Handfasting, prophecies, steamy sex, and stone circles — Blood of My Blood delivers all the Outlander greatest hits in “Needfire.”
Elle MacKenzie starts the episode donning a dress befitting a bride. Though it’s not her wedding gown, it is the outfit that she’ll wear later in the episode as May Queen alongside her May King, Malcolm Grant. But little does her enamoured suitor know that Ellen’s already handfasted to another — Brian Fraser.
Before getting to the spicy bits, let’s rewind a bit. Traveling buddies Julia and Brian are ready to hit the road again to Inverness for Beltane. But Julia’s scheme is thwarted by Mistress Porter. Simon has sent for his seer, Maisri, to do a reading of his unborn child. Not only does Julia not get to reunite with her husband Henry, but she also loses an ally in Brian, who is angry that Julia is allegedly carrying his half-sibling. Brian instead gets an unwanted traveling companion in the form of Murtagh, who is keen to have one last shot with Ellen.
On the way to Beltane, Ellen and her sister Jocasta show what loving sisters they are, with Jocasta teasing Ellen that she may lose her innocence there (how right you are, Jocasta) despite being an old maid. Ellen responds in kind by targeting Jocasta’s struggles to conceive. (The more screentime she gets, the more Sadhbh Malin’s similarities to Maria Doyle Kennedy are evident.) As Ned Gowan says, these two are as bad as Colum and Dougal. Ned also warns Ellen not to do anything reckless to mess with her match with Malcolm. “You have my word,” Ellen replies. Uh, sure ya do, Ned.
Ned also gives some intel to Henry Beauchamp about the faeries that hang by the stone circle. The bladier plays it cool about his interest in Craigh na Dun and instead warns that Grant patriarch Isaac is nervous about Lord Lovat’s claims that Ellen has a bad reputation. Ned says the accusation is without merit, but Ellen will be changing that in short order.
It’s time for some festivities at Beltane, and Malcolm and Jocasta bully Ellen into dancing to be considered for May Queen. While on the floor, Brian expertly sweeps in to dance with her.
These two do a very poor job of pretending to be strangers and arrange to meet at the old castle tower later that day. Probably thanks to her dancing glow (weird compliment, Malcolm), Ellen wins the title of May Queen. She gets to choose her May King, and Murtagh breaks some unspoken rule by joining Malcolm in the lineup. Other men follow suit, including Brian, but Ellen plays by the rules and selects her betrothed.
At Castle Leathers, Maisri the seer is giving her reading via an egg-cracking ceremony. She sees two children (can Maisri see that she’ll eventually interact with the lass with dark curls as an adult in Outlander Season 2?), but it’s the “boy of great importance” that interests Simon Fraser. He interprets Maisri’s reading to mean that his Fraser son with Julia will be the future king of Scotland… which sounds awfully like the Brahan Seer prophecy. Is it possible that Maisri is somehow seeing Jamie and Claire’s heirs in her vision?
Back at the Beltane celebration, Ellen loses Malcolm by tricking him into building the ritualistic needfire for that night’s celebration. On their way to the fertility blessings at the time-traveling stones, Ellen and the resentful Jocasta make a deal to keep each other’s secrets for the evening, and the sisters scurry off separately.
With pounding hearts, Ellen and Brian meet and make out. Unbeknownst to them, the mopey Murtagh spies on them (these secret lovers probably shouldn’t be kissing right out in the open), making him even mopier.
Brian and Ellen get smart and go inside, where Brian tells her that she’s lit a fire inside of him that puts the moon and stars to shame. Brian warns that if they keep going, he won’t be able to stop (so men have been using blue balls as an excuse since the 1710s), and he doesn’t want to ruin her name, honor, and virtue. But Ellen doesn’t want him to stop. Instead, she tells him, “Ruin me.” Damn.
Before the ruining though, Brian does a quick handfasting ceremony so these two can bone guilt-free (well kinda guilt-free if you ignore Murtagh and Malcolm) as they’ll now be considered married (like their grandchild Brianna will later do with Roger). Cue the show’s title and the vows Jamie and Claire will one day say to one another: “Blood of my blood. And bone of my bone. I give ye my body, that we two might be one. I give you my spirit till our life shall be done.”
Brian and Ellen consummate their marriage with an extended love scene. And before you get too excited that this could mean baby Jamie will be making an appearance soon, a reminder that Jamie’s the third-born child in the Fraser family tree. They cuddle postcoitally, where Brian says Ellen has made him want more out of life, and she tells him she has no regrets: “If I’m only allowed one choice for the rest of my life, I would choose you time and again.”
Meanwhile, the hits keep coming for Murtagh. Literally, this time, as Arch Bug beats him up for channeling Malcolm Grant as May King. The bloodied Murtagh later seeks comfort in his future Outlander lover, Jocasta. But their romantic moment is short-lived when the drunken Murtagh calls her Ellen instead. Ouch, now I actually feel bad for poor Jocasta.
Over at Castle Leathers, Mistress Porter tells Simon that Julia can’t be trusted and her baby isn’t his. Luckily for Julia (for now), he doesn’t believe it and threatens to slice Davina’s throat if she ever brings up the baby’s paternity again.
The real baby’s father Henry is stuck sulking and drinking by the stone circle, sad not to find Julia there, when his buddy Ned joins him. Ned reveals he once had a love, but after he lost them (it’s worth noting Ned never specifies a gender), he didn’t linger in his torment. He warns Henry that his search could be the death of him, and to know when to give it up. Don’t listen, Henry! Julia’s so close!
The episode ends with Ellen and the smitten-since-bairnhood Malcolm being crowned queen and king at the culmination of the Beltane celebration, complete with the needfire, masked performers, and the stone dancers. Despite the spectacle, it’s a somber end with the guarantee that Ellen is going to break Malcolm’s heart (and the consequences that come with that), plus Julia writing about the challenges of her and Henry keeping their vows. But the one bright spot and the thing that all of the couples in the Outlander world share — whether it be Henry and Julia, Brian and Ellen, or Jamie and Claire — is that they burn for one another brighter than any Beltane fire.
Caitlin Gallagher is a New Jersey-raised, NYC-based entertainment writer. When not writing about or watching TV, she can be found planning her next Halloween costume, crying over rescue animals, or praising Season 2 of The Leftovers.