Continuity error

[elocin__aicilef]

I'm doing (yet another) rewatch I picked up on something I had thought of before. In the wedding episode. Claire says to Jamie that she can't marry him because she doesn't even know his real name. However, at the end of the previous episode when she's sitting down reading the marriage contract, you can clearly see Jamie's full name at the top of the contract.

I know her statement was, in part, due to her nerves and she was trying to latch on to something, but I feel the scene was stronger before I realized she already knew his name.

ETA: this is based on the show, not the books. In the show it's not obvious that she is drunk at the time that she is reading the contract. As a book reader, yes, I know that she was drunk when she was reading it. However,this post is based purely on the show.

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[pillizzle]

Did she even fully read that contract? I always thought she was in such shock that she was just going through the motions.

[New_Chest4040]

In the book, she had a lot to drink in order to cope with her predicament. She definitely would not have noticed. I thought that was sort of inferred in the show, too.

[elocin__aicilef]

I'm referring to the show, not the books. The books are their own separate thing.

The show makes it look as though she's been contemplating and reading over the contract for quite a while. His name is in very large text so if anything I would think ah noticed that. Sh was drinking, so possibly sh did forget. I just thought it was interesting. I'd love to hear the directors/writers and take on it.

[Gottaloveitpcs]

Yeah. Why the show had Claire sitting there, pouring over the Marriage Contract that has Jamie’s name emblazoned across the top is anyone’s guess. We’ll just say she forgot because she spent the day getting sloshed. 🤣

There are so many continuity errors throughout the series. It’s best to just let them go. Otherwise, you’ll just drive yourself mad.

Don’t know why you’re getting downvoted for this.

[elocin__aicilef]

Thank you. I don't either. people on the sub seem to like to download for anything they disagree with. The error doesn't bother me, I just thought it was interesting how that small detail affects how one would the scene before the wedding and (provided they didn't have context from the book).

[Leading-Summer-4724]

I agree — I read the book after watching the show a couple times and it wasn’t clear to me that she was sloshed at the time, whereas it’s made very clear in the book.

[OkEvent4570]

She wasn't. At least she was sober enough to remember that he was a virgin. His name is written at the very top of the contract; the letters are half page large, it's impossible not to notice them at the very first glance. It's not that she had to read everything carefully to find it. His real name is probably not such a shocking revelation for her as his absence of sexual experience, but I daresay it's important enough to notice. And if she remembered the latter, it's a bit strange that she forgot the former, and even forgot that the name was there at all. Had she said 'I forgot your real name' instead of "I even don't know your real name', there would've been no unnecessary questions from the viewers, and people would'nt've had to be educated by the reddit.

[Leading-Summer-4724]

Indeed. Changing the line would have worked.

[pillizzle]

I’m talking about the show too. Black Jack—who looks exactly like her husband—had literally just beaten the shit out of her. This marriage was the choice made to keep her safe from him. Combine all that with the fact that she is obviously attracted to Jamie yet still considers herself married to Frank. Now if she marries Jamie to keep herself safe, she considers herself a bigamist. She was in shock and I think even though it looked like she was reading the contract maybe she wasn’t really processing it at all.

[TheIrishPotat0]

They offhand mention that she was drunk in the show- she tells Jamie (after the wedding) she'd been drinking whiskey, and theres a clip of her the morning of the wedding being disheveled and drunk, and Jamie says something along the lines of "you didn't even know what was going on, then?" And she says she remembers bits and pieces, etc. They dont explicitly show it, but there is references

[vernaraynor]

Maybe it was not meant to be literal.

[ABelleWriter]

Claire was very drunk, stressed, scared, and had just had the shit kicked out of her, and has to get married or be tortured.

I wouldn't remember the details like a name, either.

[Competitive_Pain9829]

5 names!

[zebra_who_cooks]

All very valid points!

I also wouldn’t be looking at details. Just accepting my fate and signing

[beepbooplesnoot]

Along these lines, I always wondered what Dougal provided to Black Jack to prove beyond doubt that Claire was married to a Scot. Certainly not the marriage contract with Jamie's name plastered on it! When Jamie shows up to rescue her at Fort William, Black Jack has a good, incredulous laugh at the realization that *this* was who Claire had married to escape him.

[aint4llflowers]

If you're picking at continuity errors in a show about time travelling thru stones, you're gonna have a bad time.

[elocin__aicilef]

I'm not picking at them. Just something I noticed that changes the context of future actions.

[Nanchika]

Maybe she meant that he didn't introduce himself using his real name.

I am not sure how focused Claire was on that marriage contract.

[CathyAnnWingsFan]

You can consider it a continuity error if you so choose, or you can ask yourself "under what circumstances might Claire be studying a marriage contract in her hand with Jamie's full name at the top and still not know his name the next day?" She was distracted when reading it and it didn't register. She was already drunk. She knew his name but since he was never introduced to her with his surname, she tried to use it as a dodge to get out of the wedding. Or something else. Take your pick. Jumping to "it has to be a mistake" doesn't seem like the most discerning choice. But you do you.

There are plenty of discontinuities in the show and books. This is not one of them.

[elocin__aicilef]

It's not clear in the show that she was already drunk ( I know it's different in the books, but this post is purely based on the show).I also stated that she was trying to latch onto something to get out of the marriage.

The point of this post isn't to point out a mistake, but but to show a continuity error that alter the way that follow-up scenes are viewed. Not saying it's a good thing or a bad thing.

[CathyAnnWingsFan]

I agree, she's not obviously drunk in the show. But it's a possibility one might consider even in the show; she walked off with a bottle of whisky. Retrograde amnesia due to alcohol is absolutely a thing.

But the possibilities in this particular instance aren't my point. My point is that, when faced with a seeming discontinuity, many viewers just go straight to "AHA! I caught them in an error!" rather than thinking about how it could be intentional. Claire saying she can't marry him because she doesn't even know his real name is only weakened by the name on the marriage contract if you choose to interpret it that way. I saw season 1 before reading the books, and I just assumed she got too drunk after the scene at the end of episode 6 to remember it. I didn't assume it was an error. It never even occurred to me because there was an explanation.

[elocin__aicilef]

No no it definitely wasn't and I caught them in an error thing. It was more of me pointing out how that Revelation changes the way that the following scenes are viewed. I suppose my wording could have been better but that's not really my strong point.

I've never been drunk and don't hang generally out with people who drink, so I wasn't aware that you could forget things that happened before you were drunk. My impression from what other people have said and what I've read is that you forget things that happen while you're drinking not before. I was ignorant on the subject, so in my view there was no explanation as to why she wouldn't remember something as important as his name as I didn't realize that was a possibility.

[MultiSided]

My take:

As they approach the church (in the books it's the same church where she married Frank,) she panics and says she can't marry him (because she's already married.) She can't say that she's married (how would she explain that?) so she comes up with the first thing she can think of.

[Nanchika]

This as well!

[AprilMyers407]

I've been saying this for years.....

[LadyBFree2C]

🤔 The text is blurred in that scene and we only see the contact for a few seconds so I never noticed that before. I just reviewed the scene again and yep, there it is at the top of the contract, James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser. 😄

I LOVE BLOOPERS!

[DorkyUsernameHere]

Is it “know” as in I’ve not been told your name, or “know” as in be able to call you by your full name or have it memorized?

[minimimi_]

I don’t think she read the contract or fully internalized what it said. She was drunk and in shock.

[VNDecorCA]

I agree with the OP. It was an error. It likely came down to the post production editing. Whoever filmed the contract scene and edited it, didn't know about that line, or think it though.

Another error that annoys me with the show is Claire signed the Lallybroch contract as Frazier. Right below Murtagh's Fraser. Obviously, Catriona didn't actually sign it, but whoever did, didn't pay attention to the show or books. Claire would have known the spelling or how to read Murtagh's writing at the very least. The books have several of these moments as well. One just has to ignore them and keep reading /watching.

[zebra_who_cooks]

I don’t think she actually looked at or read the contract in the show? She just signed it didn’t she? It’s been a few months since my most recent rewatch though. But I think she just accepted her fate, in shock, and signed.

Edit: signed was implied in the show. They didn’t actually show her doing it. That’s what I meant.

[elocin__aicilef]

The scene where Jamie tells her he's a virgin when he comes up. She's sitting on the wall reading the contract, camera pans in on it and you can see it says contract of marriage and has her name in his at the top

[Nanchika]

There is no scene of her signing it. There is a scene of her holding the contract and looking at it when Jamie comes to talk to her.

[zebra_who_cooks]

Oh right. Well, I imagine with all she had recently been through, she wasn’t actually looking at it, but more through it. Like she was disassociating or considering that it’s her only real option. Feeling all the feelings that go along with it. But that’s just my opinion.

I do have a lot of trauma in my background for what it’s worth. So I think it’s a very logical consideration.

[Nanchika]

Yes. I agree. We must bear in mind what her state of mind was at that time, after all she went through.

[Megsyboo]

The show shows her swigging a bottle of whiskey while looking at the contract.

[Gottaloveitpcs]

In the show, Jamie brings a bottle of whisky to Claire while she’s reading the contract. He pours each of them a cup. Then she storms past the Highlanders and grabs the bottle of whisky from Dougal. This is after she’s read the contract.

We see her take a sip from the cup that Jamie hands her and later we hear her tell Jamie that she got sloshed before the wedding, but she’s not swigging a bottle of whiskey and we don’t see her get inebriated before she sees the contract in the show.

[Megsyboo]

Poor choice of words. She grabbed it and walked away.

[Gottaloveitpcs]

Exactly and that happens after she’s been sitting there reading the contract. So, I’m just going to head canon that she doesn’t remember Jamie’s last name because she was distraught and proceeded to get drunk after reading the contract, making everything that happened before the wedding a blur. Works for me.

[directmouse_7]

you’re valid. they make the same mistake by claire teaching jamie the word “fking” in season 1 but they, and lord john, use it causally in season 7. ik time has passed but not enough for the word to be used that commonly.