Duncan: "I guess it must be the beard."
This one started out looking like the standard "Duncan has to take out an evil immortal" plot. But it ended up a lot better than I expected.
The Duncan/Kelly battle of wits had a Keystone Kops flavor to it, even though it was life and death: the billboards, the silhouettes, the train set, the remote control phone. Duncan's enjoyment was what made it so much fun. He was supremely confident that he would prevail over the devious, homicidal Johnny Kelly, and of course, he did. Kelly never mastered the sword because he stayed alive by breaking the "rules," so it was sort of perfect that all Duncan had to do was create circumstances in which Kelly had to play fair.
Which again brings up the obvious question. What stops other immortals from shooting their opponents in order to take their heads? Nothing. There are no immortal police. (Well, unless you count guys like Duncan.) It's a big, gaping plot hole patched over with honor. If Kelly had no honor, how come Kalas did?
While Duncan was busy being invulnerable, Joe showed his vulnerable side when his high school flame dropped by out of the blue and didn't know what had happened to him in Vietnam. I really loved that Duncan pushed Joe into going out with Betsy, and that she wouldn't take no for an answer. Bummer that she was married. If Joe had contacted her when he was first injured, things could have been different. Let that be a lesson to all of us about not jumping to conclusions about what other people will think.
Flashbacks:
— 1929 New York: My working theory about chains of dark quickenings turning immortals into serial killers didn't apply to Johnny Kelly, since he was an aspiring mobster and utter jerk before he died for the first time. Duncan did try his best to initiate a good immortal mentor/mentee relationship with Kelly. Pointless.
Bits and pieces:
— The address of Delio Enterprises (the opening sequence) was 666 Burrard Street. The number of the beast.
— Kelly combed his hair with holy water. I thought that was funny. Good character bit.
— Note from much later: Ian Tracey, who played Kelly, has a key continuing role in another of my favorite television series, Continuum.
— Johnny Kelly was the thirty-eighth evil immortal with a K/C name.
Betsy: "Joe, I have a confession."
Joe: "Are you going to tell me you actually liked the Monkees?"
Not what I'd call great, but it had its moments. Three stars,
Billie
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Billie Doux knows that there can be only one. And that's Methos.
I loved the music in the scene where Johnny sees his face plastered all over town. It, like the bumblebee song from Unusual Suspects was written especially for the episode.
ReplyDeleteAlways smile when I walk past 666 Burrard ��
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