Ellen MacKenzie continues to prove that she is the smartest person in the room in Outlander: Blood of My Blood season 1, episode 4. Unfortunately, it’s going to take others for her to find a way out of her predicament.
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS for Outlander: Blood of My Blood seaon 1, episode 4
In the latest episode of Outlander: Blood of My Blood, we found Ellen still fighting against the marriage to Malcolm Grant. Now that she’s saved her brothers and the clan, she wants to be freed from the marriage. Colum isn’t going to do that, though.
In Colum’s defense, he does have more to think about. He needs the money from the Grants, as Jacob MacKenzie bled the clan dry. However, Colum has another reason for Ellen to marry into the Grants, but it’s not going to work out the way he wants.
Ellen points out Colum’s flawed thinking in Outlander: Blood of My Blood
Colum shares that with Ellen inside Castle Grant, she can spy for Clan MacKenzie. Well, that would be great, except that it’s not the way that marriages work. Colum should know this, as he’s already married. However, I guess with the way his other sisters, Jocasta and Janet are still around despite supposedly being married, he has overlooked a slight issue.
When a woman marries into a clan, her loyalty is to that clan she’s married into. That would mean Ellen becomes loyal to Clan Grant. She leaves the MacKenzie clan behind, and that’s something she is more than willing to point out.
This is likely why Jacob also offered her the chance to marry for love. While she was his favorite daughter, he also knew that he would lose the smartest MacKenzie child, and he likely wanted her around to see something that he couldn’t.
Ellen also points out another problem
At the same time, Ellen is shocked to learn that Jacob had bled Clan MacKenzie dry. They’re almost destitute, and Colum needs to find a way out of that. This leads to another problem for him to solve, a dowry.
It was custom for a bride’s family to be given a dowry. This was an essential part of a marriage contract, and usually it was in the form of money. However, sometimes, it could be in the form of something else for trading. Colum is going to struggle considering how much money the clan has lost from Jacob. Why hadn’t he already thought of that? He’s not as smart as he wants to seem.
Outlander: Blood of My Blood airs Fridays on STARZ.