Outlander: Blood of My Blood Season 2 is almost here! And, after those Season 1 cliffhangers, we had a LOT of questions. Thankfully, the new episodes wastes no time getting us back into the lives of Brian, Ellen, Henry, and Julia, but it also makes one thing very clear: surviving what came before doesn’t mean things are going to get easier. Quite the opposite. Ready?
Here we go!
Blood of My Blood Season 2 Gets Bigger Without Losing Its Heart
One of the things we loved about Season 1 of Blood of My Blood was how personal everything felt. Yeah, there were clans, politics, war, secrets, time travel, and all the stuff. But at the center of it all were people making impossible choices because of the people they loved. And Season 2 keeps that.
The difference is that now those choices have much bigger consequences.
The first episodes throw the characters into a war where the Jacobite Rising is beginning to change everything around them. The call to arms means that Brian and Ellen, who desperately want to stay together, are being pulled in different directions, while old family conflicts become even harder to ignore. The season shows how the war reaches the homes, the marriages, the siblings, and every relationship caught in between.
In Season 2, Brian and Ellen are still deeply committed to each other, but now they have to take care of responsibilities that cannot be pushed aside. Their relationship is tested because they belong to different clans, have different responsibilities, and cannot always control where those loyalties take them. That gives Jamie Roy and Harriet Slater plenty to work with, and they deliver.
Brian, in particular, is stepping into a new role this season. There is a sense that he is beginning to understand what it means to lead, to fight, and to make decisions that affect more than just himself. But what makes this interesting is that his desire to protect Ellen never disappears. If anything, it makes those choices harder.
And Ellen? Well, we already knew she was clever. Season 2 makes it very clear that she is also someone you really don’t want to underestimate. The first episodes give her plenty of opportunities to use everything she learned from her family and her upbringing.
There is a wonderful sense of continuity there because the Ellen we see now is still recognizably the woman we met in Season 1, but she has been forced to grow into someone who can take charge when the people around her aren’t able to. She’s a leader too. In her own right.
That becomes particularly important as the men leave to deal with the coming conflict and the women are left facing problems of their own. The season gives the women of Leoch considerably more to do. And we love that!
Also, Blood of My Blood is clearly more confident now. The world feels larger and the show still gets to play with the contrast between the Highlands and the twentieth-century storyline. At the same time, the show never forgets that these aren’t just historical events happening around characters. Every major development has a cost. Every win has a price.
And that’s exactly what we want from Outlander universe.
Family Is Just as Dangerous as War
If there is one theme that keeps coming back throughout these first episodes, it is family. And, oh my goodness, these families have problems! While the camaraderie between Jocasta and Ellen continues to thrive, family relationships are more complicated than ever this season.
Ellen’s return to Leoch is loaded with history, particularly when it comes to Colum. Their relationship has changed, and the show doesn’t pretend that one conversation can magically fix everything. There is hurt there. There is anger. And there are things that haven’t been forgotten. And because they are siblings, because they are MacKenzies, they cannot walk away from each other either.
Ellen feels betrayed by Colum and doesn’t believe she can forgive him, that she can trust him again. And Colum feels betrayed by Ellen, as if she chose a stranger before supporting him, her brother, and her clan. But maybe Colum realizes that Ellen never turned her back on her clan or her family, despite everything, and begins to value her as she deserves… and regrets having betrayed her. Time will tell if that regret came too late.
Another complicated family relationship is Brian and Lovat’s. Everything is even more tense between them this season after Brian chose Ellen over Lovat but, at the same time, both feel forced to join together because of the war that is coming. It’s a ticking time bomb that ends up exploding sooner rather than later… and it’s not pretty. But perhaps Brian will begin to learn that he doesn’t need Lovat’s approval to be the leader he is called to be.
On the other hand, Maura begins to become part of the MacKenzies in the middle of a complicated situation after Malcolm’s death. She carries the Grants with her. She carries Malcolm’s death with her. Maura has her own reasons for making the choices she does, and those reasons don’t always line up neatly with what the MacKenzies need.
One part of her wants revenge, the other knows that she is now also a MacKenzie, so it’s inevitable that those two sides will clash… and come face-to-face with Ellen. In addition, there is a spark, an understanding between Maura and Dougal, it’s not love but there is attraction, passion, and the fact that they both agree on finding common ground that allows them to have a peaceful marriage, the two of them support each other.
Meanwhile, Jocasta gets more space this season, and that is a very good thing. Her situation with the Camerons adds another layer to her character, while her connection to Ellen gives us a glimpse of the sisterly dynamic we didn’t get enough of in Season 1. The show also continues developing Murtagh’s story, giving him a new thread and allowing us to see a different side of the character.
Henry and Julia Remain the Season’s Biggest Question Mark
And then there’s Henry and Julia. If Brian and Ellen’s story is about trying to find a way forward while everything around them pulls them apart, Henry and Julia’s story is about trying to find each other when even time itself seems determined to make that impossible.
We can’t get into the specifics of what happens across these first episodes. Trust us, there are reasons you will want to experience those developments for yourself. What we can say is that the season does not make things easy for them.
The first part of the season establish that their plans haven’t gone exactly as expected, and Julia finds herself dealing with a situation that forces her to be extremely careful about who she trusts and what she reveals. Her relationship with Davina also becomes much more important, giving Julia someone she can confide in while she tries to navigate a situation that becomes increasingly complicated.
Meanwhile, Henry’s storyline takes the show somewhere very different. His storyline is difficult to watch at times, and Jeremy Irvine is just brilliant. Julia, meanwhile, has to keep going. Like always, she isn’t waiting around for someone else to solve everything for her. Even when she is vulnerable, there is still that determination underneath it all.
So we know what they are fighting for…we just don’t know how much it is going to cost them.
After these episodes, that’s the biggest takeaway from Blood of My Blood Season 2. The show isn’t interested in giving these characters an easy road. It’s interested in testing what they are willing to sacrifice for love, family, loyalty, and survival. And somehow, despite everything, there are still moments that make us smile.
If Season 1 was about finding that love, Season 2 is about finding out what happens when the whole world asks you to choose between it and everything else. And we still don’t have all the answers… but we’re ready to find out.
Outlander: Blood of My Blood Season 2 will premiere on September 18 only on STARZ.
