The Gulf’s competitive edge in building firm clean power
Scientists in KSA are developing a water desalination system using solar thermal energy and forward osmosis technology. (SPA)
The global conversation about the energy transition still tends to treat the Gulf as a latecomer trying to catch up with Denmark’s discipline, Germany’s social mobilization, or China’s industrial scale.
That framing misses what actually wins the transition. It is the ability to deliver reliable clean power, at speed, in demanding conditions. In that race, the Gulf is closing the gap faster than many notice, and, in specific system niches, beginning to lead.
Denmark’s lesson is integration. The country stitched wind, district heat, and demand response into one organism, underpinned by trust in data and institutions.
Germany’s lesson is mobilization. The country’s energy transition proves the power of public mobilization, with millions of citizens investing in rooftop solar and community energy projects. But it also shows that without parallel expansion of transmission lines and firm clean capacity, mobilization alone leads to wasted power, higher costs, and political strain.
China’s lesson is scale and tempo, driven by building fast, learning fast, and iterating at industrial cadence, even if the system leans on coal to buffer volatility while storage scales.
The Gulf’s lesson, emerging in real time, is execution under heat, growth, and complexity. We operate at 45 C summers, humidity swings, and dust that punishes panels and filters. Demand is peaky and rising, driven by cooling, water, logistics, and world-class urban growth. Any clean system that works here is battle-tested for the century ahead.
Where does the Gulf enjoy a comparative advantage?
First, strategic speed. Clear land, bankable counterparties, and standardized procurement compress the distance from concept to commissioning.
Where others spend years permitting cycles and litigation, we move in quarters. Speed compounds learning; learning compounds cost and reliability gains. It is fashionable to say ‘we can’t boil the ocean,’ but we can boil the backlog.
Second is the fact that the Gulf is designing for firm clean power, not just cheap noon solar. That means stacking resources.
These include nuclear baseload where available, flexible gas that is progressively decarbonized, utility-scale batteries for intraday shifting, long-duration storage as it matures, and AI-driven demand shaping, to deliver the most expensive electricity of the day (the August evening peak) at the lowest possible carbon and cost.
The Gulf’s emerging edge is system design under stress, turning tough climate, fast growth, and demanding loads into a proving ground for firm clean power.
Rasso Jorg Bartenschlager
If the transition is judged by the 9 p.m. megawatt-hour in August, not the noon megawatt-hour in March, a different set of leaders emerges.
The Gulf’s strength lies in broad integration, treating desalination as a flexible load, district cooling as thermal storage, and ports as hubs for low-carbon fuels. This allows innovation beyond temperate systems.
Instead of measuring progress by renewable share alone, fairer metrics for fast-growing economies include clean energy added per capita, the cost of firm 24/7 clean power, system flexibility ratios, permitting and interconnection speed, and cross-border grid capacity, which are benchmarks that reveal the Gulf’s true trajectory.
The Gulf doesn’t need to replicate China’s entire supply chain, but should localize areas where climate, logistics, and service intensity provide an edge. This includes heat-tuned inverters, battery cooling, hybrid systems, and data-driven maintenance.
To unlock private capital, market signals must evolve. Pricing flexibility through time-of-use and capacity mechanisms, and opening granular system data so innovators can build optimization tools.
The key shift is to treat flexibility not as insurance, but as a product in its own right.
The transition is a technician’s project as much as an engineer’s. Battery specialists who understand degradation in heat; high-voltage jointers; marine and port electrification teams; AI operators who can translate model outputs into safe dispatch decisions.
Apprenticeships, regional credentialing, and recognition of prior learning can scale this workforce faster than traditional routes alone.
People often assume that community consultation is a brake on progress and centralized systems are the accelerator. The truth is subtler and legitimacy is a force multiplier.
If the Gulf continues to pair rapid execution with transparent targets, stable frameworks, and visible consumer benefits, more reliable power at the hottest hour, cleaner air in port cities, cheaper bills at night, the social license to keep building will only strengthen.
How do we compare, then, to Denmark, Germany, and China?
Denmark remains the master of integration in a small, cooperative system. Germany remains the laboratory of distributed ambition, wrestling honestly with the costs of speed. China remains the scale engine, bending global cost curves for everyone.
The Gulf’s emerging edge is system design under stress, turning tough climate, fast growth, and demanding loads into a proving ground for firm clean power.
If we succeed, we will export recipes of how to run desalination as a flexible asset, how to derate less in dust and heat, how to co-optimize cooling and solar, and how to ensure that the dirtiest hour of the day becomes the cleanest.
• Rasso Jorg Bartenschlager is general manager of Al Masaood Power Division
Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News’ point of view
In 2025 CACP 7 / Commissioner’s Decision 1688, the Patent Appeal Board refused Edward Jones & Co.’s patent application because the claims in the application were not patentable subject matter, as they were directed to subject matter prohibited under subsection 27(8) (mere scientific principle or abstract theorem) of the Patent Act.
Edward Jones & Co. (Re), 2025 CACP 7
Background
Edward Jones & Co. filed Canadian patent application No. 2,800,066, titled “System and Method for Income Managed Account,” in late 2012. After three earlier office actions through 2018–2019, the examiner issued a final action in 2019. The applicant replied in early 2020, with amendments, but the examiner maintained the refusal and issued a summary of reasons, referring the file to the Patent Appeal Board (PAB).
The PAB’s preliminary review letter of November 2024 acknowledged that a proposed description amendment would address a formality issue but concluded the claims remained directed to unpatentable subject matter. The applicant responded in early 2025, arguing patentability and submitting further claim amendments. An in-person hearing was held before the Board in January 2025.
The rejected patent application relates to a computer-implemented method for managing consolidated investment accounts, predicting balances, and ranking asset liquidation transactions.
Claim 1 is reproduced below (emphasis added):
A method of managing a consolidated account, comprising the steps of:
(a)providing a first account of non-cash assets;
(b)providing a second account of non-cash assets, the second account being different than the first account;
(c)using a processor, predicting the account balance of the consolidated account associated with a plurality of accounts, including the first and second account as a function of time and balance amount, including the steps of:
(i)predicting the amount and timing of income to be earned from the assets of the first account to be deposited into the consolidated account;
(ii)predicting the amount and timing of income to be earned from the assets of the second account to be deposited into the consolidated account; and
(iii)predicting the amount and timing of withdrawals from the consolidated account;
(d)using a processor, comparing the predicted balance of the consolidated account with predetermined criteria, and if the predicted account balance is less than the predetermined criteria:
(i)identifying the time at which the predicted account balance of the consolidated account is less than the predetermined criteria;
(ii)identifying a list of potential transactions for the plurality of accounts in which to liquidate assets to thereby increase the predicted balance of the consolidated account to satisfy the predetermined criteria within a selectable window of time before the identified time at which the predicted account balance of the consolidated account is less than the predetermined criteria;
(iii)for each potential transaction, performing step (c) above and comparing the predicted balance of the consolidated account with the predetermined criteria and discarding a potential transaction if the predicted account balance is less than the predetermined criteria;
(iv)for the potential transactions that have not been discarded, ranking the list of potential transactions for the plurality of accounts in a priority order.
In its reply, the applicant stated that the use of computer components including the rules engine programmed with specific rules is essential to perform the invention. The applicant’s response to the preliminary review also notes that, “These steps belong to a class of mathematical optimization problems that cannot be solved or verified in polynomial time and that these steps are not practically performable in the human mind,” and, “The method of claim 1 discards and ranks potential transactions to reduce the total number of potential transactions under consideration, such that the claimed method and system effectively uses the graphics user interface to display and allow navigation of prioritized records, thereby improving performance and increasing efficiency of the system.”
The Patent Appeal Board found the claimed invention was solely directed to an abstract set of rules or a scheme for managing consolidated accounts.
The Board considered the four factors set out in the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO)’s PN2020-041 guidance for reviewing computer-implemented inventions, which is being incorporated into MOPOP by the recent draft revisions.2 The Board set these out in this decision as follows:
the mere fact that a computer is among the essential elements of the claimed invention does not necessarily mean the claimed invention is patentable subject matter;
an algorithm itself is abstract, unpatentable subject matter and prohibited by subsection 27(8) of the Patent Act;
a computer programmed to merely process an abstract algorithm in a well-known manner without more will not make it patentable subject matter; and
if processing an algorithm improves the functionality of the computer, then the computer and the algorithm would together form a single actual invention that would be patentable.
In this case, the Board determined the computer was used conventionally and did not improve the functioning of the computer itself. The Board was therefore not satisfied of the “physicality requirement” and found the invention was unpatentable subject matter. (A more detailed analysis of the applicant’s arguments is provided at paras. 69-78.)
Notably, at para. 72, the Board commented on a lack of description of specific means resulting in the computational complexity as asserted by the applicant, the improvements thereof in terms of memory usage or processing speed, or mention of a computer operating in anything but a well-known manner. At para. 73, the Board also noted the claim steps were not limited in any way to means resulting in the computational complexity as postulated by the applicant.
Proposed Claims also did not overcome Subject Matter Defect
Additionally, the applicant proposed amendments, including, among others, amendments to the independent claims 1, 14, and 15:
To further define a first and second account of non-cash assets, each with a current value.
To further refine the claimed method by providing a total current value of the first and second account of non-cash assets.
To further refine that the priority order is based on a specified mathematical optimization criteria of the total current value.
To further refine the claimed method by displaying the predicted account balance over one or more time periods and generating and displaying alerts if the predicted account balance is less than the predetermined amount.
The Board noted the proposed amendments are (1) refinements of an abstract set of rules or scheme for managing a consolidated account and therefore do not change the nature of the actual invention as identified for the claims on file, (2) the actual invention is solely directed at an abstract set of rules or scheme for managing a consolidated account, similar to the finding in the claims on file, and (3) the subject matter of the proposed claims does not fulfil the physicality requirement.
Practical considerations for applicants claiming computer-implemented inventions
CIPO has circulated draft MOPOP revisions for consultation to provide additional guidance for applicants seeking to patent computer-implemented inventions. The examples should be carefully considered, as examples are provided for asserting physicality, technical improvements to the functioning of a computer or a network, or specialized hardware or tangible discernible effects.
The authors would like to thank Sulayman Syed, articling student, for his contribution to preparing this IP monitor.
For Thomas Tuchel, the fundamentals will never change, the ones that he outlined when he breezed into the England job on a one-man wave of positivity and excitement. The head coach regards it as essential that his team play with the passion of the Premier League; as a band of brothers, high-fiving, encouraging, selfless.
It is about energy and intensity; after a ball loss, for example. Tracking back. They must enjoy the freedom to express themselves. Harry Kane can drop off a bit from the No 9 position but not too much. There needs to be speed around him, space and incisive patterns throughout.
“It is our job to make it quickly understandable, to make it easier to transform it on to the pitch,” Tuchel said when he named his first squad in March for the opening World Cup qualifiers against Albania and Latvia at Wembley.
It is probably fair to say that a few things got lost along the way last season, especially in the second camp in June, which featured the stodgy and unenjoyable 1-0 win against Andorra in Barcelona and the 3-1 loss to Senegal at the City Ground. Albania and Latvia had been seen off with relative comfort although the performances did not set pulses racing.
It has hardly been a false start under Tuchel. Three wins out of three in qualification, with no goals conceded, is not to be sniffed at, while Senegal was a friendly. June is always an awkward window. But something does need to change as Tuchel embarks on what he has suggested is the real business, the beginning of a World Cup season.
He knows it, just as he claims to have detected a different atmosphere among the players this week as they prepare for Saturday’s return tie against Andorra at Villa Park. The big one against Serbia in Belgrade comes on Tuesday. Tuchel believes he has the answers. He wants to show he is a fast learner in a new environment and for him it comes down to streamlining, greater precision and clarity.
Tuchel used 28 players in his first four games and had a clutch of others as unused substitutes; he even had to omit players from matchday squads. Which he hated. It did not create “the right energy”. He had to cast his net at the outset but it was too crowded. And so this time he trimmed the selection long-list and called up only 24 players. He feels the competition has become spicier.
In the warm weather training week in Barcelona before the Andorra game, which began with a team bonding trip to the Spanish Grand Prix on the Sunday, Tuchel put his players through their paces on the Monday. There was intensity then but the week came to feel long before the game on Saturday. This time, Tuchel asked the players to report on Tuesday.
The most interesting change has been in Tuchel’s approach to training: the tactical side. Few coaches are as obsessed with the finer details but he appears to have concluded that less could be more in international football.
Thomas Tuchel admits he underestimated the difficulty of trying to project unfamilar ideas to players during international training camps. Photograph: Carl Recine/Getty Images
“You don’t have the players on a daily basis where you can really tweak into the details,” Tuchel said. “We want to be more clear, more easy, because we have so many players from different clubs so they’re used to a different style. If we implement a lot of new things in only four days of training, it’s just not enough time.
“So we need to find an idea where everyone can buy in quickly and everyone drops their club heads. It’s more about principles and building it from a structure that everyone can understand. This is where I have to adapt.
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“I tried to give solutions in the first two camps through the structure. We played different structures in the buildup and put players in new positions. Maybe I underestimated the effect that it has. It was a learning. Maybe we translated it a little too much from club football and we need to take a step back to speed up our game with a bit more freedom and less changes within the structure. Maybe the solution comes from running more, from more energy, than the structure.”
Tuchel has pretty much picked two players per position and he has been gloriously specific about where he sees each one playing, who they are up against. For example, Tino Livramento has been picked at right-back, in competition with Reece James; Djed Spence as a left-back against Myles Lewis-Skelly. At left centre-back, it is Dan Burn and Marc Guéhi. The No 8s are Declan Rice and Elliot Anderson. There is flexibility and Tuchel said John Stones might have played in the No 6 role had he not been forced to withdraw with a muscle injury. But not too much flexibility.
It is the same story with the formation. Tuchel said a back five could be an option but not for this camp or those that follow in October and November. He is thinking about 4-2-3-1.
“This is where the focus is at the moment,” he said. “We have these three camps now and it’s not very likely that we will change [to three centre-backs] in these camps. But then we have March and it’s not so hard to learn to play in a back five. We told the players where they compete. We told them the formation that we’re going to play in these two matches. Once you have clarity, intensity will rise and follow.”
Tuchel is braced to run into low-block defences against Andorra and Serbia; they have long been a spectacle killing curse for England in qualifying ties. “It’s like chewing gum,” Tuchel said of the monotony of trying to find a way through.
It will be about attitude. “Does the group love to play for England or do they just like to play for England?” Tuchel said. More than that, it will be about showing signs of an identity. It is time for solutions.
Not only is that an incredibly true statement, but it’s also the title, and the opening line, of a song by The Runarounds, the poppy young rock band that’s the focus of a new TV series on Amazon Prime Video. The line could also refer to how the band got together in the first place, and found themselves starring in a TV show and headlining a national tour.
For clarity’s sake, the band is real, even though it was formed for the show. And the “The Runarounds” show is fictional, even though it’s based in part on the band members’ real-life stories.
Let’s back up bit, to 2020, when singer/guitarists Axel Ellis, William Lipton and Jeremy Yun; drummer Zende Murdock; and bassist Jesse Golliher responded to a casting call for musicians put out on the social media accounts of actors in Netflix’s mega-popular series “Outer Banks.”
Jonas Pate, the co-creator of “Outer Banks” who’s also the creator, co-writer and director of “The Runarounds,” chose the five out of some 5,000 submissions and brought them to Charleston, South Carolina, where “Outer Banks” is shot. There, he had them rehearse songs by Iggy Pop, Coldplay and other artists, even a few classics like “Twist and Shout,” the song by The Top Notes famously covered by the likes of The Isley Brothers and The Beatles.
In short order, the quintet, whose members were still in high school at the time, played a house band on “Outer Banks” and picked up a few club dates. By 2022 they were shooting the show’s pilot in Wilmington, Delaware, where none of them had ever been before.
‘The Runarounds’: Amazon show showcases Wilmington locations, music, actors and more
“It’s been a fun little thing,” says band member Yun, not only playing in the band and appearing on the show, but becoming close with his bandmates.
Yun and Lipton grew up together near San Francisco, Lipton said, but the other band members met each other for the first time when they began rehearsing in Charleston.
“We tried to play like we’d lived there our whole lives,” Ellis tells the Wilmington Star News Online, part of the USA TODAY Network, about gigging at local venues, playing house shows and sharing the stage with local bands. (This year, in the course of the promoting the show, the band has played the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, and the Lovin’ Life Music Fest in Charlotte.)
“There’s no better town we could’ve imagined filming the show,” Lipton says. “It feels like the band’s hometown. We made so many memories there, so many friends. Hung out all around. Loved going to Wrightsville Beach.”
They also learned how to play as a band, and wrote the songs that will appear on “The Runarounds,” including their first two singles: the poppy, dynamic “Funny How the Universe Works,” and the mellow, jangly “Senior Year.”
More of the band’s songs appear on the show, with full versions on the soundtrack out Sept. 1.
With three singer-guitarists in the band, “It’s a team effort, and there are times when it’s best to take a bit of a back seat,” Ellis says, with each member taking on slightly different roles, sometimes even within the course of a song.
“We all play different roles at different times,” Yun says. “This project is so unique, there’s no one clear-cut person. It’s all hands on deck at all times.”
In terms of influences, band members say they take inspiration from such legends as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones as well as from contemporary artists like R&B singer Dijon and folk singer Kate Bollinger.
As for the two band members who weren’t on the call for this interview, drummer Murdock is known as “the organized one” to his bandmates, while bassist Jesse Golliher serves as “class clown.”
All five band members were practiced musicians before joining The Runarounds, while only Lipton had much acting experience beyond school plays, having appeared on soap opera “General Hospital” as a kid.
That was partly by design, as Pate wanted the band members to be musicians first. But it also meant acting lessons were needed in order for the young men to be able to carry a show, so coaching was provided by actor Russell Blackwell.
“We had to learn to truly listen to your scene partner, even when you know what they’re going to say,” Ellis says. “It’s so hard, but so amazing when you do find it.”
Pate has likened the tone of “The Runarounds” to a modern-day version of “The Monkees” (another “real” TV band) mixed with the “emotional realism” of “Friday Night Lights.”
“We’re playing exaggerated versions of ourselves,” Ellis says, with real-life back stories used to ground their characters.
Lipton then chimes in to say, “These boys claim they had no acting experience, but if you watch the show you won’t see that.”
Ultimately, of course, the audience will be the judge of that. The future of the band, and of the show, is yet to be written, even if preparations are already being made for a possible Season 2.
Then again, it’s funny how the universe works, and if you believe that – and you should – then anything could happen.
SHARJAH, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Afghanistan defeated the United Arab Emirates by a nail-biting four runs in the Twenty20 tri-series on Friday.
UAE needed 17 runs from the final over for a consolation first win in four games and power-hitter Asif Khan brought down the target to five runs off the final three balls. But left-arm fast bowler Fareed Ahmad kept calm and didn’t concede a run off the next two fuller balls. On the last ball, Khan holed out at long-off on 40 and the home team finished short at 166-5.
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Afghanistan rested six frontline players, including captain Rashid Khan, ahead of Sunday’s final against Pakistan. It made 170-4 with Ibrahim Zadran missing out on his third successive half-century on 48 and Rahmanullah Gurbaz striking 40.
Pakistan and Afghanistan won three games each by successfully defending the targets, while UAE lost all of its four games while chasing down the totals.
Gurbaz and Zadran combined in a 98-run opening stand off 72 balls. Both perished off consecutive deliveries.
Afghanistan scored 56-1 off the final five overs with cameos from Karim Jannat, 28, and Gulbadin Naib, 20 not out.
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Left-arm spinner Haider Ali took 2-23.
UAE skipper Muhammad Waseem began the chase with a lot of intent against pace in the powerplay. He smashed three sixes and two fours in his 44 off 29 balls.
Waseem was caught behind when he tried to ramp debutant fast bowler Abdollah Ahmadzai’s short ball in the 11th over.
Spinners Sharafuddin Ashraf (1-20) and Noor Ahmad (1-23) then squeezed the runs in the middle overs.
Ahmad came through again in the final three balls.
SHARJAH, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Afghanistan defeated the United Arab Emirates by a nail-biting four runs in the Twenty20 tri-series on Friday.
UAE needed 17 runs from the final over for a consolation first win in four games and power-hitter Asif Khan brought down the target to five runs off the final three balls. But left-arm fast bowler Fareed Ahmad kept calm and didn’t concede a run off the next two fuller balls. On the last ball, Khan holed out at long-off on 40 and the home team finished short at 166-5.
Afghanistan rested six frontline players, including captain Rashid Khan, ahead of Sunday’s final against Pakistan. It made 170-4 with Ibrahim Zadran missing out on his third successive half-century on 48 and Rahmanullah Gurbaz striking 40.
Pakistan and Afghanistan won three games each by successfully defending the targets, while UAE lost all of its four games while chasing down the totals.
Gurbaz and Zadran combined in a 98-run opening stand off 72 balls. Both perished off consecutive deliveries.
Afghanistan scored 56-1 off the final five overs with cameos from Karim Jannat, 28, and Gulbadin Naib, 20 not out.
Left-arm spinner Haider Ali took 2-23.
UAE skipper Muhammad Waseem began the chase with a lot of intent against pace in the powerplay. He smashed three sixes and two fours in his 44 off 29 balls.
Waseem was caught behind when he tried to ramp debutant fast bowler Abdollah Ahmadzai’s short ball in the 11th over.
Spinners Sharafuddin Ashraf (1-20) and Noor Ahmad (1-23) then squeezed the runs in the middle overs.
Ahmad came through again in the final three balls.
Skipping breakfast raised fracture risk by 18% in nearly one million adults.
Eating dinner within two hours of bed was tied to an 8% higher fracture risk.
Simple habits—like a morning meal and earlier dinners—may help protect bones.
Your breakfast routine—or lack of one—may have lasting consequences for your bones.
A massive new Japanese study found that skipping breakfast and eating late dinners were each linked to a higher risk of osteoporotic fractures. The findings add to growing evidence from the field of chrononutrition—which explores how the timing of meals interacts with the body’s internal clock—suggesting that when you eat may matter for long-term health, not just what you eat. For example, researchers have linked eating earlier in the day to better cholesterol levels, lower insulin resistance and less body fat, all of which support the idea of eating in line with your natural circadian rhythm.
That potential connection matters because fragile bones are already a widespread problem. Roughly 13% of U.S. adults age 50 and older have osteoporosis, a disease that weakens bones and makes them more likely to break. Another 43% in the same age group have low bone mass, often called osteopenia. Taken together, more than half of older Americans are living with reduced bone strength and a higher risk of fractures.
Lifestyle habits like exercise, alcohol use and smoking are well known to influence fracture risk. What hasn’t been studied much is whether the timing of meals makes a difference. This study is one of the first to look at how skipping breakfast or eating late dinners might influence fracture risk. The results were published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society.
How Was the Study Conducted?
Researchers analyzed health records from nearly 1 million Japanese adults who took part in routine checkups. The study followed people age 20 and older, linking their lifestyle questionnaires with medical records from a large national claims database. On average, participants were tracked for about 2.6 years.
They focused on two self-reported eating habits: skipping breakfast and having a late dinner. The team tracked 4 types of osteoporotic fractures—hip, forearm, spine and upper arm—and compared people who reported these behaviors and who did not.
What Did the Study Find?
During the study, researchers logged just over 28,000 major fractures. People who skipped breakfast more than three times a week were about 18% more likely to break a bone than those who ate it regularly. Eating dinner within two hours of bedtime more than three times a week was linked to an 8% higher fracture risk.
The study also reinforced what health professionals already know—women, people with lower body weight and older adults are more prone to fractures. It also showed that meal timing habits often traveled with other choices like smoking, drinking, getting less exercise and sleeping less. Put together, the results suggest that lifestyle plays a big role in bone health—and that something as simple as when you eat may add to the risk.
How Does This Apply to Real Life?
Meal timing alone won’t make or break your bones, but it may be worth paying attention to. Starting the day with breakfast gives you a steady supply of nutrients your bones can use. Even simple options like yogurt with fruit, eggs on whole-grain toast or a smoothie made with milk and leafy greens provide protein and calcium without much effort.
Dinner habits matter too. Leaving two to three hours between your last meal and bedtime gives your body time to digest and aligns eating with your natural rhythms. Pairing that with regular weight-bearing exercise—like light strength training—and getting enough sleep helps reinforce bone strength over time.
And if you’re concerned about protecting your bone health, try to incorporate nutrients like calcium, vitamin D, protein and healthy fats into your diet. (Canned salmon can be a great source of all four.)
Our Expert Take
This recent study in the Journal of the Endocrine Society doesn’t prove that skipping breakfast or eating late dinners directly cause fractures, but it highlights how everyday routines may add up in ways we’re only starting to understand. The foundation for bone health is still the same—nutrient-rich foods, physical activity, quality sleep and limited smoking and alcohol—but meal timing may be another piece of the prevention puzzle.
[This story contains major spoilers from the first six episodes of Outlander: Blood of My Blood.]
When he first set out to create Blood of My Blood, executive producer Matthew B. Roberts thought he was only going to tell the love story of Jamie’s parents, Ellen MacKenzie (Harriet Slater) and Brian Fraser (Jamie Roy), who were mentioned in Diana Gabaldon’s original Outlander novels. But as he began to develop the long-gestating prequel, Roberts quickly realized that he would also need to tell the origin story of Claire’s parents, Julia Moriston (Hermione Corfield) and Henry Beauchamp (Jeremy Irvine), in order to sustain an ongoing series.
In true Outlander fashion, Roberts thought of an ingenious twist that would allow for the two sets of parents to cross paths despite being born two centuries apart. At the end of the series premiere, in a dramatic departure from the canon established in the original series, Julia and Henry survive a near-fatal car crash in the Highlands. And like their daughter, they discover they have the ability to pass through time using the standing stones at Craigh Na Dun.
Suddenly, Julia and Henry — who fell in love through written correspondence during World War I while he was battling on the Western Front and she was working for the London redaction office — are transported from their shared life in 19th-century, post-war England and thrust into separate lives in 17th-century Scotland. Julia, who was already pregnant with her and Henry’s second child, is forced to work as a maidservant for the reprehensible Lord Lovat (Tony Curran), who happens to be the father of Brian. Meanwhile, in a desperate attempt to both protect himself and buy enough time to find Julia, Henry agrees to become the bladier — or main advisor — to the Grants, a rival clan whose son, Malcolm (Jhon Lumsden), is set to marry Ellen as part of a strategic alliance.
Over the course of the next five episodes, as Julia and Henry each fight to ensure their own survival, viewers are given little windows into the spouses’ former life. “It was really important for those [flashback] scenes, when we do see them together, for there to be lightness and joy and attraction and all the things that make an audience go, ‘Oh my gosh, I love seeing those two together,’ because otherwise you’re not going to long for them to be back together again,” Corfield tells The Hollywood Reporter. “But I think that was the key — when they are together, it’s joyful, because there’s so much sadness and darkness that follows when they’re separated.”
That darkness pushes Julia to make a shocking choice in the third episode of the prequel. Since Julia’s arrival at Castle Leathers, Davina Porter (Sara Vickers), the long-time servant of Lord Lovat and the mother of Brian, has suspected that Julia is pregnant. Davina even tries to convince her to drink a bunch of herbs that will induce an abortion, but Julia denies that she is with child. But knowing that she doesn’t have long before she will begin to show, Julia decides to sleep with Lord Lovat, giving her the ability to pass off her and Henry’s child as Lovat’s own.
Julia Gives Birth to Claire’s Sibling — With Davina’s Help
Tony Curran as Simon Fraser “Lord Lovat,” and Jamie Roy as Brian Fraser.
Starz
At the start of episode six, when she begins to experience her first labor contractions in 18th-century Scotland, Julia says in a voiceover, “They say a man is born alone and dies alone. But whoever said that is clearly not of the female persuasion. Because it’s not true — at least, the first part isn’t. Man is born of a woman, who is with you through your birth. A mother.”
Motherhood is the dominant theme of the most heart-wrenching hour of the Outlander prequel to date. Written by Danielle Berrow and directed by Matthew Moore, the sixth episode, titled “Birthright,” centers around Julia giving birth to a son who Lord Lovat believes will be the future king of Scotland. A group of midwives arrive at Castle Leathers to assist with the birth. But after Davina publicly accuses Julia mid-labor of seducing Lord Lovat, the group of women suddenly turn on Julia, yelling at her to repent her sins and repeatedly questioning her about the paternity of her child. (Julia maintains that Lord Lovat is the father of her child, even under severe duress.)
Corfield, for her part, was excited and undaunted by the challenge of having to push Julia to her breaking point take after take. “Because she’s reduced down to her animal instinct, Julia has to fluctuate between tiger mom aggression — like, ‘Get your hands off me!’ — to begging Davina [for mercy],” she says of her approach to playing that harrowing birth sequence. “That was key to making sure that there was variation in the scene. It keeps the audience wanting to watch, hopefully, because it’s a painful watch as well.”
But that is not to say that the weeklong shoot wasn’t physically demanding. “Some of the younger characters were physically holding me down, and it got to the point where I was actually so tired I couldn’t stand up and I had to be like, ‘Please don’t worry about holding me down on this one. I actually can’t get up at this point,’” Corfield recalls with a laugh. “It was very tiring, but I loved every second of it.”
The episode specifically juxtaposes this birth scene from hell with Julia giving birth to Claire, with Henry by her side, inside their flat in the 20th century. “That first birth scene, they’re so much in love and it’s about a young couple who are working this out for the first time and they’re both trying to think on their feet,” Corfield says. “There’s that lovely bit where Henry tries to put the music on and Julia says, ‘Not now, darling.’ And we played around with that line, whether it was going to be a polite sort of ‘No, thank you, darling,’ or ‘Shut the f— up, and just stop trying to distract me!’ I preferred that second version, because I think that it’s real and it added a lightness to it.”
The hour, despite those brief moments of levity, is particularly dark and gritty. Outlander has never shied away from depictions of sexual violence, and in keeping with how he was conceived in Gabaldon’s novels, Blood of My Blood reveals that Brian was a product of rape. “I think as we go forward, the fans can expect those tentpoles. We’re not going to change the mythology or the canon in that way, but showing that story [on screen] is a little different,” Roberts tells THR. “We’re showing Davina and how Lovat took advantage of her, to say the least. But in his mind, he’s not [taking advantage of her]. I think what needs to be shown is that this guy doesn’t think that there’s a problem there.”
In flashbacks, Lord Lovat violently sexually assaults Davina multiple times for his own pleasure, and her own mistress later claims that a heavily pregnant Davina brought this fate upon herself. “Davina’s held this shame for so long because of what happened between her and Lovat, and [she believed] that it was her fault,” says executive producer Maril Davis. “She thinks Julia has been taking advantage of her and this situation. And in [this] episode, she finally realizes that it wasn’t her fault with Lovat; that Julia has experienced the same thing she did and is being cast out and is going to be giving birth alone. Davina doesn’t want the same thing to happen to [Julia] — she basically birthed Brian all on her own — so I think that is a huge turning point in their relationship.”
Davina ends up yelling at the rest of the midwives to get out of the birthing chamber, and she delivers Julia’s baby on her own. The dramatic irony, of course, is that Julia did seduce Lovat and is now trying to take advantage of a precedent set by Davina with her own son, but Julia still ends up appealing to Davina’s better angels.
“In that moment, Davina recognizes her younger self, but also it’s a moment of mother to mother,” Corfield adds. “Julia is appealing to Davina as a mother and saying, ‘You are the person that shaped your child. [He has] nothing to do with Lord Lovat. Don’t leave my child at the mercy of Lord Lovat. Let me survive this so I can raise the child myself.’ I think it’s that appeal that really gets through to Davina.”
Henry’s Shocking Discovery
Jeremy Irvine as Henry Beauchamp.
Starz
Irvine is no stranger to playing World War I veterans, having starred in Steven Spielberg’s 2011 film War Horse, but Blood of My Blood has afforded him an opportunity to delve further into the long-term effects of PTSD on former soldiers. “Getting to play someone who’s mentally damaged, as sad as that is, is a real gift for an actor. There’s so much to get your teeth into, and so many different ways you can take it,” Irvine says. “I wanted him to have this involuntary tremor in his hand, which ends up becoming a thing in the show, and waking nightmares and other stuff that were already written in. [I was interested in] looking at how [PTSD] affects people. I read a few books, but there’s not much you can’t learn off the internet.”
After Henry reveals in episode six that he is planning to visit some of the midwives in the area to see if any of them recently helped Julia give birth, Arch Bug (Terence Rae), a loyal servant of the Grants, offers to bring a bunch of midwives to their estate for questioning. But of course, Arch Bug could care less about Henry’s unseen wife. In fact, he ends up paying off a midwife to lie that Julia and her baby died and were buried in an unmarked grave.
Henry’s reaction to the news is hard to watch; he goes from being overcome with grief and unable to catch his breath to maniacally laughing and running through the streets — as he did after the end of World War I — declaring that “it’s over.” He ends up seeking comfort in the arms of Seema (Lauren McQueen), a prostitute whom he hallucinates as Julia.
“We’ve seen Henry and Julia and how in love they are when they’re together. Now, we’ve got to show that if he believes she’s gone, that if she’s dead, then part of him is dead. He would die for her in a second. And if that person is gone, then he needs to be completely and utterly broken,” explains Irvine. “I wanted to go from that [feeling] and then go to the exact opposite, because I thought that would be incredibly unsettling to watch — to see him go from this utter desolation and grief to elation.
“When we read it, there wasn’t any sort of laughing in the script, but I thought, ‘God, what if he starts laughing? What if he’s just suddenly incredibly happy?’ I thought we have to show how mad [or insane] he is,” Irvine continues. “If we don’t show him mentally losing grip on reality, then are we going to sympathize with him when he goes and does this awful thing with Seema? I just thought it’d be really unsettling to show him going to the absolute darkest place and then coming out a few minutes later in the opposite emotion to show his fragile mental state.”
The Future In-Laws Become Unexpected Allies
Roy as Brian Fraser.
Starz
Ever since Starz revealed in a trailer that Julia and Henry would be able to time travel like their daughter, Outlander fans have been theorizing about how Claire’s parents would inevitably intersect with Jamie’s parents. While they are thus far unaware of the connection between Julia and the Grants’ new bladier, Ellen and Brian, who are really the star-crossed lovers of this prequel, they have Julia to thank for helping to facilitate one of their late-night encounters.
So when Julia approaches Brian one morning mid-labor and confesses to having slept with Lord Lovat in a last-ditch attempt to protect her and Henry’s unborn child from certain banishment or even death, Brian can’t help but return the favor, springing into action to protect her during childbirth — even at the risk of incurring the wrath of his old man.
In doing so, Julia and Brian have found unlikely allies in each other. “At the beginning, she’s almost invisible to him as the maidservant and then he’s wary of her because he thinks she’s got strange intentions in terms of being with Lovat. Once she’s honest and open and vulnerable with him, he fully takes her on,” Corfield explains of the “very sweet” relationship between the eventual in-laws. “Because he’s clearly a loving man that protects his mother, he then has that same energy towards Julia and they recognize in each other the longing they have for the person they can’t be with. They’re two people that are heartbroken and a little bit lost because they’re not with the person that they want to be with.”
“It’s almost like a sibling relationship where they look after each other’s backs, because that’s who Brian is as a person,” Roy concurs. “I think he gets that from his mom, who’s a natural caretaker. She’s full of love, and he sees his dad [being] everything that he doesn’t want to be, which is this woman-beater, misogynist. So he doesn’t think twice about protecting the people who need saving. It was actually Matt Roberts who said at the start, when we’re talking about Brian and who he is at his core, ‘Think of him almost as an 18th-century Superman.’ I was like, ‘Say no more! I know exactly where I’m going to go.’”
Roy believes what underlies Brian’s selfless nature is a deep-seated desire to get the elusive respect and approval of Lord Lovat, who has always looked down on his son due to his illegitimacy. “Brian’s not jealous of this unborn son, but there’s a part of him which feels quite sad about the fact that he doesn’t have this love from his father,” Roy says. In episode six, “that meeting he has in the bedroom with Lovat is almost a last-ditch attempt to reach out to him and connect. Then, when all hell lets loose in the hall during the birth” — and Brian kicks Lovat out of the birthing chamber — “that’s the final straw.”
Brian later ends up getting whipped for his insolence toward his father, but it is a price that he is willing to pay to mend his relationship with Julia. In the moving final scene, Brian tells Julia that her new baby, William, “will always have a friend” — and essentially a protector — in him, and Julia lets Brian, who doesn’t even know his own birthday, blow out the candle on a cake for her newborn.
“By the end of the episode, they have this moment of quiet and stillness with this beautiful newborn child, who actually was a baby. It was two weeks old or something like that,” Roy recalls. “Whenever you get to act with a baby, it is incredible. You forget about everything else. You’re just taking care of them. It grounds you so much and you forget you’re acting. I think as Jamie and Hermione, but also Brian and Julia, we both really appreciated that moment of stillness, and it just was a really beautiful scene to film.”
“There’s Some Very Awkward Questions to Be Asked From Both of Them”
Julia may have just given birth to her and Henry’s second child, but there is still the issue that her mentally unwell husband believes she died in childbirth. Since Blood of My Blood has already been renewed for a second season, viewers can rest assured that Julia and Henry’s reunion is a matter of when and how, not if.
According to Roberts, the writers rooms in the Outlander universe are always guided by three key questions for all of the fan-favorite couples: “How are they going to get back together? How are they going to find each other? And how are they going to stay together?”
In Julia and Henry’s case, “they have no freedoms; they don’t have their own free will, so to speak,” Roberts remarks. “Certainly, with the birth of that child, it’s not good for Julia. It actually becomes worse now that she’s had a child. Henry is in the service of the Grants, and he can’t just go, ‘Hey, I’m going to quit now.’ So I think both these characters are in their prisons, and all they want to do is get to each other — and they will eventually. But how that happens is the fun part.”
“The season definitely ends on a crescendo, so it’s building up and up,” Irvine previews of the final four episodes with a smile. “The story would be over if Julia was gone for him entirely, so yes, there might be a meeting again. And then there’s some very awkward questions to be asked from both of them. They put unconditional love to the test.”
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New episodes of Outlander: Blood of My Blood are available to stream Fridays at midnight on the Starz app, with the season finale on Oct. 10.
