Outlander: Blood of My Blood Episode 5 “Needfire” could have just as easily been named, “Murtagh Fitzgibbons and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.” Over the course of one single episode of the Starz show, fan favorite Murtagh (Rory Alexander) makes a political misfire, gets his heart stomped on, stomps on someone else’s heart, and gets beaten up for good measure.
“Oh, he’s in complete chaos,” Blood of My Blood star Rory Alexander told DECIDER.
But just how exactly did Murtagh stumble into so epic a bad day? And what lessons does actor Rory Alexander hope our boy takes from it?
**Spoilers for Outlander Blood of My Blood Episode 5 “Needfire,” now streaming on Starz**
Outlander: Blood of My Blood is a timeline-bending Outlander prequel series that reveals that Claire’s parents traveled back in time through the stones much like their daughter did. They wind up in 1714 Scotland, where they are immediately enmeshed in the Romeo & Juliet-esque love story that brought Jamie’s parents Ellen MacKenzie (Harriet Slater) and Brian Fraser (Jamie Roy) together against all odds.
Outlander fans have long known that Jamie’s godfather, friend, and mentor Murtagh Fraser Fitzgibbons was madly in love with Ellen himself. Blood of My Blood shows us a young Murtagh in the throes of his romantic obsession. By the time that Outlander: Blood of My Blood Episode 5 rolls around, Ellen is already secretly committed to Murtagh’s best friend and cousin Brian, but the scuttlebutt is that she’s promised to wealthy laird’s son Malcolm Grant (Jhon Lumsden).
Murtagh doesn’t know about Brian’s connection to Ellen, but is instead sour about losing Ellen to Malcolm Grant. So much so, he goes to Beltane with a mission to take one last shot for the woman he loves.
“He already said to Brian that he missed his opportunity,” Rory Alexander said. “When they find out that she’s betrothed to Malcolm Grant and he says, ‘You know, I was building up the courage. I was going to make my move.’ And I think he really regrets that.”
Murtagh’s great, gallant idea to get Ellen’s attention is actually a rather stupid one. After Ellen is chosen to be the May Queen, she gets the honor of “choosing” her king for the night. Technically any man can volunteer himself for the gig, but when Malcolm Grant steps forward, the subtext is she’s going to choose him. No other man should even try. Murtagh, however, sees this as his last chance to reach her, and steps forward.
“He sees this as an opportunity,” Alexander said. “Again, probably his heart of hearts tells him this is a stupid thing to do, but he’s not listening to that. He’s listening to his instinct and he’s listening to his pride, which has been damaged. So he throws himself into the ring, which obviously leads to some public humiliation and then the rest of his day just really goes south after that.”
Contrast this with Brian’s thought-process. He joins the crowd that assembles after Murtagh’s move, but subtly communicates to Ellen that she better not pick him.
“As much as Ellen, I think, wants to pick Brian, he gives her that sort of nod. Like, ‘Don’t be silly. Our lives are on the line. Like, we’re literally right next to the guy who… You know, these Grants could demolish us at any second,'” Jamie Roy explained to DECIDER during a recent chat.
Ellen chooses Malcolm Grant, only to sneak off to enjoy a romantic afternoon with Brian. Murtagh not only finds his hopes crushed, but, as Alexander teased, his day gets worse and worse. Besides making himself a mark for the Grants’ retribution, Murtagh stumbles upon Ellen and Brian canoodling in the woods. He realizes that not only does Ellen love another, but Brian has been lying to him about this secret romance.
“It’s a double betrayal,” Alexander said. “Because it’s the love of his life, or what he thinks is the love of his life, [and] it’s his best friend, but also he’s told Brian about his love for Ellen.”
“He’s like, ‘Maybe it’s okay that you’ve done this. You know, maybe she’s always going to choose you, but you’re sneaking around. You’re hiding this from me. I’ve been so loyal to you, so honest. And I told you all of my embarrassing feelings about this person,'” Alexander said, working through Murtagh’s feelings. “So it’s heartbreaking.”
“Also he becomes sort of untethered because Brian is his person… If he loses him or Brian severs that, he’s very much rootless. Yeah, so it’s it’s proper turmoil.”
Murtagh responds to this “proper turmoil” by getting drunk and eventually hooking up with Ellen’s sister Jocasta (Sadhbh Malin), the MacKenzie sister who does truly love him. However, during their tryst, Murtagh drunkenly calls Jocasta, “Ellen,” ruining the moment.
“I don’t think he thinks it’s Ellen, but I think he’s imagined this moment so many times in his head, somehow the reality and the fantasy kind of collide,” Alexander said, before asserting that there’s a part of young Murtagh that does like Jocasta.
“I definitely think there were feelings for Jocasta, no doubt. I think they complement each other very well,” he said. “He can really recognize something of himself in her. They are both kind of awkward, wounded outsiders, and they can help each other. So there are a lot of feelings that he gets very confused by and he mixes them all up at the wrong time.”
Alexander stressed, though, that Murtagh will remember how he hurt Jocasta and that he hopes his character learns something from his blunder.
“I like the fact that he doesn’t get let off the hook,” Alexander said. “He’s just been hurt and through his pain, he ends up hurting someone else. Yeah. I think if he misses that lesson, then that’s a big moment that we’ve lost.”
Outlander: Blood of My Blood Episode 5 may not be great for Murtagh, but it also leaves him as one of the few characters in the show who knows about Brian and Ellen’s relationship. It shouldn’t be lost on Blood of My Blood fans that Murtagh’s uncle and protector Lord Lovat (Tony Curran) is eager for any intel that would besmirch Ellen MacKenzie. Could Murtagh really betray both Brian and Ellen?
“It’s kind of a moment for Murtagh where his loyalties are really put to the test,” Alexander teased about episodes yet to come. “So yeah, that’s certainly going to come to a head. There’s no doubt about that. I think that’s as much as I can probably say at this point…”
Outlander: Blood of My Blood returns next Friday, September 5 on Starz.