HIGHLA-L Digest - 28 Feb 2004 to 1 Mar 2004 (#2004-43)
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Mon, 1 Mar 2004 22:00:02 -0500
There are 2 messages totalling 262 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Season Two dvds: Warmonger
2. PW's Touching Evil
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Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2004 10:23:37 -0500
From: kageorge <kageorge@erols.com>
Subject: Season Two dvds: Warmonger
It was pointed out to me that I had skipped this episode, which was
unintential and for which I apologize. Here it (belatedly) is:
COMMENTARY: David A. does the commentary on this episode, noting that it was
very interesting for him, and very personal. The guest star was named for
Abramowiz's father-in-law (Ely Jarmel), who was a lawyer on Bobby Kennedy's
Civil Rights Commission. He had died at the age of 46, and "was a great
man." The sympathetic and heroic character was created to honor his name.
This episode had a Talmudic question: How long do you have to keep a
promise, and how valid is that promise to someone who abuses it? MacLeod is
forced to break a promise, something that a man of honor is loathe to do.
Ely Jarmel tells him that it isn't Mac's honor he is struggling with, it is
his vanity. This is a recurring theme in DA's work (including the work in
HL), and is a line he "stole" and has used in other contexts, for which DA
requests BP and PD's forgiveness.
EXTRAS: An outtake is shown of Maurice entering the barge with a bottle of
wine, calling for MacLeod. He jovially says he wants to share the wine,
sitting on the back of the couch where Mac is stretched out. Then as Maurice
is delivering his line, he slides too far towards the front of the couch and
yells, "Ahhh," as he slides over the edge, his legs going up into the air.
AP breaks up laughing and you can hear the cast chortling. (NOTE: The
offstage directions to the cast were spoken in French.)
THE EPISODE: The episode opens with a prostitute seducing someone she calls
"her first President". It is apparent that the President has signed some
kind of peace agreement that day. A weasely looking character the President
calls "Drake" interrupts them. It is clear that Drake feels the peace pact
is a mistake, and he assassinates the President, framing the girl for the
murder, then killing her.
The next scene is in a beautiful opera house, where a blonde woman is
unsuccessfully trying to talk her way into "Mr. Drake's" box for the sold-ou
t ballet. She turns, bumping into Duncan, who offers her his spare ticket,
but she is more interested in seeing Drake, who has just entered the lobby.
Drake is (gasp!) an immortal, and as the woman, identifying herself as a
reporter, (Beth Vaughn) accosts him, peppering him questions about the
murder of the President and the investigation, both Immortals do the "look"
thing towards each other.
Duncan is standing on the stairs, watching, and behind him is an older man
in a trenchcoat, also watching. As Drake mounts the stairs, the older man
moves towards him, past Duncan, drawing a gun. As Duncan firmly holds the
man, surreptitiously preventing him from shooting the gun, Drake stops,
acknowledging Duncan. "Is it the ballet you've come to see, or me?" he asks.
"The ballet," Duncan responds cooly.
Drake looks at the old man, recognizing him, asking him "How's the family?"
Duncan and the old man have a quiet, tense conversation where Duncan tells
him he would be throwing his life away. Duncan tells him to go home, that
it's for his own good. Duncan interrupts a security guard manhandling the
reporter outside as she tries to reenter the building, and Duncan
"discourages" the guy. He tells her he's no longer interested in the ballet
and she inquires about his relationship with Drake. She tells him about her
interest in Drake, implying that he was responsible for the President's
assassination. He walks her to her door.
Duncan spots that he is being followed, and it's the old man wanting his gun
back. He is angry and takes Duncan to his apartment to show him why Drake
deserves to die. Long ago, in Romania, he had run a store there, living with
his wife and two sons (he shows Mac a picture). Drake and his secret police
came, and Ely joined the underground to resist them. Drake ended up hanging
Drake's wife and children in front of the store as an object lesson. Duncan
tells him he can't get involved, and that Ely shouldn't live in the past,
and that neither of them can stop Drake. As he leaves, Duncan finds two of
Drake's thugs entering Ely's building, and fights them off, warning them to
leave the old man alone.
Beth shows up at Duncan's barge as he is making notes on what appears to be
an oriental sculpture. She notes that the police have quite a file on him,
and he insists he's "not a story." She makes it clear that if Duncan doesn't
talk to her about Drake, she will do an investigation of him. Duncan tells
her he doesn't respond well to blackmail, so instead she tells him Drake has
invited Duncan and she to dinner. Duncan declines the invitation and walks
away from her, going up on the deck to split some firewood, which provides a
segue to...
FLASHBACK: Duncan and a great big guy are chopping wood in Russia. A woman
and her two children approach in a carriage. She used to be a countess, but
seems perfectly comfortable with now being a Comrade, inviting Duncan, Ivan
(the big guy) and Ivan's wife to dinner. It is clear Duncan and Katarina
Abernova are lovers. A car approaches, and after a brief struggle, the
Countess and her two children are taken away, arrested for an unknown
reason.
We find Drake in an office, examining diamonds scattered on his desk. He
feels an Immortal approach and pulls out a sword. Duncan enters, having
overcome Drake's guards. Duncan makes a deal, he will not fight Drake in
return for the lives of Katarina and her children. Drake says they are to be
killed as an example, and that it's too late. When asked why he's doing
this, Drake says, "I can't be king, so I might as well destroy the
monarchy." He expresses bitterness that "we who are best able to serve,
can't, forced to stand in the shadows and help fools seize the power that
should be ours. But when things get really bad, no one cares who you are,"
declaring his commitment to create world-wide chaos.
Drake is cool when Duncan puts his sword to Drake's neck while the Abernova
and her children are being put before a firing squad, insisting that Duncan
pledge never to fight him until they are the last two Immortals. After some
back-and-forth commentary and threats, Duncan swears. The Abernova's are
released and informed that their lands and possessions have been
confiscated, but Duncan slips them a pouch with Drake's diamonds in it,
which he has (evidently) stolen.
PRESENT DAY: The scene changes to the restaurant where Beth and Drake are
having dinner. Drake tells Beth that the vice president will be coming in
shortly, and that since the murder of the President took place at the
embassy, he will conduct the investigation. Drake feels an Immortal, and
Duncan arrives (looking fine in a double-breasted suit). They talk in veiled
innuendoes and threats, and Beth asks what the hostility is all about.
Duncan mentions a trade the two of them had made at one time. When Beth asks
what they were trading for Duncan says that it "doesn't matter now."
They leave the restaurant (either time has passed or it was a very short
meal), and Ely shoots Drake as he gets into the limo. The security guard
shoots Ely, who is critically wounded. Duncan visits him in the hospital,
and Ely tells him he did what he had to. But Ely sees in Duncan's face that
Drake is not dead. Duncan tells him that Drake is a hard man to kill, and
Ely says, "Then you kill him. There is no one else." When Duncan tells him
about the promise he made. "You think your word is your honor?" Ely asks.
"It is not about honor. This is about your pride, your vanity. Break your
word! It means nothing to him."
"I can't," Duncan insists. "It means a great deal to me." Ely tells him to
go to hell.
Beth tells Duncan that the girl accused of killing the president was a farm
girl with no connections to anyone, that she couldn't have been the
assassin, that it must've been Drake, asking Duncan what he was going to do,
but Duncan walks away.
Back at the embassy, Drake tries to convince the newly arrived Vice
President that their enemies killed the president, making insulting comments
about make a fool a president and he actually believes he is, then
apologizes. The VP gives him two days to prove his case before he signs the
peace accord. Drake tells the security minion that the "Vice President will
have to be replaced."
Drake and MacLeod meet at a cemetery, as a jewish funeral is taking place in
the background. Drake wants to make sure they "still have an understanding."
Drake makes it clear he cares nothing for mortals, but Duncan tells him he's
wrong. "They build the civilizations, they make the history, while we live
in the shadows killing each other. What have you ever created except chaos
and death?" Duncan asks.
"Maybe I'm not perfect," Drake replies casually, "but I'm good at my job."
Drake doesn't give a damn about Duncan's low opinion of him, but insists
that they do have an agreement he expects to be honored. Duncan gets in his
face and tells him to try not to run into him too often.
Duncan visits Ely at the hospital, bringing him the picture of his wife and
sons. Ely is still bitter, asking him to go and let him die in peace,
grieving that he had given family his word on their graves that he would not
let Drake keep killing, that he has failed. Duncan leans close and tells Ely
that Drake won't kill again. "You promise?" Ely asks. "For whatever it's
worth," Duncan answers.
"Good," Ely sighs, and dies.
Beth is forced into a car by Drake's guards and taken to the embassy. Beth
makes threats to expose Drake, and Drake tells her she will accompany him in
taking the president's body back to his country, then she can write whatever
she wants, with the clear implication that she will by then be dead. They
drug her and drag her and take her to Drake's private plane as Drake
instructs his goons to arrest the vice president for the murder of the
president, cancelling the peace talks.
Duncan comes over the rooftops to break into the embassy, putting a strangle
hold on Drake's #1 goon to find out where Drake is. He arrives at the
airport right after Drake, who feels him approach and tells his minions to
wait as he meets Duncan in a nearby hangar. They don't really show the Q,
just lights flashing inside the hangar as the airplane's pilot and bad guy
stare curiously.
A stumbling figure in Drake's coat and hat approach from the hangar, going
inside the plane. Goon #2 comes flying out the hatch, and a moment later
Duncan appears helping an unsteady Beth down the stairs.
Back at the barge, obviously a day or two later, Duncan is reading Beth's
story on Drake's exposure, but Beth is glum because Drake appeared to have
gotten away. Duncan tells her justice can sometimes come when it's least
expected, and sometimes not in a newspaper. When Beth asks if he really
thinks Drake will get what's coming to him, he answers, "Perhaps he already
has." Beth cocks a smile at Duncan as he pours some wine, figuring out
there's something he's not telling her, but he refuses to elaborate.
Beth asks when she is going to get to know him, and he says she already
knows him. "I mean... in the biblical sense," she explains. They kiss. "Am I
coming on too strong?" she asks.
Duncan puts the glass down a little hard, looking a little nonplussed. "No,"
he says, at last. "It's about right."
More kissing. Fade to black.
COMMENTARY: I had long ago decided I didn't much care for this episode, but
seeing it again now, I have a greater appreciation for it. This is the first
of many times we see Duncan re-visit long-established "rules" by which he
lived his life, finding them less valid than they had been in the past, and
becoming more flexible in his interpretation of his own life and his own
past. Ely's very real disgust with his insistence that his adherence to his
promise in the face of what Drake was, was only pride and vanity, clearly
influenced his ultimate decision to discard that commitment, that honor was
not served by clinging to old vows that no longer had meaning.
One of Duncan's greatest strengths - his tremendous will and determination
to do what he thinks is right, no matter what - is also a great weakness
*unless* he is prepared to truly look into his heart to examine his own
motives and beliefs about right and wrong. I think Duncan had been
complacent for a long time about those issues. Whether it was the heating up
of the Gathering, or Darius' death, or the combination of Tessa's death and
all the other tragedies that seemed to be piling one on top of the other,
Duncan's rather neat little set of guidelines about how to live his life
have started to crumble under the pressure. Fortunately, he has the
fortitude to confront them and change them when he feels he must. It's not
easy. He's not a man who easily admits he was wrong, but he can, and does
when the evidence is clear.
I liked the bad guy (Drake) in this story. He was so smugly, comfortably
bad. He felt that, as an Immortal, he had an obligation to no one but
himself, and didn't give a damn about mortals at all.
Ely was well played, but I wish we had seen more of him than in his
overwhelming bitterness. I felt there was a lot more to that character that
we never got to see.
Beth - well, I can't say I liked her very much. She came across as a bit of
a bubble head, but was also supposed to be this hard-hitting, relentless
investigative reporter, and the two images never quite jelled for me. I have
to say, though, that while her very direct come-on to Duncan at the end was
consistent with her "hard-hitting reporter" persona, it just didn't seem to
fit the scene very well, so I didn't much care for the ending.
MacGeorge
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Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2004 09:08:25 -1000
From: MacWestie <mac.westie@verizon.net>
Subject: PW's Touching Evil
TV Guide's Matt Roush reviews Touching Evil, USA Network's new series
starting this month. Peter Wingfield is in the pilot & the 1st few
episodes.
http://www.tvguide.com/tv/roush/review/
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End of HIGHLA-L Digest - 28 Feb 2004 to 1 Mar 2004 (#2004-43)
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