"I will stand with you, whatever comes. We are one."
Hello everyone!
To a point.
It's going to be a much shorter post tonight unfortunately because I'm mostly just super tired all the time, and had to drag myself out of bed just now, BUT.
I CANNOT just stay sleeping anymore. It'll ruin my rhythm altogether!
So it's time we hop back in time a little bit, and check out the Scottish Highlands yet again.
Because nothing says 'welcome back, baby' as an Outlander-related prequel.
Blood of My Blood, here we come!
Links to previous related posts can be found at the bottom of the page, as per usual, and I've done a fair amount of Outlander reviews on this blog by now, so there might be a few!
But BoMB, as it's affectionately called among fans, isn't quite Outlander, in the sense we don't get the main storyline - that's coming early 2026, don't you worry, but this is just to tide us over.
This is how Jamie and Claire Fraser's parents met, fell in love, and had time-travelling adventured of their own.
Henry Beauchamp is a soldier during WWI and writes a 'To Whom It May Concern' letter, which gets picked up by Julia Morris, working at the post office and aiding the war effort. He's a bit of a dreamer while she's pragmatic and wants to get higher education later on when she can, and the two forge an instant connection through letter-writing.
Then she fears him dead, but actually, he shows up in London, and they end up getting married before you can say HEY!
Afterwards, Julia comes to learn Henry has a few demons dogging him from his army days, as the war is declared finished and everyone returns home; PTSD is STRONG, y'all, but so is Julia, and she loves the man so much so she does everything in her power to help him.
When baby Claire is born, their lives seem complete - until Julia reveals she's pregnant again, the two head on off to Scotland for a work trip Henry needs to take, and fall through the standing stones near Inverness back in time, ending up separated.
Julia gets sold to none other than Simon Fraser, Lord of Lovat, aka the Old Fox, aka Jamie's grandfather. Because she's pregnant, she's forced to take drastic measures, hops into bed with the old geezer, and claims the kid's his, though that backfires a little when, instead of just accepting another bastard - like someone else we'll talk about in just a second - he decides to marry her and make it all official, because a fortune teller proclaims that someone of Lovat's line would become king of Scotland.
As the Jacobite issue is currently a hot topic in those parts, that's something the Old Fox is REALLY keen on - well, that and restoring his reputation - so Julia's hands are tied. Thankfully, she knows a few tricks to keep the coot out of her bed, and never ceases searching for Henry, especially after the birth of their son William.
Henry, for his part, fares slightly better in that he becomes bladier to Clan Grant, sort of becoming interconnected with Highlands politics through that, and initially gets told his wife and child died, leading to a bit of a mental break for him.
Then he accidentally runs into Julia while at Castle Leoch for a Grant matter, and the two then begin conspiring how to FINALLY get the heck out of dodge. They run off together in the season finale, with pursuers hot on their heels, but we don't really know whether or not only one or both (or all three) manage to go back through the stones as the season ends before that.
BUT, we also have a second couple here in this story: Brian Fraser, oldest bastard son of ye Ole Fox, and Ellen MacKenzie, oldest child of Clan MacKenzie and sister to Dougal, Collum and Jocasta. They meet during her father's funeral, have an instant connection, and while both recognize this is something that should lead nowhere, they just keep getting drawn back into each other's circle.
Brian's the one who takes Ellen's maidenhead after hand-fasting them, for example, and while Ellen is betrothed to Malcolm Grant, erstwhile heir to his clan, she's scheming to find a way out of it all.
She nearly gets herself killed in the process too, when Simon Fraser accuses her of loose morals and has her chastity questioned, which is where Julia comes in and how she ends up at Castle Leoch to meet Henry, as she concocts something to help Ellen through the investigation.
The love Brian and Ellen share is so powerful and so fiery it may incinerate and burn everyone and everything around them, as Ellen is free to simply be Ellen, not a MacKenzie, with him, and he's a man of worth in her eyes while everyone else sees him as a bastard.
Of course Dougal's getting into the Jacobite cause at this time, which is giving Collum premature grey hair - the two of them, as per a solution Ellen fixed up to not ruin their clan, are ruling the MacKenzies together, as war chief and laird, respectively, but that doesn't mean they don't butt heads.
In fact, if Ellen had been born a boy, she'd have been the perfect leader.
Mrs Fitzgibbons warns Brian to stay away from Ellen if he wants her happiness, though Brian might have gone against that despite losing Murtagh's friendship over the fact that the guy's been pining for Ellen forever and feels Brian stole her right out from under his nose - but equally, our Fraser is determined enough, and would have kept on pushing.
But Ellen runs into Malcolm's uncle after his father dies, who threatens her rather directly, so she pulls the 'I don't really love you' card and pushes Brian away for his own safety.
Equally, however, Dougal tells Collum about Brian, and while he swears to Ellen he'll let him be, he secretly hires assassins, and only Murtagh manages to save Brian from getting killed, though he gets hurt in the process.
Brian rushes to Leoch on the eve of the wedding to tell Ellen of this, and realizing that her brother broke his word, Ellen takes off with her beau, though not before they sadly have to engage with Malcolm. Brian ends up killing him - not on purpose - and they flee, leaving Collum to fix the mess by marrying Dougal to Malcolm's sister so the alliance stands.
... which just goes to show they needed A MacKenzie, not necessarily Ellen.
While on the run, however, the lovers see fiery crosses lit across the Highlands, a call to every man to come to their laird, and fight for the Jacobite cause, so it's gonna be a BUMPY ride before it's all over!
But we'll have to wait and see what happens when season two airs, and thankfully we know we're already getting it!
BoMB has a lot of empty space to cover because we only really know that Ellen ran with Brian during a MacKenzie gathering, and they stayed in hiding until she was so far along with her first pregnancy nobody could deny their marriage, and for Henry and Julia we only know they never came back from their Scotland getaway.
All the rest is basically grey waters!
And as far as I'm concerned it's rather amusing to watch, although I'll admit that the Henry/Julia separation lasted FOREVER. I'm hopeful they get to stay together now in season two, and the Frasers, as we all know, will just keep going from strength to strength.
They managed brilliant work on the casting, particularly in Brian Fraser, because Jamie Roy literally sounds like Sam Heughan on multiple occasions, and I AM HERE FOR IT. The cast does need a little bit to find common ground and the story has to finally get going, but it's nothing too bad and I enjoyed every episode of the season.
Overall, definitely a show I'll come back to watch once the second season airs! Absolutely recommend for any Outlander fan.
xx
*images and video not mine
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