‘Outlander' Prequel ‘Blood of my Blood' Reveals Twist in Fraser and Beauchamp Love Stories
It's a huge lore addition that goes against the books but breathes fresh air into the Outlander universe. While the main show is gearing up to air its final season, the prequel (which premieres August 8) gives fans more of what they want. We're back in Scotland, and we have two new-to-us love stories to obsess over, brought to life by Jamie Roy (Brian Fraser), Harriet Slater (Ellen MacKenzie), Hermione Corfield (Julia Beauchamp), and Jeremy Irvine (Henry Beauchamp).
Because Claire's parents died when she was so young, she has basically no memories of them, which makes the Beauchamp family storyline particularly interesting. 'You're discovering a completely untold story,' Hermione says. How did they fall in love? How long were they in Scotland? What happened to them when they were there? Did they ever make it back to a future time? It's all on the table.
'If Claire's parents had stayed during World War I and it had just been that romance, there wouldn't have been a huge journey for them across the series,' Hermione says. 'Because of the time-travel, you see a similar thing that we saw with Claire, where she had to learn to survive in a world she didn't understand. That adds a whole element for the characters.'
Julia and Henry meet almost by accident during WWI, when Julia reads a letter Henry wrote, not intended for her, and writes back. 'When we meet Henry, he's fighting for his life in the trenches,' Jeremy says. 'That is somewhere where there is no romance, there is no poetry, there is no beauty. He's just about to give up all hope. But they fall in love with each other's letter writing. I think there's something really romantic and beautiful about that.'
For both of them, surviving the war itself is an almost insurmountable task. As soon as they get comfortable in their post-war life, they're transported back in time. Theirs is a story about fighting for the survival of a relationship that already exists. 'There's a depth to the love because they've seen each other's flaws. They're out the other side of the honeymoon stage,' Hermione says.
Meanwhile, Ellen and Brian are fighting for a relationship that's just beginning. As book readers and show watchers will remember, Ellen was initially supposed to marry someone else. When this series begins, she is reeling from the death of her father and staring down the barrel of being used as a political pawn by her brothers. She meets Brian, a man she absolutely should not be with, and their Romeo and Juliet story begins.
'Brian is the only person Ellen can fully be herself around. With pretty much everyone else, she's always got some kind of mask on. She can't say what she wants to say or do what she wants to do,' Harriet says. 'Brian is very different to any of the other men in her life. I think there's an openness, sensitivity, and an ability to be self-reflective that she's not encountered in a man before.'
And the attraction clearly goes both ways, with Jamie describing their meeting as a thunderclap moment. 'He meets this woman, and he just instantly knows, I'm never going to meet anyone like you ever again, you've given me a purpose and a direction,' Jamie says. 'When they're together just the two of them, they can finally breathe. The rest of the world fizzles away.'
For existing fans, watching this relationship begin will be irresistible. All the stories you've already heard about Brian and Ellen gain more depth and romance when you see them actually play out onscreen. And for new watchers, it will be equally compelling. There's nothing more enjoyable than watching two people fall in love, especially when the odds are stacked against them. And when it's a forbidden love? Even better.
Without spoiling too much, our two couples' stories do fairly quickly intertwine. They find ways to help each other on their journeys and work through the obstacles that inevitably pop up in their paths, and you start to see why Jamie and Claire ended up together. Their parents have a lot in common.
'They're all warriors, in the sense that they fight for the ones they love,' Jamie says. 'These characters will do absolutely anything for their opposite. They will literally die for the one they love, go to the extremes.'
And there are definitely extremes here. Being in love in 1714 is not easy. Feuding clans, vengeful lords, suspicious neighbors, annoying brothers, and spiteful spurned lovers are only the beginning of the challenges these couples face throughout the season. And it's made all the more difficult by the constraints of the time period.
'What's lovely about having a romance where it's not set nowadays, where we can just text each other and FaceTime, is it opens up so many more obstacles,' Jeremy says. 'It makes it a lot more difficult for them but also so much more romantic. The state of longing and and really not knowing if that person that you love is safe and well, it must have been horrible.'
As is true with any romance, all of this tension and longing only works if the actors in each couple have actual chemistry. It's definitely not a problem here, and both couples prove equally swoonworthy. For Harriet and Jamie, that was apparent during their first read together.
'That day, I don't think I'll ever forget it. It was unlike any experience I've ever had,' Harriet says. She found out about the chemistry read on a Friday with only a weekend to prepare. She and Jamie, along with a cameraman, were the only people in the room in the Scotland studio. The rest of the team was on Zoom. They met five minutes before they went in, but they felt that spark immediately. 'Chemistry is a weird one to define. It's this intangible thing that you can't put into words, but you can feel it when it's there.'
Jamie had already officially gotten role of Brian, so he was doing chemistry reads with many actors who were still in the running for Ellen. But he liked reading opposite Harriet so much he texted casting afterward to advocate for her to get the part, basically saying, 'She's the one, right?' 'When I met Harriet and we started doing the scenes together, they just had a totally different flavor, this energy and urgency. It gave me something that I really wanted to fight for in the scene,' Jamie says.
Jeremy and Hermione had a chemistry read, too, but they had a bit of a leg up. They had worked on a movie together 10 years prior, spending three months filming in Budapest. As old friends, Jeremy jokes that Hermione has seen him at his worst. They texted each other 'good luck' before hopping into the read.
'We're very comfortable together,' Jeremy says. 'Doing sex scenes with her was something I didn't think I'd be ticking off the friendship bingo card, but there you go. You can always take your friendship to a whole new level.'
This brings me to the part of the article where we talk about those sex scenes. The original Outlander is obviously known for them, with media outlets making lists of the best ones (guilty as charged) and fans editing the steamiest into fan cams. The Outlander subreddit is littered with NSFW tags.
That means Blood of my Blood has big shoes to fill. The actors knew that going in, and while some people would not be up for that challenge, these four were thankfully not those people. And the show is better for it. The intimate scenes are somehow both spicy and tender, with the romance cranked up to 10. One of them is over six minutes long.
'I definitely knew what kind of show it was going in,' Jamie says. 'The scenes are really beautiful, and they do push the story forward. They are really important moments in these characters' journeys.'
They're also used sparingly enough so as to not be gratuitous. And they're balanced with plenty of longing glances across a crowded room, stolen kisses, and other trademarks of the people-who-yearn genre.
'Sex is a hugely important part of life and relationships, and it's something most of us can relate to,' Harriet says. 'Those early stages of falling in love with someone, when even the touch of a finger just sends fireworks through you, I think that is what I loved the most about this. It's the most exciting feeling.'
That feeling is what carries the show. And even though fans of the original seem nervous about this prequel, they shouldn't be. The show pays homage to the first while doing enough to justify itself as a standalone with its own flavor. Not having a book to go by was a positive in this case, Jamie says, because it gave them freedom to construct their own plots.
But that doesn't mean there isn't a level of expectation for the actors. 'There's always a pressure when something has such a huge fan base and a whole world,' Hermione says. 'But I feel excited, and I know this series is going to only expand that universe further and deepen the story and the legacy.'
Jeremy agrees, saying it's a privilege to have such a built-in fan base for the show. 'I've done lots of things where it doesn't really go out into the world,' he says. 'How lucky to be part of a world that you know people have already got strong feelings for.'
There will be plenty for fans and newcomers to have strong feelings about with this new series. The stakes are high, the choices are impossibly tough, and the obstacles are many. But the love at the center of the story is the real anchor.
'Love is love—it's universal,' Harriet says. 'No matter how old you are, or what time period you're from, we can all relate to it.'
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