TVLine Was On Set For Outlander: Blood Of My Blood's Big Episode 6 Reveal — Get The Behind-The-Scenes Scoop!

Warning: This post contains spoilers from "Outlander: Blood of My Blood" Season 2, Episode 6. Please proceed accordingly. 

Last October, I was privy to a seminal moment in the Sassenach Cinematic Universe... and then I had to sit on it for an entire year. But now that this week's "Outlander: Blood of My Blood" is out in the world, we can talk about it! Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ, the relief!

I'm referring, of course, to the shocker revealed in Episode 6: Jonathan Wolverton "Black Jack" Randall, the sadist who tortured James Fraser for all of the original series' run, was a young Redcoat who had a run-in with Jamie's father, Brian (Jamie Roy), at Fort William back in the day. And when Randall's life was in danger, thanks to a mightily ticked-off Dougal (Sam Retford), Brian— of all people! — argued that they should let the young soldier live instead of killing him right there and then. 

The moment is brutal, knowing what we know about what will befall an adult Jamie in the future. And in a neat, crushing bit of symmetry, the incident takes place at Fort William — the same spot where an older Black Jack (played in the original series by Tobias Menzies) will whip Jamie (Sam Heughan) nearly to death years later. 

Key Episode 6 scenes were filmed at Blackness Castle, a 15th-century fortress and prison on the shores of Blackness Bay, about an hour outside of Glasgow. On the day Randall's reprieve is shot, I'm part of a group of journalists who are driven to the castle to observe filming. We're prepared to stand outside for hours in the wind and damp if needed (I bring a couple of jackets and some handwarmers), but we luck out: Though the castle's rooms are too small to accommodate us in the room where the scene take place, we climb a spiral stone staircase to an area in one of the towers, where video monitors allow us to witness what's happening close nearby. 

"This is the closest you get to time travel," episode director Azhur Saleem will later tell us, "where you suddenly look and you could be back 300 years. It's amazing. The production design is phenomenal. It just transports you. And it just makes [the actors'] job so much easier."

This teenage version of Black Jack is played by "Andor" alum Finley Glasgow, and we see him run through the scene with Jamie Roy, Rory Alexander, and Sam Retford a few times. In between takes, Glasgow and Retford practice the punch Dougal gives Randall. Hit, lean, grunt. Hit, lean, grunt. Though not every take winds up with Glasgow pressed against the wall, the one the episode eventually uses sure does.

The day before, Saleem says, they shot the scenes in which we get a hint of Randall's sadistic nature. "We played it... where there's something kind of growing inside him, but even he doesn't yet understand what it is," he says. "He's finding himself, in a dark way."

As we file out of the castle after the scene is done, the actors take a short break in the castle's courtyard and I'm tickled by the incongruity of seeing Glasgow, in Randall's 1700s-era uniform, scrolling his phone with one hand and holding a pink vape in the other.

All of the watery scenes in which Dougal and Angus' tidal cell fill with ocean water were filmed at Wardpark Studios in Cumbernauld. I wasn't around for that shoot, but I caught up with Sam Retford about it later.

"I remember Matt [Roberts, showrunner/executive producer] finding me in the corridor, I think this was maybe back in February," he recalls. "He was like, 'I got a surprise for you, buddy... you like diving?' 'Yeah.' 'You like caves?' 'Yeah.' 'I got a surprise for you.' And he did." Retford grins. "He chucked me in a little cave and drowned me, and I've never been happier."

Bobby Rainsbury, who plays Dougal's wife, Maura, interjects. "I went to go and say hi to [Retford and Ross Mann, who plays Angus], and what Sam forgets to mention is that they had a whole hot tub set-up going on offstage, so that in between takes, they could just go and hang out in their hot tub." 

Retford laughs loudly. "It's a literal dream come true," he says of the harrowing scene. "I've wanted my whole life to do something like that, to be in a tank with such awesome people and such an amazing team and have this awesome sequence. To be a small part in that, I loved every second. I didn't want it to end."