Young Duncan: "You will win because you're good. And good always wins over evil."
Leaving aside the fact that I don't like magic on Highlander, Tracy Scoggins' affected British accent has always made me cringe, and you just know throughout that the answer to defeating Kantos would be earplugs, this wasn't such a bad episode. But prophecy, shmophecy. It didn't make sense that it would take four hundred years and a special prophecy for Duncan to take out yet another bad immortal.
You know, that's a lot of negatives to start a review with. Maybe I don't like this episode much, after all.
The boy who played Duncan at thirteen didn't look a great deal like Adrian Paul and he had such an obvious present-day haircut, but I did like the idea of present-day Duncan talking with his thirteen-year-old self. (I chose to take that as Cassandra's advent making Duncan reconnect with his childhood, not as magic.) I also liked that it wasn't Duncan's physical strength that defeated Kantos – it was his experience and intelligence. His younger self was impressed with his older self. The four-hundred-year-old Duncan has come a long way, baby.
Bad English accent and stupid "voice" aside, Tracy Scoggins wasn't so bad. She has enormous, exotic green eyes, and she got to wear some jaw-dropping outfits, so she actually looked the part of a mysterious, witchy immortal. And I also liked that Duncan finally got to consummate a four-hundred year old adolescent crush. That ending was surprisingly sexy, and did a lot to make this episode more palatable.
Flashbacks:
— 1606 Glenfinnan and Donan Wood, Scotland: Cassandra turned herself into a wolf? Come on. And how come Duncan's mother was able to resist Kantos' suggestions? A mother's love? The most interesting bit in this flashback was Cassandra kissing thirteen-year-old Duncan like an adult. Although I'm certain there wasn't any tongue.
— Duncan's playmate was his cousin Robert, the one he fought and killed in the fourth season episode, "Homeland." Even at thirteen, they were obviously both obsessed with Deborah Campbell.
Bits and pieces:
— We're back in Seacouver, and at the dojo. It looks like business has suffered while Duncan was in Paris.
— Duncan's father's name was Ian. I don't think we knew that.
— Note the extreme Dennis Berry trademark fog during the Donan Wood sequences.
— Roland Kantos was the thirty-fifth evil immortal with a K/C name.
Two out of four stars,
Billie
---
Billie Doux knows that there can be only one. And that's Methos.
I am from the United Kingdom and I and all my friends thought she was too. In fact, one friend fro m the states said,"She did a very good American accent on Dynasty.
ReplyDeleteHugo
This one felt like it needed a bigger 2 part stort to pull off.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite part is Duncan's mother resisting Kantos' mental power.
I don’t understand why you have a problem with the presence of sorcery and prophecy in a series which features immortality and soul-transference so prominently. Every episode of this show features some kind of magic. I couldn’t understand why you’d had a problem with the presence of enchanted crystals in previous episodes either, given the fantastical nature of the show’s central premise.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, I'm more of a hard science fiction fan. There's a balance with fantasy that a show or movie has to achieve to make me suspend belief.
DeleteAccepting that there are immortals and a whole secret culture built around them is one thing -- it is near science fiction because it could be possible. But things like magic crystals move the show into the bibbity-bobbity-boo arena and it never fails to make me groan and wish they wouldn't do that.
That's just me. Everyone's mileage varies. If it works for you, it works for you.