A rescue mission at a craggy seaside castle was about to go very wrong, and some of our favorite kilted heroes were getting heated about how to salvage it. A dirk. A protest. A scuffle. It wasn’t clear if everyone would make it out alive.
That’s a quick peek at one of the scenes we observed on an October visit to the set of Outlander: Blood of My Blood in Scotland, where shooting was at the midway point of the second season. “There are a lot of ups and a lot of downs. And some hard episodes to watch,” Matthew B. Roberts, the show’s showrunner and executive producer, previews. Roberts served in the same role on Outlander, based on Diana Gabaldon‘s bestselling novels, and with the author’s blessing brought this original prequel to life. Its popularity and stellar reviews have proven that both Claire’s (Caitriona Balfe) and Jamie’s (Sam Heughan) ancestors can bring us the same magic, romance and adventure as one of TV’s greatest couples of all time.
In the debut season’s finale, Jamie’s 18th-century star-crossed parents, savvy and smart Ellen MacKenzie (Harriet Slater) and stoic, brave Brian Fraser (Jamie Roy), had finally run away together. During their escape, they were attacked by Ellen’s betrothed, Malcolm Grant (Jhon Lumsden), and Brian killed him in self-defense. After Brian and Ellen’s first night together, they awoke to a hillside of fiery crosses calling men to war with England. “We jump straight to the action,” Roy says of the second season. “The stakes are high. We’ve got to stay and fight, or we’re leaving [and running] for the rest of our lives.”
Starz
Brian, along with his best friend Murtagh (Rory Alexander), will return to Castle Leathers, ruled by cruel Lord Lovat (Tony Curran), Brian’s father, to fight with the Fraser clan. Brian will reveal some Jamie Fraser–level leadership spirit in rallying more men to the cause.
Roy admitted he was surprised when reading the script. “I couldn’t believe Brian has to go back to Lovat and talk to him again,” he says. The laird, who has cruelly beaten and berated his bastard son in the past, will choose the side of the conflict that will best elevate his status.
Also back at Leathers is Claire’s mother, the intelligent, resourceful, 20th-century Julia Moriston Beauchamp (Hermione Corfield), who, while pregnant with her second child, accidentally traveled through time with her shell-shocked World War I veteran and lawyer husband Henry (Jeremy Irvine) in the first season.
They reached the same era, but separately, and both endured torment. Julia was sold to Lovat and slept with him so he’d think her child was his. Henry survived as an adviser to the Grant family and at one point believed Julia was dead. Finally reunited in the finale, they and their newborn reach the stone circle of Craigh na Dun to return to their time — and little Claire. Alas, when Season 2 begins, only Henry has gone through the stones. “He ends up somewhere unexpected and is going to battle with his mental health and PTSD,” Irvine reveals. “He develops allies in the most unlikely places.”
Corfield says, “Julia too meets a few new people later, but at the start there are some old faces; those relationships develop.” At least she has a higher status at the castle since everyone thinks she’s the mother of Lovat’s heir. And she has allies in Brian and Ellen, whose secret lovers’ meetings she helped arrange.
Ellen is back at her family’s Castle Leoch, where her leadership-sharing brothers, war chief Dougal (Sam Retford) and clan chief Colum (Séamus McLean Ross), are at odds. Dougal wants to fight. Colum is hesitant. Ellen is stuck in the middle…again. “I was glad that she gets to go back to Leoch,” Slater says. “We see a different side of both [Ellen and Brian], which times of war have brought out. They’ve left a mess behind them, and she’s got to face the music.”
Meanwhile, Colum may be a wild card. “The problems keep mounting,” McLean Ross says. “The choices he’s made and the cost to be laird are weighing him down.” Dougal, however, adjusts to his hastily arranged marriage to Malcolm’s sister, Maura Grant (Bobby Rainsbury). “It works in their favor,” Retford says. But, Rainsbury adds, the sisters-in-law clash: “Maura doesn’t like people playing games with her, and that’s exactly what Ellen does.”
Despite this friction, Roberts teases, the season will bring a power move from a female coalition early on: “Episode 3 is about men underestimating women. The men may get a big surprise.” Just one of many — like maybe finding out if Julia’s son is someone we know from the Outlander universe?! — in the next captivating chapter of this scorching Scottish saga.
Outlander: Blood of My Blood, Season Premiere Friday, September 18, 8/7c, Starz