This article contains spoilers about Outlander: Blood of My Blood episode 8, titled “A Virtuous Woman.”\n<\/p>\n
In episode 8 of Outlander: Blood of My Blood, Julia (Hermione Corfield) and Henry (Jeremy Irvine) finally reunite.The brief meeting will serve as a tease for a larger reunion in the show’s final two episodes.Showrunner Matthew B. Roberts explains the reunion and weighs in on Ellen’s harrowing purity test and Brian’s commitment to her.<\/p>\n
All is fair in love and war \u2014 and the characters of Outlander: Blood of My Blood<\/a> have both on their minds.\n<\/p>\n In episode 8 of the series, the love triangle between Ellen MacKenzie (Harriet Slater<\/a>), Malcolm Grant (Jhon Lumsden), and Brian Fraser (Jamie Roy<\/a>) came to a head as Ellen was forced to undergo a purity test to prove to the Grants (and her brothers, let’s be honest) that she is still a virtuous woman.\n<\/p>\n Unfortunately for Ellen, she’s not \u2014 she slept with Brian at Beltane, and Brian now feels obligated to help her survive this test of her chastity. That’s where Julia (Hermione Corfield<\/a>) comes in, offering to make a mixture that she will bring to Ellen that will imitate the look and feel of a hymen.\n<\/p>\n Sally Messham and Harriet Slater in ‘Outlander: Blood of my Blood’.<\/p>\n Starz<\/p>\n As Ellen approaches the day of her trial, with plenty of torturous gynecological tools on hand to assist in the invasive procedure, Brian and Julia travel to Castle Leoch to try to help her pass the test (with Brian waiting to whisk Ellen off into the night should anything go wrong). Also on hand are representatives of Clan Grant, including Malcolm, Henry (Jeremy Irvine<\/a>), and Arch Bug (Terence Rae).\n<\/p>\n Both in the castle, Henry and Julia finally reunite, despite Henry initially believing that his mind was once again playing tricks on him. Thanks to Julia’s solution, Ellen passes her test and is declared a virtuous woman (but not before being completely violated in full view of her fianc\u00e9 and her brothers).\n<\/p>\n As Malcolm and Henry prepare to return home, they are met with the sad news that Isaac Grant (Brian McCardie) has died, throwing Malcolm into a new leadership position. Meanwhile, Mrs. Fitz (Sally Messham) finds Brian and returns his tartan that he gave to Ellen when they were handfast, warning him to stay away.\n<\/p>\n With only two episodes left in season 1, we called up showrunner Matthew B. Roberts to talk virtue testing, the Julia-Henry reunion, and whether Brian might heed Mrs. Fitz’s warning.\n<\/p>\n Terence Rae and Jhon Lumsden in ‘Outlander: Blood of my Blood’.<\/p>\n Starz<\/p>\n ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You open episode 8 on all of these awful gynecological tools, some of which are still in use. Colum has this great line about barbaric tools. So was there a desire to poke fun at how bad women’s healthcare is?\n<\/p>\n MATTHEW B. ROBERTS: One of the things when you look at both Outlander and Blood of My Blood is sometimes we haven’t moved the ball down the court very far when it comes to treatment of certain people. It shows up because we try to keep the period as accurate as possible. When you look at some of these things, you go, “Hey, wait a minute. That kind of looks like the thing they still use,” or, “Wow, no advancements there.”\n<\/p>\n Why does Brian go ahead and tell Lord Lovat (Tony Curran<\/a>) about this handfasting to Ellen? That seems certain to backfire.\n<\/p>\n At the end of the day, it’s his father. Brian has a really big heart and he hopes against hope that something in his father is more like him, rather than him like his father. It may backfire, but it might not backfire in the way you think.\n<\/p>\n Ellen’s trial spans the entire episode. How much debate did you all have about what you wanted to show and how far to go?\n<\/p>\n Most of the women on the show knew exactly what was going on below the waist, whereas the men didn’t. When it came to what do we show, well, we can leave that to a lot of the imagination. We don’t have to show what’s going on because the majority of the audience who watch our shows are going to go, “Oh shoot. I know exactly what’s going on down there.” That’s an element of storytelling that we sometimes miss out on. The audience is very smart and clever, and they have feelings and experiences and can fill in a lot of gaps that we don’t necessarily have to visualize.\n<\/p>\n The more powerful thing was to let Harriet show what she’s going through. She’s so strong and powerful in those moments that at the end of the day when we all talked about this, it was like, “That’s the way to convey this.” We don’t need to show it because the instruments in the beginning are enough to go, “Oh man, this isn’t going to be fun.” Plus, all the pressures and the stakes of what happens if she fails.\n<\/p>\n Conor MacNeill, Seamus McLean Ross, and Sam Retford in ‘Outlander: Blood of my Blood’.<\/p>\n Starz<\/p>\n After she does pass, it could be an opportunity for Brian to whisk her away. What stops them in that moment?\n<\/p>\n In the book, the timing’s different. It took Dougal seven months to find her and by the time that she was already pregnant. But we’ve added other elements to this with Malcolm. That is what stops them \u2014 the Grants would hunt them down, and obviously, they would probably kill them both if this happened. And the MacKenzies would probably help them hunt them down. We’re dealing with two pretty smart people. They’re just going to bide their time, figure out what to do. and see what happens in episodes 9 and 10.\n<\/p>\n We do finally get this Henry and Julia reunion, but we also know Henry’s doubting his own senses at this point. Is he going to continue to question whether this interaction was real?\n<\/p>\n I don’t personally think so. Once he puts his hands on her face as she talks, and he smells her, and he feels that that’s her. This was the tease. In season 3 [of Outlander] where Claire sees Jamie after 20 years and he faints and then we cut away, and then, it’s the next episode that you get more of the reunion than you do that first one. The next episode will help explain a lot.\n<\/p>\n Conor MacNeill in ‘Outlander: Blood of my Blood’.<\/p>\n Starz<\/p>\n What does seeing Julia mean for him? Is it going to make him more eager to escape? Is it going to make him think staying with the Grants is more prudent at this time?\n<\/p>\n It has been quite a while. After all this time, what he wants is to get his hands around his wife. He wants to get his hands around his new son and get the hell out of dodge if they can. But there’s a lot of risk and a lot of reward. There’s also the magic of the stones. As Roger says on Outlander, sometimes the stones choose. We don’t [know] what they have chosen. In our story, they chose for Julia and Henry to be here. There’s a great moment in episode 8 at a crossroads where Brian says to Julia, “Now that you know where Henry is, that’s the road, go to your husband.” And she says, “No, I can’t live with myself knowing what’s going to happen if we don’t do this.” If she wasn’t who she was, if she didn’t get sent back, if she didn’t go to help them, then maybe Jamie Fraser doesn’t get born. That’s destiny. The Outlander stars are different than the stars in the world that we live in.\n<\/p>\n Malcolm is absolutely a kinder, more compassionate man than his father. Is that going to be good for Henry? Is this going to be a better situation?\n<\/p>\n Henry knows that he has a bond with Malcolm, and that if he can work that, then there’s an opportunity. That’s why the fleeing immediately might not be in his best interest. He might wait to see how the dust settles with Malcolm and how that plays out. Then maybe he can free himself up to then help Julia, but it might not play out that way. Wink.\n<\/p>\n Hermione Corfield, Jeremy Irvine, Jamie Roy, and Harriet Slater in ‘Outlander: Blood of my Blood’.<\/p>\n Victoria Will\/Starz<\/p>\n Arch Bug is so fascinating here because you’re never quite sure which way he’s going to go. How much more complex is his journey going to get for these last two episodes? Because we do know his eventual connection to the Jacobite gold that you planted the seeds of in episode 7.\n<\/p>\n When you’ve been on Outlander for so long and the Arch Bug character come in in the later seasons, and you start thinking about it, and you go, “Wow, this guy was just so big a part of this period of the universe.” So, we are digging into the Arch character. He’s started to really pop on screen. The relationship has started to grow and you never know where that relationship’s going to go.\n<\/p>\n In these final moments, Mrs. Fitz gives Brian back his tartan. Is that going to maybe temper Brian’s interest or just strengthen his resolve?\n<\/p>\n That’s Jamie Fraser’s father. Where do you think Jamie got it from? What do you think Jamie would do if somebody said, “Stay away from Claire?”\n<\/p>\n Sign up for Entertainment Weekly<\/a>‘s free daily newsletter<\/a> to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.<\/p>\n What can you tease for us about these last two episodes?\n<\/p>\n Everybody’s waited for so long for everybody to get in the same place. Episode 9, “Braemar,” does that. Everybody gets to commingle and talk and share some scenes. A lot goes down. There’s a lot of emotion, a lot of tension. They’re not just sitting around having tea, but they do all interact in a lot of different ways. That was fun knowing that the fans were going to get something that they’ve been hoping for a long time.\n<\/p>\n This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\n<\/p>\n Outlander: Blood of My Blood airs Fridays on Starz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article contains spoilers about Outlander: Blood of My Blood episode 8, titled “A Virtuous Woman.” In episode…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33024,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":["post-33023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}