Blood of My Blood Episode 1.5: Needfire

Beltane. May Day. Mayday.

Warning- Contains spoilers from Blood of My Blood Episode 1.5: Needfire

What a truly gorgeous hour of television. I wouldn’t be surprised if this one episode used a significant portion of this season’s production budget. From Ellen’s May Queen dress, to the set design of the Beltane celebrations, and the costuming of the many, many extras…this episode really outdid itself. And we needed such beauty, because beneath the pageantry and celebration there was quite a bit of sadness.

Needfire (noun): a purificatory fire traditionally kindled by friction.

More than enough friction to go around this hour, certainly. Friction between Jocasta and Ellen, between Brian and Murtagh, between Murtagh and Jocasta…and some (ahem) very fun friction between Ellen and Brian. Even friction for us as an audience, because we are starting to care about these characters and the inevitable heartbreak that is to follow for some.

It’s clear from the opening minutes that we’ve entered our second act of the season—the setup has been established and now come the obstacles. Indeed, the episode opens almost immediately with such an obstacle, as Mistress Porter thwarts Brian and Julia’s plans to leave for Beltane. As she informs them, Simon Fraser and Maisri (Fraser’s seer) are due back to Castle Leathers imminently. Beltane will be an opportune time for readings, she explains, as the veil between the worlds is thinned (frictionless, if you will) and Fraser desires a reading for “his” child. Brian knows there will be a significantly larger price to pay (for all involved) if he allows Julia to escape now, and so she is forced to stay behind.

The MacKenzie contingent, meanwhile, is also making its way to the Beltane gathering. As Jocasta needles Ellen about her betrothal, it is clear that Jocasta is becoming embittered by a lifetime of being overlooked. Already we see Jocasta’s disappointed heart steeling itself for the decades to come. We know she is destined to have her heart broken multiple times, and it’s sad to imagine an alternate universe in which Jocasta was spared such pain. We can possibly envision her becoming Ellen’s confidant and a sisterly co-conspirator in love. Instead, we see the first traces of a woman who sees wealth as a competition…and who will someday build that wealth upon the enslaved backs of others. Already there is a friction within Jocasta that will someday have disappointing consequences.

Upon the MacKenzies arrival, Henry pulls Ned aside and informs him that Simon Fraser has accused Ellen of impropriety and ruined reputation. Ned explains the only ruined reputation is Fraser’s for actual real-life charges of kidnapping and rape. However bogus Fraser’s claims, they are enough to sow the seeds of doubt and discord with the Grant-MacKenzie marriage and alliance. Friction.

Ellen (somewhat reluctantly) partakes in the ceilidh for May Queen, and what unfolds is a truly beautiful few minutes of television. There were some very nice details in direction and cinematography in this episode…the way Brian’s hand finds Ellen’s waist while dancing and the subsequent small tap of her fingers on his. They are the briefest of touches (frictionless), as is the subtle shake of Brian’s head when Ellen is choosing her May King. Brian knows Ellen needs to pick Malcolm Grant to avoid suspicion, and she reads this message immediately and without confusion. This love is throwing the world around them into chaos but here, at least, there is no discord.

It’s clear Malcolm Grant sincerely loves Ellen, and anticipating his inevitable heartbreak is much harder than if he had been written as a clear villain….this is the friction for us as an audience. I recently rewatched Outlander Episode 106: The Wedding (for research, of course). Beyond the escapism of that perfect episode there is quite a bit of backstory provided by Jamie to Claire about his family. He tells of his parents sneaking away from hundreds of clansmen, of Ellen “telling off” Malcolm Grant, and of Colum and Dougal being outraged at Ellen’s deception. If the writers of Blood of My Blood are faithful to the outlines of what we know to be Brian and Ellen’s story, then perhaps Malcolm Grant will eventually become a less sympathetic character. Then again, stories are only as reliable as the narrators who tell them, and a son’s retelling of his parents’ love affair is surely flawed with romanticism.

And speaking of unreliable narrators, at gloomy Castle Leathers Maisri holds court as she offers a reading for Julia’s unborn child. The unreliable narration here is not from Maisri (who seems to see glimpses of Claire and twentieth-century warfare and who correctly predicts Fraser’s return to wealth and power) but rather from Simon Fraser, who assumes Maisri is foretelling of the fulfillment of a Fraser king (and perhaps aligning with the Brahan Seer’s Fraser Prophecy). However, as Mistress Porter will later unsuccessfully try to warn Fraser, Maisri never calls this child Fraser’s own and her predictions of his future are actually left rather vague. A child who will lead this country while it is on the brink of destruction and a man whose life will serve a higher purpose? In a story with time travel, this child could be anyone living at any time.

In the present, however, Ellen and Brian sneak away and consummate their hand-fast marriage. This scene was beautifully choreographed in physicality and in dialogue, and the chemistry between these two characters is palpable and believable. Ellen and Brian are lonely people…Brian because he has mostly lived in this world alone, and Ellen because she lives in her world without agency. That they have chosen each other seems inevitable.

Away from the Beltane celebrations Henry waits and watches for Julia…they are so close and yet so far from each other. Ned no doubt feels friendship for Henry as a fellow solicitor, but does he perhaps feel something more? The story he tells Henry of the love he lost in Edinburgh seemed deliberately vague…in an episode where friction is the theme, I suspect Ned may be falling in love with Henry.

And of Murtagh? His is also a story of unrequited love. Seeing Murtagh’s face absorb Brian’s betrayal was a gut-punch…one that he literally felt at the hands of Arch Bug later in the evening. We know this man will spend his life loyal to Brian and Ellen and their children. Again, in rewatching The Wedding, Murtagh speaks of Ellen as if his love was still new…as if she hadn’t broken his heart and she hadn’t been dead for so many years. This is a friction he will carry within him for the rest of his days.

Friction does not create energy….it transforms it. From the rub and discord and resistance comes heat and sound and fire. And although this episode is a turning point, there is nothing here that was not already created…our characters are lonely and lost and in love. But the friction—the needfire—has set everything ablaze.

Slàinte.