That <i>Outlander: Blood of My Blood</i> Finale Almost Ended Very Differently

Jeremy Irvine and Hermione Corfield—the actors playing Henry and Julia Beauchamp, respectively, in Outlander: Blood of My Blood—knew the ending of the Starz prequel’s first season would get fans talking. They just didn’t know exactly what form the drama might take. In a post-finale interview with ELLE, the duo shared that they filmed multiple versions of the finale’s cliffhanger ending: “Different variations, different dialogue, different moments,” Corfield explains. It wasn’t until mere days ago, when they both watched episode 10 themselves, that they learned which conclusion made the final cut.

“We filmed, like, five different endings, and we were being handed script rewrites from someone writing it at the side of the camera going, ‘Okay, now to a version like this, now do a version like that,’” Irvine says. “So I think they had lots of different options in the edit [depending on] where they decided season 2 was going to go.”

When we speak in September, the actors are in Scotland, midway through production on season 2, and Corfield adds, “We now know—having started to shoot season 2—why that version was chosen, which is kind of satisfying to see.”

The version selected depicts Henry and Julia—at long last!—returning to the standing stones of Craigh na Dun together, their newborn son William in tow and the bee noise buzzing about the fairy circle. But moments before they can step back in time together, Julia realizes they can’t be certain that William is capable of traveling back with them. What if he hasn’t inherited their time-hopping prowess? If not, will he be left in 1700s Scotland alone, the goons of Clan Grant scooping him up to raise as their own? Julia and Henry can’t so much as entertain the thought.

“There’s a horrible realization [Julia has], and now there’s a chance that [William] will be left behind on the ground,” Corfield says. “And that’s just completely...That’s unthinkable. They couldn’t possibly risk that being a situation.”

Jeremy Irvine as Henry Beauchamp.

Julia and Henry bargain with each other: Will Julia attempt to go through the stones with William, or will Henry? Julia claims it is safer for Henry to try first, as Clan Grant obviously wants his head on a pike. But, as the wife of a laird, Clan Fraser will protect her—thanks to the fake prophecy cloaking her very English son in regal Scottish destiny. But as Arch Bug and his men gallop up the hill in hot pursuit of their wayward bladier, Henry makes the seemingly split-second decision to grab Julia’s hand and twist it toward the stones, making her palm—theoretically—the first to touch the coarse rock’s surface. However, audiences don’t actually get to see her hand make contact, as the scene transitions to a flashback before Henry’s maneuver is complete.

Either way, Irvine claims this version of Henry’s choice was, ultimately, the obvious one with which to end the first season. “He’s a chivalrous man at heart,” the actor says. “If he has to sacrifice himself to make sure his wife and his children are safe, then Henry’s that man that would do it in a heartbeat. And I think anyone who’s a parent will know that feeling.”

What this ultimately means for Henry and Julia’s fates (not to mention William’s) remains to be seen, as Irvine and Corfield are wary of sharing any spoilers. What Irvine can promise? Wherever Henry ends up in season 2, whether in Scotland or back in England, he’s very much still “a damaged individual.”

“What he really needs is mental health rehab,” Irvine says, joking, “Unfortunately, there hasn’t really been time for that.” He continues, “His therapy is Julia. And he hasn’t had that person. So if he can just get her back, then hopefully he can get his had together. But he’s also done some things while mentally not well that he needs to explain to Julia.”

Fans, of course, will know what Irvine is referencing. In a key scene from episode 6, a mourning, traumatized, and hallucinating Henry ends up sleeping with a sex worker named Seema, whom—in the moment—he believes to be Julia. When Henry is eventually reunited with Julia later in the season, he doesn’t yet tell his wife about this betrayal. “That’s the season 2 thing,” Irvine says. “That’s going to be fun for him.”

Jamie Roy as Brian Fraser.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Highlands, Brian Fraser and Ellen MacKenzie have their own cliffhanger twist to deal with. Just as they’re finally starting their life together as husband and wife, Brian lifts his eyes to the hills to see a line of fiery crosses blazing against the horizon. It’s the sign of a call to arms amongst the Jacobites, and Brian knows he cannot flee from the battles to come.

Says actor Jamie Roy, who plays Brian, “He’s quite happy, and then all of a sudden, he sees these fiery crosses, and he is like, ‘Oh, shit. This puts a spanner into the works.’ He’s a very duty-driven man, so he knows his rights and wrongs. When he sees [the crosses], he knows what it means. Because if he were to ignore that call, that would have had major repercussions in that time. To go against your clan, to go against your laird, was essentially to put yourself in exile or at [the risk of] punishment of death, essentially.”

Roy continues, “You go from the happiest point in his life, where he thinks, ‘Okay, I’m free of my dad. I’m free of all these other things that have been holding me down. I’m with the one that I love.’ And then to see these crosses is really quite harrowing, I think, in his mind.”

No matter where Brian goes next, actress Harriet Slater—who plays Ellen—confirms that Ellen will stand by him as a Fraser herself rather than a MacKenzie. “I think she loves this man, and I think she realizes that she cannot trust her brothers at all,” Slater says. “They’ve betrayed her over and over and over again.” She mentions a particular scene in the finale where Ellen gives her brother Colum the opportunity to confess that he hired assassins to kill Brian, but he refuses to admit it. “He lies again to her face,” Slater continues. “And I think that’s the moment where she decides, ‘You’re no family of mine. I’m better off without you.’ And so she is prepared to leave everything behind in order for [her and Brian] to have the freedom to love.”

Harriet Slater as Ellen MacKenzie and Séamus McLean Ross as Colum MacKenzie.

The episode ends with Brian and Ellen staring off into the distance as the smoke rises from the burning crosses, while Henry and Julia make their attempted escape at Craigh na Dun. Whatever might come in the immediate aftermath of these cliffhangers—and of the particular version of the ending that the Blood of My Blood showrunners ultimately landed on—Irvine, Corfield, Roy, and Slater all tease an even more exciting season 2. According to Irvine, “for season 2, the writers have really upped the game. We've got even better scripts this season.”

Roy agrees. “The story, I think, is even better than season 1,” he says. “I think people have a lot to look forward to. Also, we're going to see season eight of [the flagship series] Outlander before this, so people are going to come off the back of that, and I think they’ll be very happy with what they see in season 2.”