Outlander: Blood Of My Blood Recap: A Grief-Stricken Henry Makes A Grievous Error As Julia's Baby Is Born
Henry and Julia take some major hits in this week's Outlander: Blood of My Blood, and you know it's a bad day when the person being called harsh names while pushing out a baby on a pile of straw has the (comparatively) better experience in the episode.
On the bright side? Julia and Henry's child is born healthy. On the "oh s–t" side? Henry has a break from reality that will have real repercussions as we move toward the end of the season. (Make sure to check out what Jeremy Irvine has to say about his character's worst day ever.)
Read on for the highlights of "Birthright."
BABY'S ON THE WAY | Julia wakes up and quickly realizes her water has broken. Galvanized, she gets dressed and heads out to the yard to talk with Brian... who doesn't really want to talk with her. Still, he sends Balloch for the midwife and then demands to know one thing: "Did my father force you?" Technically no, she tells him, but then admits that she was preggo when she arrived at Castle Leathers. "So yes, I had to go to bed with your father, make him believe it's his. It isn't," she says. He's snide when he wonders if there wasn't another route for her to take, so she has to play the redhead card: "If Ellen was carrying your baby, don't you think she would do anything to keep him out of harm's way?" She continues, talking about how much she loves Henry, and Brian softens. "Ye must ready yerself for your confinement," aka giving birth on the floor while local ladies gossip about you to your face, he advises her.
HENRY'S HEART BREAKS IN REAL TIME | Meanwhile, Arch Bug intercepts Henry as he heads out to search for Julia, and an angry Henry tells him all about why he's on a mission to find his wife and possibly-already-born child. In a moment that ALMOST makes me feel bad for him, Arch recalls how his wife, Murdina, gave birth to a stillborn child and nearly died herself. Chastened, Henry says he's sorry for the other man's loss. Then Arch says he'll talk to Isaac about bringing some midwives to talk with Henry at the Grants' place.
After a bunch of fruitless interviews, a woman says she attended to Julia's delivery and "she died in childbirth, I'm afraid. And the baby, too." She adds that it happened a week or so earlier. Henry immediately falls apart, demanding to know where the bodies of his wife and child are. "Buried in a pauper's grave, I'm afraid," she says as Arch has his man escort her out. He invites Henry to have a drink and then go back to work, because "it's over now," but he's highly unaware that Henry is at the start of an epic post-traumatic stress disorder episode.
Outside, I rescind ANY MOLECULE OF EMOTION I EVER FELT FOR ARCH when he and the midwife chat and it becomes clear that he paid her to lie to Henry, in order to end his search. "Wasna any notion of mine," he says, "the laird demanded it."
DAVINA'S STORY | In a flashback, we see how Simon told Davina she had to come to his bed or he'd cast her out of the house "and then what would become of you?" She reluctantly does as he says, and he rapes her. It's awful.
In the present, she wakes him to let him know that Julia's baby is on its way. He surprises her by announcing that he's going to take Julia to church to marry her, all the better to cement the prophecy Maisri gave him in the previous episode. But it's far too late for that, so he pivots and orders her to prep the great hall for labor and delivery.
As Brian and Davina watch Julia get settled, she asks him outright if he and Julia are involved, because she's noticed a sparkle in his eye as of late. He shuts that down, then wonders if his own father loved her. "The Lord doesna allow a child to be conceived against a lassie's will, if that's what you're asking," she says. Isn't it great that we've come so far that no one could possibly think that in our modern society?
Soon after, an army of local women show up, strip a wary Julia of her gown and pray over her naked belly before dressing her in a new nightie and easing her down onto the bed. It's half weird, half nice as they give her some ritual sustenance and reassure her that even though she's a) unmarried and b) a sassenach, they'll help her through. Their kindness infuriates Davina, who yells that Julia "seduced" Lord Lovat and doesn't deserve their pity. And, as the women back away from Julia with scorn in their eyes, it appears that they agree.
The midwife, Mrs. Hughes, announces that Julia must repent "and bow before the Lord God Almighty." They start calling her a jezebel and yelling "shame!," and they're hissing like a pit of snakes while Julia huffs her way through a contraction.
STRONG AS A MOTHER | Things escalate to the point that Julia is flung into the middle of a circle of snarling women demaning to know who the true father of her child is. "Lord... Lovat!" Julia says, dropping to all fours and moaning amid a pile of straw on the floor. Eventually, she's vowing to Davina that she's not trying to replace her and she DEFINITELY doesn't want to become Lord Lovat's lady. "Please do not harden your heart against me," she pleads with Brian's mother.
While all that's going on, Brian takes a dram with his father and talks about his future within the family. "That's cool," Simon basically says, "you don't have one." OK, OK, what he really says is: "The seer I called upon saw no throne in your future... You're lucky I allowed you to use the Fraser name at all," he says. "But soon, I'll have a son who is destined for greatness."
Let's check back in with Julia. Oh, we've progressed to the point where the women think she's possessed and/or carrying a demon in her womb! They repeatedly ask her who the baby's father is, and she maintains Simon Fraser is the daddy. "Can't you see? Everything I'm doing, I'm doing for my baby," she says, starting to cry as the contractions get closer and closer. Her wails make Davina recall her own confinement, where she was treated similarly awfully and responded by cursing the women in the room. "You will have to pry him from my cold, dead arms!" she howled. In the present, Davina seems to come to a decision and screams for the other women to leave her alone with Julia.
Just then, the reverend that Simon called for arrives, and Simon leads him into the birthing room so that he can marry Julia. Brian is right behind, and he manhandles his father when Simon slaps Davina as she orders him from the room. "You'll pay for this Brian," Simon growls as he leaves, following the reverend, who has decided that this whole mess is above his divine pay grade.
IT'S A BOY! | As Julia continues to labor, we flash back to Claire's entrance into the world in the Beauchamp's London apartment. Man, between this home birth and Henry's PTSD interlude in Episode 4, that footboard has seen some things. Once Claire is born and handed over to her awed parents, Henry holds his wife and they marvel at their infant daughter. It's so sweet (especially in juxtaposition to the rest of this hour).
Back at Castle Leathers, Julia delivers her child... who is ominously silent as Davina cuts the umbilical cord. Mistress Porter acts quickly, though, rubbing and smacking the kid until it cries. "A bonnie baby boy," she says as Julia cradles her new son, and the women share teary smiles.
'HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BABY BEAUCHAMP' | Elsewhere in the castle, Simon has Balloch whip Brian while he watches. But young Fraser barely grunts under the punishment, then puts his shirt back on and goes to see how Julia is doing. She gets teary about Henry not being there to meet his son, so Brian starts talking to the baby. "You may not be my brother, but he will always have a friend in me," he promises. As they chat, Brian tells Julia that he doesn't know when his own birthday is, because his birth was such a shameful event, they've never celebrated it. Julia reassures him that he is Davina's "greatest joy," then rises to light a candle and place it in a cake that one of the women brought to the confinement. She explains the custom of blowing out the flame and making a wish. Brian takes a moment to think about what he truly wants, then blows.