When time travel involves a person from the future heading to the past, there is usually talk of changing events. There hasn’t been much of that in Outlander: Blood of My Blood, but Henry does offer Ned a warning in the latest episode.
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS for Outlander: Blood of My Blood season 1, episode 7.
Ned’s focus is on getting word to the Grants that Dougal had nothing to do with the stolen cattle, and he heads to a tavern to talk with Henry. Well, Henry already knows that it wasn’t Dougal, with the Grants learning of the true culprit.
This brings up the topic of the Jacobites, with Henry sharing that he’s already warned Isaac Grant not to get involved in this. And it’s not just because he’s English. Now he's warning his new friend, Ned.
Henry already knows how the Jacobite Rebellions will play out in Outlander: Blood of My Blood
With coming from the future, Henry already knows that the Jacobite Rebellions will fail. He hasn’t given the First Jacobite Rebellion much thought though, it seems. While he’s told Isaac Grant not to get involved, we’ve never seen him mention it to others until now.
Of course, it’s to Ned, who will get a similar warning in the future. Henry isn’t pushing his beliefs on Ned too much, though. He offers the warning, but that’s it. There’s isn’t much of his own opinion on the war to come.
It gives us an insight into Claire’s warning later. Claire is knowledgeable of the past just like Henry, but their tact is a little different. Henry probably feels like he could leave at any time—and that’s what he’s planning on doing right now—whereas Claire was seemingly stuck in the past until Jamie gave her the choice. Once she did make the choice to stay, she wanted to change the course of history for the better for the Scots.
Maybe if Henry had made the decision to stay, he’d fight more to persuade people against the Jacobite Rebellion. However, he could also be of the notion that the past can’t be changed.
The First Jacobite Rebellion is only the start
There’s also the fact that the First Jacobite Rebellion in 1715 didn’t have the same weight on the Scottish clans that the Second Jacobite Rebellion in 1745 did. This will also change Henry’s need to warn Ned to stay away from the Jacobite cause.
While the First Jacobite Rebellion certainly saw some lost lands and people accused of treason, it didn’t decimate the Highland culture in the way the second one did. Henry probably doesn’t feel the threat of the rebellion as much as Claire did with the second one. Plus, he may not have even had such a strong opinion of it, and not just because he’s English.
Henry doesn’t have the direct connection to the clans via marriage as his daughter will do in the future. On top of that, Claire had a lot of knowledge from Frank, who was a historian, so she would have known more than Henry does now.
It’s not like it will change anything, anyway. Ned Gowan is going to view the fight for a Stuart king as the right cause, as we know in Outlander, and now I’m curious at why he ends up siding with Dougal rather than Colum.
Outlander: Blood of My Blood airs on Fridays on STARZ.
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