As we hit the home stretch of the second season of Outlander: Blood of My Blood, the focus is shifting to the personal stories. In particular, we’re getting a focus on the love stories that are dominating the season. This week’s episode, “Heart of the Highlands,” showcases a few key relationships at big moments. Let’s dive in. SPOILERS BELOW.
Dougal returns
As we begin, Dougal (Sam Retford) is back at Castle Leoch. But it’s not quite the warm welcome he might have hoped. He arrives as everyone, including his wife, Maura (Bobby Rainsbury), is making garments for burial. In fact, most had assumed Dougal died. While they are happy and he’s alive, it creates an issue.
Colum (Seamus McLean Ross) has been feeling out of control, and his feelings on seeing his brother are a mix of relief and rage. The rage wins out as he chides Dougal, telling him as a wanted man he can’t stay at the castle. He’ll have to go into hiding after seeing to the dead and spending time with his wife.
Dougal is a somewhat broken man. Having lost Angus (Ross Mann) and others, he feels like a failure. And it makes his reunion with Maura difficult. He doesn’t feel worthy of her love. But she is able to push past. She has fallen for him and desperately awaited his return. Now that he’s back, she wants to make the most of their time together.
Henry’s plan
We begin the week with a flashback to the future as Henry (Jeremy Irvine) and Julia (Hermione Corfield), as newlyweds, are enjoying a movie. In the aftermath, they run across Charlotte (Lily Travers), who brings out the claws. She makes some catty comments, but Julia is able to deflect. But it’s the memory of her ring—an amethyst stone—that brings a plan to mind to Henry.
If he can find some amethyst, he hopes there will be safe passage back through the stones. And he knows where some can be found. He sets out with Arch (Terrence Ray) under the guise of a special mission to get some. Arch not only feels indebted to Henry, but he could also use some amethyst as well for his wife (Sorcha Groundsell) so they can have their own child.
Henry journeys into the cavern with the help of Arch and finds the vein of amethyst. He’s able to break some off and returns pieces to Julia. They also hatch a plan for returning. Henry makes his way back to the Grant castle, while Julia heads in to discover Maisri (Katharine O’Donnelly) has returned at the behest of Lovat (Tony Curran). Julia isn’t happy to see her, but it turns out Maisri sees a lot—including Julia’s true origin and knowing what has become of Claire. She also delivers some bad news. While Henry and her son can travel, she never will. She only traveled the first time because her unborn son is a traveler. That puts a crimp in their future plans.
Brian and Murtagh
Meanwhile, having delivered Dougal safely, Brian (Jamie Roy) and Murtagh (Rory Alexander) are welcomed as guests. And both need to check on their loves. For Brian, he finds Ellen (Harriet Slater) in a delicate state. She’s lost her child, and the doctor suggests she’ll never have another. When she tells Brian it was his father’s doing, he burns with anger.
Murtagh, meanwhile, is reunited with Grace (Ruby Fubara). They acknowledge both their love and the fact they can’t follow their hearts completely. Grace has been in service for six and a half years and has yet to leave to serve. But Murtagh isn’t dissuaded. He follows her, and they find a way to have their time together, coming together fully no matter what obstacles the future holds.
Brian, meanwhile, returns home and confronts his father. He holds Lovat at the blade of a knife, but Julia is able to stab his hand with the words that he’d be kept from Ellen forever. Instead, he forces his father to give him some land that Lovat deems worthless and a promise never to call upon Brian and Ellen’s home uninvited.
On his way back, Brian retrieves a stone from the bridge where he first met Ellen. Despite her condition, he pledges his love and future to her. She’s pleased he didn’t throw his future away to murder his father. Brian pledges to use the stone as the hearth for the home he’ll build them someday.
Will Julia be stuck forever? Does that mean that Henry and their son will never go home, either? That’s a question following this week’s revelation. Just when it seemed happiness would return, they are dealt a blow again. There were a lot of blows dealt this week, and yet love persists and helps to guide our heroes through it all.
Outlander: Blood of My Blood airs Fridays on Starz.
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