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Highlander: The Road Not Taken

Kiem Sun: "Your conscience has been pricking me like a thorn in my side through the centuries."

Another not so good one. But even the bad episodes had something to say.

Immortals are like mortals, only more so. Good, bad, and all the variations in between. Except it seems that when an immortal goes down the wrong path, they just continue to get worse and worse, causing harm until another immortal stops them. Which Duncan didn't. If Kiem Sun was experimenting on and killing mortals with Fighting Potion Number Nine, and doing it for a very long time, how much worse would he have to be for Duncan to stop him? Yes, old friend, but still.

This episode also explored holy ground as an alternate lifestyle. Not all immortals are ready to spend their lives fighting to stay alive, and it appears that some choose permanent residence on holy ground instead. I certainly would.

The rest of this one was Duncan MacLeod, Immortal Detective, with Richie Ryan as his young, reckless sidekick who got in trouble and had to be rescued. Yawn. And it introduced an unfortunate plot device that always bothered me. One of Richie's friends was killed, and the trail led back to an immortal. How many immortals are there? If immortals are only a tiny percent of the population, a logical assumption, then what are the odds?

Flashbacks:

— 1780 China. Duncan said he'd known Kiem Sun a hundred years before that, too, in 1680.

— In the previous episode's flashbacks, Duncan's hair was very long and curly. Here, it was very long and straight. Did he get it ironed? Consistency, people, consistency.


— Duncan was also doing a pretty strong British accent. I don't think that was Adrian's own.

Bits and pieces:

— When Duncan fenced with Chu Lin, he used his left hand. Duncan is right-handed; he probably did it because Chu Lin was no challenge whatsoever for him. Like the wonderful duel in The Princess Bride.

— This one introduced a possible girlfriend for Richie: Angie from his old neighborhood, who worked at a shelter.

— Lots of talk about the Gathering.

— Tessa went on a brief trip to Paris. I didn't miss her. Stay in Paris, Tessa.

— Dan always loved the gorgeous long coats that Adrian Paul wore in this series. The long coats are for sword-hiding, of course.

One star,

Billie
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Billie Doux knows that there can be only one.

2 comments:

  1. Not a great episode, but the sword work between Adrian Paul and Dustin Nguyen in particular was a thing of beauty. According to Exec Prod Doug Panzer it was all their own work too, with no stunt workers, which is pretty cool.

    I think in these early episodes Duncan's clothes are much more romantic. Come Season 2 he's pretty much in jeans and t-shirts the whole time (no complaints!) but it just makes these flowing shirts and pants stand out more in the early episodes.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I wonder if the Princess Bride bit was deliberate?

    ReplyDelete

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