This is one of my favorite Highlander two parters.
Why was it so much fun? Because it was about immortals. Four immortal friends (I tend to think of Joe as an honorary immortal) facing two huge immortal-related problems. As much as I loved Duncan our leading man, Methos, Amanda and Joe were great characters and the show was much richer with them than without them.
Amanda, Amanda, Amanda. Breaking Kalas out of jail was not her best moment, but at least her heart was in the right place. And she was so much fun. I loved her in that fight in the alley, immediately trying to seduce Kalas after he took her prisoner, and the way she easily overpowered and made fools of Kalas' minions. She did stupid things at times, but Amanda was definitely not boring.
Kalas was such a hoot, like an empresario of evil. He got out of prison, stole a car, money, and clothes, ran down another immortal to get a sword, and all that was in the first ten minutes of the episode. Then he acquired minions and even started killing them. "Fetch me another. This one's broken." I mean, if you're going to be evil, do it right.
So Christine Salzer, the wife of the watcher that Kalas killed, was ready to tell the world about the immortals. Considering how many people are in on The Secret, it's amazing no one has gone to the papers before this. Of course, they didn't have a handy-dandy CD-ROM full of incriminating information to take along. I thought Christine had her nerve going through with it, even after Duncan took a bullet for her. Well, yes, he did it for Joe, but still.
Flashbacks:
— 1653 Algiers. Xavier St. Cloud challenged and killed Hamzael Kahir, one of Duncan's mentors. It didn't have much to do with Kalas (the point was that Duncan wouldn't allow Amanda to fight his battles for him), but I think it was also just a cool way to bring Xavier St. Cloud back for the finale. Come to think of it, Xavier was like Kalas: a multi-episode villain and major threat.
— Kahir was ready to run away from Xavier. Duncan was planning to stay, but he was too young and Xavier would have killed him. You can't really tell from the other episode that he and Xavier had met before; I thought they met during World War I.
Bits and pieces:
— Why didn't Kalas conveniently die and get himself out of prison via the morgue? Especially with all those nasty knives so readily available.
— Methos was still in the guise of Adam Pierson, mild-mannered watcher. So Joe didn't tell the other Watchers that they had a celebrity in their midst?
— Amanda had longish hair and a stud in her nose. She tends to like new stuff, too, the way Methos does.
— Poor Maurice has been having a rough week. He just lost his niece and here, he was briefly Kalas' hostage.
— The oldest man on earth was innovating by creating an interactive database. Consider the irony.
— Nino the psychopath was a little more interesting than the usual supporting minion.
— Kahir had a K name. But he was a good guy, so he doesn't count.
Quotes:
Xavier: "I don't sleep with virgins and I don't kill children."
He called Duncan a child. Here, Xavier was more like that immortal who waited until his opponents were "seasoned" before killing them. No cowardly gassing back then, I guess.
Xavier: "Are you a Christian? Or do you paint yourself blue and bay at the moon?"
Duncan: "What do you care?"
Xavier: "Just wondering what god I'm going to send you to."
Kalas: "Do you know what a Philistine is, Nino?"
Nino: "Phil who?"
Kalas: "Silly me."
Maurice: "For a good man, you seem to have many enemies."
Methos: "Give me a break. What did you expect? Einstein, Freud, Buddha?"
Joe: "Forget it."
Methos: "I'm sorry, Joe. I'm just a guy."
Amanda: "Well, now it's got that 'died in' look."
Joe: "MacLeod, why did you save her?"
Methos: "He didn't save her. He saved you."
Big, wonderful set-up for an even better part two. Four out of four stars,
Billie
---
Billie Doux knows that there can be only one.
Another egregious error in a show i love so much. What the writers had Amanda do, considering what Kalas was capable of, was utterly stupid. No one but the dumbest person would do something like that. Even with Amanda it shatters all believability for me, she's too old and experienced. You're right, no reason he couldn't get out himself.
ReplyDeleteRidiculous idea.