RECAP: ‘Outlander: Blood Of My Blood’ Season 2 Episode 7 — “Heart Of The Highlands”

Outlander: Blood of My Blood Season 2 Episode 7 is full of revenge and heartbreak as Brian (Jamie Roy) avenges Ellen (Harriet Slater) for her ordeal at Castle Leathers, while Henry (Jeremy Irvine) gets a step closer to securing his and Julia’s (Hermione Corfield) freedom.

Clan Mackenzie prepares burial shrouds for their dead from the Battle of Sheriffmuir and Dougal’s (Sam Retford) subsequent failed ambush on a troop of redcoats. Dougal returns, with Brian and Murtagh (Rory Alexander) in tow. Colum (Séamus McLean Ross) orders Dougal to look at the women, including the shrouds and Dougal’s wife, Maura (Bobby Rainsbury), and consider how his actions have caused the clan to suffer. Dougal asks for Brian and Murtagh to be made welcome at the castle.

Henry and Julia’s story in Outlander: Blood of My Blood Season 2 Episode 7 opens in the 1920s.

But there’s no warm welcome for Dougal himself in Outlander: Blood of My Blood Season 2 Episode 7. Colum warns Dougal to leave soon because the English will be on his tail, and suggests he hide in a nearby cottage they used to play in as children. Later, Dougal and Maura reunite, but Dougal seems distracted until Maura pointedly says, “Be with me.” They’re more passionate moving forward, as Season 2 has seen them build on their relationship after their forced wedding in Season 1.

Brian asks to see Ellen, who’s recuperating from her ordeal in Outlander: Blood of My Blood Season 2 Episode 6. She tearfully tells Brian she’d hoped the unborn child she lost would be a girl so she could name the baby after her deceased sister, Janet. Brian says they can have more children someday, but Ellen tells him about how Lovat (Tony Curran) poisoned her in hopes of making her infertile. Brian leaves to confront his father.

Henry and Julia’s story in Outlander: Blood of My Blood Season 2 Episode 7 opens in the 1920s, as a newly married Henry and Julia run into Henry’s ex-girlfriend, Lottie (Lily Travers). Lottie is cold to Julia, insulting the simplicity of Julia’s amethyst-encrusted ring, and calls Julia a “dowdy little clerk.” Julia retorts that even though she has a simple ring, she also has Henry’s heart.

In the 1700s, Henry writes to Julia that he will meet her at the wall outside Castle Leathers.

Later, Julia worries that she was unkind, but Henry assures her that though Lottie was his first love, Julia is his last. Henry promises to take Julia to the place in Scotland where the amethyst from her ring was cut. This whole sequence seems like an inconsequential detour, as this is the first we’ve seen or heard of Lottie, but it brings crucial attention to the amethyst, which comes back around later in Outlander: Blood of My Blood Season 2 Episode 7. 

The action in Outlander: Blood of My Blood Season 2 Episode 7 then returns to the 1700s, where Henry writes to Julia that he will meet her at the wall outside Castle Leathers in three days’ time. When Julia returns to Castle Leathers, she discovers that the king has invited Lovat to an investiture. Julia’s excited to go, as an invitation from the king gives her a reason to leave the castle, but Lovat forbids Julia from going, believing her too unruly and uncontrollable to merit going.

Henry, meanwhile, is dealing with an investiture invitation of his own. Uncle Mac’s (Simon Merrells) sister Margaret (Erin Shanagher) is amused by redcoats on her way back to Scotland from London. The redcoats steal a valuable pearl necklace from Margaret but give her an invitation, intended for Uncle Mac, to the investiture. Henry and Arch (Terence Rae) offer to find the soldiers who took Margaret’s necklace, and Uncle Mac agrees.

Henry later tells Arch he won’t look for the necklace, but needs an excuse to be out of Uncle Mac’s sight so he can search for gemstones. Knowing that the amethyst from Julia’s ring came from a gorge in Scotland, Henry plans to head there, and Murdina (Sorcha Groundsell) urges Arch to join him, believing that faeries touched the gorge and that faeries might allow her and Arch to have a child.

Arch asks Henry if having children makes him feel secure in having a legacy, and Henry says it’s “a thousand times worse, knowing you left your children behind.” When they find the gorge, Henry chips away at the amethyst, finally securing a win for himself after a season of setbacks.

Murtagh wanders Castle Leoch on his own and finds Grace (Ruby Fubara), who plans to leave the next day with Jocasta (Sadhbh Malin) and John (Alastair Mackenzie), who are heading back to their own home. Murtagh shows Grace that he still has the cloth flower she gave him in Outlander: Blood of My Blood Season 2 Episode 4, but Grace worries they can’t start a relationship because “you’re Scottish, I’m English” (succinctly summing up all of the Outlander-verse in one sentence).

She reminds him she has over six years of servitude left to Jocasta and John and can’t promise Murtagh anything. He replies that he just wants time with her, not a promise, and Grace suggests they meet in a shed in the woods the next morning.

Murtagh and Grace meet in the shed before Grace can leave with the Camerons.

Brian confronts Lovat at Castle Leathers, threatening him at knifepoint until Julia intervenes, pointing out that if Brian is charged with Lovat’s murder, then he’ll be hanged and can never live a happy life with Ellen. Brian reluctantly relents, but demands that Lovat give him “the house at Broch Murda,” which Outlander fans will know and love as Lallybroch.

Lovat agrees, but Brian insists he’ll kill Lovat if he comes near Ellen again. Lovat, apparently in a moderately agreeable mood, decides to let Julia attend the investiture as long as she behaves as he likes. “I will be the picture of wifely duty,” Julia assures him.

As determined earlier, Murtagh and Grace meet in the shed before Grace can leave with the Camerons. They have a very lengthy sex scene, which feels like it will lead to them being interrupted given Outlander‘s propensity for drama, but they are mercifully allowed this moment in time to be happy. Enjoy it while it lasts, Murtagh and Grace, as you have the misfortune to be part of a franchise known for tormenting its most endearing characters.

Maisri is summoned to prophesy about what happens to Lovat when he meets the king.

As Brian journeys back to Castle Leoch, he comes across the bridge where he and Ellen first fell in love, and removes a stone from it. When he returns to Ellen, he says the stone will be the hearthstone for the home they will build together.

Ned (Conor MacNeill) and Colum discuss what can be done about Lovat poisoning Ellen. Colum declares that “a woman with no womb is worth nothing at all,” letting Outlander: Blood of My Blood Season 2 Episode 7 serve as proof that Colum is incapable of putting familial love over the future of Clan Mackenzie. Ned says that it will be difficult to prove that Lovat had Ellen poisoned, and that if Brian wouldn’t kill him, then Clan Mackenzie can’t, either.

Henry and Julia meet at the wall, and Henry proudly shows her the amethysts. Since Julia can’t leave Castle Leathers with baby William without attracting attention, they decide to escape at the investiture, since they will all be there, and Uncle Mac and Lovat will be too distracted by the king to care about Henry or Julia.

When Julia returns to the castle, she finds Maisri (Katharine O’Donnelly) there, summoned to prophesy about what happens to Lovat when he meets the king. Julia questions Maisri’s nerve to return after poisoning Ellen, but Maisri justifies her actions by saying she has to make a living somehow.

Outlander: Blood of My Blood Season 2 Episode 7 impressively balances its four protagonists’ stories.

Julia says she doesn’t believe Maisri’s predictions about baby William becoming king one day. Maisri dislikes questions about her prophetic powers, but can tell that Julia is from another time, and says Julia cannot time travel, but William can. Julia questions this, as she has time traveled before, but Maisri says that Julia only traveled because she was “carrying a traveler within.”

And since she was newly pregnant with William when she traveled through the stones, Maisri’s statement might hold some truth. Poor Julia is in shock as Outlander: Blood of My Blood Season 2 Episode 7 ends, realizing she might be stuck in her 1700s nightmare forever.

Outlander: Blood of My Blood Season 2 Episode 7 impressively balances not just its four protagonists’ stories, but also finds ample room for its supporting cast, from Dougal and Maura to Murtagh and Grace, as each couple progresses in their relationship. There’s less time devoted to Clan Mackenzie’s response to Lovat’s treachery and Dougal’s foolishness, but writers Luke Schelhaas and Sarah H. Haught make the most out of an episode packed with developments.

Outlander: Blood of My Blood fares best when its characters have room to breathe while still progressing the plot. Henry and Julia’s repeated failed attempts to escape 1700s Scotland, and Brian and Ellen’s longtime forbidden romance, only feel like fresh plots when the world around them changes, and their respective devotion to each other is tested on new levels. In a season caught between rapid development and surprising stagnancy, Outlander: Blood of My Blood Season 2 Episode 7 is an excellent hour in the Outlander-verse. 

Outlander: Blood of My Blood Season 2 Episode 7 is streaming now on Starz.

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