In Its Second Season, “Outlander: Blood of My Blood” Is Still Peak Romance 

No one does romance like the “Outlander” franchise. Part of the reason is that it’s a rare kind of television that isn’t embarrassed to be about romance, unabashedly centering love, affection, and longing as the story’s key narrative and emotional drivers. In this fictional world, the relationships at its center matter just as much—honestly, often more than—than the politics, historical intrigue, or time-travel contrivances unfurling around them. But it’s so satisfying to watch because love isn’t treated as a byproduct of a larger story. It is the story. 

While many viewers are likely still mourning the conclusion of the original “Outlander,” which wrapped up earlier this year after eight seasons of angst and yearning that spanned time periods and continents, the second season of the prequel series “Outlander: Blood of My Blood” is here to pick up the slack. A lavishly romantic, time-bending saga about the parents of the original series’ star-crossed lovers, the show honors its franchise roots while spinning its own thoroughly satisfying tale of two equally fated (and swoon-worthy) couples. Season 2 doubles down on much of what made the show’s first outing so appealing, adding even more passion and full-throated feeling to its story of rebellion and complex family dynamics. But despite the seemingly never-ending series of trials facing its leads, the show’s never felt more confident in its vision—or its heart. 

“Blood of My Blood” follows two key couples: Brian Fraser (Jamie Roy) and Ellen Mackenzie (Harriet Slater), lovers from two rival eighteenth century Scottish clans, and Henry (Jeremy Irvine) and Julia Beauchamp (Hermione Corfield), a young married couple from post-World War I London who are thrown into the past—and Brian and Ellen’s lives—while vacationing in the Highlands. (Those standing stones really should come with a warning label!) 

Outlander: Blood of My Blood (Starz)

Season 2 picks up where the show’s first left off. Brian and Ellen, having successfully run away before she had to marry the nice but mediocre Malcolm Grant, are immediately forced to face the world they left behind. Fiery crosses lit throughout the mountains herald the start of the Jacobite uprising of 1715, which means Brian is bound by oath to return to his laird and fight, while Ellen will have to head home and pick up the broken pieces of her relationships with brothers Colum (Séamus McLean Ross) and Dougal (Sam Retford), who aren’t happy about her refusal to marry the man of their choosing. 

Elsewhere, despite making it to Craigh Na Dun, only Henry successfully crossed the time travel gateway back to the twentieth century, leaving a heartbroken Julia to return to Castle Leathers and her unwanted relationship with the almost comically villainous Lord Lovat (Tony Curran), who is not only convinced her child is his own, but also destined to become the future king of Scotland. The result is a situation that’s not quite status quo ante, but it’s not far off, either. Yet, this isn’t as much of a criticism as you might think. 

Like its predecessor, “Blood of My Blood” lives to yearn, which means that it must repeatedly find believable ways to keep its lovers apart. And boy, is it good at it. Henry finally rescues Julia, only for them to be separated again almost immediately. Brian and Ellen are on the verge of a life together, but the threat of war pushes them apart. For every step they take toward each other, two new problems seem to appear in their paths. It’s a testament to the show’s quality—and to the chemistry between its leads—that what could easily be seen as a manipulative or repetitive storytelling trick feels both natural and necessary within the world of this series, another opportunity to prove that love, in the end, really is all you need.

Season 2 shifts the positions of both pairs just enough to keep their respective narratives moving forward, even as the couples’ desire to be together is again thwarted by external circumstances. (At least they’re slightly different external circumstances this time!) Brian and Ellen’s relationship is, for better or worse, now semi-public knowledge. Her family is still furious, but Brian’s loyalty to the Jacobite cause and Ellen’s intelligence in protecting Mackenzie clan financial interests means they’re closer to vaguely tolerated than outright attacked. Back at Leathers, Julia struggles to keep Lovat happy and deal with the arrival of a new servant who has an agenda of her own. And in 1924, a confused Henry struggles to explain what’s happened to him—you can probably guess where a man who keeps babbling about missing spouses and time travel ends up—and find a way back to his wife. 

Outlander: Blood of My Blood (Starz)

“Blood of My Blood” is surprisingly strategic in its plotting, mixing big narrative twists with quieter emotional moments. The show takes pains to give each romance enough time together to make the lengths they’ll go to for one another believable, underlining how each partner complements the other and highlighting the hope and purpose they find in their respective bonds. Smartly, the show also never questions the love that Brian and Ellen or Henry and Julia have for one another, or whether they’re meant to be endgame, no matter what horrible circumstances befall them. The pairs face many (many) obstacles, but whether they will (or should) be together is never one of them. 

The show’s greatest strength is how seriously it takes the romances at its center. But those relationships wouldn’t work without the incredible chemistry between the series’ leads, which powers both the tenderly shot, highly emotional sex scenes and the occasionally over-the-top but somehow completely un-cynical declarations of love and fidelity. 

Roy and Irvine get decent material in the four episodes of Season 2 available to critics, but this series belongs to its women. Corfield’s whip-smart Julia has plenty to do as she relentlessly adapts to Lovat’s whims, but Slater steals the show, turning in a performance that’s both fearless and vulnerable as Ellen determinedly battles for agency in a world that gives her few opportunities to shape her own fate. 

Still, at the end of the day, “Blood of My Blood” is a love story, and that’s where it shines brightest, deftly using its larger plots to reinforce the bonds between its central relationships and featuring a glossy, addictively watchable adventure through the Scottish Highlands. Long may this romance continue. 

Four episodes screened for review. Premieres September 18 on Starz.