Fans of Outlander know that the show has had some polarizing villains. They’re not your average run-of-the-mill bad guys. They’re the send a shiver down your spine, make your stomach turn and blood boil kind of bad guys. Stephen Bonnet, Lionel Brown, Comte St. Germain, and the Duke of Sandringham (that weasel) were all entirely vile creatures, but when it comes to the scummiest of the show, Black Jack Randall is perhaps the most hated of all.
Now, in the incredible prequel series, Outlander: Blood of My Blood, we continue getting introduced to the characters that we came to know in Outlander, but the familiar faces have extended well beyond the title cast halfway through the show’s sophomore season. Yet, the premise remains unpredictable.
So when a young man steps up to Dougal MacKenzie (Sam Retford) while he is being held prisoner at Fort William in Episode 206 of Outlander: Blood of My Blood, jaws hit the floor when his name was revealed to be Randall.
The scene offers a fascinating (heart palpitating) glimpse at the man before he becomes the infamous villain Outlander fans know. Jack is already violent and eager to prove himself, but he’s still young and doesn’t yet have the power to act on those instincts. When Dougal has the opportunity to kill him during the escape from Fort William, he ultimately chooses not to after Brian reminds him he’s just a kid.
Men’s Journal sat down with Sam Retford and Bobby Rainsbury (Maura Mackenzie) to discuss the Outlander butterfly effect.
‘He’s Most Certainly Already … the Man’
I told Retford that I had to pause the episode when the young man was revealed to be Randall. After already seeing John Grey’s father earlier in the season, suddenly finding ourselves face-to-face with the future Black Jack Randall felt like another major piece of Outlander history falling into place.
I asked Retford whether we’re essentially watching the beginnings of the man who will become Black Jack Randall, and whether the violence and humiliation he experiences here could help shape the person he eventually becomes.
“He’s most certainly already, I would say, the man,” Retford says. “The only thing stopping him from becoming that man is limitation.”
That limitation is power. Jack wants to fight Dougal, but Gerard Grey holds him back.
“Imagine 10 years’ time, that power is all of a sudden not there,” Retford says. “And you have this terrible spirit really let loose on the Outlander universe. And we know exactly how that goes.”
It’s a chilling thought, particularly because viewers already know exactly what Jack Randall will eventually unleash on the world of Outlander. The scene also leaves Dougal with an opportunity that could have radically altered the future. During the escape, he has a chance to kill Jack, but Brian stops him.
“You almost had him,” I told Retford.
“Almost had him,” he agreed.
“I could have stopped so much,” Retford joked.
“Damn Brian,” I said.
“It’s the Blood of My Blood butterfly effect,” I added.
“Yeah, that’s it,” Retford said.
It is one of those moments where Blood of My Blood gets to play with the larger Outlander mythology without changing what viewers already know is coming.
Dougal and Maura Are Still Figuring Out What They Mean to Each Other
The Randall storyline isn’t the only way Episode 206 connected the prequel to the Outlander characters fans already know. The episode also gives us another look at Dougal and Maura’s relationship, which has quietly become one of the more intriguing parts of Blood of My Blood.
Earlier in the episode, Maura is clearly concerned about Dougal’s well-being and where he is. We’ve also seen those smaller moments between them since the beginning, including the lingering glance that suggested there was something there before either character knew where their relationship was headed.
Then, while Dougal and Big Angus are being held prisoner, Dougal says he thinks Maura would have given him 12 sons. It’s played as a lighter moment, but it says something about how naturally Dougal has begun to imagine a future with Maura.
“I think what’s beautiful about the way that the creative team have written and shown these two characters is that we are on the journey with them,” Rainsbury says. “So nothing’s been predetermined.”
The characters aren’t walking into the relationship knowing exactly what it will become. They’re figuring it out as they go.
“They understand how they feel about one another in that exact moment,” Rainsbury says. “So it means that everything is on the forefront. It’s new. It’s an understanding.”
Episode 206, in particular, gives Maura a clearer understanding of Dougal’s importance to her.
“We do see Maura actually understand Dougal’s value to her and what he means to her,” Rainsbury says. “And even though it’s early and it’s all quite new, it is like a grounding of that.”
Maura’s Grief Could Change Her
Maura is also dealing with a devastating loss in the episode when her brother is killed. Her grief quickly turns toward a desire for vengeance, but that doesn’t necessarily mean she will respond to the loss in the same way Dougal would.
“Episode 3, I think, is a real turning point for her,” Rainsbury says. “I think what is learned from the MacKenzies is an idea of family, an idea of reunion and loyalty.”
The Grants, she explains, have operated in a very different environment.
“The Grants perhaps worked in a different sort of world. Maybe one that was perhaps more politically vicious and cutthroat,” Rainsbury says. “Her vengeance for her brother — it’s so complicated, right? And the timing is so complicated. She’s not Dougal, right? She doesn’t act like this. She thinks about things. She mulls things over.”
Instead, Maura’s experience with the MacKenzies is changing her understanding of family.
“What we see is her learn the importance of family and her come to understand that the family that she has now is what’s teaching her to perhaps love harder than she would have done with the Grants,” Rainsbury says.
Maura May Be Dougal’s Match
There’s another reason the Dougal and Maura relationship is so interesting for Outlander fans. We already know the man Dougal eventually becomes. In Outlander, Dougal is something of a rolling stone, with other relationships and a reputation for being, well, Dougal. But we also know that he was deeply affected by the death of his wife, even though viewers never actually met her.
Blood of My Blood now gives us the opportunity to see the relationship that helped shape that version of Dougal.
“It’s so fun that we get to know A and Z,” Retford says. “Dougal and Maura don’t know where they go to, and that’s a really lovely thing.”
That means viewers can watch them fumble their way through the relationship while knowing that, eventually, Dougal will become the man they meet in Outlander. Retford is particularly interested in what Maura teaches him along the way.
“You know that they’re going to get to the point where he eventually softens and starts to maybe take on board a little bit of the advice that she’s giving him,” he says.
“I really look forward to the audience seeing the things he learns from her, and the type of person that that makes him,” Retford adds.
Maura, he says, is “a really unique character to have come across,” particularly when paired with Dougal.
“It’s like he’s met his match,” I said.
“I would say he’s been more than his match,” Retford replied.
And that may be the most interesting part of their relationship. Blood of My Blood isn’t simply showing viewers a younger version of a character they already know. It’s showing us the people and relationships that helped make him who he becomes.
By the end of Episode 206, Dougal and Maura are facing an uncertain future, but there is clearly something deeper developing between them.
“I think they lean into their reality with one another after the war,” Retford says. “They definitely find comfort in one another, I think, in a way that possibly we, as normal present-day humans, wouldn’t express it.”
“But they do. They express it in their Dougal-and-Maura way, and it’s really lovely to see them sort of enter their next chapter as a couple.”
Outlander: Blood of My Blood is streaming on Starz with new episodes releasing Fridays at 12 am EST.
