Episode 5, titled “Forgive Me, Father,” marks the halfway point of Outlander: Blood of My Blood season 2. The Jacobite Army fights against the loyalists at the Battle of Sheriffmuir. Men on both sides fight for their lives and for the future of Scotland, while Ellen and Julia face their own dangers. Colum holds fast at Leoch but starts doubting his resolve.
In Episode 4, “A Portion of My Soul,” we saw our main couples reuniting and quickly getting separated once again. Julia (Hermione Corfield) and Henry (Jeremy Irvine) find each other again, and she finally confronts him about his history with Seema (Lauren McQueen). Despite the heartbreak, they promise to escape together and travel back to the 20th century, to their daughter. Brian (Jamie Roy) discovers his father’s betrayal and that Ellen (Harriet Slater) is pregnant, all the while preparing for war.
What makes episode 5 particularly compelling is how often its characters find themselves confronting the legacies of other people’s choices. Some repeat the violence they have inherited; others struggle to break free from it. Against the backdrop of a war tearing Scotland apart, the most consequential battles are often the ones fought within families and within the characters themselves.
Was episode 5 a successful closing act of the first half of season 2? Let’s find out.
Human conflict at its finest
Especially after this episode, I love the direction Outlander: Blood of My Blood is taking with Young Colum’s characterization. The title of this episode comes directly from the first scene, which features Colum (Séamus McLean Ross) praying in the chapel at Castle Leoch. He first speaks with God, his “heavenly father,” and then with his earthly father, Red Jacob, explaining how he has given everything to protect the family.
“You’ve cast me in your likeness: a man who can lead but never love,” Colum tells his father, anticipating a later scene featuring his wife Letitia (Rebekah Lumsden) where he confesses he won’t be able to teach their unborn child kindness. The scene ends with a premonition and an admission of guilt for an action not yet made: “Forgive what I’ve done in your name. Forgive what I’ll do still,” he says, not clarifying which father he has been acting and will act in the name of.
This sets the tone for the episode — an episode that sees every character committing actions that go against their better judgment and values, but that might turn out to be necessary in the future.
Sleepless in Leathers
Episode 4 ended on a huge cliffhanger. Julia is held hostage by a crazed Seema: the girl is convinced that, after killing Julia, Henry will come back to her. Julia tries to reason with her all night, with neither of them getting a wink of sleep, but her words don’t hit Seema at all.
Just when Seema resolves herself to kill her hostage, Julia is able to pin her to the ground. She strangles her until Seema dies. Even if she acted in self-defence, the shock of killing another human being hits Julia with devastating force.
Julia is able to finally unlock the door and go looking for William. She stumbles into Davina, perfectly fine and unbothered, holding the baby. What has Seema told her to make her think Julia was fine and not being threatened with a knife? We’ll have to see in episode 6.
Another kidnapping
Robert MacKinney (Macleod Stephen) holds Ellen and Grace (Ruby Fubara) hostage as revenge for killing his father in episode 3. Ellen is able to convince him not to kill them, despite the personal revenge Robert wants to exact on the Mackenzies.
“You have a choice now, and you sat all this time trying to make yourself into something that you’re not,” Ellen tells Robert. This prompts him to act: he frees Grace from her bindings. “Maybe I could’ve been a different man, if not for him,” he confesses to Ellen. I couldn’t help but think of Colum and his acceptance of the loveless teachings he had from his own father. It is a loop, a cycle that never stops until someone decides to end it. As Ellen says in this episode, “It takes more courage to lay down a blade than to raise it.”
Ellen, here, is able to do what Julia couldn’t do with Seema. Compassion can offer someone a way out of violence, but it cannot guarantee that they will take it. Ellen gives Robert an opportunity to choose differently; Julia cannot make Seema relinquish her obsession.
Robert’s life is also struck short and very suddenly, by a surprise appearance of Bulloch, the sturdy manservant loyal to Lord Lovat, who kills him and carries off a screaming Ellen.
The Battle of Sheriffmuir
The bulk of the episode takes place at Sheriffmuir, the site of the main battle of the Jacobite rising of 1715. The battle, which took place in November, represents the height of the uprising. The Jacobite army, led by the Earl of Mar, faces British government troops commanded by the Duke of Argyll.
The battle places several of the main characters on opposing sides. Henry and the Grants fight for the British side, while Brian, Murtagh (Rory Alexander), and Dougal (Sam Retford) fight for the Jacobites. Their divided loyalties add a personal dimension to the conflict, symbolized by the meaningful nod Henry and Brian exchange in the midst of the fighting — an implicit agreement that their fight is not with the other.
Old Rupert (Craig Clelland) is killed by a cannonball, marking a tragic moment in the battle. Although Argyll’s forces are significantly outnumbered, the battle ends inconclusively, with both sides claiming victory. Strategically, however, Argyll succeeds in halting the Jacobite advance. From this point onward, the uprising will begin to unravel, with the Jacobites facing an increasingly difficult path that will end in mere months.
Angry that the Jacobite leaders won’t press forward, Dougal takes a small band of men to go after the retreating redcoats. All of his men are killed except Alec, who is able to make it back to camp and inform Brian that Dougal and Angus were taken prisoner by Captain Lord Gerard Grey. This character was introduced right before the battle: he is the father of Outlander’s Lord John Grey, but he’s not even married yet in this timeline. Brian and Murtagh go on a mission to save Dougal; Ellen promised Maura that she would bring him back to her, and the promises that Ellen makes need also be kept by Brian.
Henry’s sacrifice
Henry abandons his plan to escape in order to save Arch Bug’s life, although he was supposed to slip away from the fighting to meet up with Julia and travel back to the stones to their daughter, as we know from episode 4. His decision highlights his sense of duty and the complicated loyalties that continue to shape his actions, even when they come at a personal cost.
This might be one of my favorite callbacks in the episode. It immediately reminded me of the very first time we saw Henry, trying to save a dying fellow soldier in the trenches of Passchendaele. In Sheriffmuir, despite the danger and his survival being a lost cause, Henry fights back. He promised Julia he would escape, but he decides to stay to help. While this might seem like a frustrating turn of events — he did postpone his escape with Julia after all — this impulsive choice is (maybe) exactly what he needed to remember his lost self.
Julia wants back the man who wrote letters from the front; this Henry who risks everything to help those in need, who finds hope in the lost causes, who sacrifices his one opportunity to escape to redeem himself, is exactly what Julia is looking for.
Verdict
As a halfway point of season 2, “Forgive Me, Father” makes a good point of highlighting the emotional aspects of Outlander: Blood of My Blood. This is done decently despite the obligatory step of the Battle of Sheriffmuir, which offered — rather unexpectedly — a respite from the heavier, psychological scenes.
From history we know that Sheriffmuir was the height of the 1715 Jacobite rising; its adaptation in Outlander: Blood of My Blood is certainly a successful feat of blood, sword fighting, and Highlander battle cries. However, much of the attention of the viewer is forcefully taken away from the battle and redirected toward other plot lines. This means that the battle and its historical importance feel somewhat reduced and almost redundant to the rest of the story.
For how high the stakes were raised by the first four episodes, the battle scenes felt almost like gratuitous blood-spilling sword fights compared to the quieter confrontations at Leoch and Leathers. The contrast between these settings is effective, but I wish the battle had been given more narrative weight to match its historical importance. But this is not a completely negative aspect. I actually enjoyed the continuous narrative contrast we see throughout the episode.
The one happening at Sheriffmuir isn’t the only battle of the episode: Colum and Jocasta are living through a very similar conflict inside their minds. Each is plagued by guilt: Colum for having sold his sister to save the clan; Jocasta for not loving her husband, and actually feeling relief at his possible demise on the battlefield. These psychological layers are perfectly portrayed by actors Séamus McLean Ross and Sadhbh Malin, who did not play it any less just because they weren’t fighting with swords in hand.
It is sad to see Seema go; she was a nice “crazy” touch. I always felt like the writers were trying to reinstate the conflict created by Laoghaire between Claire and Jamie in Outlander, just on a smaller scale. It certainly brought chaos into their equation, which we still need to see resolved.
I do wish, though, that the writers would give more things to do to Jocasta. She has the potential to be a great character, on the same level as her brother Colum. Maybe they’ll give her more agency in future episodes and possibly a new romantic interest to let her grow into the iconic character we know from Outlander, and to start putting distance between her and Murtagh.
Overall, I loved reading between the lines and connecting all the dots in the episode. I can’t wait to connect some more in episode 6, which will air on October 23 on Starz.
Grade: A-
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