The Print Shop Scene cometh on ‘Outlander,’ and they better not screw it up

Outlander

       

The Outlander books came out in 1991, so I grew up hearing my parents talking about Jamie Fraser — my mother was smitten. I rolled my eyes thinking it was just another romance novel that wasn’t even that good and my mom was just a silly woman in love with a fictional character.

Boy was I wrong. I was home for a holiday break in college and I had a shortage of good books to read. I wandered over to my parents’ overflowing bookshelf and chose Outlander based on the love both of my parents had for the series. To say I was hooked was an understatement. It became my favorite series after Harry Potter, which is a huge deal for me. Just like my mom, I fell madly in love with Jamie Fraser, Claire’s foul language, and Scotland.

As soon as I was done with this monster of a series (eight huge books), all I wanted to do was reread them. So I literally spent a year reading them and then rereading them. I even bought the Kindle versions so I would always have them with me.

Side note: they’re fantastic travel books. You’ll never be bored in an airport or on a plane with one of these.

Outlander‘s third season is about to air on Starz on Septebmer 10, and it’ll be based on the third book, Voyager. If you haven’t read the books, you might want to stop reading here because I’m going to discuss a key scene that they better not mess up.

You’ve been warned.

Seriously, you can’t get mad if you’re still reading and you see a spoiler.

Okay Outlander readers. Say it with me: the…PRINT SHOP SCENE.

If they mess up the print shop scene, I will set my TV on fire. The print shop scene is when Claire comes back to Jamie after 20 YEARS APART and he turns around, faints, and then doesn’t believe she’s real for a second. It’s one of the best romantic scenes ever written (I’m not doing it justice) and if they mess it up in the show, then I just know they’ll mess up everything else important in the series.

Everyone who has read the books knows about this scene. It makes you melt and tear up with happiness. If it’s bungled, it’ll be remembered with anger and derision, just like that scene in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire when Dumbledore is supposed to be calm.

The casting for this show has been so good, as has the costuming, setting, and some of the most important scenes (that one with Jamie and Black jack Randall, oh my God). I’m just saying that if they mess up the print shop scene, I will possibly lose all faith in the series and all television adaptations.

The trailer ends on what must be the beginning of the scene, so that gives me hope they know just how important it is to fans of the series. I understand that no adaptation will be exactly the same as the original book, and that’s okay. I just hope that they capture a similar essence and evoke the same emotions that the fans feel when they see these star crossed lovers finally reconnect after a painful 20 year separation.

Fingers crossed, y’all.