The Time Traveler’s Wife episode 5 introduces Henry to Clare’s brother Mark and her younger sister Alicia – bringing the book to life once again.
This article contains spoilers for The Time Traveler’s Wife episode 5.
The Time Traveler’s Wife episode 5 sees Henry meet Clare’s family, including her siblings, for the first time – and Alicia (Taylor Richardson) and Mark (Peter Graham) are much more well-developed than in the film. Like any love story, The Time Traveler’s Wife is centered upon its lovers. In the case of the HBO TV show, that means it took several episodes for Clare and Henry’s friends and family to begin to play a notable role at all – largely because the first few episodes were as much about establishing Time Traveler’s Wife‘s rules of time travel that drive the plot.
Henry finally meets Clare’s family in The Time Traveler’s Wife episode 5, in a frankly disastrous first encounter in which the stress of the situation triggers a time jump. It perfectly illustrates why inadvertent time travel is something of a curse. The 28-year-old Henry lands in front of a biker gang, and returns to his present day considerably the worse for wear. It’s easy to see why Henry tends to avoid social situations, given the constant need to explain sudden injuries and changes in his physical appearance.
The 2009 film adaptation of The Time Traveler’s Wife cut down Clare’s family to a minor role, but Steven Moffat’s HBO TV series is more faithful to the books than the film. As such, in The Time Traveler’s Wife episode 5, he takes the time to develop both Clare’s siblings, quickly giving viewers a strong sense of the family dynamic. Alicia is Clare’s sole confidant, the only one she has told about her time-traveling future husband. Although the two are clearly close, Alicia enjoys winding her older sister up, and delights in taking advantage of Henry’s confusion. Clare is not as close to her brother Mark, however, who’s training to be a lawyer and treats Henry like a witness under cross-examination. Both dynamics are lifted straight from Niffenegger’s novel, although they’ve been dialed up somewhat for the miniseries.
Audrey Niffenegger’s novel understands that marriage binds two families together. As a result, The Time Traveler’s Wife develops more characters than the tightly-focused film, and the HBO TV show’s writer and producer Steven Moffat clearly wants to maintain that element. He’s already hinted at tragedies in the future of the Abshire family, specifically with hints that Claire’s mother is no longer alive in the future.
It’s becoming increasingly clear The Time Traveler’s Wife will not wrap up in a single season, but rather will continue on in a second. Given that’s the case, it’s reasonable to assume the story of the Abshire family will become as important to the HBO TV show as it is to the book – meaning both Mark and Alicia will be much more important going forward. Anyone familiar with the books knows the Abshires are not the only family destined to suffer; Henry himself will die in Time Traveler’s Wife by the time the series comes to an end, although the TV show is hinting that his fate will be changed a little. It will be intriguing to see how Moffat brings these various plot threads to life as The Time Traveler’s Wife continues.
The finale of The Time Traveler’s Wife season 1 airs Sunday, June 19 on HBO.
About The Author
