Highlander: Till Death

Robert: "Just give me a jab. Not too deep."
Methos: "Where's your sense of drama?"

As John Barrymore was rumored to have said when he was dying, "Dying is easy. Comedy is hard." Highlander, best known for adventure and drama, managed to pull out some truly wonderful comic episodes in its last three seasons. This has always been one of my favorites.

Let's start with the flashbacks. Fitz was one of my favorite immortals. Roger Daltrey and Adrian Paul had exceptional acting chemistry; they just felt like best friends, right from the start. Watching them do a scene together always makes me smile. They could even pull off slapstick, like getting stuck in the same door together. They made it look easy. This stuff is not easy.

Duncan and Fitz were funny. The whole thing with Duncan and Methos and the barge was funnier. Duncan's friendship with Methos was completely different from his friendship with Fitz. Methos really didn't want to help Duncan with his romantic scheme to get the de Valicourts back together, but he did it anyway, for Duncan's sake. And he never intended to keep the barge; he just wanted to give Duncan a hard time. So Methos has a fun side. But like everything else about Methos, it has a bit of an edge, doesn't it?

Gina and Robert were fun, even though their marital problems were just an excuse for the episode. I liked the idea of them remarrying every hundred years. Although if they were driving each other nuts, why didn't they just take long, separate vacations every now and then? There's a good reason why Amanda isn't around all the time; she and Duncan would end up at each other's throats. I can't imagine being married to the same person for three hundred freaking years, no matter how wonderful they were.

Flashbacks:

— 1921 France. Our introduction to Robert and Gina de Valicourt, who livened up their extremely long marriage with sexy role-playing games.

— 1696 France. Duncan and Fitz were both in love with Gina. Then she met Robert, and it was love at first sight.

— 1796 France. Duncan, Fitz and Gina in drag rescued Robert from the guillotine. (I think if I were an immortal, I'd have stayed out of France during that period. They were beheading every Tom, Dick and Harry.) It was fun to see Sean Burns at Gina and Robert's 100th anniversary party. I guess Duncan didn't meet Sean in 1917, then.

Bits and pieces:

— Methos revealed that he had been married sixty-eight times, but never to another immortal. That tantalizing little tidbit must have been the source of much fan fiction.

— Methos lost his apartment and had nowhere to live.

— At one point, Fitz said, "The only thing that will stop me is a blade." That was a poignant note in an otherwise upbeat episode.

— Jeremy Brudenell (Robert) also played the evil white-haired immortal Nicholas Ward in season two's wretched episode, "The Vampire."

— Robert called Methos "Pierson."

— Methos criticized Duncan's collection of opera. He wanted Springsteen and Queen.

— The light classical score reminded me of Bugs Bunny cartoons.

Quotes:

Fitz: "I don't quite know what you'd do without me, MacLeod."
Duncan: "I can but dream."

Duncan: "Is there any chance she'll change her mind?"
Robert: "She divided up the record collection."
Duncan: "The vinyl. Whoa. She's leaving."

Duncan: "Gina, give Robert another chance."
Gina: "He's had a thousand chances, Duncan. I gave that man the best centuries of my life."

Methos: "I've crossed the Atlantic to Iceland with a bunch of Irish monks. 765. Six of us in a rowboat, no facilities."
Rowboat? They crossed the Atlantic in a rowboat in 765? Was Methos exaggerating for effect, perhaps?

Methos: "You think I'll feel guilty when I say no? You're wasting your time. I haven't felt guilty since the eleventh century." I really, really believe that.

Duncan: "You better make it look good."
Methos: "Like you say, darling, I'm an actor."

Four out of four stars,

Billie
---
Billie Doux knows that there can be only one. And that's Methos.

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