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Highlander: Double Eagle

Duncan: "Can't we just discuss this like reasonable people?"
Amanda and Kit: (together) "No!"

Was this the first episode that was just funny, beginning to end?

Whatever. It was the first beginning-to-end comic episode that really worked. I think Highlander began to realize its potential when they started doing episodes like this one, and I'm grouping more than just comedy in this category. "Double Eagle," like the more dramatic "Star-Crossed" and "Finale," was about the complex relationships between interesting and cool immortals. And I know I'm repeating myself, but that's what really worked.

Inveterate gambler Kit O'Brady was sort of a male Amanda, except that he wasn't quite up to her level. She hoodwinked him way too easily. (Richie was no match for her, either.) I've noticed that Duncan was always stuck in the adult role in situations like this, mediating squabbles, while the other immortals behaved like great big kids. At least Amanda took an adult turn in the end when she deliberately gave up her half interest in the racehorse to Kit, even though she had the winning card.

Dan has always loved the way the "buzz" made Kit sneeze. And that Kit would sneeze twice when he encountered two other immortals.

Flashbacks:

— 1888 San Francisco. Amanda won the Double Eagle saloon from Kit in a card game, and refused to return his lucky gold piece. I think my favorite part of the flashbacks was the way Kit kept flinging multiple insults at Amanda, and she only objected to being called French.

Bits and pieces:

— Did Joseph P. Babcock really invent Mah Jong in the 1920s?

— Losing sixty grand didn't appear to bother Duncan much. Add that to the cost of the house, and we can conclude that Duncan is comfortably wealthy.

— I'm not much for fashion, but I loved the two piece black thing Elizabeth Gracen wore near the end of this episode.

— In this week's hair report, Amanda's was very short again. She could carry it off, but I definitely think she looked better with it longer.

— Kit had a K/C name. But he was a good guy, so he doesn't count.

Quotes:

Kit: "Cheer up. Sometimes they stay dead, sometimes they don't."

Amanda: (phony French accent) "De double eagle. Izzat a family kwest?"
Kit: "Kwest?"

Count: "You throw in that dress, and I'll stake you the rest."
Amanda: "Monsieur, this dress does not come off. (pause) For less than a million."

Amanda: "What's the matter, Mr. O'Brady? You afraid of a little wisk?"

Kit: "No thieving French harlot with a coiffure is going to steal my place from me and get away with it!"
Amanda: "I'm not French!"

Kit: "You thieving French whore!"
Amanda: "I told you. I'm not French!"

Four out of four stars,

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

3 comments:

  1. Did Joseph P. Babcock really invent Mah Jong in the 1920s?

    Not really. However, Joseph Babcock - who learned to play Mah Jong while living in China - wrote the first English rule book for Mah Jong in 1920, coining the term "Mah-Jongg", which is still being used today. Overall, Babcock did a lot to popularize the game in the United States - so while it is not correct to introduce him as the "inventor" of Mah Jong, Kid's remark has a real historical background. Which - to me - is part of what made the show so likeable: The little historical curiosities and tidbits, which more often than not were based on actual history...

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  2. Thanks for the info, Christian. I didn't know that.

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  3. I started a rewatch of Highlander because I wanted to see a bit of Methos on my screen again and got side tracked a bit with other episodes. This episode made me laugh because it was a funny episode but Duncan's shear see through sweater made me laugh even more. I do not miss the fashion's of the 90's.

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