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Highlander: Free Fall

Duncan: "Don't get mad. Make your adversary mad."

Felicia Martens has a distinction: she's the very first female immortal in the Highlander series. So of course she was a seductive bitch, a devious headhunter who came up with a long, complicated con so that she could kill Tessa and Richie, supposedly in order to enrage Duncan and make him easier to beat. She even tarted herself up for the kill. Let's introduce every possible negative female stereotype, why don't we?

This episode also established that Duncan doesn't find it easy to kill female immortals. He let her go in the end because Richie begged him to. And she will almost certainly kill more innocent people. Duncan should have taken her head, of course. He should have taken Kiem Sun's, too, and didn't.

Immortals are mostly male. Why? Is immortality linked more strongly to the Y chromosome, like color blindness and pattern baldness? Or do fewer women acquire the sword skills necessary to survive as an immortal? Duncan told Felicia (when he thought she was just a baby immortal) that it isn't really strength that makes a good swordsman, that a woman can be just as good. I don't know. I think physical strength probably helps a lot.

Joan Jett was the first, but not the best, of several rock stars who guest starred as immortals on Highlander. Roger Daltrey as Fitz was my favorite, but he doesn't show up for awhile.

Flashbacks:

— 1875 France. Felicia, with a bad French accent, killed Devereaux's wife and adopted baby. These flashbacks were Duncan-less.

— Felicia drew maps. That's a rather intellectual and precise occupation for such a passionate murderer.

Bits and pieces:

— No Randi in the credits this week.

— According to Richie, it's been six months since the pilot episode. Does that mean Duncan had his 400th birthday, and we missed the party?

— Queen song: "Don't lose your head." Plus in the opener, Richie was cleaning to "Cherry Bomb" by Joan Jett and The Runaways.

— Duncan said that Connor gave Duncan his current sword. I think that's inconsistent with future episodes. Ah, well.

— The forgettable Sergeant Powell has been replaced by another forgettable cop, Commisky.

— Devereaux was driving an exotic black classic sports car. What's with immortals and black, classic cars? Devereaux was physically similar to Duncan, too: big, muscular, long black hair.

— The antique shop interior was a gorgeous set, and it looked particularly good in this episode. Or maybe it was just more noticeable because we spent more time in it.

— Richie: "If anyone should have band-aids around, it's MacLeod. Big band-aids."

Two out of four stars,

Billie
---
Billie Doux knows that there can be only one.

3 comments:

  1. I thought the fight between Felicia and Devereaux was pretty pathetic.

    SPOILERS!

    Maybe both actors had limited sword skills, but if Devereaux could so easily be knocked off, I'm surprised he lasted 5 minutes as an immortal because he lasted about 30 seconds in a fight with Felicia. I also didn't like that Duncan gave her a $200,000 sword he just bought and was obviously attached to.

    - Arie

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  2. SOMEWHAT OF A SPOILER:

    Twice in this episode, Richie all but says he is immortal. Once, talking to Tessa (about 36 minutes in), he says, "I've got time on my side, not like you." Later (about 40 minutes in), when talking to Felicia, she says, "I want to be with you forever," and Richie replies, "Forever is a relative word for us, isn't it?" although Felicia does follow that with, "I want to be with you until the day you die."

    I remember when this episode originally aired, asking friends if I had missed something because I didn't know Richie was immortal, but they all told me he was not. Those lines certainly suggest he knows he will be, something that was not established until the next season.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Strangely written episode. Why reveal Felicia’s real identity to the audience so we can just spend the rest of it wondering when Duncan and Richie were going to wise up? Luckily for them Felicia was one of those bad guys who conveniently likes to exposit her plan before killing people giving her victims time to escape or fight back. Tessa was the only one who didn’t come out of this one looking like a fool.

    ReplyDelete

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