The most recent episode of Outlander season 6 finally shows what happened between Ian and his Mohawk wife, Emily, but left out an important detail about their situation. Based on the books by Diana Gabaldon, Outlander season 6 adapts Gabaldon’s sixth book, A Breath of Snow and Ashes which finally tells Ian’s story following his mysterious return, as seen in season 5. Though the Starz series dedicated nearly the entirety of Outlander season 6, episode 4 to the telling of his tale, the reason behind Ian and Emily’s misfortune has yet to be disclosed.

Based on Gabaldon’s fourth book, The Drums of Autumn,Outlander season 4 saw Roger sold to the Mohawk after he and Jamie (Sam Heughan) mistake him to be Brianna’s attacker, Stephen Bonnet. In order to facilitate Roger’s freedom, Ian sacrifices himself, offering to take Roger’s place in the emotional season finale. Not much is told about his time with the Mohawk as the story returns to Fraser’s Ridge in Outlander season 5. Ian provides few details after his mysterious reappearance in episode 8, aside from disclosing that he had a wife.

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Now, in Outlander season 6, episode 4, “Hour of the Wolf,” Ian’s story finally unfolds. Joining their tribe, Ian found love with a Mohawk woman, Emily, and the pair were married. Shortly thereafter, Emily got pregnant but lost the child—a tragic pattern that then repeated. As a result, the Mohawk claimed that Ian and Emily’s spirits were ill-matched and exiled Ian, remarrying Emily to another tribe member (Ian’s best friend, Sun Elk) in an effort to continue the Mohawk generations. While the Starz adaptation follows Ian’s story closely from Gabaldon’s A Breath of Snow and Ashes, readers of Gabaldon’s next book An Echo in the Bone, will know that Claire’s future medical diagnosis of Rh-incompatibility explains the pair’s misfortune and offers hope to Ian’s character in coming Outlander seasons.

In A Breath of Snow and Ashes, Ian and Emily miscarry twice before their daughter, Iseabail, is born, only to die shortly thereafter. Eventually, Ian asks Claire (Caitriona Balfe) why he and Emily couldn’t create healthy children together and she theorizes it was a matter of blood type, with Emily being Rh-negative and Ian Rh-positive. According to the Mayo Clinic, “Rh-positive is the most common blood type. Having an Rh-negative blood type is not an illness and usually does not affect your health. However, it can affect your pregnancy.” Those who are Rh-negative usually receive shots during pregnancy that can aid in the preservation of the child. However, this treatment is one of modern medicine and was not available in the 1700s.

While this news undoubtedly reminds Ian (played by The Hobbit movies’ John Bell) of the tragedy he suffered not only losing his children but also his wife, home, and tribe, Gabaldon’s readers know that this news also brings him hope. After Claire reassures Ian that he would likely have healthy children if he married another, as being Rh-negative is rare, Ian finds love again in Gabaldon’s seventh book, An Echo in the Bone. Viewers may also see the return of Emily in later seasons of Outlander as she and Ian continue their separate paths to happiness.

New episodes of Outlanderare available on Starz every Sunday.

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Lindsay Kusiak
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Lindsay began as a singer-songwriter in Los Angeles at the age of seventeen. She is the author of two novels. She lives in Los Angeles and is most often found running or hiking with her German Shepherd, working on her books, or eating Indian food.

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