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Highlander: Reluctant Heroes

Duncan: "I don't want to put him away. I want to bury him."

Again with the standard rubber stamp Highlander plot: an evil immortal that Duncan once knew showed up, still killing people, so Duncan had to take him out. This was the basic plot of most of the movies, too, and I won't deny that I got tired of it.

But at least this one had the talented Peter Outerbridge, immortal fop on the outside, immortal monster on the inside, unrelentingly evil and unsympathetic. No reluctance on Duncan's side this time, no ruined old friendship – Duncan attacked Kinman with something almost like glee. Maybe fervor is a better word.

The FBI agent girlfriend was a small change of pace, too. I knew she would end up toast. She deserved to be toast. So everyone got what they deserved, except David Markham, who lost his wife and didn't understand why Duncan wouldn't testify against Kinman. For me, the most satisfying part of the episode was the end, when Duncan did something he probably shouldn't have: he told Markham that Kinman hadn't gotten away with it, after all. That was an admission of murder. A risky thing to do.

Duncan gave his word to Queen Anne not to fight Kinman, which gave Kinman over two hundred years to kill more innocent people – not to mention the FBI guy that Agent Brooks killed in the garage. Yes, she was the Queen, but I think keeping his word under those circumstances was wrong. Necessary for the plot, though.

Flashbacks:

— 1712 England. Duncan was playing croquet and talking about the war with Queen Anne. And then Kinman killed Duncan's friend Dennis, for the hell of it.

— Another fabulous costume for Adrian. I mean the leather thing, not the green coat and white wig. Wow. Sexy Scottish accent, too.

Bits and pieces:

— Duncan and Richie were still working on the house.

— Kinman and Brooks got horizontal on the table in the interrogation room. What about the one way mirrors that we saw in a later scene? And wouldn't they record an interrogation in a major investigation?

— The final duel was in a meat locker with sides of beef that looked fake. Insert the usual dead meat and stuck pig witticisms here.

— Paul Kinman was the twenty-eighth evil immortal with a K/C name.

Richie: "There must be a lot of guys who look like us."
Agent Brooks: "Yeah. Right."
I must admit this made me snort. Sure, there are a lot of guys out there who look like Adrian Paul and Stan Kirsch.

So so. Two stars,

Billie
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Billie Doux knows that there can be only one. And that's Methos.

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