outlander season 8 and Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon
Outlander fans were hit with a bombshell when the Starz fantasy series returned recently and seemed to confirm Jamie Fraser’s (played by Sam Heughan) death in battle.
Jamie was left questioning his wife Claire Fraser (Caitríona Balfe) about her first husband Frank Randall (Tobias Menzies) and whether his words could be trusted.
Claire said that Frank was a historian and would only detail facts and that he was unable to lie.
However, Jamie keeps hearing Frank/Captain Black Jack Randall’s (also Menzies) voice in his head taunting him about his imminent demise.
Here’s a look at the plot of Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon – which season eight is adapted from – and what is says about Jamie’s death.
Frank Randall kept Jamie Fraser’s survival at Culloden a secret from Claire(Image: STARZ)
Is Frank lying about Jamie’s death?
No, is the short answer. Without giving too much away, in the book Jamie faces his fate but an act of god brings him back.
Whether the TV adaptation adheres to the source material remains to be seen, given that this is the last season of the TV show.
Gabaldon is writing a new Outlander novel, which continues the epic saga and sees Jamie and Claire go on further adventures.
There’s been much debate online between Outlander fans about what Frank really knew about Jamie and how much he believed Claire, which is apparently going to be addressed in a new book by author Gabaldon.
As stated above, Claire confirms that Frank can’t put false facts into his book The Soul of a Rebel.
Frank Randall was capable of lying in Outlander(Image: STARZ)
His historical book would need citations and he couldn’t just publish untruths for the sake of a personal vendetta against Jamie, who died 200 years in the past.
There was also no guarantee that Claire would go back in time or that Brianna MacKenzie (Sophie Skelton) would even bring the book to the past for Jamie to see.
Audiences and indeed book readers know that Frank kept the knowledge of Jamie being alive from Claire, so he is capable of being economical with the truth.
Frank Randall’s book has been leaving fans worried about Jamie Fraser(Image: STARZ)
Outlander fans on Reddit also spoke about how much Frank really knew about Jamie, with fourth novel Drums of Autumn giving further insight into the historian’s thoughts about this matter.
Frank writes a letter to Reverend Wakefield (James Fleet) in which he states: “I’ll never know—if I gave her the choice, would she have stayed with me? Or if I told her that her Jamie survived Culloden, would she have been off to Scotland like a shot?
“I cannot think Claire would leave her daughter. I hope she’d not leave me, either … but … if I had any certainty of it, I swear I’d have told her, but I haven’t, and that’s the truth of it.”
