By the end of the first season of Outlander: Blood of My Blood, the two central couples — Ellen MacKenzie (Harriet Slater) and Brian Fraser (Jamie Roy), along with Julia (Hermione Corfield) and Henry Beauchamp (Jeremy Irvine) — had finally found their way back to each other in 18th-century Scotland. But as any Outlander fan knows, reunions rarely last long.
The official trailer for season two (below) of the Outlander prequel, which premieres Sept. 18 on Starz, reveals that Claire and Jamie’s parents will find themselves separated once again with the Jacobite rising of 1715 fast approaching. The 10-episode second season will begin with answering the most pressing question: Did Julia, Henry and their newborn baby William travel through the infamous standing stones of Craigh Na Dun?
According to the trailer, only Henry makes it back through the stones — and he lands in an undisclosed era at a psychiatric hospital, forced to grapple with his waning mental health as a veteran of World War I.
“Where we end up in season two, I would never have guessed,” Irvine told The Hollywood Reporter last October, shortly after beginning production on season two. “I went in for my costume fitting, and they showed me this costume, and I went, ‘Why the hell am I wearing that?’” (In hindsight, he was most likely wearing Henry’s institutionalized outfit.)
Julia, on the other hand, is forced to return to Castle Leathers and face her sinister husband, Lord Lovat (Tony Curran), who still believes that Julia’s child is his own. After being humiliated and outsmarted when Julia escaped his grasp with Henry’s help in the season one finale, Lovat is presumably more dangerous than ever — and Henry will need to find a way back to save her once again.
“For Julia, the 1700s is not a good time to be a woman, and especially not if you are the property of one of these less-than-kind lairds,” Irvine previously teased to THR. “I think there’s no way in hell that Henry was going to leave her there and go back himself. I think, ultimately, if it means laying down his life for her, he would do it in a heartbeat.”
Meanwhile, with the fiery crosses lit, Brian and his cousin Murtagh (Rory Alexander) must return to Castle Leathers to pledge their allegiance to Brian’s father, the scheming Simon Fraser a.k.a. Lord Lovat.
“We see Brian become a man by the end of [last] season, much more independent, and I think that only grows into season two,” Roy told THR last fall in a wide-ranging interview about the season one finale. “He’s found who he is, he’s found what is worth fighting for, what he’s passionate for, and that’s only going to enhance going into the future.”
What Brian’s fighting for, of course, is a future with Ellen. In the season one finale, Ellen and Brian ran away together after Ellen learned that her brother, Colum (Séamus McLean Ross), had broken his promise and tried to have Brian killed. Realizing her arranged marriage agreement to Malcolm Grant (Jhon Lumsden) was now null and void due to Colum’s betrayal, Ellen called off her commitment and decided to flee Castle Leoch with Brian.
However, their escape was intercepted by a drunken, jilted Malcolm who pulled a sword on Brian. In a moment of self-defense, Brian stabbed and killed Malcolm right in front of Ellen, a violent escalation that has now complicated the start of their life together (as if the rebellion wasn’t enough). After fleeing the castle grounds, the couple spotted fiery crosses burning in the distance, with Ellen promising to stand by Brian no matter what challenges the war brings.
While Brian rides off to war, Ellen reluctantly returns to Castle Leoch, only to find her brothers, Colum and Dougal (Sam Retford), locked in a bitter feud over how to answer the call to arms. “I guess Ellen has a lot to face back home if she does ever end up going back home, because there’s been a lot of betrayal,” Slater previously teased to THR. Taking matters into her own hands, she devises a safeguard this season to protect Clan MacKenzie from the Crown, ensuring their survival no matter how the uprising ends.
Outlander veteran Matthew B. Roberts serves as showrunner and executive producer on Blood of My Blood. Building upon Diana Gabaldon’s bestselling novel universe and produced by Sony Pictures Television, the prequel is also executive produced by Ronald D. Moore, Maril Davis, Toni Graphia, Luke Schelhaas, Michael Wilson, Jim Kohlberg, and Luke Parker Bowles.
Outlander: Blood of My Blood returns Friday, Sept, 18, with new episodes streaming weekly Fridays on STARZ.
Leave a Reply