Outlander: Blood of My Blood Season 1 Finale Recap: Run for the Hills

Spoilers below.

We all knew there was no way Ellen MacKenzie would march down the aisle for anyone other than Brian Fraser—no matter what her lying brother’s threats might indicate. It’s obvious from the earliest moments of Outlander: Blood of My Blood’s season 1 finale that the veiled woman approaching the altar at Castle Leoch can’t possibly be Ellen. Who, then, might she be? Stalwart Outlander fans will likely have some immediate theories, but for newbies to the franchise, the eventual twist might come as a strange, if convenient, surprise.

But first, we’ve got a group of assassins to worry about. The Gallowglasses are still in pursuit of Brian (and, by extension, Murtagh), but Brian can’t seem to focus on anything other than Ellen’s rejection of him. “Her words said one thing, but her eyes another,” he muses to the wind, much to Murtagh’s consternation. There are more pressing matters at hand! Like, perhaps, the men trying to kill them?

Still, Brian takes advantage of their brief window of safety to apologize to Murtagh, both for the truth of his feelings for Ellen as well as for concealing them from his cousin for weeks. For his part, Murtagh seems to have accepted his fate as the unrequited lover, having seen the way that Ellen swoons over Brian, and he over her. Who is he to stand in the way of such legendary, undeniable romance? As he later tells Ellen, he’s content to be a footnote in their story, so long as he’s in it at all. Now if only he’d give Jocasta Cameron more than a drunken glance…

The Gallowglasses at last descend upon them, and Brian and Murtagh have little trouble besting their attackers in battle, though Murtagh suffers a leg wound in the scuffle. Brian then learns from one of the assassins that Colum MacKenzie himself paid to murder him, which would seem obvious to, apparently, anyone but Brian. Anyway, he thanks the assassin for this tidbit by stabbing him through the heart—though not before pleading forgiveness! Brian is, after all, an honorable man!—and running to Murtagh’s side to confirm his cousin can survive a few hours without him. Knowing now for certain that his only chance of a life with Ellen is one away from Leoch, he rushes off to crash Ellen and Malcolm’s wedding, convinced he must save her from her fate as a Grant’s unwilling wife.

At the castle, the wedding preparations are already in full swing, though, unsurprisingly, Dougal is of no help when it comes to arranging flowers or tidying linens. Instead, he’s up in the balcony loft, having sex with one of the Grant servants. (In full view of the great hall, I might add. The man is truly shameless.) When Malcolm’s sister, Maura, interrupts these pre-wedding festivities, Dougal seems surprised to observe how much his “soon-to-be sister-in-law” has “grown.” Nor is this fully grown Maura afraid to voice her opinions. At Ellen’s sewing circle-turned-bachelorette party later in the day, she has no qualms expressing her concerns that Malcolm’s feelings for Ellen might not be matched by the bride herself. To this, Ellen has little rebuttal, though a fiesty Jocasta comes to her sister’s defense against the “boot-mouthed, hoity-toity Grant straight off the moor.” It’s good to see Jocasta and Ellen finally on the same side for once. This display of sisterhood is only possible thanks to Ellen’s own humble admission a few hours prior, during which Ellen at last apologizes to Jocasta “for not consulting you before our father arranged your match.” She adds, “Had I known then what I know now, I would have sought your counsel.” Jocasta accepts this display of kindness—and pays it back tenfold when Brian makes his entrance.

Sneaking into Leoch by attacking a MacKenzie guard and slipping on the man’s tartan as his own, Brian at first arouses no suspicion within the castle walls. But then Jocasta herself stumbles upon the young Fraser and recognizes him as Murtagh’s companion from Beltane. She knows he’s no MacKenzie, no matter the tartan he’s sporting, and she’s tempted to call for the real guards on account of his intrusion. But when he tells her the truth of Colum’s assassination attempt, she brings Brian directly to Ellen, whom Jocasta informs of their brother’s secret betrayal. Ellen seems almost to relish this revelation, despite its horrible implications; it frees her of her promise to leave Brian alone. Now, finally, they can—nay, they must!—be together forever.

But before they can run off into the hills, Ellen must look her brother in the eye. When she confronts Colum in his own chamber, his voice practically squeaks in surprise. Still, he refuses to admit any wrongdoing, and in fact, he expresses a keen hope that they’ll stay in touch via letters. They are family, after all! They love each other! With this one final stab in the gut, Ellen knows that she must turn her back on her brothers as they have her. Based purely on the steely look in Ellen’s eyes, Colum should recognize she’s already set an inconvenient plan in motion.

Sure enough, she fails to show up for the wedding ceremony, after which the would-be groom, Malcolm, loses all sense of grace or patience. (Which…fair.) His uncle—or Gruncle, as I prefer to call him—demands some sort of payment for the disgrace, whether it be blood or bride. Ever the tactician, Colum indeed procures a replacement for Ellen, though this replacement bears none of her grace or wiles: Dougal will marry a Grant in Ellen’s stead. When we finally see the woman walking down the aisle remove her veil, it’s not Ellen after all. It’s Maura Grant, preparing to spend eternity by the side of Clan MacKenzie’s war chieftain, the man who, up until a few minutes ago, was her soon-to-be brother-in-law. Funny how things change!

Anyway, Gruncle is amenable to this last-minute solution. But Malcolm remains devastated and furious, growing ever drunker as he watches the wedding guests celebrate the union that was meant to be his. Although Gruncle promises him eventual revenge, Malcolm isn’t willing to wait. He’s waited for Ellen’s hand since he was 7 years old. He won’t wait a minute more to find her now. So it’s no surprise that, when he inadvertently runs into Brian and Ellen in disguise, attempting their escape—wow, Brian is really bad at sneaking around this castle, isn’t he?—Malcolm refuses to let them pass. The laird of Clan Grant draws his sword, and Brian has no choice but to fight him. Naturally, Brian wins within a few meager seconds. (He’s become quite the killer in…what, a few hours?) A dead Malcolm slumps to the floor, and though both Ellen and Brian are aghast at this turn of events, they make the quick decision to flee the scene of the crime. Huh, there’s no way that will come back to haunt them!

Together, Ellen and Brian end up back at the bothy where Murtagh is nursing his injury, and they spend the next few days turning the hiding place into a humble abode. Murtagh is even considerate enough to skip off on his still-healing leg so Ellen and Brian can have some much-needed alone time—and so Outlander can do what it does best and deliver a sweeping fire-lit sex scene.

You know what else Outlander does best? Reminding us that these couples’ moments of marital bliss can never last longer than a scene or two at a time. When Ellen and Brian look to the horizon after furthering their union with blood vows, they spy smoke rising to the heavens. A series of fiery crosses is lit amongst the hillsides, calling the men of Scotland to arms. The Jacobite Uprising of 1715 is here, and if Brian does not heed the call to fight alongside his clan, he’ll be exiled or worse. Ellen swears to remain by his side—this time as a Fraser rather than a MacKenzie—no matter what violence might come.

That’s all well and good for the newlyweds, but what about those with a few more years of marriage under their belt? Ah, yes! Henry and Julia are also in this episode—though they don’t enjoy nearly as much action, romantic or otherwise. Most of their limited screen time consists of flashbacks to their time raising Claire in London, or of scenes depicting their quick escape from Castle Leathers.

Simon, still smarting from being insulted at the tynchal last episode, demands that Julia come to his bedchamber that evening and consummate their sham marriage. But Julia doesn’t plan to wait for night to descend before she’s out of his clutches. She arranges to meet Henry at a tree by the broken wall outside Leathers, and she tells Davina to inform Simon’s bodyman, Balloch, that she’s been kidnapped; she believes it’s the only way Simon won’t suspect Davina’s involvement in her flight. As Balloch runs to attack Julia’s “kidnapper,” Henry jumps out from behind the tree and smashes a rock against the bodyman’s head, allowing him, his wife, and their child to make a run for it on horseback.

They do, eventually, make it back to the standing stones of Craigh na Dun, where they realize—wait a second!—baby William might not be able to time-travel like they can. What if they attempt to slip through the stone’s invisible passageway and instead leave William behind? They can’t bear the thought. But with Arch Bug and his cavalry hot on their heels, they have only a few moments to make their choice. They agree that one of them will stay behind while the other will attempt to travel with William. If William can’t go through, the one staying behind will care for him, alone, until the other can return to the 1700s. Julia pleads for Henry to go; she has the protection of Clan Fraser on her side, after all. But Henry refuses, taking her arm and twisting it toward the rock. We don’t actually see her hand touch the stones before the scene cuts away to a flashback—a cute but ultimately inconsequential one in which toddler Claire waves goodbye to her parents at the London train station—so we’ll have to wait until season 2 premieres to learn what actually goes down in the fairy circle.

No matter what comes next, the cliffhanger ending for both couples is a stirring—if not exactly satisfying—one. It helps that fans don’t have a Droughtlander: Blood of My Blood Edition awaiting us. With season 2 currently in production in Scotland, the Fraser-Beauchamp saga is well on its way to the next chapter.