HIGHLA-L Digest - 12 Feb 2004 to 14 Feb 2004 (#2004-33)
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Sat, 14 Feb 2004 22:00:02 -0500
There is one message totalling 175 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Season Two dvd commentary: Unholy Alliance I
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Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2004 12:16:38 -0500
From: kageorge <kageorge@erols.com>
Subject: Season Two dvd commentary: Unholy Alliance I
COMMENTARY: David Abramowitz says he liked this episode a lot because it was
a strong action/adventure ep, and it brought back Xavier St. Cloud, who had
lost his hand. It posed the question as to whether the hand regenerates. The
writers sat around for hours talking about it before they decided that
Immortals could heal, but not regenerate severed limbs. He commented about
the general 'rules' of the HL universe, saying they kind of made them up as
they went along, like life. He said they tried their best to be consistent
because they didn't want to ever be accused of "cheating" (meaning violating
their own rules, I guess).
The episode also created tension between Joe and Mac, which DA thought was a
"very good thing", giving Joe his own agenda and view of the world, making
him more than a sidekick and solidifying what the view of the Watchers
really were.
EPISODE: (Note: There is a lot of story description in this post. I went
back and tried to cut, but the complexity of the story is part of the
dramatic tension that develops between Joe and Mac, and which is, IMO, the
primary interest of this episode. So, for those of you not interesting in
reading a rehash of what happened, too bad. <g>) The episode opens with two
killings, seriatim, both of Immortals who are first gunned down by masked
mortal gunman, then beheaded by Xavier St. Cloud. Then we see Horton
identifying MacLeod on a television monitor to another man, giving us the
clue that he is somehow involved, and they are now after DM.
The next scene is of Charlie and Mac touring a ship museum, but Mac gets
suspicious about someone following them. Turns out to be Richard Davis, an
old mercenary buddy of Charlie's, but Mac is not convinced the guy wasn't a
threat, and *we* know it was the same man Horton had been talking to.
Joe Dawson comes to see Mac and tells him about the killings, one of whom as
an old friend of Mac's, and that they were set up by mortals, but they
hadn't identified the Immortal involved, and tells Mac to watch himself.
[SIDEBAR COMMENT: As the episode continues, Joe continuously denies knowing
Horton was alive, but once that lie becomes apparent, he denies knowing that
Horton was involved in these killings. But if that was true, why did Joe
specifically warn MacLeod about these killings which had taken place in
Paris and New York, far away from Seacouver and not involving anyone Mac was
close to? Methinks Joe *always* knew it might be Horton, but either wasn't
certain enough, or didn't have the courage to confront Horton about it.]
There is an amusing flashback to when Duncan is teaching some young clan
chieftain's son chess. The boy's father has hired DM to train him in the art
of war. DM talks about "unbreakable rules" when it comes to battle, and
tells the boy that while men may fight for him as clan chieftain, if they
love him, then they will die for him, the lesson being that he must be a
trustworthy leader. Then another (verrry French) Immortal comes along,
challenges Duncan and when the boy won't go away, Duncan yells at him,
saying "I spoke of unbreakable rules, and this is one of them. Our fight is
one on one. *No one* can interfere." When the boy objects, DM simply knocks
him unconscious.
[SIDEBAR: Duncan is carrying a standard broadsword instead of his
basket-hilt claymore that he carried after Culloden. There's also a canon
implication here - that after Duncan left Connor, he returned to the
Highlands, at least for a time. The Watcher Chronicle with the dvd says the
incident occurred in 1670.]
After Joe's visit, Duncan goes down to the dojo to tell Charlie he's going
to be gone for awhile, and Charlie is frustrated when DM is mysterious about
where he is going. Then Xavier walks in, all smooth and oily. He and Duncan
exchange a few words when Duncan spots the gunman, yelling at Charlie to
run, and they dive into the office. Two guys blast the place with automatic
fire, but Duncan reaches a fire alarm, and the bad guys take off. Charlie is
frustrated when Duncan doesn't give the police all the information to catch
the guys, and wants to help find out who ruined the dojo. They go visit
Richard Davis in his apartment, finding him dead.
Ah, now we have the introduction of Renee Delany, who accosts DM in a
parking lot, complete with southern accent, "big hair," and dressed in a
tight black dress and a fake leopard skin coat, looking like major trailer
trash. She claims to have a car that won't start and asks DM to "do the guy
thang". He seems intrigued and amused, and ends up driving her to her
apartment, and they are laughing and talking together as he carries in her
stuff, pausing when he hears her draw a gun. She demands to know why he
killed Davis, but DM turns the tables on her, and they do some verbal
sparring that sets the stage for a relationship that is simultaneously
flirtatious and antagonistic.
Joe introduces Mac to a fellow Watcher named Barton who knows where Xavier
can be found, giving Mac an address. Turns out Barton works for Horton, and
it's all a setup to get MacLeod, who slides into an empty warehouse from a
skylight, neatly taking out several bad guys, but is surprised to be
followed by Charlie, who (again) insists in being in on the action. They
argue, and eventually Mac knocks him out and drags him into a side hallway.
[SIDEBAR: That's twice in one episode he's cold-cocked somebody who was
about to see an Immortal battle. The guy needs a better technique!]
Xavier appears, they start to fight, (with Mac deliberately holding one arm
behind his back in order to be fair - Whatta guy!). Then Horton comes in on
a catwalk and Charlie comes back through the door, witnessing part of the
fight. Horton shoots Mac several times in the chest and Mac goes down.
Xavier is about to take the final blow, and Charlie moves to intervene.
Horton shoots Charlie several times, and Mac, dying, falls down an elevator
shaft. Xavier and Horton escape as Renee Delaney and her crew rushes in,
finding Charlie alive but in bad shape, with no sign of MacLeod.
Joe shows up at the hospital, where Charlie is in critical condition, saying
he's sorry, but Mac gets in his face, accusing Joe of setting him up, saying
Xavier was waiting for him, "And so was Horton!" Joe says that was
impossible, that Horton was dead, and that Mac was seeing things. Mac
insists Joe is lying, and their tense nose-to-nose tete a tete is broken up
by a security guard.
Mac goes to Horton's family crypt and uses a sledge hammer to bust it in.
[SIDEBAR: There is a nice, dramatic, rhythmic counterpoint to each blow,
showing Mac's tragic history with Horton.]
The crypt is empty, and Horton then walks in behind MacLeod, declaring the
protection of Holy Ground when MacLeod nearly kills him on the spot. Horton
says Mac and his kind are an abomination, and that he is "the man you can't
kill." He tells Mac he is using Xavier to get to MacLeod. "Rather an unholy
alliance, wouldn't you say?" Mac asks how much Dawson knows, and Horton
answers, "We're family." Then Horton disappears. [Great, tense scene.]
Mac follows Dawson to the docks, and watches him get on a boat, meeting
Horton. Mac runs towards it, but they cast off and speed away. Renee is
waiting near Mac's car, wanting to know why Mac is always one step ahead of
him, who he's working for. She says, "You can't do this by yourself." He
answers, "I can't do it another way." He pulls a part out of the engine of
her car, hands it to her and says, "Don't follow me again."
Mac waits for Joe at Joe's house, watching as he laboriously climbs the
steps. He steps out of the shadows, asking, "How's Horton? You remember
Horton?" he insists bitterly. "The man who was dead and buried?" Dawson
calmly says he knew Mac would come, that he never worked with Horton, that
he made sure Horton was through with the Watchers, he was an outcast. Mac
insists on knowing why Joe didn't tell him, and Joe says it was because he
knew Mac would kill him. "Don't you think he deserved it?" Mac growls. But
Joe talks about how he'd known him for 25 years, he was family, and he
couldn't just let him die. "And you lied to me about that," Mac snarls.
When Mac describes the relationship between Xavier and Horton. Joe swears he
didn't know. "And what would you have done if you did?" Mac asks, but Joe
doesn't have an answer. "The next time I see you will be the last time," Mac
declares coldly, and walks away.
MY COMMENTARY: This is an important episode, both canonically and especially
in the relationship between Joe and Mac. At the end of it, Mac is convinced
that Joe can't be trusted. The disappointment and sense of betrayal is
palpable, especially since Charlie almost got killed as a result, and at
least two Immortals had been murdered. Duncan is intensely loyal to his
friends and he had begun to think of Joe as a real friend. As for Dawson, he
really has screwed up, IMO. He had to have known something was going on, at
*least* subconsciously. We do know that, like Mac, Joe is loyal to a fault,
sometimes blindly and in this instance, fatally blindly.
I think Horton is a great villain, full of that fire of righteous, insane
arrogance at the right moments, and smoothly suave the next. And Xavier is
pretty good as a bad guy, too, easy on the eye in a creepy kind of way. I
wish they'd done a better job with the severed hand, but I supposed the
length is always a problem.
What to say about Renee? Well, I liked her better than I remembered, and she
and Duncan had some nice moments contrasting sexual tension and very real
anger and irritation. You got a solid sense that he liked her gumption and
her playacting and her humor and her intelligence, but they were *so* never
going to have a relationship because of who and what she was, and who and
what he was.
MacGeorge
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End of HIGHLA-L Digest - 12 Feb 2004 to 14 Feb 2004 (#2004-33)
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