Outlander 4.06 “Blood of My Blood”

Previously, Brianna went through the stones. I hope you can wait another week before following up on that.

The title card is a hand pulling a (suspiciously clean) snake from the outhouse. It’s not a thing that happens in the episode, it’s a reference to an event in the book that was probably cut for time.

Jamie is sawing wood at Fraser’s Ridge when Lord John Grey in a FABULOUS coat shows up. Seriously, it’s a great coat. John has business in Virginia and went out of his way to visit Jamie (“Your letters painted such a beautiful picture, I had to see it for myself!”). He’s also brought Willie, but left him at the creek to give Jamie some warning, which was very polite.

Claire and Murtagh are at the creek, getting water, where they bicker affectionately back and forth. Murtagh isn’t planning on staying at the Ridge, though. He also tells Claire that two of the regulators are presenting a petition for less taxes pretty much as they speak, so… we will see what happens. Before Claire can grill him on this, they hear Willie calling for help – he’s got a case of leeches. Claire advises letting the leeches drop off naturally, but he does NOT wish to wait. He also would like his father, if you please. (He manages a neat trick of being both polite and imperious.)

In the cabin, John admits he isn’t sure if William (as he insists on being called) will remember Jamie, and Jamie’s like, well, he was only 6 when I left. Jamie invites them to stay for a bit, and asks about Isobel. Isobel died before reaching Jamaica. John is doing okay, but William has been grief-stricken.

Claire comes in with William, and doesn’t mask her shock at all, and John also remembers Murtagh. It’s all very awkward. William asks for an introduction to Jamie, and it’s all very proper. Claire takes William out to clean the leech bites, and John asks Murtagh to keep private how they all met. Murtagh’s like sure, you wouldn’t want your kid to think you keep company with hooligans, and Jamie tells him the John is trusted friend, and reminds Murtagh that John’s kindness kept Murtagh alive. Murtagh: FINE.

At dinner, they determine that John is a friend of Governor Tryon, and members of the same club. (Ian is off hunting with his Cherokee friends this episode, by the way.) John also mentions that Tryon is building himself a new governor’s palace, “A true monument to elegance.” Murtagh: where’s the money coming from? (legit question) John gives him a look of studied blankness that tells me he knows this conversation isn’t going anywhere good. Claire offers that maybe it’s an untimely investment, since there’s a bunch of debts. John: it seems some people in the backcountry aren’t feeling the taxes. Everyone else is like yeah, it’s not a good use of excessive taxes! John blathers about mobs and unreasonable and dangerous Regulators and Murtagh is getting more and more pissed.

John asks if Murtagh has not fared well in the New World (implying that the British did him a favor by forcibly transporting him to the Colonies), and Murtagh is like oh, yeah. I get more than rats to eat. William: YOU’VE EATEN RATS? THAT IS AMAZING. Murtagh excuses himself.

John asks if Jamie would like to play chess (he brought a chess set) and William asks to be excused. He gets introduced to the concept of the privy (much to his dismay), and while Jamie shows him where it is, William asks if Jamie’s name is not Mackenzie, then tremulously asks if Jamie remembers him. Jamie says he does, and William asks why Jamie didn’t remind him (William) of their acquaintanceship. Sam’s doing a lot of great work, letting emotions roll around under the surface while trying to keep them from exploding all over the poor kid in a Feelings Bomb. He asks if William still has the wooden snake, and William says that he is too old for toys.

Claire and John chat a bit. John says he wanted to seek, “a trusted friend’s counsel about life in the colonies.” Claire wonders out loud if he’s maybe there because Tryon asked him to check on Jamie’s loyalty. “Maybe I’ve had too much wine, but are you suggesting that I am here to spy on him?” “Are you?” They end on a detente.

Outside, Jamie’s told Claire about William remembering him, and Jamie is up in his feelings about it, understandably. Claire says that William is very handsome, and Jamie tells her about when William was brought to the stables for his first riding lesson at 3. “He kept shouting his favorite word at the time, mo. ‘mo, mo!’” It’s 3-year-old for “no.” But Jamie get him to eye level with the horse and that was that. “His voice, when he asked if I was the groom, it was the memory of stranger.” Claire tells him that William just needs to get to know him again. They kiss, and Jamie mutters that he’s been hoping to get Claire alone for weeks, but, alas, they’ve guests and a chess game.

Before Jamie can go in, Murtagh is on the porch. They argue about the position of John in this taxes issue, and Murtagh tells him to find out what John knows. Jamie won’t use his friendship like that, and Murtagh is like why do you give a fuck about this asshole anyway. Well, William needs him. Murtagh why do you give a fuck about the kid? “Willie has lost two mothers. John Grey is all he has left.” Not an answer, Murtagh says, but Murtagh has also known Jamie his entire life. “He’s YOURS.” Jamie asks Murtagh not to say anything, since that’ll fuck up the poor kid’s life. Murtagh: I’ll keep your secrets, like I always have.

Jamie and John play chess, and Jamie pours him some extremely young whiskey. Jamie glances at William, asleep in the bed, and John asks him if he’s content. Jamie is, he’s got a home, his wife, honorable work, good friends, and the knowledge that his son is safe and well cared for.

In the morning, John is getting ready to leave, but nearly falls over. He’s got the measles. Everyone has had it except William, and Claire suggests he take William away for a week. By then John will either be better, or he won’t. Jamie says he’ll take the kid on a tour of the Ridge. The kid is… unenthused with this plan, and Jamie basically bodily tosses him up on his horse. “Don’t kick! It’s ill-mannered.” and then William calls him a lout, with the air of a kid who has come up with the WORST insult he knows.

They ride along, and Jamie tells William to stay on the marked side of the trees, because that is the boundary line. William asks why the Cherokee are permitted to stay and Jamie’s like, it’s their land first. “These…Indians. They are agreeable?” Jamie: Mostly, but they can be fierce when provoked. Jamie takes him to the overlook where he and Claire first saw what would become the Ridge. William is suitably impressed.

In the cabin, John feels like ASS. Claire asks him to call her by her given name, and gives him her condolences on the loss of Isobel. John sighs that they had known each other all their lives, and Isobel may as well have been his sister. Claire asks if she was satisfied with that, and he’s like…I think so. She never said otherwise: “I was an adequate husband to her. In all ways.” Claire: I’m not judging (she’s judging). He then tells Claire that she can’t possibly be a comfortable woman to live with, and he can tell that she’s envious of the time he and Jamie spent together, and of the fact that John is raising Jamie’s son. Claire tells him about Brianna, and that they were robbed of the chance to raise her together.

Claire wonders what could possibly be his motivation in bringing William to see them, since he might well take a good look at Jamie’s face and realize the truth. John: to let Jamie see the boy? Claire: Or to let you see Jamie? John: you’re remarkable: “You are neither circumspect nor circuitous.” Claire: “I was born that way.” John: “So was I.”

At the river, Jamie and William are fishing. William is using a fly, and the fish aren’t going for it. Jamie suggests a worm, and William is like excuse you I do not use worms. Jamie: you used to. William: I use flies now. Jamie then shows off by catching a fish with his bare hands and a tickle. Jamie also says they’ll have to get up before dawn to hunt deer. (On Twitter, Sam said that true acting is making a dead fish look like it’s alive.)

William gets a stag, and he assumes that Jamie will be doing the dressing, but Jamie teaches him how to gut the deer. It’s kinda gross, but William does well, and that night they dine on the liver. William gets kind of weird at the mention of Jamie’s father, and Jamie assumes it’s a tummy issue, but William is worried about if John will live, and he wants to go. Right now. Jamie tells him that it’s too dark, and William lets loose that this is all Jamie’s fault: if John hadn’t wanted to visit, then he wouldn’t have gotten sick and now he’s going to die. William flops to his bed, and Jamie sits by the fire.

In the cabin, John has woken with a horrible headache, and Claire tries acupressure. It helps, some, but he asks if he’s going to die. Claire starts working on bring his fever down, and he confesses that when he heard Isobel had died, he felt nothing at all. He came to see Jamie to see if he still had feelings, any of them. He admits he can still feel shame, and that it’s hard watching Claire with Jamie. She asks why he tortures himself, since he can never have him. He tells her about the time Jamie offered to sleep with him in exchange for caring for William. “I could never take him on those terms.”

When Jamie wakes up, Willie has left the lean-to shelter. Jamie follows his tracks to river, which is past the boundary line. William had found a fish impaled on a stick (it’s unclear if he speared it himself or found it like that) but before Jamie can drag him back across the line, a group of Cherokee men find them. Jamie greets them in Cherokee, but they’re not impressed. They tell him that the boy took fish from the place of the Cherokee, and he must pay with his blood. Jamie cries that Willam is his son, and his blood is my blood, so Jamie will pay. He tells William to follow the creek back to the ridge, then prays that God protect “her, her and the children.”

Before the Cherokee men can do whatever it was they were planning on doing, William runs between them, says that Jamie is NOT his father, and that Jamie did show him where the boundary was but he didn’t respect them, and he alone is responsible. The lead man swings his axe towards William, and stops short, then merely makes a little cut on the side of William’s hand. Blood indeed. They leave, and Jamie hugs William to him, saying he’s pretty sure they were impressed by William’s bravery.

Back in the cabin, John has survived the night and is clearly feeling much better. He apologizes to Claire for his chattiness the previous night. But he also tells her that he’s not aggrieved that she and Jamie are together, he’s sad that he couldn’t be That Person for Isobel. He asks if she knows how awful it is, knowing that you can’t be with someone because you just weren’t born the right person? Claire gets it. She tells him about the lost twenty years they didn’t have. And she asks if he still has feelings? He does. And she gently reminds him that he does have something that’s Jamie’s – William.

Riding back, William has something he needs to ask. He wants to know why Jamie didn’t look back when he left Helwater when William was 6. This memory has been eating at him for some time, clearly, and he’s very hurt by it.

Jamie tells him that he wanted to, but he didn’t want to give William false hope that he’d ever see Jamie again. At the cabin, William is deeply relieved to see John is okay. John asks if William was well-behaved, and Jamie tells him that yes, he was raised well.

As John and William prepare to leave, Claire gives him her marching orders (“eat plenty of carrots and squash and liver.” Vitamin A?) and also tells him to not give up hope. He also deserves to have someone give him a look of satisfaction. John gives Jamie his chess set (since Jamie doesn’t have one of his own). John and Willie ride off, and Claire and Jamie watch.

And Willie looks back.

Later that night, alone finally, Claire is in the bath, and Jamie is washing her back. He talks about how he’s jealous of the rain sometimes and honestly this is all very awkward to recap.

He says something about how a husband knows best, “and I am your husband, but you’d never know it” looking at her naked finger. She says she doesn’t need a ring, but he wants her to have one. He gives her a silver ring, made from part of the silver candlesticks. It’s inscribed: “Give me a thousand kisses.” He carries her out of the bath to the bed, and they start kissing and counting and presumably you can figure out what happens next.

Elyse: Where the hell is Bree? You promised me Bree time traveling last episode. I don’t care about John Grey. I don’t care about measles. I don’t care about taxes.

GIVE ME ROGER CHASING BREE THROUGH TIME!

So I kind of pout-knitted through this episode. Although Jamie’s scarf is amazing and the Outlander folks continue to give us great knitwear every episode.

Honestly, I never really cared that much about the John Grey storyline or his pining for Jamie. I know he has his own book series, so I assume he’s developed a little better in the books, but him popping up in the middle of the wilderness was kinda…eh.

To me this was a filler episode, and we’ve got a lot more to cover so we need to move it along.

RHG: Yeah, it was filler! I don’t care. I liked this interlude in the book, and I like David Berry, who plays Lord John a LOT. He is very good. And he’s nice to look at.

I’m not sure how I feel about having the Regulator plot moved up from book five, but also, the show is doing a much better job of explaining it all that I ever got from the book, so there’s that.

Next week, though…Next week, shit’s getting real.