Highlander: Unholy Alliance, Part 1

Duncan: "We fought each other before."
Charlie: "You cut off his arm, didn't you? No wonder he's pissed."

Wildly busy episode with not one but two returning uber-villains, and immortal problems with not one but two mortal friends.

Unholy alliance. No shit. The evil Xavier St. Cloud has started playing dirty pool in a major way: shooting immortals first in order to behead them, just like his new buddy, the not dead James Horton. Xavier has now broken the rules that all immortals follow religiously. Xavier isn't just an evil immortal; he's completely off the reservation.

Joe Dawson broke the rules, too. He lied to Duncan about Horton's death, and that's something Duncan won't easily forgive, no matter what Joe's motive was or what he knew about Horton's actions. Rules and order are important to Duncan. The flashback discussion of chess and war having rules specifically emphasized this point. When Renee asked Duncan if he had religious faith, he replied, "I believe there's an order in the universe, that there's purpose, that things eventually fit, even if you can't see how or why." It was no wonder that Xavier and Horton enraged him to the extent of yelling in hospital wards.

This was the episode where Charlie really started to bug me. He was all angry and questioning and giving Duncan a hard time. (I mean, really. Just because a bunch of guys machine-gunned the dojo, and himself in the process? How petty.) I was sort of hoping Charlie would die in this one. He existed as a character to be us, to see Duncan's unusual life from the outside, but I never thought it was necessary. He was always more tedious than fun.

At least now, if Charlie survives, he'll have to be in on Duncan's secret. Possibly less tedious.

Flashbacks:

— 1670 Scotland. Duncan was back in Scotland going native with the really long hair and skins again. According to the timeline, he'd already traveled around Europe, but it was like he never left Scotland. I wonder if that was an error on the part of the writers?

Bits and pieces:

— Speaking of bits and pieces, Xavier's missing left hand confirmed that immortals can't regenerate missing limbs. At least not within the space of a year or so.

— Wide-eyed Special Agent Renee Delaney was a hoot, a few degrees more interesting than the late, unlamented Randi. Renee was practically wearing a sign that said "possible new love interest for Duncan." Couldn't they bring Amanda back, instead?

— Renee remarked on Duncan's accent, or lack of one. I hadn't even thought about it, but she's right. Adrian Paul is British. He does a good American accent as well as a good Scottish accent.

— Horton's tomb (James Horton, 1945-1993) was next to someone's named Dawson, reminding us that Horton and Dawson were brothers-in-law.

— During one of the duels, Duncan did an acrobatic move that probably wasn't humanly possible.

— Brief glimpse of Paris. Anton and Catherine, immortal/mortal couple, felt a bit like a future never to be Duncan and Tessa, with her appearing older than him.

— Near the end of the credits was the caption, "In memory of Werner Stocker." Stocker played Darius.

Quotes:

Duncan: "You're a long way from home, Xavier."
Xavier: "Home is where the head is."
That struck me funny.

Renee: "Would you, you know, do the guy thing?"

Duncan: "Different rules. Different styles."
Xavier: "Different strokes for different folks."

Duncan: "Welcome back."
Charlie: "You're dead."
Duncan: "Do I look like an angel to you, Charlie?"

Three out of four stars,

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

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