Outlander: Blood of My Blood Season 1 is just a few days away from hitting our screens. After watching the first six episodes of the Outlander prequel, we’re ready to unravel—spoiler-free—everything that awaits us in our advanced review.
Brian & Ellen Are the Engine of Everything in Outlander: Blood of My Blood
Brian and Ellen make the show work. It’s that simple. Don’t get us wrong, Outlander: Blood of My Blood does a great job of making us know and love—or hate—the other characters. But the truth is, it’s all about Brian and Ellen. Their chemistry is pure magic. They carry the weight, and it makes sense. Ellen is brave, cunning, and intelligent, but she’s also so much more than that. She’s a woman ahead of her time who has everything it takes to be Chief of her Clan. If only she were a man.
Not being a man not only prevents Ellen from being Chief of the Clan, but no one takes her seriously, and her brothers believe they can sell her like some kind of commodity. Ellen rebels against all this, against the role she’s destined to play. And while she tries to fight for the right to decide over her own life, she meets Brian.
Brian is also struggling, but it’s a different struggle. In Outlander: Blood of My Blood, he struggles not to let his father’s obvious contempt affect him. And he struggles not to become someone as despicable as him. When he meets Ellen, the world stops turning for him for a moment. Until it starts again… and he can’t stop thinking about her.
They both know their families would never accept a courtship between them because their Clans are enemies, so they try to resist. But they can’t. And they end up alone in the middle of the Highlands, unable to stop looking at each other, unable to stop taking a step towards each other. So, without either of them planning it, they find themselves at a crossroads: they must choose between their love and their duty to their families and their Clans.
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Julia & Henry Work…But We Need Something More
While Brian and Ellen carry most of the weight of Outlander: Blood of My Blood on their back, Julia and Henry carry the rest. And their love stories are as different as oil and water. Each one has something that makes it unique, but in Julia and Henry’s case, we feel like we’re missing something. Like a puzzle piece is missing. Maybe it has to do with expectations.
We expected that Outlander: Blood of My Blood would show us the evolution of Julia and Henry’s relationship from the beginning. And while we see flashbacks about how their relationship began, the series focuses on the development of their relationship at a very specific point in their life together. That was unexpected, although it certainly answers one of the big questions we always had.
However, feeling like we’ve watched most of their relationship in fast-forward doesn’t do Julia and Henry any favors. We feel like we’re missing something to truly connect with them. In that sense, while a relationship that develops through letters like Julia and Henry’s isn’t something common, it’s also a double-edged sword.
The letters are beautiful, but they make us lose the physical connection, so we don’t feel that electricity of those first glances, those first smiles. And we need that connection to fully immerse ourselves in their relationship, to fall down the rabbit hole and never come out.
Although we get to know the characters through Outlander, this is the first time they’re more than just a memory. In Outlander: Blood of My Blood, they’re real. We get to truly see what they’re like for the first time. And we really need to feel that Jamie and Claire’s parents experienced a love as strong and special as theirs. The show makes you feel that with Brian and Ellen, but not so much with Julia and Henry. Although we’re sure they’ll achieve it.
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Echoes of the Past in Outlander: Blood of My Blood
Along with the two central couples, in Outlander: Blood of My Blood, we find some characters we met in their older versions, such as Dougal, Colum, Ned, Jocasta, Murtagh, and Lord Lovat. The show had a huge challenge trying to match the image we all have of them with this new, much younger, less wise version, almost like the beginnings of the people we know they will become, but it succeeds with flying colors.
We were quite surprised to be able to look at their younger versions and see how everything fit together in our heads. However, this could have backfired. If they look too similar to their older versions, where does their growth take place? But Outlander: Blood of My Blood solves this problem very well because, while the essence of the characters is there and they are clearly recognizable, you can also see how much they still have to grow and mature to become the people we met in Outlander.
Beyond this, the power struggle between Dougal and Colum is especially interesting. While Dougal is impulsiveness personified, Colum is restraint, cunning. And much more is achieved with cunning than with violence. And don’t forget to keep an eye on Jocasta. She always felt less than Ellen. As if Ellen counted for everyone, but she didn’t count for anyone. And she’s worked hard to be seen by her family, especially her father. And jealousy is never a good advisor.
We’ll finish our advanced review of Outlander: Blood of My Blood here. Stay tuned for a weekly review starting August 8.
Outlander: Blood of My Blood will premiere on August 8 on STARZ.
