Outlander blunder: Fans spot historical inaccuracy with Geillis Duncan trial

Outlander cast celebrate World Outlander Day

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Fans of Starz’s hit periodic series noticed a major blunder that exposed a historical accuracy from season one. Outlander followed a time-travelling nurse Claire Fraser (played by Caitriona Balfe) and in this blunder, she and another mysterious character had to stand trial for witchcraft.

With five seasons available to watch of Outlander, tons of fans have been re-watching the series ahead of the release of the upcoming season, whereas others are binge-watching the periodic drama.

In the season one episode titled The Devil’s Mark, one clued up viewer noticed something was incorrect with Geillis Duncan’s (Lotte Verbeek) trial.

Even though she was the wife of the prosecutor fiscal Arthur Duncan, she was up for trial for her involvement in witchcraft.

Claire Fraser was also arrested for being involved and practising with the darker practices.

In the episode, the women were placed in the thieves’ hole as they waited to be sentenced to death for using witchcraft.

As Claire Fraser was a time-travelling nurse, she found herself in 1744 from 1945 where trouble ensued.

She discovered that Geillis was also a time-traveller who had to use a sacrifice in order to relocate and move around different years.

This wasn’t the case for the nurse as she successfully moved across time while pregnant with her daughter Brianna Fraser (Sophia Skelton).

As a nurse, Claire would use herbs to help patients, as some of the medicine she would’ve used had yet to be created, whereas Geillis took the herbs one step further and used them to poison.

However, it was her pregnancy that stirred up the locals and saw her tried in court for witchcraft.

Geillis had told people that her pregnancy wasn’t her husband’s but instead she was carrying the devil’s child.

It was at this trial that a fan spotted a historical inaccuracy and took to screenrant.com to expose the blunder.

They posted: “At the end of the last episode, Claire and Geillis found themselves arrested for practising ‘witchcraft’, now, they’re in the thieves’ hole, awaiting their trial and almost inevitable execution.

“As a reminder, the first season of Outlander is set in the year 1743, that makes this trial very strange, as the last witch executed in Scotland was in 1707 a whole generation earlier.”

“The last witch trial was also long before 1743,” they added.


“Furthermore, the eagerness for finding witches that was shown earlier was more or less an attitude associated with the Lowland Scots, and was not often seen in the Highlands like it was portrayed here,” the viewer explained.

At the trial, viewers discovered that Geillis wasn’t as evil as previously perceived as she acted out of true love for her friend and makes sure Claire doesn’t suffer any allegations of witchcraft

All episodes of Outlander are available to stream on Starz

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