Case: "I've come to take your head."
Cimoli: "I'm still using it right now."
What if you're a brand new immortal and you don't have a kindly, seasoned immortal waiting in the wings to tell you the score and show you the ropes? Maybe if you were also a frustrated, unemployed magician and immortality made you a headliner, it would seem miraculous, like an answer to a prayer.
Unlike the terrible season one episode "Avenging Angel" that also featured an immortal that didn't know what he was, Danny Cimoli was at least an okay guy and somewhat likable. At first. The way he turned on Duncan made him a lot less sympathetic, although I doubt Danny would have gone through with it. In the end, like Claudia Jardine, Danny decided that a lifetime of battling scary guys with swords was not for him. Her decision was better informed, though; Danny didn't take it seriously. Maybe it was all just too unreal.
Duncan was right that, in immortal terms, Danny was a child. And immortality certainly does suck at times. Your choices are limited to the sword, the cloth, or an early death. Not everyone is cut out for either of those first two choices. Danny's immortal life was over pretty quickly. But at least he achieved his dream of headlining in Vegas.
Bad guy Damon Case wasn't like any other immortal we've encountered so far. He had a religious view of immortality, and considered it his holy mission to take out other immortals. Duncan respected Case's beliefs and only fought him to protect Danny. I didn't agree with Duncan in this case, pun intended. I think a loony religious fanatic is still a loony religious fanatic and a danger to everyone, no matter what he believes in.
Flashbacks:
— 1795 England. Duncan encountered Damon Case, a headhunter with a bizarre, religious viewpoint on immortality, who took out Duncan's friend Jean-Philippe. Like Danny Cimoli, Jean-Philippe didn't take the game seriously, and it got the better of him.
Bits and pieces:
— The circus (Diana Moreno Bormann) was the same one Amanda worked for in "The Lady and the Tiger."
— Duncan said that Houdini was a friend of his.
— Damon Case was the thirty-fourth evil immortal with a K/C name. I wonder if Damon Case thought he himself was destined to be "the one." Would that qualify as an immortal Jesus complex?
— I thought there was something possibly symbolic about Danny achieving his dream by dying over and over again in front of a crowd. Maybe some deeper meaning will occur to me later.
— Amanda left. The lure of Moscow was too much for her. What surprised me was that Duncan apparently went with her.
Quotes:
Danny: "You think it's easy taking a bullet twice a night, three shows on Saturday? You know how much that hurts?"
Amanda: "You do twenty-three shows a week? Do you get a piece of the gross?"
There's something wrong with the math there, but still funny. Maybe she was counting the matinees.
Three out of four stars,
Billie
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Billie Doux knows that there can be only one. And that's Methos.
I’ve been trying to figure out why I didn’t enjoy this episode and I think I got it. Like the Kenny episodes, it has that creepy horror show vibe along the lines of Chucky. You take something that is supposed to be fun and innocent - a circus or w chile - and twist it into something dark and frightening. I like horror movies but not that type.
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