***The following contains season finale spoilers***

Recently, Starz premiered the season finale of Outlander: Blood of My Blood. Fearing for Brian Fraser (Jamie Roy)’s safety, Ellen MacKenzie (Harriet Slater) prepared for her wedding to Malcolm Grant (Jhon Lumsden), only to discover that her brother, Colum (Seamus McLean Ross), had broken his promise and ordered assassins to kill Brian. This of course prompted Ellen to break her own promise and choose a daring escape with her beloved. Aided by others, the two do make it out of Castle Leoch, but not without complications, including the death of Malcolm at the hands of Brian in self-defense. However, in the end, more hardship follows as Ellen and Brian see the mountain crosses burning, which signals a looming battle, and Brian must choose between duty and love once again.

Recently, stars Slater and Roy spoke with SciFi Vision about the season finale, including why Brian is making the choice to return for battle, what Ellen’s plans are, if either of them would have been able to move on if things had gone differently, and if Ellen can ever forgive her brother.

Watch the interview and read the transcript below.



SCIFI VISION:  My first question is for you, Jamie, and this is about the finale specifically, but Brian decides, you know, after they finally get away, he's like, “I'm going to go back for this battle.” …So, explain that. Why is it so important to him that he can't just stay there with her?

JAMIE ROY:   At the end of season one?

SCIFI VISION:   Yes.

JAMIE ROY:   OK, well, I think it's at that time, you know, he really had two choices. So, when something like that happens, when the crosses are lit, you can either go back to your Laird as you're supposed to do, report for war, and then do your duty or not do that, and then the repercussions for doing so would be exile. You couldn't be accepted into any clan. And I think for Brian's sake, I think what's going through his head at that time is he wants to stay in Scotland, first of all, because, you know, he's just found the love of his life, and he wants to stay with her, nut he also has this really, really strong sense of duty. He knows what's right from wrong, and he knows what he has to do. And as much as his duty is to Ellen and his loyalty is to her, he does have a loyalty to doing what's right. So, when these crosses are lit, the first thing that comes to his head is, “OK, well, this is what I have to do now,” because if I don't do this, then it could jeopardize everything. Whether that happens or not, we'll have to see in season two. But that's what's going through his head at the end of episode ten.

SCIFI VISION:   Fair enough. Harriet, obviously, she agrees with this choice, because she doesn't try to stop him, but what are her plans while this is all going on? I mean, I'm assuming she's not intending to go into battle, but I don’t know, maybe [she is].” [laughs]

HARRIET SLATER:   Oh, I mean, I think she probably could.

SCIFI VISION:   Yeah, I'm sure she could.

HARRIET SLATER:   But it wasn't really acceptable back then. But I don't know, to be honest. I don't think she knows what her plans are or what the future holds for them in that moment, but I think she does know that she loves him and that he loves her and that whatever happens, they'll do it together as a team. Because they are not yet married, but they are handfast and are planning to get married within the next year. So, I think she's safe in that knowledge and the security of that love. And I think they've overcome so much together as a couple already. I think she feels confident that they can survive this too.

SCIFI VISION:   Jamie, do you think Brian seemed to actually believe her for a little bit? Just a little bit. I think he did about that she was done with him for right then. Is there any possibility that he would have been able to move on? Or would he have fought tooth and nail no matter what, to come back, no matter what she said? Or would he have been able to accept it eventually, do you think?

JAMIE ROY:   Oh, no, he wouldn't be able to accept it. No chance. No, no, no way. At the point, at the moment when it actually happened, yeah, he did. Because she was saying to him all his fears that he had. You know, he'd already had these conversations with Murtagh (Rory Alexander)  where, you know, Murtagh was talking about, I think it was episode five, where Murtagh was talking to Brian about all the things that Grant's had, you know, coin and status, which Brian didn't have. Then these are the things that Ellen threw in his face and these things. So, obviously, he's going to believe what she says, because these are his biggest fears. But at that point in time, obviously, it was just emotions which were taken over control over Brian.

And it's not until later in episode ten where we see him, kind of the emotions simmer down, and he starts to go through it logically and be like, “OK, well, actually, what was she saying? OK, no, this doesn't make any sense.” So, no, there's no bone in me which believes that Brian would have accepted that. He may have accepted it at the time, just because of how heated that conversation was. But, yeah, he would have always gone after Ellen after that, because there's no way he would have. Absolutely.

HARRIET SLATER:   He would have crashed the wedding.

SCIFI VISION:   Well, on the flip side of that, if her brother hadn't attacked him - or sent somebody to attack him, I should say, I mean, was she really willing to go with Grant and forget about him? Or, yeah, how would that have gone, do you think?

JAMIE ROY:   Yeah, how would that have went?

HARRIET SLATER:   OK, I don't think she was until that moment when he said, “If you don't break with him, I'll have him killed.” I think up until that moment, she always thought that she would find a way out, because that's what she does. She always finds a way out of things. She manipulates situations and she survives. And I think it's not until that moment that she actually loses hope and realizes she's in way too deep, and she can't bear the thought of any harm coming to Brian and it being her fault. So, that's why she breaks up with him.

She has to make him believe that she doesn't love him in order to save his life, because the thought of him, you know, she says it to Julia. She says “To lose them forever would be too great a price to pay.” That would be far worse than, you know, maybe ending up together, but then being killed, because I think they would be hunted down if they were close to run away together in that moment when she leaves that tent with Colum, and she goes and finds him and says, “We need to leave now.”

I think they would have been followed by the Grants, and they probably would have been killed, and she can't bear that. So, I think she does in that moment accept that this is the way her life's going to go. And that's why she reaches out to Jocasta (Sadhbh Malin) as well and apologizes to her, because she finally realizes the position that she put her sister in by making this match that she wasn't, you know, she had no say in, and she finally understands how that feels.

So, that's some good that came of it, I guess, is that she reconciles. Her and her sister have some sort of relationship that comes out of it. But no, luckily that doesn't last very long. Luckily, Brian comes charging back into the castle and reveals that Colum has done this thing, and that frees her of her obligation to go through with the marriage, because he broke his word, so she can break hers.

SCIFI VISION:   Right. I know we're almost at time, but really quick, can she ever forgive Colum for that?

HARRIET SLATER:   We'll see. To be honest, I think that moment in the study where she gives him the opportunity to admit what he's done is her sort of giving him a chance to leave the door open, and I think the fact that he doesn't, I think, gives her the strength to sabotage and run away and leave everything behind. And she has that line in the Bothy where he says “You'll be grieving for what you've left behind,” and she says “Well, I'll remember the good and close the door on the bad,” and I think Colum very much at that point is the bad, and she's accepted that he's betrayed her, and he's not who she thought he was.

So, I don't know, I guess you'll have to wait and see.