Outlander: Blood of My Blood Stars Break Down the Romantic Meet Cute Between Jamie's Parents

[Warning: Spoilers follow for series premiere of Outlander: Blood of My Blood. Don't say we didn't warn ya!]

They come from different clans, different backgrounds, and a different set of expectations for the lives in front of them, but there is one thing that bonds Ellen MacKenzie (Harriet Slater) and Brian Fraser (Jamie Roy): daddy issues.

In the series premiere of Starz's prequel series Outlander: Blood of My Blood, fans of the ever-popular time-traveling love story of Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and Jamie (Sam Heughan) Fraser in the OG Outlander series finally got their first glimpse at the romantic origins of their parents. Or rather, the first overtures of love for Jamie's parents, mother Ellen and father Brian, whose story occupies the majority of the spin-off's first hour. 

It is only at the end that the action fast forwards to the post-World War I story of Julia (Hermoine Corfield) and Henry Beauchamp (Jeremy Irvine) to deliver a wallop of a twist: Claire's parents both time-traveled back to 1714 when she was just five years old while the family was on holiday in Scotland. As seen in the second part of the two-episode premiere, the Beauchamps have found themselves outlanders in the same time as the future Frasers, creating an insane revision to the already complicated family tree of Claire and Jamie. At this point, it's more of a heap of twisted vines. 

But what does it mean that their parents' lives intersected in whatever ways this show will explore? Dear god, do we even ponder the possible couplings that may have sprung up in the past? Thankfully, those are questions for another day — and another story.

For now, let's focus on happier moments, like Ellen and Brian's first meeting. The episode begins with Ellen mourning the loss of her father Red Jacob (Peter Mullan), the protector and best friend who shielded her from the expectations of a young woman of her time to take a husband and bear children to further the family name. He never forced her into that role, leaving her vulnerable in his absence and at the mercy of her warring brothers Dougal (Sam Retford) and Colum (Séamus McLean Ross), who see her as a strategic pawn to marry off.

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"I think when we meet her, she's grieving, she's lost," Slater tells TV Guide. "It really rocks her world falling in love with someone that she never expected to fall in love with. I don't think she even ever expected to fall in love, period. Men have always just been suitors she wasn't interested in. She doesn't really know what to do with this. And then, of course, she finds out he's her sworn enemy."

That sworn enemy is Brian, the bastard son of the vile Lord Lovat of Leathers (Tony Curran), whose cruelty knows no bounds. But Brian is determined to not let a bad dad keep him down.

"Being a bastard's son, he's not afforded the same opportunities as other young men in his time," Roy says. "He won't be in line for a lairdship and all those things. He's made peace with it, and said, 'This is how my life is. I have this horrible man for a father, but I'm not going to let it affect me and I'm just going to get on with my life.'"

Unfortunately, Lord Lovat's feud with the MacKenzies makes Brian the last person Ellen should be locking eyes with in the stables. And yet, that's where the two find themselves during a gathering at Castle Leoch, setting the stage for what might be the most romantic meet cute in recent TV memory. Partially shot so that the two can only see each other through the woven-reed walls, the scene is initially more lingering looks than spoken affections. They size each other up in a way that builds the tension, proving just how undeniable the attraction is. While they don't know yet that this connection is bound to inflame the festering wound that is the feud between their families, Slater says it wouldn't matter if they did.

"Their hearts choose for them," she says. "When you fall in love with someone, you don't really have much say in the matter. But also, I think maybe there is an element of the forbidden love of it all being exciting. There is kind of something quite rebellious about the fact that they're choosing to pursue this."

It goes back to those daddy issues. Ellen is getting the first chance to step out of her father's protective custody (and spite her brothers at the same time), while Brian is seizing the chance to defy everything he knows about dear old dad.

"I don't think Brian has learned anything from his father," Roy says. "If he's learned anything, it's how to act opposite. He's never seen his father in love. The only love that he's ever known has been from his mum. So when he meets Ellen, he realizes this is love and this is the first time he's ever felt like this. I think it could be a massive F.U. to his father."

The stables scene was originally filmed at the beginning of production, but Slater and Roy say they had to reshoot it at the end of Season 1 to get some of those stolen first glances just right. By the time they returned to it, they had a better handle on their characters, giving them a rare chance to live out a literal flashback to not only Ellen and Brian's first moments, but their own as actors.

"The fact that we did come back to it having shot everything and knowing where these characters go and the journey, there was something so special about revisiting the very first time they ever see each other," Slater says.

The moment in the stables, however brief, is so overwhelmingly romantic, fans could have dined out on the high of it for the whole season. But it actually pales in comparison to the second meeting of the future Frasers, this time on what may be the most stunningly beautiful bridge in Scotland. Fleeing the threat of prying eyes, they meet once more to air out their instantaneous emotions. They initially agree to remain on either side of the bridge, letting its arch act as a chaperone. But like magnets, they slowly scale its incline like a mountain until they are within a hair's breadth of each other. Brian is initially cautious about not overstepping the bounds of his time, when a young man shouldn't be visiting let alone touching an unmarried woman. But rather quickly, he says he would bargain with the devil just to have more time with her. We see where Jamie gets his lines from!

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Roy and Slater both read this scene differently on the page than what they ended up filming on the day.

"I think you can just feel the danger in that scene now," he says. "It felt heavy in a way. Obviously, it was light as well because these people are falling in love, but there is also a weight to it. They say there's going to be many obstacles, and yet they make a vow in that moment to overcome them together because their hearts have kind of decided for them."

"It was originally maybe lighter and flirtier and slightly more like the stable scene," Slater adds. "Then when we came to shoot it, our director Jamie Payne's note to me was that you really want him, but you're scared to want him. You really want to think about the danger of this situation and exactly what the stakes are."

Stakes be damned! Their fates and the trajectory of this entire universe are sealed as soon as their fingers interlock in this moment. But after an embarrassment of romantic riches in a single episode, is there anything left for fans to look forward to with Ellen and Brian for the remainder of Season 1? Aside from threatening a Vegas wedding (hey, time travel makes that a possibility!), Roy and Slater assure fans there is more swooning to come.

"Brian is certainly a romantic and a poet with his words sometimes, and we get to see a lot more bargaining with the devil-esque lines from him," Roy says. 

"Yeah, there's plenty more where that came from," Slater adds with a knowing smile.

Outlander: Blood of My Blood streams on the Starz app on Fridays and airs Friday nights at 8/7c on Starz. Seasons 1-7 of Outlander are also streaming on Starz.