Outlander is slowly marching toward what will be the ultimate route of the Scottish forces at the Battle of Culloden. The journey to restore the Jacobite king will be a road paved with loss, death, and flashbacks to the past.

Outlander has left behind the pretty niceties of France. The rest of the season is focusing on the failed Jacobite rebellion of 1745, which is perhaps not so unlike the conflicts of today.

In 1745, or in Claire’s time of 1945, the words “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder” or “PTSD” didn’t exist. That’s not to say that no one suffered from it, just that it didn’t have its current name. In 1745 men were “battle weary” and “plagued with nightmares.” In 1945, the terminology was “shell shocked” or “battle fatigue.” Regardless, PTSD can be triggered by any number of traumatic events, and its suffers can be of any age, gender, or background. Its sufferers are also not limited to those who experience warfare.

Outlander has already dealt with PTSD to a degree with the Black Jack Randall plotline. Jamie’s flashbacks to Wentworth Prison, depression, and feeling a shell of his former self are all symptoms. With the love and support of Claire and Murtagh, Jamie has regained much of who he was, but that doesn’t mean he’ll never be faced with the memories of Wentworth again. A smell, a vision, a voice, anything can trigger PTSD.

Outlander broke away from the books and showed a different side of Claire. In the novels, Claire occasionally references her experiences in World War II, but she doesn’t go into great detail. The TV adaptation has taken a different route. The sights and sounds of being in a military camp trigger Claire’s previous experience. The cliched phrase that gets bandied about is, “War is hell.” Outlander lets viewers see how Claire experienced that hell on a personal level.

If anyone thought that battlefield nurses don’t have to worry about much, or that their combat tours were easy, than Outlander has disabused them of that notion. Enemy battle lines that were fifteen miles away yesterday, can be on your doorstep today. Waiving a white flag of surrender doesn’t always guarantee your safety. Young men put on a brave face, but in the end, not matter how brave you are, in your dying moments all you want is the comfort of your mother.

How did fans of the Outlander novels and series feel about the show departing from book canon and exploring this topic? The answer is that most fans have been supportive or the plotline change, and thought the topic was excellently handled. As one member of the popular facebook group Heughan’s Heughligans put it, “I’m a 10-year Air Force veteran, married to a Vietnam vet, a daughter of a veteran, and a sister of veterans. Our Outlander folks did a wonderful job of expressing Claire’s experience and how it shaped her.”

One female fan who goes by the Twitter moniker Dougal’s Beard and is a veteran shared some of her thoughts: “I do think it was done quite well, though wondered why she [Claire] didn’t react when Geordie was dying or other times, but perhaps Faith’s death moved her more down that path.”

When I asked if PTSD is taken less seriously in present day for those, like Claire, in non-combat roles, she stated, “I think it’s taken very seriously no matter what role one played in the war zone. Everyone has a story and everyone’s experience is different. My PTS is much better under control because I’ve gone through years of therapy and only wish that others had the same option to do that.”

How does PTSD affect those who now find themselves going back into the situation that caused it in the first place? There is no one set answer. The present and the past are not so dissimilar. Times have changed, but the horrors of war have not. Dougal’s Beard explained, “New mission, new location, new people. You have to completely divorce yourself from your life back home, in order to cope with the work you are doing while deployed forward. The lack of support network was what scared me the most….no matter how good the people are, you are strangers until you aren’t. The initial phases are incredibly isolating…until you prove yourself….and then, if you are lucky, you work with folks you would literally die for.” Look for Outlander to continue to explore this exact relationship in upcoming episodes. Jamie, Claire, Fergus, Dougal and others will never be the same again.

Other fans who are vets aren’t exactly sure that PTSD was shown, but rather it was more of a one-time event that triggered some horrible memories. Gene, a female vet and fan, stated, “It’s not just about wartime memories. But if it is, it’s memories that come to you unbidden throughout your day and your night and interfere with your day-to-day life. Claire had a very real memory of the horrors of war since she lived through some rough times. And Claire has hindsight which occurs in the future. She knows the history of what happens to the Jacobites…For Claire to remember her horrible experiences when reminded of them while watching soldiers practice their drills is perfectly understandable, and it also allowed the audience to see what not only she went through, but possibly what Jamie will go through.”

As season 2 of Outlander plays out in its final episodes, several things will be clear. War is random. No one in a combat or noncombat role can be assured of his or her safety. War can bring out the very best, and the very worst in humanity, and even do so in the same person. In the end, those who wage war have often not considered adequately the price paid by those doing the actual fighting and their families.

What do you think of ‘Outlander’s handling of the fallout of war?