After taking a week off, the Outlander: Blood of My Blood season 1 finale is here, and it takes us back to two timelines. We get to see a young Claire, as Julia and Henry think back to what brought them to Scotland in the first place.
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS for Outlander: Blood of My Blood season 1, episode 10
The episode opens with the “Maple Leaf Rag” playing, making it clear that we are in the 1920s. Sure enough, it’s Claire’s second birthday, giving us a look at a young Claire Beauchamp and Uncle Lamb. It’s a beautiful moment, setting the stage for a heartbreaking ending for Claire, knowing that once her parents go through the stones, she doesn’t see them again.
Meanwhile, in the past, we see a woman walking down the aisle ready to be married. It looks like Ellen MacKenzie has no choice but to marry Malcolm Grant.
Brian is more concerned about Ellen in the Outlander: Blood of My Blood season 1 finale
Of course, the finale has to answer the question posed at the end of Outlander: Blood of My Blood season 1, episode 9. Assassins were after Brian, and he needed to know who was after him. Well, he’s a little too preoccupied by Ellen’s words and her eyes, sure that she didn’t mean it when she said she didn’t love him.
Murtagh is shocked that Brian is focused on this, but he does stop the panic of the assassins to make it clear that he supports them being together. They have a love only told in stories, so Murtagh wants to know what Brian actually saw in Ellen’s eyes when she told him everything. Realizing that Ellen was likely forced into saying all this, the two fight off the assassins.
One of the assassins tells them that Colum MacKenzie sent them. And so, it’s clear that Colum knew that Brian would likely die. Brian has to get to Ellen to tell her what’s happened.
As for Ellen, she prepares for her wedding day, where she receives a pearl necklace as a gift from an unknown person—yes, the pearl necklace that Claire learns came from Marcus MacRannoch. Elsewhere in Castle Leoch, Dougal is still hooking up with a woman named Hette, Maura Grant's maid, but Maura walks in. She’s not embarrassed by Dougal’s state and seems to actually find it quite amusing before walking away.
Ellen spends time apologizing to Jocasta for being a part of Jocasta’s marriage, and we get this beautiful moment between the two of them and Janet. There is hope that a sisterly bond can form, and this is important for later in the episode. We even see the three sisters and Glenna joking around and telling crude stories, much to the Grant women’s disgust.
Brian gets into Castle Leoch and finds an unlikely ally
Knowing that he needs to get word to Ellen about Colum, Brian sneaks into Castle Leoch. Knocking out a Grant, he dresses as a Grant to be able to move freely around the place, which is where he comes across Jocasta Cameron. She recognizes him from Beltane, and she knows that he’s definitely not a Grant. So, why is he there?
And in a surprising turn of events, Jocasta decides that she will help Brian get to her sister. While Jocasta hasn’t had a chance to marry for love, she wants her sister to get that opportunity. The two get to Ellen, so she can then go to see Colum. However, she’s not going to tell Colum what she knows, and instead, offers him a chance to confess.
When Colum doesn’t confess to anything and, instead, gives Ellen a gift of a beautiful quill and ink set, Ellen knows what she needs to do. There is no hope for her with her MacKenzie brothers, and she will not feel bad for what’s to come next. Is it really that surprising to find out that Ellen and Brian set up a plan to run away?
What I love is that Glenna and Jocasta help with setting up this plan. The two hide Brian and Ellen until a ceremony starts, so that they’ll be able to get away without anyone seeing.
What ceremony? Well, the Grants demand that someone marries between the MacKenzies and the Grants, or that there is blood. Ellen has run away, and Malcolm is angry. His uncle is strategic, though, and he will take another plan that Colum has. Dougal will marry Maura Grant.
And this is the wedding that we see at the start of the Outlander: Blood of My Blood season 1 finale. Maura and Dougal are marrying, much to their own dislikes. However, they may not mind it so much when it turns out that women can enjoy sex after all. Dougal fearing that he’d hurt Maura is a little too much like Jamie in Outlander, but it does give us a hint at why Dougal was so heartbroken over Maura’s death in the flagship series.
Brian and Ellen escape, but not without consequence in Outlander: Blood of My Blood
As the party gets started, Brian and Ellen are able to escape. However, they run into a heartbroken and angry Malcolm, who now realizes what is going on. Malcolm and Brian fight, much to Brian’s dislike, and it ends in a major change to the canon as we know it.
Brian stabs and kills Malcolm after the fight, and he needs to run away with Ellen, holding onto that regret. He didn’t mean to do it, but Ellen later defends his actions. She knows that Brian had no choice.
Where can the two go? Well, Murtagh, who was shot in the leg by an arrow earlier in the episode, has been holding up in a cabin. That’s where the two lovebirds head, with Murtagh there to keep them company. The two tell Murtagh everything that happened, and they spend some time as three while Murtagh gets to a point he’s healed enough to walk again.
Just before he leaves, he does give Ellen a gift that was supposed to be a wedding gift. It’s the tusks made into bracelets. Ellen makes it clear that the gift will stay between the two of them, which is fitting for the Outlander canon, as we know Brian never knew where the tusk bracelets came from.
With Murtagh gone, Brian and Ellen are finally able to spend the night together. How long will this last? It doesn’t seem that long. As Brian and Ellen emerge from their cabin, they see fiery crosses lit everywhere, indicating the start of the Jacobite Rebellion. Brian either has to join them or he needs to leave Scotland forever. With that, Ellen makes it clear that she will stand by him, whatever happens.
Julia and Henry set up their escape plan in the Outlander prequel
Meanwhile, Julia needs to get out of Castle Leoch without Davina getting in trouble. She tells Davina to get Balloch to come after Julia, saying that someone has kidnapped her and William. This is the best way to make Simon think that Julia has been taken, so that Davina isn’t blamed for his wife and son escaping.
She didn’t have a chance to tell Henry any of this, so she just asks him to trust her as she shouts for Balloch to help her. Henry hides behind a tree, as Balloch comes through the wall so Henry can hit him over the head with a rock that says SWAK on it.
With that, Julia, Henry, and William escape on horseback, racing to the one place they know to go to: the stones at Craigh na Dun. They have to be fast, because they know that someone will come after them. Sure enough, Arch Bug has men with him to go after Henry, needing him back with the Grants to kill him.
As Julia and Henry get to the stones, there’s a sudden thought that William can’t go through. Julia suggests that one of them go through with William, then if William can’t travel, he’s not left at the stones all alone while his parents are in another time period.
That plan could work, if it wasn’t for Arch Bug and his men racing to the stones. Julia tells Henry to go through with William, as she’ll at least have the protection of Simon Fraser because she’s his wife. Henry isn’t going to allow that, and he grabs Julia, placing her hand on the stones.
Where do they go? We need Outlander: Blood of My Blood season 2 to find that out.
Ending the season in the 1920s
Throughout the episode, we learn how Julia and Henry ended up in Scotland without Claire in the first place. Henry is sent to Scotland on business, and he decides to plan a holiday (that’s a vacation) in Inverness with Julia. Just the two of them.
It’s clear that Claire and Uncle Lamb have taken to each other. Lamb will look after Claire while they’re gone, and they’ll get a chance for it to be just the two of them. This is when Julia tells Henry that she’s pregnant with their second child. It’s even more important to get away.
The Outlander: Blood of My Blood season 1 finale ends with Julia and Henry getting on the train to Inverness, with a five-year-old Claire and Uncle Lamb waving from the platform. This is the last Claire will see of her parents, but none of them know it at this point.
Or is it the last? After all, if the prequel series has changed the canon around Malcolm, then there is a chance that Claire’s parents could make it back to the 1920s.
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Outlander: Blood of My Blood is available to stream on STARZ.