Opinion
Yearning Makes Murtagh ‘Outlander: Blood of My Blood’s Hottest Scot
One thing Outlander taught its viewers across its first five seasons was that Murtagh Fitzgibbons Fraser was a man of his word.
It was his sworn personal duty to protect his godson, Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan), and by George, the man did his best he could with Jamie and Claire (Caitriona Balfe) blazing a trail through the most treacherous parts of the 18th century. From France to the Battle of Culloden to Ardsmuir Prison and finally the American Colonies, Murtagh (Duncan Lacroix) showed up for Jamie when he could — even if they fought like brothers along the way.
So color us surprised when a young Murtagh (played by Rory Alexander) makes his debut in Starz’s prequel series Outlander: Blood of My Blood, devoted to another kind of cause that he’s spent his entire young life pursuing: pining after Ellen Mackenzie (Harriet Slater), the future mother of Jamie, from afar.
That’s right, folks! Murtagh is a yearner, and a damn good one at that. No wonder his fortitude later in life was so sturdy. No one knows devotion like someone nursing a love they can’t have. But it’s more than just commitment to love from a distance. We would venture to say that in a series awash with strapping young Scottish men (many of them the younger versions of characters we already know), with a few dashing Brits thrown in, it’s Murtagh who might be the hottest among them all because he wears yearning oh so well. There’s just something about a man in tartan who can’t take his puppy-dog eyes off ye, consequences and societal norms be damned.
Starz
In Blood of My Blood, Murtagh is a man of simple desires: to hang out with his best friend/second cousin Brian (Jamie Roy) and marry the scarlet-haired beauty down the loch in Ellen. So it’s to his great heartbreak that he must learn of Brian and Ellen’s secret affair, something he gets to witness with his own two eyes. There was a part of Murtagh, irrational as it might be, that thought he would someday marry the woman he had never talked to. Though we suppose it is no more irrational than Brian actually thinking he could sweep her off her feet when their fathers are sworn enemies, but that’s neither here nor there.
With yearning comes a healthy dose of defeat in this case, as Murtagh has to watch silently as Brian and Ellen flirt from across a field or a crowd at the week’s given festival. In Episode 7, when they all end up at Rob Roy’s meeting to rally support for the Jacobite cause, he watches as the couple find each other’s eyes across the room. A pain washes over him as they have to literally look past him to locate the other, making him the invisible man in between. There’s a whole song about this, called “Mr. Cellophane,” in the musical Chicago! It disgusts him so much that he rejects Brian in the chaos of the siege of Roy’s meeting, fleeing on horseback away from his brother from another mother. It just goes to show how deeply felt his yearning is because it pushes him to reject his natural state as a support system for those he loves.
Love blinds us all, and the absence of it sends Murtagh over the edge. But even when he is spiteful out of a broken heart, it comes across more as a child than an experienced drama queen because petty doesn’t suit him. He always reverts back to the man we know him to be, like in this week’s penultimate ninth episode when he comes to Brian’s rescue.
Starz
But what makes Alexander’s portrayal of Murtagh so endearing and shamelessly attractive is how his yearning never negates the charm that will carry him through his life and into the original series. Let’s not forget, Jocasta Cameron (Sadhbh Malin), despite being married, was ready to risk it all earlier this season when she kissed Murtagh — a fantasy instantly shattered by her realization that his true affection is for her sister. Murtagh and Jocasta will eventually rekindle this love affair in Seasons 4 and 5 (of the original TV series, at least), but it was always there from the beginning because Murtagh was charismatic from the jump, even if his mind was fixed on what he couldn’t have.
By this week’s episode, Murtagh’s natural charm overtakes his bruised ego. At Braemar, he can’t stand the sight of Brian and Ellen in the same physical space. But he also can’t resist watching a dance performance and letting music overcome him. He might have to stop himself from dancing in place so as not to sully his masculine image, but the empathetic sway of the moment overtaking him is just adorable insight into who this man really is. He’s just a big ol’ softie who wants to be loved and swept away. In a world of gruff men fighting or fornicating their feelings away, Murtagh’s sweet demeanor makes for the kind of romantic hero most of us dream of finding, like he dreams of Ellen.
Love makes you do some crazy things, but yearning is a whole different beast entirely. For those fans who always liked Murtagh in the original series, it’s now clear where his strength came from. All that passion he held for Ellen, the fury he felt over Brian’s betrayal, and the acceptance he is starting to see in Blood of My Blood about the whole situation made him the man who will protect Jamie until he’s ready to face the world.
Love will twist you and break you, but it can also build you into something greater. Murtagh Fitzgibbons Fraser is proof that a bit of yearning can do a man good.
Outlander: Blood of My Blood, Season 1, Fridays, 8/7c, Starz
