<i>Outlander: Blood of My Blood</i> Season 1, Episode 3 Recap: Daddy Issues

Spoilers below.

When Ellen’s not busy having steamy dreams about Brian, she’s got a serious case of eldest daughter syndrome to contend with. In episode 3, “School of the Moon,” Mrs. Fitz wakes Ellen from the subconscious reverie of sex with Brian, instead catapulting the MacKenzie firstborn back into the harsh light of reality. Her little brothers are making a mess of both clan politics and her love life. All of Leoch is abuzz with the news that she’ll soon marry Malcolm Grant, whom Ellen has absolutely no desire to wed. (Not when there’s a hunky Fraser just down the road.)

Much of the resulting episode concerns Ellen’s efforts not only to prevent her marriage but to stop her brothers from, however inadvertently, handing the lairdship to an outsider. First, she confronts Colum, the more rational of her male siblings. When it’s clear that he won’t respond to her anger, she tries to appeal to his common sense. She insists she’s more valuable to him within Leoch’s walls than in a Grant’s bed, and it’s ridiculous for her to have to atone for Dougal’s brash stupidity in episode 2. (Which...fair.) Ellen also makes it clear she’s heartbroken to watch Colum betray her, given that she nursed him back to health after the leg injury that almost killed him several years ago. He’s thankful for her tenderness, sure, but no amount of love between them can change what he feels he “must” do on behalf of the clan.

Unfortunately, her other brother is an equal source of consternation. Although Dougal claims he attacked the Grants to defend Ellen’s honor, she knows he “would have used any excuse to pick a fight with them.” Dougal tries to convince her it’s Colum who should receive the bulk of her ire—Colum made the betrothal arrangement! Colum broke their father’s promise!—and, initially, Ellen has little reason to disagree. At least until Dougal tries to marry her off, too.

When Dougal notices a certain visitor at the Gathering, Marcus MacRannoch, eyeing his sister from afar, he forgets all thought of Ellen’s honor. Instead, he brokers his own deal: If Dougal is to be made laird, he’d align himself with the Stuarts—and therefore with the broader Jacobite cause, of which MacRannoch is a part—by promising Ellen’s hand to MacRannoch himself. In response, McRannoch promises to make it known that “any clansman who desires a Stuart king [should] champion you as the laird.”

If all this talk of Jacobites and Stuarts reads like gibberish to you, here’s a quick primer for those less educated in 18th-century Scottish politics: Jacobitism was an ideology popular in the Highlands amongst those who wished for the royal House of Stuart to re-secure their seat on the British throne. This is relevant information for Outlander fans, given that the flagship series begins in 1743 and concerns the doomed Jacobite rebellion of that period. Both Dougal and young Jamie—Brian and Ellen’s future son—are Jacobite rebels when the show first begins. But as Blood of My Blood makes clear, their cause spread its roots long before Jamie was even born.

At the Gathering, nothing stays a secret for long, especially when Colum and Dougal are about as subtle with their intentions as Brian is with his affections. (Alas, more on that later.) When Ellen meets with her younger sisters, Janet and Jocasta, the latter informs her that Dougal’s plans have already gotten back to her. Her husband, John Cameron, is “intimate with the Jacobites and their leaders,” and he overheard whispers of Dougal’s offer to MacRannoch. Furious but hardly surprised, Ellen recognizes she’s become no more than “a piece on a chessboard” to the MacKenzie men. But it’s not only her fate at stake. Talking to Ned, she recognizes that if her idiot brothers continue to divide support amongst their clansmen, a third party (i.e. McKinney) will win the lairdship, and Clan MacKenzie as they know it might disappear.

All this sibling squabbling prompts Ellen to reflect on their collective childhood trauma. Years ago, during a midnight cattle raid, Colum and Dougal rode out together without Red Jacob to guide them. Initially intending to raid the Lowlands as their father had instructed, Dougal instead broke off to raid the MacDonalds’ lands, and the men of Clan MacKenzie—trusting Dougal’s prowess over Colum’s—followed him. Unfortunately, the MacDonalds caught on to this scheme and sounded the alarm. After one of them shot a fusil that startled Colum’s horse, the would-be laird fell, shattering his leg.

As Ellen’s flashback depicts, the brothers return home to a father who will show them no pity or concern. He is enraged that his men had “no faith” in Colum as a leader. Now, he sees his son only as “a cripple,” and his disgust literally injures Colum further. (When Colum attempts to prove to Red Jacob that he can still stand and fight, he instead tumbles down a set of stairs, worsening his condition all the more.) In the meantime, their father beats Dougal into submission with a whip, declaring him “a bloody fool.”

Ellen understands that the events of the cattle raid marked a turning point in their family. That night, Red Jacob lost his faith in his sons: He believed that neither Colum nor Dougal would make a worthy MacKenzie laird. But Ellen also knows that the lairdship is as much about words as it is war, regardless of whether the clansmen care more about pissing contests or collecting rents. And so she devises a plan that she asks Ned to present to her brothers: At the oath-taking ceremony, Colum and Dougal will announce their intentions to lead Clan MacKenzie together. Colum will serve as laird, while Dougal will become war chieftain.

When the brothers do indeed swear allegiance to each other at the oath-taking ceremony, Ellen could all but collapse in relief. The clansmen approve of the partnership—even MacKinney, once he realizes he can never stand against the MacKenzie boys as a unit. Watching from up on the balcony in Castle Leoch, Jocasta and Janet turn toward their older sister, knowing full well Ellen was the architect behind the arrangement. “You’ve managed it artfully,” Janet says, “as Da would’ve.” Wow, it’s almost as if Ellen herself should be leading this clan!

Afterward, in a brothel, Ned promises the Grants’ new bladier—one Henry Beauchamp—that the MacKenzies will maintain their vow: Regardless of how Colum and Dougal exercise their power, Ellen will marry Malcolm. And with this business now complete, Ned takes the opportunity to reward his new ally: He introduces Henry to the mistress, Una Hay, whom he claims would know of any “woman, alone, in Inverness.” Henry has little hope in this search, but he nevertheless describes his wife to Una, who promises she’ll send word when she tracks down Julia.

But, of course, Julia isn’t alone in Inverness. She’s hidden away at Castle Leathers, desperately trying to hide the growing swell of her stomach. Early in the episode, Davina walks in on Julia stowing her writing parchment in the ceiling boards. Surprised by the sudden intrusion, Julia’s hands fly momentarily to her abdomen, and Davina—appropriately suspicious—strips back her new maidservant’s sheets, inspecting them for blood. “I ken [understsand] you have a bellyful,” she says with a pointed look. Julia stumbles in her repeated attempts to deny the pregnancy. But Davina is not so easily tricked, and she encourages Julia to pursue an abortion. She claims the lost Mrs. Beauchamp will be “treated no better than dirt” as a lone woman with a child out in the Highlands, nor would Lord Simon Fraser of Lovat ever permit a bastard in his house.

Julia is quick to point out Davina’s hypocrisy: She had a bastard son, and he still lives under Simon’s roof, doesn’t he? But Davina outlines the key difference in their situations. Julia is carrying a fatherless child. Brian was and is the laird’s son. And Lord Lovat knows it, she says, almost sadly. If Julia decides to keep her baby, Simon will “get rid of the bairn [child] himself.”

Soon, Brian and Murtagh return from the Gathering, both of them heartbroken after having learned of Ellen’s pending betrothal. Somehow, Murtagh is clueless enough not to suspect his cousin’s crush, perhaps because Murtagh’s own undying love for Ellen has proven so enduring. But even with their sullen looks, they straighten their backs to present a report on the Gathering to Simon, initially focusing on which attendees supported the Jacobite cause. Brian, however, soon steers the conversation toward Colum’s alliance with the Grants, and, in particular, the ensuing union between Ellen and Malcolm. Initially, Simon reacts exactly as Brian expected he would: He’s angry, certain the MacKenzies now seek to turn the Grants—formerly a Fraser ally—against him.

“An engagement can be broken,” Simon plots, playing directly into Brian’s hand. But the young Fraser is aghast when his father hatches a nasty plan in response. Lord Lovat decides to launch a rumor, claiming that the reason Ellen has yet to marry is on account of a stained reputation. Brian objects to this idea, hoping for a “more honorable” way to halt Ellen and Malcolm’s wedding. But, really, what other way is there? What did Brian expect from his abusive, cold-hearted, power-hungry father?

At least Murtagh’s happy with the turn of events! He thinks Brian’s scheming is on his behalf. “If Malcolm refuses Ellen, I may yet have a chance of winning her hand,” he says with glee. “Suppose I should be thanking you.” Brian, hearing this, grimaces. But he doesn’t take the opportunity to correct his best friend. For now, the love between him and Ellen must remain a secret.

Elsewhere in Leathers, the secrets are proving impossible to conceal. Realizing she won’t be able to deny her pregnancy for much longer—especially now that Davina already suspects it—Julia realizes she has a terrible decision to make. She devises a scheme: She will sleep with Simon Fraser in order to convince him that the baby she’s carrying belongs to the laird himself. (Look, I probably should have seen this coming, but the plot twist got me. I gasped.) Maybe, if Julia gives birth to a child Simon believes is Brian’s half-sibling, she can keep Henry’s baby. But such a plan presents a bevy of problems. If and when Henry does reunite with Julia, Simon will never allow the Beauchamps to depart with a child he believes is his. And what about Brian? How long will he live under the impression he has a new sibling? Might the truth turn him against Julia somehow? Might the Frasers and Beauchamps become enemies?

In a letter to her husband that she can’t possibly send, Julia pleads for Henry’s forgiveness. Like Ellen, mere miles away, Julia is acting for the sake of her family. Let’s just hope the men don’t find a way to destroy the women’s carefully laid plans.