‘Outlander: Blood of My Blood’ Stars Warn of ‘Super High’ Stakes in Season 2 Premiere

A rescue mission at a craggy seaside castle was about to go very wrong, and some of our favorite kilted heroes were getting heated about how to salvage it. A dirk. A protest. A scuffle. It wasn’t clear if everyone would make it out alive. That’s a quick peek at one of the scenes we observed on an October visit to the set of Outlander: Blood of My Blood in Scotland, where shooting was at the midway point of the second season.

“There are a lot of ups and a lot of downs. There are going to be some hard episodes to watch,” previews Matthew B. Roberts, the show’s executive producer. Roberts served in the same role on Outlander, based on Diana Gabaldon‘s bestselling novels, and with the author’s blessing brought this original prequel to life. Its popularity and stellar reviews have proven that both Claire’s and Jamie’s ancestors can bring us the same magic, romance, and adventure as one of TV’s greatest couples of all time.

In the debut-season finale, Jamie’s 18th-century star-crossed parents, savvy and smart Ellen MacKenzie (Harriet Slater) and stoic, brave Brian Fraser (Jamie Roy), had finally run away together. During their escape, they were attacked by Ellen’s betrothed, Malcolm Grant (Jhon Lumsden), and Brian murdered him in self-defense. After Brian and Ellen’s first night together, they awoke to a hillside of fiery crosses calling men to war with England.

“The way Season 2 starts, we jump straight to the action,” Roy says. “The stakes are super high. We’ve got to stay and fight, or we’re leaving [and running] for the rest of our lives.”

Brian, along with his best friend Murtagh (Rory Alexander), will return to Castle Leathers, ruled by cruel Lord Lovat (Tony Curran), Brian’s father, to fight with the Fraser clan in the second season. Brian is tasked with getting men to join them and will reveal some Jamie Fraser–level leadership spirit in rallying everyone. Roy admitted he was surprised when reading the script. “I couldn’t believe Brian has to go back to Lovat and talk to him again,” he says. The Laird, who has previously cruelly beaten and berated his bastard son, will choose the side of the conflict that will best elevate his status.

Ellen will go back to Castle Leoch, where her leadership-sharing brothers, war chief Dougal (Sam Retford) and clan chief Colum (Séamus McLean Ross), are at odds. Dougal wants to fight. Colum is hesitant. Ellen is stuck in the middle…again.

“I was glad that she gets to go back to Leoch. It felt like she was shutting the door on Colum forever,” Slater says. “But it was also very frustrating because we’ve waited so long for [Ellen and Brian] to get together, and they’re torn apart immediately! We see a different side of them both, which times of war have brought out. They’ve left quite a mess behind them, and she’s got to face the music.”

Colum may be a wild card. “The problems keep mounting,” Ross says. “The choices he’s made and the cost to be laird are weighing him down.” Dougal will adjust to his hastily arranged marriage to Malcolm’s sister, Maura Grant (Bobby Rainsbury). “It becomes a relationship that works in their favors,” Retford says. But, Rainsbury adds, the sisters-in-law clash: “Maura doesn’t like people playing games with her, and that’s exactly what Ellen does.”

Also in for a shock are Claire’s mother and father, who have time-traveled from the 20th century. In the finale, intelligent, resourceful Julia Moriston (Hermione Corfield) and shell-shocked World War I veteran and lawyer Henry Beauchamp (Jeremy Irvine), along with their newborn, reached the stone circle to return to their era—and baby Claire. It will not go as planned. “He ends up somewhere unexpected and is going to battle with his mental health and PTSD,” Irvine reveals. “He develops allies in the most unlikely places.”

Corfield adds, “Julia [too] meets a few new people later in the season, but at the start there are some old faces that pop up, and those relationships develop and change.” Let’s just say we’re hoping for a reunion with her pal Brian and not her keeper Lord Lovat!

Outlander, Fridays, 8/7c, Starz

Outlander: Blood of My Blood, Season 2 Premiere, TBA, Starz

For more inside scoop on the final episodes of Outlander, straight from the Season 8 set, pick up a copy of TV Guide Magazine’s Farewell Outlander Collector’s Issue, available at Outlander.TVGM2026.com and on newsstands now.