The episode marks the late actor’s final work on the show.

Why Episode 4 of Outlander: Blood of My Blood is dedicated to Brian McCardie

The episode marks the late actor's final work on the show.

By Maureen Lee Lenker

Maureen Lee Lenker

Maureen Lee Lenker is a senior writer at ** with over seven years of experience in the entertainment industry. An award-winning journalist, she's written for Turner Classic Movies, *Ms. Magazine*, *The Hollywood Reporter*, and more. She's worked at EW for six years covering film, TV, theater, music, and books. The author of EW's quarterly romance review column, "Hot Stuff," Maureen holds Master's degrees from both the University of Southern California and the University of Oxford. Her debut novel, *It Happened One Fight*, is now available. Follow her for all things related to classic Hollywood, musicals, the romance genre, and Bruce Springsteen.

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Published on August 22, 2025 09:00PM EDT

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Brian McCardie. Credit:

While there's plenty of tragic moments on *Outlander: Blood of My Blood, *the fourth episode of the Starz series is marked by a real-life loss.

The episode ends with a dedication card for the memory of Brian McCardie. McCardie, who died unexpectedly in April 2024, plays Isaac Grant on the series. Grant is the chieftain of his clan, and as such, he poses a threat to Colum (Seamus McLean Ross), Dougal (Sam Retford), Ellen (Harriet Slater), and all of the MacKenzies.

He is the boss of Henry Beauchamp (Jeremy Irvine), who serves as his bladier after traveling back in time. And it is Isaac's son Malcolm (Jhon Lumsden) who is betrothed to Ellen, threatening her romance with Brian Fraser (Jamie Roy).

Jeremy Irvine and Jhon Lumsden in 'Outlander: Blood of my Blood'.

Sanne Gault/Starz

"He's the other side of the coin of Lord Lovat," Roberts previously said of McCardie's character and his relationship with the wily father of Brian Fraser. "Every scene he was in, he just brought the level up and you just go, 'Oh my god, I want to see more of him.'"

But episode 4 may be the last fans see of Isaac Grant, because it is the final episode that McCardie filmed before his death. "He was in it quite a bit, and it was his last one," series creator Matthew B. Roberts says of the decision to dedicate this particular episode to McCardie. "We felt like that was the appropriate one to do — and to say goodbye."

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Roberts previously told * *that they will not recast McCardie despite the fact that further material was written for the role of Isaac Grant.**

"I didn't want to recast and re-film that part because he's so fantastic," Roberts reiterates. "It wasn't even a thought. Somebody asked and it was like, 'No, we're not doing that.'"

"It was such a shock," adds producer Maril Davis. "He was a beloved person on our set, and it was a huge shock. So, I'm so glad we were able to keep his performance in there."

Brian McCardie.

However, on the whole, Isaac Grant is relatively important to the story being told, which Roberts says the writers devised a plan to work around. "We'll have a different character come in later," he says.

Roberts gave more details on the workaround in a prior interview, saying, "We had to figure out a way to go down the road that we wanted to go down, but it was going to be a parallel road. It wasn't going to be the same road. So, we created a whole new character to take on some of that storyline. But it won't be the same storyline that we were planning."

New episodes of *Outlander: Blood of My Blood* air Fridays on Starz.**

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