Luke Schelhaas Annotation

The hernia surgery here is of course inspired by the one Claire performs on John Quincy Meyers at River Run in the book. We weren’t able to make room for it in Episode 402 but realized it would fit perfectly here. We wanted to stay true to the book—Claire impresses a large crowd with a somewhat scandalous surgery, succeeding to great applause. Letting the surgery interrupt the play seemed like the ticket (no pun intended ;)

Even though it’s in a different place and time than in the book, the surgery works here as a fun, character-driven plot device. As in the book, it provides a means of escape for Jamie, though obviously under very different circumstances. Hopefully it’s just gross enough, and funny enough, and tense enough to be really memorable.