Outlander: Blood of my Blood has burst onto Starz and Amazon MGM+ with all the vim and vigor of its predecessor Outlander, and we’ve only seen three out of 10 episodes. If you haven’t caught up yet, Blood of my Blood acts as a prequel to the main series, following Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and Jamie’s (Sam Heughan) parents, from World War I to the rugged Highlands of 18th century Scotland. They’re separate yet connected, in even more ways than we’re currently aware of.
As it stands, we’ve seen both pairs fall in love and l into their respective time travel journeys, but it’s Claire’s parents that I’m the most interested in. Henry (Jeremy Irvine) and Julia (Hermione Corfield) have fallen in love through a beautiful written correspondence before being brutally thrown back in time. They’ve been split up from one another along the way, finding their way back to each other while talking themselves into rewriting history in the process.
While I’m enjoying the hunt for Outlander Easter eggs (and there are a lot of those), I just can’t predict what we’re about to see in the next episode, let alone how the season will wrap up. But keeping one eye on the season 1 finale is exactly how my mind works, so I had to ask Irvine and Corfield about it when I had the chance. So, imagine my surprise when they told me they also have no idea what’s coming, and frankly, the reason why is an incredibly smart move from the producers.
Out of four potential endings, we have no idea which will air in the Outlander: Blood of My Blood season 1 finale
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“We get given our scripts while we’re filming the block before,” Corfield tells me, fresh from the set of Outlander: Blood of My Blood season 2. “We’re currently doing block one and two [of season 2], and we won’t start to see scripts for block three until we’re nearly done with block two, so you’re constantly learning where your character is going as well. We actually have no clue what’s really coming.”
Irvine adds the punch: “We filmed about four different endings for season one, so we still haven’t seen which one they’ve gone for in the final edit.” It’s the sort of thing RuPaul’s Drag Race would do to keep a season’s eventual winner a secret, filming every queen sobbing on the runway with a crown a sceptre.
This means that outside of the editing room, absolutely nobody knows how season 1 will end, and that’s refreshing. Alongside my fellow press chums, I’ve been lucky enough to have advanced Outlander: Blood of My Blood access, but that left us about four episodes short. In a time when we’re desperate to work out what’s coming, have all information at our fingertips and uncover leaks and spoilers before they hit the small screen, a move like this is now the only foolproof way to keep us in suspense, providing the watercooler moment that’s working so well for weekly releases. And for that, I tip my hat in respect to Starz.
Obviously, we can try to work out what’s coming thanks to the seven existing seasons of Outlander, clearly having to directly intersect with Outlander: Blood of My Blood at some point (especially if Claire is as close in time to her parents as we think). But Irvine didn’t realize the level of pressure that would come with that until season 1 started airing.
“Not until we started doing press,” he tells me about the comparison pressure. “We film it in this little bubble in Scotland, so it’s very easy to forget that anyone’s ever going to watch it. Now that we’re promoting it, and we’re filming season two, I’m looking at my scripts for season two going ‘Geez, gotta make sure I do a good job of that,’ because of the fan base.”
So, will there be any real clues to hang onto following the ending of Outlander: Blood of My Blood until we’re into the second season? Only time (travel) will tell.
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