Recap / Outlander S 4 E 6 Blood Of My Blood

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Recap of Outlander
Season 4, Episode 6:

Blood of My Blood

Jamie and Claire are surprised when Lord John Grey visits Fraser's Ridge with William in tow. When Lord John unexpectedly falls ill, Claire works to save his life, while Jamie takes William to safety and gets to spend time with the boy.

Tropes

• Anguished Declaration of Love: Believing that he will die of fever, Lord John admits to Claire that he came to North Carolina just for a chance to see Jamie again. He bemoans how hard it is to see Jamie with Claire knowing that Jamie will never feel that way for John simply because John was born a man, precluding Jamie ever having romantic feelings for him.
• Are You Sure You Want to Do That?: Invoked and subverted. Jamie says it during their chess match, but then laughs because what he means is he doesn't want Lord John to make that move because it's a good one.
• Armor-Piercing Question: After they've engaged in a bit of oneupmanship about who has done more for Jamie, Claire questions why John is even in North Carolina.
  Claire: Let me ask you, what if your son takes a good look at Jamie's face and see his own? If he did learn that he'd been lied to his entire life, he'd be devastated. So, I can't understand for the life of me your motivation for coming here.
  Lord John: The obvious. To allow Jamie to see the boy.
  Claire: Or the other obvious? To allow you to see Jamie?
• Armor-Piercing Response:
  • Obviously still angry about being imprisoned and then sold into indentured servitude, Murtagh snipes when Lord John asks him not to tell William where he, Jamie, and Murtagh met. Jamie reminds Murtagh that Lord John is his friend and John's kindness saved Murtagh's life in Ardsmuir. Chastened, Murtagh agrees to John's request.
  • When Lord John asks if she's jealous that he's raising Jamie's son, Claire tells him about the daughter she and Jamie share. Surprised, John apologizes saying he meant no offense. But Claire points out that he did mean to imply that he and Jamie share something that she and Jamie never will.
  • Claire asks why John continues to torture himself by visiting Jamie, knowing that he can never have him.
  John: Oh, I could have had him.
  Claire: (visibly startled) What?
  John: In exchange for my commitment to serve as William's father, Jamie offered himself to me. Of course, I refused. I would never take him on those terms.
  Claire: You should stop talking.
• As You Know: Claire helpfully reminds Jamie and the audience that she, Jamie, and Murtagh are all immune to the measles. That makes it safe for her to stay with John and Jamie to go with Willie who may have been exposed. Additionally, it answers the question as to whether Murtagh is unknowingly spreading measles around town.
• The Bus Came Back: Lord John returns for the first time since the season 3 finale. William returns for the first time since Season 3, episode 4 "Of Lost Things".
• Call-Back: After hearing Jamie speak to the horses in Gaelic, William realizes that Jamie is in fact, Mac, the horse groom from his childhood. He asks if Jamie remembers him. Jamie smiles and says "Fondly." In their last interaction, Willie frets because he doesn't have a token to give to Jamie by which to remember him. Jamie tells him not to worry because Jamie will always remember him.
• Camping Episode: To prevent William from catching measles from Lord John, Jamie takes him camping for several days. The two fish and hunt, all the things Jamie has long dreamed of being able to do with his son, even if they have different perspectives on how to perform each task.
• The Caretaker: Claire takes care of Lord John when he becomes sick with measles.
• City Slicker: William is very obviously not used to being in the back country. He hates the bugs and is appalled that the Frasers have an outhouse rather than chamber pots that a servant empties (much the way a modern day viewer might react to an outhouse instead of indoor plumbing). Additionally, he's visibly ill when Jamie expects him to dress his own kill, accustomed to having a servant do the dirty work.
• Clingy Child: William is afraid to leave while Lord John while he's sick. Reasonable in that he just watched his mom die of illness and is afraid his father is headed for the same fate.
• Commonality Connection: After days of butting heads over their respective relationships with Jamie, John and Claire find common ground in having been in a relationship with someone they loved but could never truly make happy because they weren't that person's soulmate. John is referring to Isobel, while Claire is thinking of Frank.
• Continuity Nod: Lord John falls ill with the measles after traveling through the same town as Herr Mueller in the previous episode.
• Foregone Conclusion: While anything is possible in an adaptation, the threat of Lord John dying of measles doesn't seem very likely. He's a very popular character who is integral to Jamie's story and who stars in his own spin off series of books. Killing him off for drama would remove an extremely valuable Fraser ally.
• Forgotten First Meeting: When Lord John and William arrive at Fraser's Ridge, William does not remember Jamie. Later, William remembers Jamie and questions Jamie why he did not acknowledge him when he first arrived.
• Friendly Address Privileges: Claire gives John permission to call her by her first name rather than "Mistress Fraser."
• Friendly Rival: John and Jamie continue their tradition of playing several games of chess.
• Friendship Moment: As he is preparing to leave, Claire tells John not to lose hope because he deserves to find someone who can make him as happy as Jamie makes her.
• He's a Friend: Murtagh is irritated by the presence of Lord John, his former jailer, in Jamie's cabin. He wants Jamie to pump the man for information that might be used to help the Regulators against the Crown. Jamie refuses, saying Lord John is a good man and a friend and he refuses to abuse their friendship that way. It takes some convincing but Murtagh agrees to tone down the hostility out of respect for Jamie.
• Ignored Confession: To save William from punishment, Jamie confesses to the Cherokee that William is his son and under his protection. William interrupts and claims Jamie is not his father and Jamie should not be punished. Jamie tells William the Cherokee spared him because he showed courage. William leaves believing that Jamie only claimed to be his father to keep William safe.
• Incompatible Orientation: Claire and Lord John discuss John's feelings towards Jamie and Isobel. Lord John bemoans the unending frustration of being unable to be with someone he truly loves simply because he was born the wrong person for them. Even before Claire returned, Jamie and John could never be more than friends because Jamie identifies as heterosexual. On the other hand, he was able to marry Isobel and even have sex with her, but didn't find the relationship fully satisfying because he prefers men.
• Innocent Bigot: William asks why the "savages" are allowed to stay in the area, near the King's land. Jamie points out that the natives were there first and are merely trying to live their lives even as the colonist continually expand their territorial claims.
• Innocently Insensitive:
  • As Lord John rails against the savagery and unreasonableness of the Regulators, he has no idea that he is talking to the leader of the Regulators, a man who he held imprison before selling into indentured service for the financial benefit of the Crown, the same Crown that is now taxing that man at absurdly high rates.
  • When Jamie asks if William still has the toy snake that Jamie gave him to remember Mac by, William declares that he's too old for toys. Jamie is stung by the idea that William might have discarded the only keepsake Jamie could give him.
• Instant Illness: Once Claire realizes John is sick, his symptoms begin to progress very rapidly.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Murtagh learns that Jamie and Lord John are friends and that the child Lord John is raising is Jamie's biological son.
  • Lord John learns that Jamie and Claire have a daughter together. Since Brianna lives in the 20th century, Jamie has never mentioned her to John.
• Killed Offscreen: Lord John reveals that Isobel died of the flux during her voyage to join him in the New World.
• Like Brother and Sister: This is how Lord John saw his relationship with Isobel, even though she did not.
• Meaningful Look: As they're riding back towards the cabin, William asks why Jamie didn't look back at him when he was leaving Hellwater. Jamie says he didn't want to give the boy false hope, since he didn't believe he'd ever see William again. When William and Lord John leave Fraser's Ridge, William looks back at Jamie, indicating that he believes they will meet again some day.
• Misery Trigger: Although he'd been having a good time most of the day, William begins crying when Jamie talks of his own father. He insists he wants to return to Lord John immediately. When told that's not possible because it's too dangerous to cross the ridge at night, he has a meltdown, blaming Jamie, pointing out that John wouldn't be sick if he hadn't come to visit Jamie.
• Missing Child: Jamie is terrified when he wakes to find Willie missing. Then he realize Willie has ignored his warning and crossed into Cherokee territory. When the Cherokee appear demanding recompense for the trespass, the normally stoic Jamie is visibly shaking with fear as he tries to protect the boy.
• Mistaken for Spies: Claire believes Lord John is visiting Fraser's Ridge under the orders of Governor Tryon to prove Jamie is loyal to the Crown. But Lord John simply wanted to visit Jamie and allow Jamie see his son.
• Mutual Envy: Both Claire and Lord John express jealousy towards each other. Because the Battle of Culloden forced them apart, Claire is jealous of the years Lord John spent in close contact with Jamie and the permanent bond the two have because he is raising Jamie’s child. Lord John is jealous because Jamie feels for Claire the way that John feels for Jamie. The closest thing he's had to a mutually loving relationship is Isobel who he never truly loved even though he did really like her.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Claire and Lord John fall into this several times as they rub each other the wrong way but not enough to warrant an actual shouting match.
• Property Line: William crosses the Fraser/Cherokee border onto the Cherokee land.
• Put on a Bus: Young Ian is conveniently out hunting with Cherokee neighbors for the entirety of the near week that Lord John and William are visiting the Frasers.
• Reverse Psychology: When William balks at having to dress his own kill, Jamie comments that it's understandable that William doesn't want to do something so gory given his young age. This makes William determined to do it himself to prove he's man enough.
• Running Gag: John assures Claire that he was an adequate husband to Isobel in all ways, much like he had to previously assure Jamie, and as he will have to assure Brianna when she questions his ability to sleep with women.
• Secret-Keeper: Murtagh finds out William is Jamie's son. He agrees to keep this secret just as he has all of Jamie's other secrets, lest William be revealed as a bastard and his life ruined.
• Security Cling: After surviving their encounter with the Cherokee's, William hugs Jamie and doesn't seem incline to let go.
• Shout-Out: Lord John mentions that he and Governor Tryon are members of the Society for the Appreciation of the English Beefsteak, a gentleman's society club that features regularly in the Lord John novels.
• Sick Episode: Claire and John's part of the episode focuses on Claire trying to get John through a case of the measles.
• Sickness Equals Redness: The normally porcelain-skinned Lord John is a splotchy red all over. Justified in that the most prevalent symptoms of the measles is a rash and fever.
• Tantrum Throwing: Jamie has to physically wrestle William on to his horse. William kicks, squirms, tries to run away, and tries to slide off the horse until Jamie threatens to tie him to the saddle if he keeps it up. William stops but throws the sharpest jab he can think of at Jamie.
  Wiliam: You, sir, are a lout.
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: Lord John describes the Regulators as menaces to an orderly society while Murtagh insists they're only trying to gain equal treatment for the colonist by the Crown. The way John speaks of the Regulators is very similar to how he used to speak of the Jacobites before he met Jamie and got to know "Red Jamie" as a real person.