Spoilers for S1&2 and the first two books
When I first head the synopsis for the first series of 'Outlander' the TV series based upon the series of the Books by Diana Gabaldon, I thought 'Wow, isn't that great, we finally get to see a narrative where it is shown quite clearly that a woman can love two different people at the same time, despite the physical proximity issues, she will go from one to the other to the other without love diminishing for any of them. I mean here was a woman who passionately loved her husband Frank, only to fall in love with another man and love him just as equally. This is pretty unusual without death being involved.
Up until she chooses NOT to leave her second husband Jamie after he takes her back to the magical standing stones, we always get the feelings that despite her affections and strong physical love for Jamie, that she is still just as much in love with first husband Frank and could just as easily return to him.
Though I totally understood her decision to stay with Jamie after the Witchcraft trail (out of sight, out of mind). I still believed that the love she had with Frank was still as strong and had she returned to him (which of course she is forced to at the end of the first book (& series) that she would mourn her loss of Jamie, just as she mourned the loss of Frank and get on with things, but as we discover in S2. It is revealed through the plot that Frank and Claire did not end up having a wonderful marriage and the ghost of Jamie forever loomed over them.
This depressed me a bit, since I adored Frank's character, I loved his nerdy passion for history, I loved how understanding he was. I loved the fact that instead of treating Claire like a mad woman (I mean, time travel? Really?) He listened, he understood.
Frank is a frickin sexy rockstar to me. And then he has the sad and stressful marriage because his wife's NRE will Jamie was interrupted by the Battle of Culloden. That sucks, big time.
Frank deserved better and this further pushes the narrative that he is an interloper here, he has Claire unfairly because somehow she lost her 'One True Love'. She has fallen out of love with Frank, because she has fallen IN love with Jamie and it is HIS love that chases her through the centuries, not her first love Frank.
This is tragic and just falls on the simpler but unrealistic paradigm that reinforces monogamy ie there is only love in the heart for one person, everyone else is just a placeholder.
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