Outlander: Blood of my Blood season 1 episode 4 recap: Hopes and schemes

NOTE: This post contains spoilers for Outlander: Blood of my Blood’s fourth episode, "A soldier's heart”.

Now that the MacKenzies have new leadership, Ellen hopes to get out of her betrothal to Malcolm Grant while Henry has to collect rent for his laird, and Julia tries to avoid Lord Lovat’s attention.

Can she find a way to escape Castle Leathers by befriending Brian Fraser? Will Henry manage to stay on the good side of the Grants? Let’s recap what happens in this new episode of Blood of my Blood.

Fairies and subterfuge

As Julia continues her work at Castle Leathers, she learns about the local superstitions around the fairy folk from Mrs. Porter, who is a bit on edge as the laird is on his way back from doing business in Edinburgh and a lot of work needs to be done. To ease Mrs. Porter’s concerns, Julia offers to go and make an offering to the fairy folk in the hope they’ll avoid their wrath.

Indeed, the fairy folk play tricks on people who are not careful, like hiding their things, spoiling their milk or stealing their babies. Given that she’s traveled through time and all, Julia is a little more open to the idea of fairies now than she used to be, so might as well be careful.

Later on, Julia writes to Henry about what she had to do to protect their child (sleep with Lord Lovat) and how it was to prevent their child from being taken from her. However, the upcoming return of the laird to the castle worries Julia, as she wants to avoid him getting the idea that they’ll sleep together on the regular now.

So, to avoid attracting Lord Lovat’s attention, Julia rubs nettle over her arms and neck to give herself a rash. When he gets home and sees it, the laird is immediately concerned it’s contagious, but Julia assures him there is a remedy for it that she could get if she were allowed to visit an apothecary. However, Mrs. Porter won’t allow it, saying the rash is a curse from the fairy folk. Wanting none of that in his house, Lovat instructs Julia to do whatever it takes to get rid of the rash, and Brian volunteers to take her to Beauly.

Ellen’s fate isn’t her own

Upon his father’s return, Brian gives Lord Lovat a letter received from the Grants while he was away. The letter isn’t from Isaac Grant himself but from his bladier (Henry), explaining the Grants don’t have enough evidence to go back on their agreement with the MacKenzies.

Brian is relieved to see his father did not succeed in tarnishing Ellen’s reputation, but Lord Lovat doesn’t intend to leave things at that. He insists there must be a stain on her honor explaining why she hasn’t been married yet, and Brian fails to reason with him.

Meanwhile at Castle Leoch, Colum tells Ellen that Malcolm Grant has requested she goes to Beltane with him, a festival that will happen near Inverness. He adds that Ned will accompany her to the celebration and that she must attend it with a smile on her face. Ellen does not intend to marry Malcolm though, and tells her brother to say whatever he needs to say to Isaac Grant to break the agreement they made.

Colum, however, is very much aware of what the Grants are capable of if things do not go their way, and tells his sister the story of another Grant marriage that did not go through, implying that if Ellen does not comply, Isaac Grant could have her killed. Plus, there is another reason she should marry Malcolm: the MacKenzies are broke and the clan is on the precipice of destitution thanks to their late father.

If he marries Malcolm Grant, Ellen could save the MacKenzies from financial ruin, and then be their eyes and ears at Castle Grant. However, Ellen reminds Colum that if he sells her to the Grants, he will be relinquishing her loyalty to them as well. She then storms out, runs into Dougal, gives him another earful, and takes off.

A bladier’s job

At Mistress Hay’s brothel, the owner tells Henry she has found the Englishwoman he was looking for. He is hopeful it is Julia, but things are not that easy for poor Henry. On one hand, he is relieved to see that the woman Mistress Hay brought him is not Julia, because he would have been crushed to see his wife working in a brothel. On the other hand, he’d really like to see his wife again.

Later, Isaac Grant tells Henry he is sending him out to collect rent from the clan’s tenants and explain to them that there is an increase to what they usually pay. Grant also warns Henry not to return with excuses instead of money.

On quarter day, Henry advises the tenants about the rent increase, but soon runs into ones who cannot pay, and one even refuses to pay before starting a fight with Henry, who defends himself a bit too well, his anger bringing him back to the fighting of World War One.

Mr. Bug tells Henry he has to be firm about the rent increase, otherwise when they’ll return to Castle Grant without the money the laird expects and Henry’s head could end up on a pike like his predecessor’s.

A flashback brings us back to 1920s London, as Henry is having a nightmare about what happened in the trenches of the Great War, and a pregnant Julia manages to soothe his PTSD episode by singing to him a song and giving him her necklace to keep close wherever he goes.

The following day, he apologizes for scaring Julia and tells her there is something broken in him. She assures him she fell in love with the man he is now, the man who went through the war, and she asks him to let her and the baby be his guiding light. He tells her that if the child is a girl, they should name her Claire, because it means clear and bright in French, “like their future,” Julia agrees.

Yet another flashback, finding the couple discussing lottery tickets and the value of it giving people hope, informs Henry’s decision back in the present. Indeed, he decides to change the way he is going about collecting the rent and asking for the increase by adding a lottery twist to the entire affair, enticing tenants to pay more than what they can in the hope of winning a year rent-free.

It works: tenants are eager to participate in the lottery and Henry collects all the money Grant could wish for. However, when Henry and Bug get back to Castle Grant, the laird is a bit annoyed that Henry did not follow his instructions to the letter. Although he is pleased to have more than double the money he asked for, he isn’t fond of the “rent-free” prize. He makes it clear that if Henry crosses him again, the bladier will not remain in his good graces.

When Henry leaves, Bug tells Isaac he suspects something is off about Henry and asks if Grant wants him to kill the new bladier. The laird says “not yet” but asks Bug to watch him more closely.

And because Henry doesn’t really have much else to do, he goes back to the brothel to see not-Jullia. He tells her the lady he is looking for is his wife, and that he has been searching for her for months. He does not want to have sex with not-Julia, but he is lonely and sad and would like to just lie there next to her.

Julia and Ellen meet

Off to Beauly with Julia, Brian asks her about the rash but she prefers to avoid the subject. Instead, she asks him why he is still at Leathers when he is at an age where he could have his own family. Brian explains that being a bastard doesn’t make that easy and that he doesn’t have much to offer. He also explains he did leave the year before but decided to return, mostly for his mom’s haggis, or so he says.

Soon enough, it turns out Brian has not brought Julia to Beauly, but to Castle Leoch. He knows she feigned her illness and needs her help. He wants her to go deliver a message to Ellen, but she tells him she is pregnant and does not want to put her baby in danger. He reassures her she won’t be in harm's way, and says that if she helps him, he will help her escape Leathers.

Julia goes to the castle and asks for Mrs. Fitz, explaining she is a servant from Leathers and that she got lost nearby and went to Leoch for refuge since she knows of Mrs. Fitz from her nephew, Murtagh. She then manages to ditch Mrs. Fitz and go find Ellen, who is at first hesitant to hear her message.

Ellen explains she cannot go meet Brian, as her brothers are keeping her at Leoch until Beltane and her every move are being watched. She tells Julia she is to attend the festival with Malcolm Grant and might even get locked in a 100-year dance with the fairies. That’s a legend about how, on Beltane, fairies lure travelers to a hill for a night of dancing, but when the travelers return home, they discover a 100 years have passed.

That reminds Julia of something: a fairy hill, near Inverness, marked with standing stones, where all one has ever known is gone… Craigh Na Dun! So while Ellen wonders if it’d be best if the fairies did take her, Julia figures she needs to go to Beltane too to get to the last place she saw Henry, the stones.

She manages to convince Ellen to go see Brian, knowing what it’s like to be apart from the one you love. So, the two women sneak out of Leoch, and Ellen gets to see her boo. He asks if she wants to marry Malcolm Grant and she reassures him her feelings have not changed. They swear to find a way out of her betrothal and make plans to meet up again at Beltane. Brian and Julia leave before Dougal shows up to have another argument with his sister, because those two get along like cats and dogs.

The next day, Ellen gives Colum a list of wedding guests and explains she thought about their conversation and his warning, and that she cannot afford to lose him or let the clan fall to ruin. She tells him she will marry Malcolm without resisting and accompany him to Beltane. Obviously, she doesn’t intend to follow through with that wedding but the details of her plan (if she has one already) should emerge in future episodes.

On the way back to Leathers, Julia offers to help Brian get in touch with Ellen at Beltane, because she wants to see if he can find her husband near Inverness. Upon their return at the castle, Lord Lovat summons Julia, happy to see her rash is gone. He wants to fool around with her but Julia says they have to be careful because she is now carrying his child. Mrs. Porter hears the “happy” news and it’s pretty clear from the way she looks at Julia that she knows the bairn isn’t the laird’s.

What will happen at Beltane? Will Brian and Ellen find a way to be together? Tune in next week for a new episode of Outlander: Blood of my Blood, on Starz and MGM+, to find out.