‘Outlander: Blood of My Blood’ Aftershow: Inside Brian’s Visit to Notorious Fort William

A devastating battle, a murder in self-defense, a kidnapping. The fifth episode of this Outlander prequel’s second season nearly matched the action in Ellen MacKenzie’s (Harriet Slater) deadly defense of Castle Leoch — plus offered quieter scenes hinting at tragedies to come. TV Insider broke it all down with Outlander: Blood of My Blood executive producer Matthew B. Roberts. Watch the video above for our full conversation about the episode.

One chilling moment came after the Battle of Sheriffmuir when Ellen’s love, Brian Fraser (Jamie Roy), and his cousin Murtagh (Rory Alexander) set off to rescue the captured Dougal MacKenzie (Sam Retford) from the franchise’s notorious Fort William. Outlander fans know that in the original series, Fort William is where Black Jack Randall (Tobias Menzies) flogged Brian’s son, Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan) so horribly that witnessing it gave Brian a stroke that led to his death.

Roberts previews what’s to come when Brian visits the place that will one day be the beginning of his end: “If you’ve never seen an episode of Outlander or read the books, it’s a cool little adventure that these two characters are going to go on. If you have, a lot of that is going to be impactful for you. We have a little surprise for some people. I think they’ll be surprised with what Brian, Murtagh, and Dougal encounter at Fort William.”

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Another post-battle shocker for Outlander fans was when Henry (Jeremy Irvine) was congratulated on his fighting skills by none other than Lord John Grey’s (David Berry) father, Captain Lord Gerard Grey (Digby Edgley). “He’s a great character. We think there’s a lot of stuff that if you look at the books and even the Lord John books [spinoff novels from Diana Gabaldon, who wrote the Outlander bestsellers on which the mothership series is based], you can find some really great nuggets of story. So, we’re mining everything,” Roberts says.

It also turns out Ellen isn’t the only woman on the series who can kill to survive. 20^th century time traveler Julia (Hermione Corfield) strangled Seema (Lauren McQueen) in self-defense. It was an unimaginable act for the old Julia of post WWI London and one of the things that will make her and Henry reconsider if they can return to 1924 and have everything be as it was. “They will start shedding that belief. There’s a big conversation [coming up] between the two of them about their plans,” says Roberts, who promises we’ll find out more about the aftermath of Seema’s death at the top of the sixth episode.

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And then there’s Ellen. After fending off McKinney, the son of the man she’d killed defending Castle Leoch, and saving herself and maidservant Grace (Ruby Fubara), Ellen was kidnapped by evil and traitorous Lord Lovat’s (Tony Curran) strongman, Balloch (Chick Allan). But if Lovat knew how handy Ellen was with a dirk, he might not have wanted her under his roof at Castle Leathers. Seems like Ellen and the women there could make a powerful team. Roberts hints of what will happen there, “It’s very intriguing to watch, but also there’s some heartbreak.”

Watch the video above for our full interview with Roberts to hear about what Colum’s (Séamus McLean Ross) portentous speech in the episode’s opening might mean; how worried we should be about his wife Letitia’s (Rebekah Lumsden) pregnancy (very); and that haunting blood-spattered and riderless white horse seen darting among the soldiers in the Battle of Sheriffmuir.

Outlander: Blood of My Blood, Fridays, Starz