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5.16 Forgive Us Our Trespasses Keane: "What happened to your friend?" Duncan: "It's Tuesday. He doesn't take heads on Tuesday." Interesting twist on the standard Highlander episode. Evil immortal blows into town, big battle, Duncan takes him out. But this time, it was reversed. Duncan was the bad guy. And fortunately, nobody died. A long time ago, after Culloden, Duncan deliberately hunted down, challenged and killed a man who had caused the deaths of countless innocents. And Duncan threatened and terrified a child, which was very unlike him. He didn't have innocents killed, though, as Rosemont did. Duncan went over the line, but only a toe. People change, and even good people make mistakes, especially in war. As Methos so wisely said (he must have been channeling Darius), "We are all both. Good and evil. We have rage and compassion. We have love and hate, murder and forgiveness. Why don't you try forgiving yourself for once?" Bringing in the death of Sean Burns was an inspired plot point, because how could Duncan explain that one away? Killing not one but two of Keane's friends made Duncan look pretty dark. And it was enough to make it believable that Duncan would feel guilty enough to consider letting another immortal kill him. This strong dramatic episode was effectively lightened by Amanda's frantic attempts to save Duncan from himself. I absolutely loved Amanda barging in on Methos in the middle of the night and enlisting him in her cause (with the extra added bonus of Peter Wingfield answering the door wearing only a pair of boxer shorts and a sword). And the many scenes in the Luxembourg Gardens were great. Methos even dueled Keane to save Duncan. Not that it made a difference. Or did it? Was Amanda wrong about Duncan's state of mind? Or did her meddling with Methos just delay the inevitable long enough for Duncan to get his head around the problem, pun intended? Flashbacks: -- 1746 England: Steven Keane and the Earl of Rosemont talked about the Earl "making a mark" by slaughtering civilians in order to keep the Scots from rising again. Rosemont wanted to save his sons from fighting the same war. Doesn't make it anywhere near the right thing to do. -- 1746 Scotland: Duncan experienced the results of Rosemont's policy change and took revenge. -- 1779 England: The saintly Sean Burns told his friend Keane to let go of his obsession with tracking and killing Duncan MacLeod. And it worked, for awhile. -- There were clips from several previous episodes: "Through a Glass Darkly," "Deliverance," and "Till Death." Bits and pieces: -- Amanda was way too inept trying to take Keane out in the teaser. Tell me again how she's managed to stay alive for 1,100 years? -- Was this only the second time we got a glimpse of Methos' apartment? Of course, not the same one. But it was delightfully weird. A computer, a bed on the floor, and several bizarre old objects. And is it me, but do Methos and Amanda have some romantic chemistry? -- Loved the Luxembourg Gardens. Beautiful location. The Paris episodes always looked the best. -- In the flashback, Duncan shot Keane to get to Rosemont, which was breaking the rules and, again, unlike him. And in the gardens, Methos shot Duncan in the back to save him. "You are such a pain in the ass." -- Yet another French cop. I don't think we got her name this time. -- Methos told Amanda that he was no longer working for the Watchers. -- Steven Keane had a K/C name. But he wasn't a bad guy, so he doesn't count. Quotes: Old woman: "God will make him pay for this." Duncan: "He'll not have to wait for God." Amanda: "You are the best man I know. You make people better. People like me. People who didn't give a damn about anything in their whole lives until you came along with your big brown eyes and your boy scout rules..." Methos: "Scholarly interest. I just came by to watch the perfect immortal die." Intelligent, well-executed story with depth. And about a thousand times better episode about Culloden than "Through a Glass Darkly." Four stars, Billie View all comments or post a comment. |
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