‘Outlander: Blood of My Blood’ Episode 3 Reveals How “Instrumental” Ellen Was Making Colum Laird and Dougal War Chieftain: “She is the Shadow Laird”

Outlander: Blood of My Blood Episode 3 “School of the Moon” focuses primarily on the succession crisis plaguing Clan MacKenzie. The family’s formidable patriarch, Red Jacob (Peter Mullan), died suddenly, without naming an heir. His favorite child, Ellen (Harriet Slater), would be a great laird, but she can’t be one because she’s a woman. Eldest son Colum (Séamus McLean Ross) has the brains for the job, but is physically frail and is not respected by the clan’s warriors. Dougal (Sam Retford) has the physical strength and charisma to lead men into battle, but lacks any common sense.

So what’s to be done when Colum and Dougal work so hard against each other on the STARZ show that an outside candidate seems poised to wrestle control of the clan away from the MacKenzies?

**Spoilers for Outlander: Blood of My Blood Episode 3 “School of the Moon,” now streaming on STARZ**

Outlander: Blood of My Blood Episode 3 reveals that none other than Ellen MacKenzie figures out how her family can maintain control of their own Clan. With Ned Gowan’s (Conor MacNeill) help, she convinces her brothers to work together as sort of co-lairds. Colum will be the official laird and Dougal will be war chieftain. That means Colum will control the clan’s day-to-day, year-to-year moves, while Dougal will lead the men when battle comes.

This is the same unique set up that Claire (Caitriona Balfe) encounters when she arrives at Castle Leoch decades later in the original Outlander. Outlander: Blood of My Blood finally reveals how this power balance came to be and it’s all Ellen.

So if Ellen is able to manipulate her brothers so easily, is she really the secret power behind Clan MacKenzie? If so, could she be something of “Shadow Laird”? (At least that’s what we suggested to Outlander: Blood of My Blood star Harriet Slater when we chatted with them recently.

“I think she’s definitely instrumental in that playing out and Colum becoming laird and Dougal becoming war chieftain,” Slater said. “And she does take it like a certain step back after that. Because, I mean Colum’s quite — Colum’s Colum and he doesn’t allow her to meddle.”

Then Slater slightly corrected herself. There are times where Ellen still will meddle.

“I can’t think of any specific examples now, but I know that there are moments where she still has she has input,” Slater said. “Because she’s smart and [Colum] listens to her. As much as he doesn’t want to rely on her and need her, I think him and Ned, as well — Ned is quite instrumental in making Colum and Dougal listen to Ellen — she does have many ideas along the way that they they have to take on board, whether they want to or not. She gets them out of some pretty tricky situations.”

This week’s episode of Outlander: Blood of My Blood also went a step further and revealed exactly how Colum initially injured his legs. Claire is able to surmise that he has a rare genetic condition known as Toulouse-Lautrec syndrome that makes his bones brittle and prone to breaking and healing crookedly. However, we learn in Outlander: Blood of My Blood Episode 3 “School of the Moon” that Dougal’s impetuousness was inadvertently responsible for the initial injury that gave Colum his limp. It’s a series of events that leads Red Jacob to think neither son is capable of being laird.

Red Jacob might not have had the foresight to look at two sons, each possessing qualities the other lacked, and see the potential for a partnership. But Ellen sure did.

“So yeah, she is the shadow laird,” Slater said with a smile. “I love it.“