The Outlander: Blood of My Blood season 1 finale gave fans plenty to mull over between seasons, but maybe the biggest cliffhanger is the fate of Henry and Julia (Jeremy Irvine and Hermione Corfield). After spending the bulk of the season apart, the two are reunited only to be (potentially?) torn apart again. They make a mad dash to the stones to try to return to their time, and realize they have a problem: What if going back through the stones doesn't work? Who should take William? What if he can't travel? And with Arch Bug on their tail, they have to make this decision quickly. At the last minute, Henry puts Julia's hand on the stones while she holds William, hoping to send them back to the future while staying behind himself.
On the set of Blood of My Blood season 2, Jeremy and Hermione sat down with Cosmopolitan to talk through the nail-biter finale, how filming the flashes of their 1900s life gave them a reprieve, and why Henry ultimately decides to send Julia back to the future.
The flashes to the 1900s in this episode are so bittersweet, because they're juxtaposed with this mad dash. How did it feel to play those knowing that the audience was going to have that point of view on it?
JI: It's a chance to see why this couple are so in love. We were always looking for a chance for them to have some fun, because boy, oh boy do they go through the ringer the rest of the time.
HC: It was Claire as a toddler, which we hadn't really seen yet. And she was so sweet, the actress that played baby Claire. She was just eating the strawberries over and over again. It was just a lovely scene to do, bring that love and lightness amongst all of the angst and the terror of the 1700s.
JI: When you've got kids on set, it's the only time that the writers let you throw the script, just go with whatever the kid does. I love it. It's great fun.
How does the energy on set change when there's a small child running around?
HC: Everyone has to just let everything flow, and you can't try and plan anything. I don't think we even said any of the dialogue, really.
JI: The whole thing was improvised. And it's great, because for kids, they're not acting. For them, it's real. You just get to bounce off them, and it's fun, and it's bubbly. It's so nice to be doing scenes where we're not getting tortured or abused in some way.
HC: And you have to shoot quickly.
When did you when did you film those scenes? Did you do all the 1920s scenes at the same time? Or did you break it up throughout the season?
HC: We broke it up through the season, right?
JI: Yeah, thank goodness, because it was our light relief, wasn't it?
What does it feel like to switch back and forth between 1700s and 1900s?
HC: It's such a shift of agency, particularly for Julia. She doesn't have any agency in the 1700s. She's always reacting, and things are happening to her. And I think once we're in the '20s, they're in a domestic setting, it's so much more peaceful, and she's living a normal life, and she has some autonomy.
It feels so wild juxtaposed with the chase scenes. Did you keep that in mind at all? In the 1920s they've really settled into a beautiful, comfortable life together.
JI: You treat each scene individually. When we're acting in the scenes, we're not thinking necessarily about how it's going to be edited all together. You're just trying to play it for real in that moment. The only thing we spoke about was, if we're going to believe that this couple are that desperate to get back to each other, and it's that unconditional, unbreakable love, we've got to see what it's like when it's when it's good.
Why do you think they avoid talking about any of the stuff that happened while they were apart? I was ready for a knock down, drag out fight!
JI: It's coming.
HC: It is coming. In the original script, they do talk about it really, and then that was changed in the edit, wasn't it?
JI: It was, and now it's great, because now we get to explore it in a much deeper way come season 2.
HC: Yeah, it's given the space it needed for them to address all of it.
JI: Yeah, they had this quite rushed conversation. Our very talented show runner and writer Matthew Roberts sort of went, hang on there. We need to give this a bit more time. But they don't really have time. And that was the problem. They're surviving minute by minute. They've just got to try and get away.
Hermione, when we spoke earlier this year, you said that, in your opinion, Henry's crimes during the interim time were worse than Julia's. Jeremy, what do you think about that?
JI: I mean, they're both trying to survive. Henry's got a tough job ahead of him, selling the "I thought it was you" excuse. I don't know about anyone else watching this, but I know what my wife would say if I tried to come to her with that one. He's so mentally broken at that point. We're going to start to explore more of Henry's battle with his mental health and his PTSD as we go into season 2.
I want to talk about this cliffhanger. Why do you think that Henry puts Julia's hand on the stone at the last minute?
JI: In my mind, playing Henry, there's just no way he's going to leave his wife in this time. Life for her in this time is so much worse. He loves her, and he'd die for her in a second. He's not gonna just leave her. But we filmed a few, didn't we?
HC: I think we filmed every single possible combination. We had a writer on the side of the camera filming that bit, literally scribbling things down, going, Okay, now try one where you say this and this happens. So we think we filmed about five different endings.
Was it a surprise to you to see which one ended up in the final cut?
HC: Yeah, it was really fun to see. I actually only watched the watch 10, I think on Saturday night. We had a watch party. I was like, ah!
JI: I mean, it's funny, everyone keeps asking. And we don't know much. You get two or three episodes at a time. On last Friday, I get a call saying, can you come and have a meeting with our showrunner? And I go, I'm being killed off. So I went in Monday. I dressed up smart. I'm going, okay, I'm gonna take this like a man, just say you've had a great experience and thank you. But yeah, we don't know what's coming next, ever. So some of the fan theories will be way more informed than what we even know.
