Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS are ahead for Episode 5 of Outlander: Blood of My Blood Season 1, called “Needfire” and available streaming now via Starz with a Hulu subscription and the Starz app.
Outlander: Blood of My Blood officially hit the halfway point with “Needfire” in the 2025 TV schedule, and the story is going a lot better for some characters than others. In fact, part of the episode felt like Ellen and Brian’s story was in a different show from Julia and Henry’s, and not just because Blood of My Blood made it to Ellen and Brian’s first steamy scene while Julia and Henry’s star-crossed love story is just getting grimmer and grimmer.
In fact, if I didn’t know that Starz already renewed Blood of My Blood for Season 2, I’d probably suspect that there was no hope for Claire’s parents. They’re stuck in an impossible position at the end of “Needfire,” and the preview for Episode 6 suggests that they may well be doomed at least through the end of the first season.
But let’s start with the positives!
Brian And Ellen Pass The Point Of No Return
Beltane finally arrived in “Needfire,” and I’d be lying if I said I haven’t been looking forward to this episode ever since the shot of Brian and Ellen dancing at what looked like a celebration made it into the opening titles of Outlander: Blood of My Blood. What can I say? When a pair has chemistry in just a brief shot of their hands, I’m invested in their story.
But they sure didn’t stop at touching hands and stealing a moment during the dance! After Ellen managed to shake off Malcolm and Brian evaded Murtagh’s all-too-trusting presence, the two met up and went to an abandoned church to make Ellen’s dream come true… and then some.
After they started getting very hot and heavy, Brian stopped and made sure they went through a handfast ceremony so that they would be kinda sorta married before he would “ruin” her. While she was clearly all-in on sleeping with him, I’m glad that he raised the concern of ruining her, if only for her to get to say “Ruin me” to him.
I think we found Outlander: Blood of My Blood’s version of Bridgerton’s “I burn for you” in this episode! I also found it to be a nice touch that the pair couldn’t just shrug off their clothes and get to it, because they were both wearing a lot of layers in their 18th century garb. They didn't even shed all of them in the end, but the kilt didn't really cause any problems.
All in all, it was a sweet and steamy encounter stolen away while everybody else was celebrating Beltane. I really appreciated that it was filmed similarly to how Outlander handles its sex scenes: romantic rather than gratuitous, without lingering shots of nudity for the sake of nudity. (Blood of My Blood has the same intimacy coordinator that Outlander did.)
Of course, nobody can know that Brian and Ellen handfasted and then consummated in the middle of Beltane, and the episode ended their story with Ellen receiving a kiss from Malcolm Grant, who is still publicly her intended. There’s no going back for Brian and Ellen, and I suppose the big hope now is that the Beltane fairies weren’t actually helping with any fertility, because now would be a bad time for a bun in the oven.
Jamie Roy and Harriet Slater’s performances were definitely the highlight of the Scottish side of the story, although I have to give a shout out to Rory Alexander, who plays Murtagh. Having seen every episode of Outlander, I knew perfectly well that Murtagh never had a shot with Ellen. Heck, seeing a single episode of Blood of My Blood with Murtagh yearning from very far away was enough to prove that he never had a shot with Ellen.
But Rory Alexander still made me feel awful for Murtagh when he spotted Brian kissing Ellen. Apparently, I have a soft spot for Murtagh no matter who's playing him! (Points taken away for his treatment of Jocasta, however.)
Are Julia And Henry Doomed?
The star-crossed English lovers from the 20th century are starting to feel a lot more crossed than starry, with Henry seeming on the verge of falling apart the longer he goes without finding his wife. As for Julia… well, Ellen may be in a tough position with her brothers, her intended, and her secret handfasted kinda sorta husband, but Julia’s situation seems all but hopeless.
In “Needfire,” Davina ruined her plan to go to Beltane with Brian to hopefully reach the stones and reunite with her husband, and Brian’s side of the story proved that the plan probably would have worked. It had somehow never occurred to me after Brian and Julia’s conversation in the previous episode about her husband that Brian wouldn't see right through Davina’s claim that Simon was the father, but I was unfortunately wrong on that count.
While everybody was off at Beltane, Julia had to stay with Simon Fraser after he brought a fortune teller into Castle Leathers to do a reading about “his” son… as one does, I guess? The fortune teller promised a son who would have a key role in “uniting clans for centuries to come” and will play his part when “the face of our nation is in peril.”
Simon assumed that meant a Scotsman from his bloodline will make it to the throne. Having seen Outlander, however, that fortune is wrong unless Julia gives birth to her son and he somehow ends up in the English line of succession.
I’m curious to know if Julia and/or Henry is well enough versed in history to know that none of the Jacobite risings of the 18th century ended with a Scottish king. Claire had the benefits of Frank’s lectures to know her history before she went back in time on Outlander; neither Julia nor Henry seems to be a Scottish history buff.
Whatever the case, the episode ended on a note that indicated Lord Lovat definitely wouldn’t be letting Julia very far out of his sight after the prophecy, to the point that he threatened Davina’s life when she tried to hint to him that Julia was pregnant with another man’s son.
It Gets Worse In The Next Episode
Based on the promo for the upcoming sixth episode, Simon Fraser is about to become pretty much everybody’s problem. There’s enough of a time jump between the end of “Needfire” and beginning of the next that a heavily pregnant Julia’s water breaks, with Simon announcing that he and Julia were “to be married before the birth.” Apparently, the lord puts a whole lot of stock in the prophecies of a fortune teller! Take a look:
The person facing the most imminent problems is certainly Julia, as she’ll be facing childbirth in the 1700s as well as being forced into a marriage with Lord Lovat. I think there's no way Henry is going to take any of the reveals other than Julia’s survival well, based on the look on his face when he hears that the midwife does not have good news for him. As for Brian, his father marrying Julia before she gives birth would mean that his – as far as he knows – half-sibling would become his father’s legitimate son and heir.
And considering that there’s no sign in Outlander of a Scottish claimant to the throne other than Bonnie Prince Charlie, it seems that nothing goes according to plan for the baby either. Whatever happens next, it’s hard to imagine the story getting any better for Julia and Henry before it gets much, much worse. They seem doomed to heartache, at the very least, and I’d be worried about Julia’s life if we weren’t just five episodes into a show in which she’s one of the four leads.
But hey, at least Brian and Ellen lived up to every period romance expectation in “Needfire” before the preview that revealed how bad things are going to get! Keep tuning in to Starz on Fridays at 8 p.m. ET for the latest episodes of Outlander: Blood of My Blood.
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