Spoiler Alert: This post contains spoilers for “Nature Agency” in episode 6 of “Outlander: Blood of My Blood.”
“Outlander” was a baptism for the actor with a fire-like experience. For more than a decade of the franchise, the drastic romanticism of the story of author Diana Gabaldon is only coincided by the ever-evolving definition of trauma, with each character and audience guises as the atrocities of life, with everything fresh hell awaiting every corner.
Julia (Hermione Colfield) and Henry Beaushan (Jeremy Irvine) concluded their proverb section with the sixth episode of Starts’ prequel series, “Outlander: Blood of My Blood.” Over the course of an hour, Colfield gives birth not once but twice on-screen, while Irvine plays Henry’s mental breakdown in real time. But defining a traumatic moment to bite before worrying too much for an actor is kind of a rite of passage in the “Outlander” world.
“I think that’s what the show is,” Irvine tells Variety. “It’s an epic, epic story and I’m sure everyone will spend time.”
Courtesy of Sanne Gault/Starz
Whether it’s a passing ritual or not, it was still a heavy lift for Colfield to go back through the two birth scenes.
“I think it was actually a week’s birth,” Colfield said of how the scene was filmed. “If I remember correctly, that’s why it’s so intense because I realized I was doing this for a week (for the main birth scenes) we were filming in that room for three or four days.”
Ever since the careless return to Scotland in 1714 took time, Julia and Henry endured a huge hurdle to survive as people. She is enslaved at the house of a cruel and merciless Lobato (Tony Curran), who had slept to cover up carrying Henry’s baby. She feared that if it weren’t him, Lobat would drive the baby away, and the visionary prophecy that the child would grow up to be king made her even more valuable to him. Meanwhile, Henry is conscripted as an accountant for Isaac Grant (Brian McCurdy), a dangerous position that promises an opportunity to find Julia if he can navigate the politics of the time.
Julia’s tenuous situation in Castle Leathers reaches birth in Episode 6, reaching a crazy birth scene where she is saved, and is then troubled by the gags of Howdy (Scottish midwife) who supports her until her fellow housemaid Dabina (Sara Vickers) question the legality of pregnancy. When she claims that Julia had seduced Robert, Howdy became toxic, and her pregnant mother was dressed in a cracked straw floor to protect her fatherhood during contractions. Of course, she’s lying. Henry is his father. But at this moment she stands violently on her ground as if it were true. Because that must be the case for her baby to survive.
“Every time she lies and says that Rovat is her father, I think she needs to die a little inside,” says Colfield.
The actor says she loaded up energy drinks to film her birth for several days.
Courtesy of Sanne Gault/Starz
“I wanted to map the intensity of the contractions and the intensity of the woman at this moment. “As the scene progresses, both become more and more wild. But the main thing about Julia is that she is in absolute animal instinct mode. She is purely trying to protect this child, and that’s her only intention.
This scene interacts with a relatively mild flashback when Julia gives birth to Claire (the character played by Kaitriona Baruff in the flagship series). She then stood in a crouching position, returning to London to grab the metal bar of Henry’s bed in her flat. Meanwhile, he gropes to find something to comfort her in an incredibly unpleasant moment. This has become an increasingly unusual sight, and I am happy to see these two together.
“There’s a sense of excitement there and it feels like young love is symbolized,” says Colfield. “It’s totally against what we see in other scenes that felt like a completely different experience. In the castle she’s on her knees, she’s roaming raw.
Through writhing and screaming, Julia’s flashy exhausts the rebellious Dabina. It shows the outcome of Dabina being raped by Rovatt, and the resulting son, Brian Fraser (Jamie Roy), is the father of Jamie Fraser (Sam Heugan). If you’re counting at home, it’s the third birth scene in this one episode. But as Julia does now, it is revealed that she also rejected the Howdies’ light corn about how she got pregnant. Davina eventually drives out Howdy on Julia’s behalf, and it never arrives from unmarried when she begs her hands with the priest who tries to marry Julia before the baby is born.
“It’s a really nice moment because Julia appeals to Dabina as a mother,” says Colfield. “She says that the way you shaped your son is you. Let him shape your son. Don’t die, don’t leave me in Rovatt’s hands. At that moment they’ll become a team.”
The impact of these three births on “Outlander” Canon is huge. Fans will definitely be excited to see the literal origins of Claire and Brian. But what remains the question mark is the new boy still named. Gabaldon always tells us that fans Claire’s parents died when he was five years old, and that he survived in the past, bringing new wrinkles to the story of his younger brother’s arrival. Let’s start the wild theorizing of who he will grow!
Courtesy of Sanne Gault/Starz
As for the boy’s father, Henry is unable to share the joys of his son’s birth. His desperate search to find Julia angered his boss, Grant. He has created a plan to completely end the perceived distraction by telling the poor man that he had died from a nearby birth to a local midwife. The sudden loss of his anchor and purpose completely shatters Henry’s vulnerable grip on reality, causing an episode due to PTSD that he screams and drys out – he has in common with Julia’s storyline. Then, suddenly, the switch is turned over and he returns to the memory of the joys of the Race House and tells Julia that World War I is over. The creatively filmed scenes show him sprinting through the Scottish forests, inspecting his paths and solidifying his break with reality.
“That’s something I put a lot of thought into,” Irvine says. “When we saw them together, we’ve seen why they were in love. We’ve seen how happy it is. So, Henry needs to see that he can’t face the facts. When she dies, he dies. It’s broken and you don’t know what he’ll do next, because it can be so broken at this point.”
Audiences are at least out into the fantasy world of the 1910s, so they know where he is headed in the near future. Henry thinks he’s falling in Julia’s arm in his memory, but he’s actually competed straight for the sex worker he was progressing – up until now. In the mist of his mental break, he believes she is Julia and has sex with her, adding yet another line item to his list of things that Beauchan needs to catch up.
Corfield and Irvine are currently filming season 2 of the series in Scotland, so upcoming series should be kept secret. But they both agree that this is the moment when they once made or broke a couple. “It’s like putting unconditional love on a test,” he says.
Julia was with Lovato due to pure survival instincts, so Henry wasn’t just in bed with another person. However, Colfield admits that this particular twist is different.
“It’s a difficult medicine for me and Julia to swallow,” she says. “When I read it, I was heartbroken. Their love is so deep, but that doesn’t mean that these things can be easily forgotten.
