Highlander: The Return of Amanda

Amanda: "I'll never forget this."
Duncan: "Yes, you will."

What makes Highlander unique? It's the immortals, and their unusual lives. So let's have shows about immortals, shall we? And let's bring Amanda back because, let's face it, she's about thirty times more interesting than Tessa.

The plot constantly echoed not one, but two classic movies: Casablanca and Cabaret. Duncan and Amanda even had an exchange about always having Paris. Some of the crooked FBI agent/counterfeit plate stuff was pretty flimsy, but who cares. It wasn't the point of the episode.

With Tessa finally out of the way, the chemistry between Duncan and Amanda was practically tangible. Yes, he just lost Tessa, but Duncan has lost a lot of people. If he wasn't capable of moving on fairly quickly, he'd be permanently paralyzed with grief. Plus it made a lot more sense for him to succumb to an old lover than to frolic on the rocks with Sheena Easton. His ease and comfort with Amanda made it believable that they'd been lovers on and off for centuries. At one point, when they were in bed together, Elizabeth Gracen was idly playing with the hair on Adrian Paul's arm. They looked utterly natural together.

What's really up with Amanda? Yes, she steals, she lies, she seduces. She also dashed to Duncan's rescue. And we can tell that she really does care about him and did intend to comfort him. Duncan is different with Amanda than he was with Tessa. He's cautious, sardonic, amused. Their love scenes together were very sexy. Works for me.

Flashbacks:

— 1936 Berlin. Duncan, looking amazing in a tux, and Amanda, looking like Sally Bowles in Cabaret, bantered as they danced together. What fun. This was the first significant dance scene in the series. Fortunately, not the last.

— Duncan was smuggling people out of Nazi Germany, which was similar to his previously revealed occupations. He and Amanda were both working with different types of forgery: identification papers and money.

— Duncan didn't "feel" Amanda outside the hotel room... or if he did, he didn't act like it.

— Note the trademark Dennis Berry fog during the flashback scenes.

Bits and pieces:

— Last week, Michael Shanks; this week, Don S. Davis. It's SG-1 month.

— There was a lengthy clip from "The Lady and the Tiger" to catch us up.

— Why were Duncan and Richie using masks while fencing when they're immortal? I'm sure it was just to give Amanda a cool entrance, but consistency, thou art a gem.

— Duncan told Amanda about the Watchers. I bet that news is going to be whipping its way through the immortal community pretty quickly. (Do immortals have a community?)

— Guest star Don S. Davis accidentally hit Adrian Paul in the face with a gun while filming this episode. It left a visible scar next to Adrian's left eyebrow. The makeup covering it up during much of the episode was noticeable.

Quotes, nearly all of which were Duncan/Amanda bantering:

Duncan: "What do you want, Amanda?"
Amanda: "You mean, besides you?"

Amanda: "You won't let me change. You really expect me to steal, don't you?"
Duncan: "I expect sharks to bite, too. Don't take it personally."
She was stealing, though, so Duncan was right.

Werner: "Berlin has become an asylum. The inmates are running it."

Duncan: "I just made love to the most devious, scheming, deceitful, beautiful woman in history."
Amanda: "Do you really think I'm one of the most beautiful women in history?"
Selective listening on Amanda's part.

Duncan: "You're impossible."
Amanda: "Not for you."

Amanda: "We'll always have Paris."
Duncan: "Yeah. London. Rome. (laughs) And Tulsa."

I like Amanda. I like this episode. Three out of four stars,

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

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