Blood of My Blood (S1E6): “Birthright” (Review)
Image courtesy of Starz.
In “Birthright”, the latest installment of Blood of My Blood, the intensity ratchets up to a level that many viewers may find extremely uncomfortable. For this walk through and discussion of the episode, consider the following trigger warnings: multiple counts of sexual assault, mental break down, verbal assault, and an intense labour scene that lasts the entire episode. For the sake of this review and write-up, quick references to assault will be given but no overly detailed descriptions will be provided.
Ugh, I Guess Let’s Get Started
In the cold open, Julia (Hermione Corfield) pontificates via a voiceover on the role a mother plays in being present with the quote, “Man is born alone and dies alone” and as she wakes, realises she’s in labour. She asks Brian (Jamie Roy) to send for the “howdie” (midwife, traditionally female and trained by experience as opposed to formal education), which he does immediately. He then asks her about whether Lovat (Tony Curran) forced her and is the father of her child. Julia tells him the truth: that Henry is the father, but that she did in fact sleep with Lovat, but that it was to protect her baby as Lovat would have her baby taken from her or killed. He accepts this and tells her to prepare for her “confinement” (an irony here as Julia has been confined the whole season, a fact we are reminded of every time a scene takes place in the Leathers hall).
After the credits, the episode opens at Castle Grant with Henry (Jeremy Irvine) striding away and is questioned by Arch Bug (Terence Rae). Henry seeks midwives to see if any have seen Julia, since he figures her due date has arrived. Arch surprises the viewer by showing a moment of kindness–telling Henry about his own still-born son and offering to talk to Isaac Grant on Henry’s behalf.
At Leathers, Davina (Sara Vickers) stokes Lovat’s fire (ahem, literally, that is) as he sleeps nearby repeating Julia’s name in his sleep. In a flashback, we see Lovat assault her in the very same room she now works. In the present day, Davina wakes Lovat to tell him Julia’s waters have broken, and he insists he needs to marry her immediately to ensure the child is not illegitimate. Davina tells him Julia cannot travel, and he threatens her, again but then relents, thanking her for caring for Julia.
Julia is then moved into the main hall for her confinement. Davina and Brian look over the room, and Davina asks him point blank if Julia’s baby is his. He assures her it is not, but then the conversation takes an odd turn. Brian is ultimately asking if he is the child of rape, and Davina tells him that the Lord will not let a child take hold against the “lassie’s wishes” (sigh…). Brian says he wants to be worthy of the Fraser name (viewers know this is because of Ellen).
At Castle Grant, Henry interviews a stream of “howdies”, none of whom have seen Julia. One of the howdies explains to him that if an Englishwoman had given birth nearby, she would know, as the local womenfolk come together to care for the labouring mother–and this information informs the viewer about the following scene.
And Then the Tone Shifts
Julia’s confinement is now quite crowded as many women from the local areas arrive to tend to her. They strip her naked and pray over her as she looks around, awkward in her nudity. The women are kind, supportive, and gentle as Davina watches on. The women coo on about the future king of Scotland about to be born. The head howdie says that they all, Davina included, have suffered through the same thing, when Davina finally snaps, saying with anger that she and Julia are nothing alike. Davina tells the women that Julia sought out Lovat while making eyes at Brian–and the room shifts. The women recoil, turning cold eyes on Julia.
Ultimately, the situation has not changed–Julia is still pregnant with “Lovat’s” child, but the women are angered that Julia was not forced to his bed (in a violent sense) and have decided that she must be punished–while giving birth. The women begin chants of Shame and Disgrace worthy of a Game of Thrones shame march.
In his own chambers, Lovat shares a toast with Brian for this auspicious day. Brian says he wants to please Lovat, but Lovat says he needs a “warrior not a monk” (referring to Brian’s pilgrimage).
Meanwhile, a scene right out of Handmaid’s Tale takes place with Julia moaning and the women moaning and wailing around her. Head Howdie declares that the women are “Mourning your innocence! Lamenting your sin!” Davina leads an inquiry demanding to know who the father of Julia’s child is. Julia keeps asking Davina, “Is this what happened to you?” (Another flashback to Lovat’s assaults on Davina when she was young and pregnant.–and present day Davina seems to be rethinking some things.)
Henry interviews a howdie who says she knows Julia and that Julia and the child died in childbirth a week ago and are now buried in an unmarked grave. Arch Bug walks the woman out and pays her for her lie. She feels regret, but Bug tells her it was Isaac’s plan, not his.
Still in Howdie Hell, the women have now resorted to calling Julia a witch as she descends into a haze of incapacitating pain. Julia tells Davina that everything she has done has been to protect her baby, and Davina’s hesitation becomes clearer. She slides into another flashback to her own labour, where the women did, in fact, do exactly the same thing–angrily shame her while she gave birth to Brian. The women shamed Davina for not being married, and they shame Julia for not technically being raped. Finally, present day Davina understands the cruelty of the situation and screams at the women to leave.
As the reverend arrives, the howdies leave. Lovat leads the reverend to Julia, but Davina has barred the door. Lovat pushes by the door, anyway, leading the reluctant reverend, who very much does not want to enter that room–almost laughably so. Davina stands up for Julia to Lovat and demands Lovat leave, calling him a “cantankerous old man”. He attacks her, and Brian steps forward to wrestle Lovat back to the door. The reverend tries to literally sneak away in the background.
Davina tends to Julia with encouragement, while Julia has her own flashback to giving birth to Claire (because seeing one of her births and a flashback to Davina’s labour with Brian isn’t enough for the episode already). Davina tends to Julia’s baby, who doesn’t cry at first until Davina pats him (for it is a boy, so viewers can thankfully and finally let go of the Faith-theories as possible connection to Outlander) firmly on the back and revives him. She remembers holding Brian the first time, as she hands the baby to Julia. (Viewers wait abated to hear what Julia will name him, as show runners have hinted that the child’s identity will cause a stir in the overall Outlander storyline, but she gives us nothing.)
Time to Wrap Up
Having received the worst news he could ever receive, Henry stumbles away from Castle Grant and begins hallucinating. His consciousness slides into a memory of the war ending and coming home to Julia–only the “Julia” he embraces is Seema (Lauren McQueen), the prostitute at the brothel. She hesitates a moment, clearly wagering whether she should fall in line and pretend to be Julia or shake Henry out of his stupor. She chooses the first and finally takes Henry to her bed.
At Castle Leathers, Lovat has Brian beaten with the strap for his “impertinence”. Afterwards, Brian visits Julia and the baby. They chat about the strength of mothers, and then we get the most golden line of the episode: “He may not be my brother, but he will always have a friend in me” (does this mean the baby is actually Buzz Lightyear? Only time will tell!). When Julia asks when Brian’s birthday is, he doesn’t know, so she decides to celebrate it this day. She fetches a cake and puts a candle in it and explains the concept to Brian, handing him the cake to make a wish.
All in all, the episode is my least favourite in the season, and is right up there with the worst of the assault-heavy episodes of Outlander. Additionally, I had hoped that Henry’s battle with PTSD would be part of a slow cultural normalisation of the condition among veterans, but no, the writers have decided to lean in on Henry losing his mind entirely. And we’ll just try to ignore that Henry and Julia have been in 18th century Scotland for months now, and both still have perfectly cut and styled ‘dos from the 1920s. Episode 7, “Luceo Non Uro” releases on September 12 and will hopefully bring the direction back to rights.
Check out the original article at Nerd Daily here: https://thenerddaily.com/blood-of-my-blood-season-1-episode-6-birthright/
