Though the pair hadn’t seen each other since they were children, Ellen MacKenzie’s brother and Malcolm Grant’s sister found themselves hurled into marriage via a desperate move to maintain clan unity after Ellen’s wedding to Malcolm fell apart. (That’ll happen when the bride runs off with another man, and the groom is killed — in self-defense! — as he tries to stop them.)

Right away, it was clear that Maura could match Dougal’s lusty approach to life, and maybe even teach him a thing or two. What’s surprising, as the time-travel drama’s second season gets underway, is how much the newly minted Mr. and Mrs. MacKenzie find they actually like each other. A lot.

Bobby Rainsbury, who plays Maura in Starz’s historical drama, points out that her character is really in need of an ally at the start of the new season. “We meet her with a huge amount of distrust, given the fact that her brother has died, and nobody really knows what happened,” she says. (Remember: Only Ellen and Brian are aware of the circumstances of Malcolm’s passing.) Also, the actress adds, Maura is very aware of how her uncle is using her as a pawn in his attempt to gain power. “Over the course of [Episodes] 1 to 3 in Season 2, you see her having to accept and take a leap of faith in terms of who she’s trusting.”

The newlyweds have ‘an immovable connection’

Courtesy of Starz
Enter the bearded and bellicose Dougal (played by Sam Retford), who in a surprising development turns out to be more of a “happy wife, happy life” guy than anyone might’ve suspected.

“I think even he surprises himself,” Retford tells TVLine. He references a moment, early in the Season 2 premiere, in which Dougal checks in with his new bride, who has just learned of Malcolm’s death. “I think it’s the only time we’ve seen him find compassion in himself. It’s a purely selfless-motivated task to go and seek her and just make sure she’s OK.” He recalls discussing the interaction with Bobby Rainsbury before they filmed. “We felt, during that scene, that there’s a magnet. There’s this huge pull to her. It’s omnipotent. He can’t resist it. It’s an immovable connection.”

All of which, of course, is virgin territory for the punch-first-ask-questions-later MacKenzie. Retford grins. “He has this super headstrong, forthright mentality that is to squash any sort of fluffy feelings,” he says. “And they keep taking over! They keep leading him toward this path of: There’s more to life than just swinging a sword around.”

Fun fact: The show’s Powers That Be didn’t have Retford and Rainsbury do a chemistry read before she was cast. “I mean, we should have,” executive producer Maril Davis says with a laugh. “But we didn’t. I think we just kind of knew. Sam is so much fun, and we knew he was going to be game and going to be great with whoever he was with. But there was something about Bobby — she just came in and had such an unusual take on Maura.”

She adds: “Sometimes, you go into it wondering what you’re looking for. And then you’re like, ‘Oh! That’s what we were looking for.’”

Dougal and Maura ‘still haven’t worked out all the bugs yet’

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Showrunner Matthew B. Roberts tells TVLine that Maura and Dougal offer something “different” from the show’s central couples — Brian (Jamie Roy) and Ellen (Harriet Slater), Henry (Jeremy Irvine) and Julia (Hermione Corfield) — who’ve been deeply in love from the moment we first met them.

“A couple that doesn’t know each other very well, they didn’t pick each other – we wanted to see that blossom and root itself in, at first, animosity, and then what turns into mutual respect,” he explains. “Then they’re growing. The passion and the love is actually growing over the course of Season 2. But they still haven’t worked out all the bugs yet.”

He smiles. “When I saw the wedding night, when I cut it all together, I was like, you just don’t get that kind of gold every day. That scene spoke to where we were going to take them.”

Yeah, about that wedding night: Viewers will recall that Dougal, who considers himself quite the virile stud, was taken aback both by his new bride’s willingness to consummate their union and how thoroughly she enjoyed the proceedings. In the episodes to come, both Sam Retford and Bobby Rainsbury say, the characters’ physicality will play a huge part in their ongoing getting-to-know-you phase.

“I think it’s so important to play with her sexuality, important to give her that freedom and agency over who she is and what she wants,” Rainsbury says. “It’s just like, ‘I’m not going to be ashamed of it. This is who I am.’”

The actress nods a few times, smiling. “She’s fun.”

Dougal as Maura’s champion

Courtesy of Starz
Sam Retford credits his co-star with making it easy for him to find a new angle on the uber-macho Dougal. “The way Bobby curates Maura’s confidence is something that then just emanates to whoever is in the scene with her,” he says. “Dougal picks up on this alarming and disarming confidence, and that is so exciting to him, to be able to let his guard down and still feel safe.”

He continues, “You take a man who’s never given over control in his entire life, and suddenly face him with this tidal wave of confidence and self-surety?” Retford shakes his head, smiling, as if to say: Dougal never had a chance. “He champions her confidence and doesn’t put out her flame,” he says. “He just feeds it.”

“Outlander: Blood of My Blood” returns for Season 2 on Friday, September 18, at 8/7c. You also can watch via the Starz app, starting at 12 a.m. ET on Fridays.

Source: Compiled from various sources.