Outlander: Blood of My Blood Recap: Love Is a Battlefield

Outlander: Blood of My Blood
Forgive Me, Father
Season 2 Episode 5
Editor’s Rating ★★★
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Will anyone on this show ever know peace? Even the people tucked safely away in Castle Leoch are having existential crises. Good lord, give them, like, a cute little festival or something to go to for one episode. But there are no festivals and there is no peace; only war and blood and murder!

Much of that war and blood stuff, of course, has to do with the Battle of Sheriffmuir, of which we have people to pay attention to on both sides of the field: Brian, Murtagh, and Dougal are Team Jacobites, and Henry and Arch Bug are standing with Clan Grant, who is standing with the crown. It is a bloody, bloody battle, but admittedly I did find it hilarious that every few minutes we would simply cut back to the fight for like 30 seconds just so that we knew that yep, they’re still trying to kill each other.

Violence aside, there are some important moments within the battle we should discuss. Over on the English side, Henry does, in fact, have the perfect moment to slip away and enact the plan he and Julia had decided upon, but just as he’s going to do it, he sees his new best friend, Arch Bug, about to be killed and opts instead to save his life. If only he knew the grief Arch and his wife would give his daughter in a few decades! But it’s true: Henry and Arch have bonded. Henry makes a cute joke about Arch’s wife; Arch weeps due to the hardships of war. They have each other’s backs. 

Speaking of which, there is one moment when Henry and Brian stand across from one another in the field, but instead of fighting, they give each other one of those “I see you” man nods and go about their business. Brian’s too busy to even stop and think about what he should do with his dad’s wife’s secret husband at the moment anyway. First on Brian’s list is to, obviously, keep himself alive so he can return to Ellen and their impending baby. (Although it does give him comfort to know Murtagh promises to take care of them until his last breath should anything happen to Brian, and good lord, you know he means it. Is Murtagh the hottest man on this show? Discuss.) 

Brian’s other job is to keep Dougal safe since he promised Ellen after she promised Maura. This specific task on his to-do list proves difficult when Dougal grows dissatisfied by the fight coming to a draw, both sides claiming victory, and both sides being seemingly okay with all of this. Scots died for this, and the people in charge are happy to just walk away. Dougal gathers a group of 20 MacKenzies and sneaks off to attack Argyll, but it’s not long before one of the men comes limping back and informs Brian that they were ambushed and almost everyone was killed. Dougal and Old Angus were taken prisoner by the English. It takes about three seconds for Brian to decide to go and rescue his future brother-in-law, and it takes Murtagh about five seconds to decide to go with him (even if he isn’t exactly jazzed about it). And so they’re off to … Fort William. Did that name send a shiver down your spine? Are you also dreading watching Brian walk into the place where in a few decades he’ll witness his son’s flogging and then die from the shock of it all? Cool, me too. 

Little does Brian know, he’s about to have an even bigger problem on his hands. While on their way back to Castle Leoch, Ellen and Grace are held hostage by MacKinney’s son. You remember MacKinney, right? The guy who tried to overthrow Colum and take Clan MacKenzie for himself until Ellen went all Die Hard and killed him and his men? We saw his son flee, and now we know he’s been out in the Highlands dreaming of revenge. The only problem — he doesn’t have the lust for blood or the stomach to kill like his father did, and Ellen knows it. She might not be able to fight back physically once MacKinney Jr. has tied her up, but she can use her cunning to save herself and Grace. She really is the best of her ding-dong brothers combined.

Ellen goes all therapist on MacKinney Jr.’s ass. She repeatedly asks him about how it feels to constantly want his father’s approval and not receive it, to know he isn’t like his dad. She knows it must have done a number on him, and if anyone understands what daddy issues can do to people, it’s Ellen. She goads him a little bit — if he really was going to kill them, he would have done it by now. She manipulates him — will killing two women while they’re tied up make him feel like a man his father could be proud of? She plays him perfectly. Before long, he’s crying and cutting the ropes from Grace’s hands and feet. Maybe he could’ve been different if he didn’t have the father he did. And just as he has this epiphany, just before he moves to set Ellen free, he gets slammed in the head with a club and dies. It’s Balloch. And he’s here to kidnap Ellen MacKenzie. Conveniently already tied up, he promptly tosses her on his horse and rides away, leaving Grace there screaming but unable to stop any of this. Oh, you just knew Lovat wasn’t going to let his son reject him without any consequences. Brian is going to be so pissed about this when he finds out.

The employees of Castle Leathers really don’t have any ethical or moral boundaries, do they? Balloch is out there kidnapping women, and let us not forget what Seema is getting up to last we saw her: contemplating how to best kill Julia so she can take her life and make Henry fall in love with her. Castle Leathers is a weird place. 

As Seema continues to hold Julia hostage at knifepoint, Julia mostly sits there as the woman discusses why she deserves Henry, how she can easily make the baby forget Julia, how Henry will come to her once Julia’s out of the way. The woman is spiraling. You’d almost feel bad for her, except that she’s holding a knife (and the key to escape the room they’re in) and unlike MacKinney Jr., you know she’ll use it when it comes down to it. 

As Seema goes on and on about Single White Female-ing Julia, Julia knows she needs to act. There’s a scuffle for the knife, which flies out of reach. Left with only her hands to fight off Seema, uh … Julia strangles her to death. It’s pretty grisly. I knew Julia was strong and capable, but capable of that? Shaken, she stumbles downstairs to find Davina and baby William together and safe; it doesn’t seem like Davina had any idea what Seema was up to. Julia would have never been safe with Seema around, but still, you have to imagine there is going to be some real fallout going forward.

Clan Business

• Castle Leoch is currently full of MacKenzies having shame spirals. Colum is reeling over what happened to his family on his watch and railing against his dad for making him a man who cannot “love without measuring the cost.” He’s having a real bleak moment these days, and even his wife, Leticia, is like, Please, I beg of you to get your shit together before this baby shows up.

• Jocasta is feeling extra-contemplative, too. She admits to Leticia that her husband is awful and she dreads him coming home. She also sits with Mrs. Fitz and opens up about feeling foolish for having feelings for Murtagh, when he clearly doesn’t reciprocate them. “Foolish hearts are the ones that love the hardest,” she says in an attempt to comfort her. And adds: “There’s no shame in wanting, only in pretending you don’t.” Mrs. Fitz rules. 

• Ah! Guess who introduces himself to Henry after being impressed with his battlefield prowess at Sheriffmuir? Captain Lord Gerard Grey — Lord John’s father. Admittedly, I did yelp at the reveal. 

• They made us watch Old Angus weep over Old Rupert’s death? The psychological torture of this show on its audience knows no bounds.