Outlander Season 6, Episode 4 recap: Young Ian’s story revealed

Getting Young Ian’s time with the Mohawk

If you wondered if we’d ever see Young Ian become part of the Mohawk tribe, you’ll be relieved to know that Outlander Season 6, Episode 4 started with that. We went straight back to the Outlander Season 3 finale when Young Ian remained with the Mohawk and completed the course.

We get to see the ritual Young Ian went through. The chief shared that the ritual was important to clean all the white blood out of Young Ian. He is now adopted in the tribe. And it’s clear one woman there is happy about that happening.

Young Ian also gets his Mohawk name. Wolf’s Brother.

When Young Ian and Jamie get to the Cherokee, Young Ian immediately recognizes the horses. The Mohawk are here, and that includes Kaheroton. This is a chance for Young Ian to go through his story with the Mohawk and the loss he faced.

He met his wife, Emily. He only called her that because he couldn’t say her name properly. The two quickly formed a bond as she helps him learn the language. Something I love in this is that we see very much like the Highlanders. This is a great chance to see just how much the Scottish clans and the Native American tribes were alike, despite the Scots not really wanting to admit that.

We get a chance to see the tribe tell stories, and Kaheroton wants to hear a story from Young Ian of Geillis. It’s a great bonding moment for Young Ian, and it’s easy to see why this tribe felt like a family to him so quickly.

We jump to a little later with Emily pregnant. Unfortunately, this isn’t a pregnancy that is going to work out. Emily suffers a stillbirth. Young Ian wants to be by her side, but it’s for the women now. Kaheroton tells Young Ian to head out to the woods to pray and, of course, Rollo is by his side for this moment. Young Ian turns to both the Christian God and the Mohawk gods in his hour of need.

She got pregnant again but suffered a miscarriage. This is where we learn about the Mohawk beliefs. The tribe believes that Young Ian’s spirit isn’t Mohawk. It’s not strong enough to work with Emily’s spirit. Young Ian is sent back to North Carolina. He doesn’t want to go, but as we know from Season 5, he doesn’t really have a choice. He returns anyway, but it’s not without seeing that this is really what Emily wants.

To make matters worse for Young Ian, he finds out that she’s moving on with someone else. She’s going to be with Kaheroton instead. It’s no wonder Young Ian doesn’t like Kaheroton at the Cherokee village.

The only thing I’ll say is that I miss the bonding moment Young Ian and Bree have with this moment. I love that he told Jamie and it made sense to bring up his Mohawk past in this episode of Outlander Season 6, but the moment with Bree was so special to me.

It is an important moment in the show, though. Jamie shares all about Faith with Young Ian.