When Outlander: Blood of My Blood first started, I did wonder how the friendship between Brian and Murtagh was going to develop. They were like brothers, and of course, the hurt of seeing Brian and Ellen together was going to affect them.
It wasn’t surprising then that Murtagh was angry and hateful toward Brian when the truth came out. Nor was it surprising that Brian and Murtagh would throw a few insults at each other at Braemar in Outlander: Blood of My Blood. However, in the end, we knew that they would need to make up at some point.
Murtagh is allowed to be hurt in Outlander: Blood of My Blood
We know that Brian and Ellen are meant to be. After all, we know the Outlander story, but Murtagh doesn’t realize that. Ellen MacKenzie is a woman he has pined for over time, even though he’s never had the courage to talk to her. Just as it looked like he could get the courage, things took a turn. He saw Brian and Ellen together.
Now, had Brian actually said something, Murtagh probably wouldn’t have been so angry. And we’ve looked at that at ClaireandJamie.com before, as we assessed how the two could end up being friends again. Murtagh was hurt at the secret that Brian had kept, knowing the whole time that he was interested in Ellen, and there’s nothing wrong with him being hurt.
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So, it wasn’t all that surprising to see the way he reacted. At least he had somewhere to go thanks to his aunt, Glenna Fitzgibbons, working at Castle Leoch. He was also doing Simon Fraser’s bidding when it came to the Jacobites. This allowed Murtagh to be angry, but not be toxic to anyone.
Murtagh doesn’t want his cousin dead!
Despite the anger, Murtagh isn’t a vengeful man. This is a man who takes his time to get over his pain, and we can see that in Outlander: Blood of My Blood season 1, episode 9. As Balloch beat Brian Fraser again, Murtagh’s look changed. He was angry at his cousin, but that didn’t mean he wanted to see Brian hurt.
He definitely didn’t want to see Brian dead. So, when he figured out that there was a hit out on Brian, of course he was going to do what he could to protect him. While he says that if someone was going to kill Brian, it would be him, it’s clear that he just needed the time to deal with the hurt of Brian and Ellen being together.
With that, he can now move forward and become the man we eventually know. With Brian and Murtagh showing Jamie what it means to be a good man (and not just one of the “nice guys”), it’s easy to see why Ellen wanted Murtagh to be around a young Jamie after her death.
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Outlander: Blood of My Blood is available to stream on STARZ.