Outlander: My Favorite Changes S1 E1 Sassenach

My absolute love for Outlander only started about two years ago. I heard someone mention the book series and how it’s also a TV series, so, of course, my book-to-film-loving self was interested. I mentioned it in passing to my husband, something like “Hey I heard there is a book and TV series called Outlander that sounds interesting.” Nothing more. I forgot about it, after all, I was super pregnant at the time with our second.

Christmas arrives a few months later. My husband hands me a pretty solid rectangle. With no idea what this could be, I open it up and see “Outlander” — I start crying. Could be the sleep deprivation with a newborn and toddler, could be the imbalance of postpartum hormones, or it could just be my forever grateful heart for him. Honestly, it was a combo of all three.

Because I prefer to read before I watch, I began reading, but that sleep deprivation was so ever-present. I fell asleep every night after only getting a few sentences in. I never made it past chapter 1. Desperate to emerge myself in this story, my husband and I decided to watch it. And we never stopped until we were out of new episodes.

I fell in love with the story. It pretty much consumed my every thought for months. And although I was sad that I had no more episodes to watch, I knew I had the first book ready and waiting for me. Reading it was like experiencing the story all over again. With enough small changes that made it feel like a new story.

So now that I am finished reading Outlander, I’m sharing my favorite changes to season one. Outlander has been a ride, to say the least. It’s an emotional rollercoaster sometimes, but I honestly never want to get off.

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Episode 101: Sassenach

Meet Claire Randall, a World War II nurse, and our beautiful, strong, and smart heroine. She’s on a second honeymoon in Scotland with her husband, Frank, after being separated for years during the war. They’re all about those misty hills, cozy castles, standing stone circles, witch ceremonies, and of course inns that have Scottish ghosts lurking outside them.

But thanks to fate—or something—Claire finds herself zapped back to the year 1743 while picking forget-me-nots at the standing stones of Craigh nu Dun. Suddenly she’s surrounded by kilts, flying bullets, and some near-death experiences, all the while confusing a very dangerous man in the woods for Frank.

Claire is rescued (or, kidnapped?) by a Highlander (Murtaugh ♡) who smells of “odors too foul to be a part of any dream.” Claire is taken to a small house hidden within the Scottish woods jam-packed with Highlanders. Frightening, to say the least.

But it’s here that Claire really shows us (and the Highlanders) just how strong-willed she is when she dominates the room full of men–in a time where you absolutely just don’t do that as a woman. Claire only continues to do this type of thing over and over.

Claire takes charge and properly tends to the hurt shoulder of the one and only: Jamie Fraser. It’s here, in this very first moment of their characters’ interaction that you see it: the undeniable, spark-flying chemistry that pulls you in as a viewer and makes you stick around. No matter how much drama and violence you’re about to be subjected to (and it’s quite plentiful) you’ll keep watching and rooting for that chemistry despite it all.

Up next, an eventful horse ride through the Highland woods, which involves an ambush, Jamie asking Claire if she wants him to throw her over his shoulder (and Claire answers wrong, the answer is always YES, Claire), and one of my most-loved moments when Claire bandages Jamie in the night — after shocking every single Highlander with her vulgar language for a woman. It’s here that Jamie and Claire share a look — a look that you know what goes through both of their minds as a book reader. Spoiler: Jamie wants her. And wants her more than anything.

Saddled up while sharing a plaid blanket, they arrive at the Castle Leoch. An abandoned and in-ruins castle that Claire and Frank explored only two days prior. But now, full of life– it’s home for these Highlanders.

Outlander Chapter 1 VS Episode 1

The first episode doesn’t stray far from the book, you just have to visualize that intense chemistry for yourself. One of my favorite moments from episode one, I was shocked to find completely different in the book. It’s when Claire is window shopping in Edinburgh and looks at a blue and white vase and thinks this:

Strange, the things you remember. Single images and feelings that stay with you down through the years. Like the moment I’d realized I’d never owned a vase. That I’d never lived in any place long enough to justify having such a simple thing. And how at that moment, I wanted nothing so much in all the world as to have a vase of my very own.

claire randall E1 S1

My favorite change in Season 1 Episode 1: Sassenach, is when Claire sees a vase in a shop window. In the book Claire buys the vase — in fact, she buys multiple vases to which Frank says “Perhaps now you’ll stop putting flowers in my books.” Okay, Frank… less history, more honeymooning already.

So why do I love this change? Because to me the vase always represented “home” to Claire — something she has truly never known. After losing her parents, spending her youth globe-hopping with archeologist Uncle Lamb, and spending years apart from Frank while traveling as a WWII nurse — a home is something so foreign to Claire, yet something she yearns for. “I wanted nothing so much in all the world as to have a vase of my very own.”

The idea of the vase representing “home” to Claire is only solidified further for me in season 1 episode 12: Lollybrach and much further in season 5 when the blue and white vase makes a reappearance. And who is always by her side when the vase appears? Jamie. Let’s just go ahead and be frank here (no, not Frank Randall), Jamie is her home.

So, what do you think of the vase?