‘Outlander’: 12 Episodes to Watch Before ‘Blood of My Blood’ Premieres
Outlander‘s run is quickly approaching its final season, but the flagship is also set to make way for Starz’s forthcoming prequel Outlander: Blood of My Blood, which will debut in 2025.
The show will follow the love stories of Jamie Fraser’s (Sam Heughan) parents, Brian Fraser (Jamie Roy) and Ellen MacKenzie (Harriet Slater), in 18th-century Scotland, as well as the romance between Claire’s (Caitriona Balfe) parents, Henry Beauchamp (Jeremy Irvine) and Julia Moriston (Hermione Corfield), in WWI England.
As we look ahead to the prequel’s future, we can’t help but reflect on the key moments and episodes that could play a role or resurface in the upcoming series as Outlander‘s unveiled plenty of Mackenzie and Fraser family lore over the years in particular. Below, we’re taking a closer look at key revelations made over the seasons surrounding Jamie’s family that we’d like to see make a comeback in Blood of My Blood. But do you agree? Check out the full lineup of episodes and details we’ve rounded up and let us know what you’d like to see most reflected in the prequel series in the comments section.
Outlander, Season 7 Finale, Friday, January 17, 8/7c, Starz
Outlander: Blood of My Blood, Series Premiere, 2025, Starz
"The Wedding" (Season 1 Episode 7)
Who can forget the night that Claire and Jamie wed? Well, it also turns out to be a rather vital one for learning more about his family history. As viewers will recall, prior to consummating their union, Claire grills her new husband for information about his past, beginning with his parents. Jamie offers up some facts, including that his mother, Ellen, was the eldest sister of brothers Colum (Gary Lewis) and Dougal (Graham McTavish) MacKenzie, and that his father, Brian, was able to see him grow up despite her dying when he was young. During this conversation, Jamie also refers to a story in which a man named Malcolm Grant conveyed his hopes to marry Ellen, but she’d told him off and together with Brian “slipped out of the castle right under the noses of 300 clansmen.”
In a flashback moment from the episode, Jamie prepares for his nuptials with godfather Murtagh (Duncan Lacroix), during which he mentions that he wants his marriage to be right for the sake of his late mother. He asks Murtagh if he thinks Ellen would have approved of the marriage, and his godfather tells him, “Your mother had the sweetest smile. Would warm a man to the backbone just to see it. Claire’s smile is just as sweet.” The mention of Ellen from Murtagh teases his unrequited love for the character viewers will finally meet in Outlander: Blood of My Blood. Additionally, this installment introduces Ellen’s pearl necklace, which Jamie gifts to Claire.
"The Watch" (Season 1 Episode 13)
This episode sees Claire playing midwife to Jamie’s sister, Jenny (Laura Donnelly), amid a turbulent birth. During their time together, Jenny tells Claire a bit more about their family after she finds a wooden snake with the word “SAWNY” carved into it. According to Jenny, her brother Willie made the figurine for Jamie’s fifth birthday. Willie died two years before Ellen, the latter of whom died from complications of childbirth. Following the birth in the same episode, Jenny gifts Claire a pair of bangles made from tusks that belonged to Ellen. According to Jenny, the bangles came from a secret admirer that Ellen wouldn’t reveal to anyone else.
"The Search" (Season 1 Episode 14)
On the road in search of a missing Jamie, Murtagh and Claire find themselves forced together and tensions are high as they fear the worst. Lashing out in a moment, Claire insinuates that Murtagh can’t know how she feels because he’s never lost someone he loved. He informs her quickly that he did love someone, a beautiful woman he’d met at a MacKenzie gathering whom he hoped to prove himself worthy of during a hunt. He killed a boar with a dagger alone, and his hunt impressed the MacKenzies so much he was gifted the boar’s tusks, which he fashioned into bracelets and gave to the woman he loved. Realizing that Murtagh is referring to Ellen, she pulls the bracelets from where they’re stored, and the pair commiserate over loving Jamie for two different reasons.
"Wentworth Prison" (Season 1 Episode 15)
Once Jamie has been located at Wentworth Prison, Claire and crew are housed by Sir Marcus MacRannoch (Brian McCardie), an acquaintance who has a history with Jamie’s parents. When Claire tries pawning her pearls off to sway MacRannoch to provide men who can help break Jamie out of prison, the man is stunned and asks if Jamie is Ellen’s son; he reveals he originally gifted Ellen the pearls as a wedding present years ago. The anecdote is definitely worth noting considering the storyline could play into the forthcoming prequel. McCardie was cast to play Isaac Grant in the forthcoming series, but died in April 2024.
"The Fox's Lair" (Season 2 Episode 8)
In this installment, Jamie and Claire travel to Castle Beaufort, where they meet with his paternal grandfather, Lord Lovat (Clive Russell), the Chief of Clan Fraser. During their stay, Claire is filled in on the family history when it comes to the man who is stirring up drama amid political unrest. This episode explores Jamie’s role as a “bastard,” with his father Brian having been an illegitimate son of the Laird. According to Jamie, Lord Lovat has been married three times, twice by “nefarious means,” and over the years, he’s had many mistresses. Lord Lovat has a deep hatred for Clan MacKenzie and even attempted to kidnap Ellen MacKenzie in the past. Ultimately, Brian chose the MacKenzies over the Frasers when he ran away from Beaufort.
Brian was mostly raised by his mother Davina, a kitchen maid. When Jamie suggests that maybe he isn’t a Fraser, hinting that perhaps his grandmother had taken other lovers, Lord Lovat laughs in his face, seemingly finding humor in the idea that Davina could have been promiscuous. Following Ellen’s death, Lord Lovat had supposedly offered to embrace Brian and set him up as his next successor, but the man chose Clan MacKenzie and Lallybroch over his father. This episode really offers a lot of background regarding the feuds and family ties between the Frasers and MacKenzies.
"Vengeance Is Mine" (Season 2 Episode 11)
In a quick moment, while Claire is treating patients for dental purposes, Rupert (Grant O’Rourke) attempts to comfort a small child by sharing an anecdote about his late friend Angus (Stephen Walters), revealing that when they were kids, a cow kicked Angus’s front teeth straight down his throat. Perhaps, this is an event that will take place in Blood of My Blood. Only time will tell.
"The Hail Mary" (Season 2 Episode 12)
On Colum’s deathbed, Dougal recounts an event from childhood when Colum was thrown from a stallion, injuring his back and legs in the process. While Dougal remembers thinking his 10-year-old brother would mend at the time, that didn’t happen, and it ultimately changed his entire worldview. Dougal expresses anger over that turn of events, and it hints at the brothers’ deep-rooted tension that is present from the time fans are introduced to them at the series’ start. Mid-conversation, Colum chooses to die by suicide with a vial of poison Claire provided him, leaving Dougal unsatisfied and without closure.
"All Debts Paid" (Season 3 Episode 3)
While serving time in Ardsmuir following Culloden, Jamie becomes a leader among the other prisoners and is tasked by Lord John Grey (David Berry), the prison’s new warden, to speak with a sickly man who speaks only Gaelic and French (Jamie knows both languages). Upon meeting the man in question, he’s told about cursed gold stashed in a hidden place, left there by a White Lady — “she is death,” the ill man tells Jamie — and he name-drops Colum, Dougal, and Ellen, too. Were Jamie’s family members cursed by the Jacobite gold that has plagued its possessors on the flagship series? Perhaps the spinoff will delve deeper into such ideas.
"If Not For Hope" (Season 4 Episode 11)
In Season 4, while Jamie and Claire search for Roger (Richard Rankin) after he is sold off to the Mohawk, Brianna (Sophie Skelton) spends time at River Run with her Aunt Jocasta and learns that her grandmother Ellen had been a talented artist like herself. Jocasta tells Brianna that her sister Ellen was her father’s favorite child, and he allowed her to stay unmarried long past the acceptable age. Ultimately, Ellen married after their father died, eloping with Brian Fraser after refusing the matches brothers Colum and Dougal made for her. According to Jocasta, Ellen had also been pregnant before she married, not dissimilar to Brianna’s situation. This information is certainly vital to understanding Ellen and Brian’s love story.
"The Fiery Cross" (Season 5 Episode 1)
The opening moments of Season 5 deliver a flashback scene between Murtagh and a young Jamie moments after Ellen’s death. After delivering the news that his mother has died, Murtagh tells young Jamie that he kneels at his feet as he had at Ellen’s when he was born and promises to be with him always, following him and supporting him in anything he does. Considering Blood of My Blood‘s past setting, perhaps viewers will one day witness the original vow Murtagh made to Ellen in this regard, making this a vital episode from the original series.
"Death Be Not Proud" (Season 7 Episode 3)
When the big house on Fraser’s Ridge is burned down in an unfortunate incident, Arch Bugg’s (Hugh Ross) hiding of the Jacobite gold is discovered as he stole it from Hector Cameron’s crypt. As Jamie seeks an explanation for the gold, Arch tells him that back in the day when the gold came ashore from France, it was split evenly between Dougal MacKenzie, Hector Cameron, and Arch, who was the third, collecting it on behalf of Malcolm Grant. When the gold was delivered too late for the cause of the Jacobites, Grant used the gold for the clan. Arch swore an oath to his chief and his ties to the gold at this point in the series were based on his roots, hinting that the gold could play a role in the prequel, considering the players involved in the original agreement.
"Written in My Own Heart's Blood" (Season 7 Episode 15)
Outlander‘s seventh season opens its penultimate episode with a moment of remembrance for Ellen as Jamie prepares himself for battle and Claire worries about his potential fate. Jamie declares that he’s been thinking of his mother lately and the strength she’d needed. He recalls her death and how she’d been prepared for the coffin with a braid and how his father had undone the hairstyle so her red hair could lay spilled out on the pillow. Upon getting a closer look, Jamie said he’d uncovered his little brother who had also perished during the birth as the baby’s body was covered by Ellen’s hair, but he decided against it and placed the locks back where they’d been. As Jamie tells Claire, it was the first time he’d seen a dead person, and Ellen didn’t have white hair on her head at the age of 38. This story is an important one to hold onto as fans head into Blood of My Blood and keep track of the years and ages to unfold in the prequel.
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