HIGHLA-L Digest - 16 Oct 2004 to 17 Oct 2004 (#2004-190)
Automatic digest processor (LISTSERV@lists.psu.edu)
Sun, 17 Oct 2004 22:00:06 -0400
There are 3 messages totalling 366 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. HL Store and seasons 5 & 6, was Re: Source Material
2. Season 5 dvd Commentary: The Messenger
3. Messenger addendum
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Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2004 11:41:17 -0600
From: Firefly <airedale@northerntel.net>
Subject: HL Store and seasons 5 & 6, was Re: Source Material
At 09:19 AM 10/16/2004, Wendy Tillis wrote:
>BTW: The Highlander Store is now selling seasons 5 and 6 for $39.99 each
>and free shipping -until the 20th.
How's the quality? I bought season 1 from them, didn't have time to watch
until well after I could return them, only to find out that most of the
DVDs were screwed up. I haven't had any problems with the ones I've ordered
through DeepDiscountDVD.
Barbara
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Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2004 20:27:39 -0400
From: kageorge <kageorge@erols.com>
Subject: Season 5 dvd Commentary: The Messenger
Commentary w/screen captures at:
http://www.wordsmiths.net/MacGeorge/episodes/Season5/Messenger.htm
COMMENTARY: David A. says he was very excited about this story about a
pacifist Immortal who would live his life as a lie to promote his
pacifist ideal, and because Methos was a legendary character among
Immortals, what better identity to use? David thought Ron Perlman was an
actor of great presence and stature and was excited to have him play the
part of the fake Methos. Unfortunately, David was quite disappointed in
Perlman’s performance, feeling it wasn’t up to his usual standard. He
also didn’t care for the character of Culbraith in the present, and how
they dressed him in a safari suit. “It lessened the impact of what I
thought the episode was going to say.”
Gillian notes that, up until that point in the series, the Methos we
knew had never had a flashback, so the possibility still existed that
“our” Methos was fake, a guy just calling himself Methos. She liked the
notion that we could have been acquainted with a character for years,
and suddenly discovered that everything you believed about him was a lie.
Adrian says that “everything in us affects the decisions we make,” and
the moment when MacLeod couldn’t save Jeffrey affected MacLeod’s
reaction to Richie’s situation, ultimately leading him to give Richie
the tools to do what was necessary. MacLeod lived by a code of honor and
ethics, but that we all change our minds from time to time, given the
individual circumstances.
David A. asks whether, if the message is good, does it matter that the
messenger is dishonest? It is about what is said, or about who is saying
it? “Could you get Yoda elected President?”
OUTTAKES: We see the scene in the dojo office, where Methos tells Joe
and Duncan about the guy who gets tortured by the Inquisition. At the
end of the scene, Joe says, “Well have one on me,” and pours a drink
over Methos’ head. He jumps up and yells, “What the hell was that for!?”
Joe tells him it was a demonstration of an “unforeseen di-lemma.” Peter
wipes his hands over his head, glares at Joe/Jim, and mouths “f**k you.”
The director yells (loudly) “CUT!” as the crew laughs. Then we see a
second take of the same set of lines, but this time w/o the obscenity.
Gillian tells us that a longer version of the scene where Richie learns
Methos’ real identity contains definitive answers to some issues that
they later chose to leave ambiguous, and that the scene never ended the
same way twice. What I guess she is talking about was that in the
outtake, Methos says he “used to be Adam Pierson” but that he gave up
that identity. (In the aired episodes, it isn’t quite clear when (or if)
Methos gave up the “Adam Pierson” identity.) A number of amusing lines
demonstrating Richie’s dubiousness that “Adam Pierson” was the real
Methos were cut from the aired scene, but then at the end of the scene,
when first Richie, then Duncan, then Joe depart, leaving Methos alone at
the bar, first he sighs and says maybe he’ll go buy some socks (that’s
the one that got aired); then in the second take he looks around at the
empty bar and mutters, “Can I get credit in this bar, still?” then leans
over the bar like he’s reaching for a drink; and the third time he leans
his head on his hand and smiles and says, “I guess it just leaves me and
the crew,” which breaks everybody up.
After a completely meaningless outtake about Richie’s fight with
Culbraith, they show how Richie’s Quickening was put together by him
acting out the Q, waving his arms and bobbing around against a blue
screen with the sound and background effects of scenes from
Andersonville added later. In my opinion, this was the most awkward Q in
the series. Stan just didn’t have the technique down and looked very
uncomfortable with the whole thing. In further demonstration of that
fact, an alternate version with the same arm flapping, grimacing Stan
Kirsch is shown (and Gillian and Donna L. have shown the alternate
version at cons to give everyone a chuckle), but the background is ocean
surf, and the song “Wipe Out” is playing. Pretty silly and just a tad
cruel, but funny.
THE EPISODE: Teaser: Richie is driving along on his motorcycle at night,
stopping at an “E-Z Store” lot for an unknown reason, which (big
surprise) is not open. Out of the fog strolls a big guy in a trench coat
and Richie pulls his sword. The guy tells him not to be afraid, that he
just wants to talk about peace, that he stopped taking heads a long time
ago and isn’t armed. Richie isn’t having any of it, but the guy tells
him to imagine that all Immortals might live in peace, and when Richie
asks him who he is, he says he is the oldest Immortal, Methos. He goes
down on his knees and offers his head to Richie, saying he can take his
head, or he can listen to what he has to say.
Duncan is at the docks, looking at a small yacht for sale when he feels
another Immortal, recognizes him, and we get a flashback to 1864 and the
Civil War, where in a voiceover, we learn that Duncan had been part of
the underground railroad, taking slaves north to freedom. He was trying
to get his friend Jeffrey through the Confederate lines to join his
fiancé, who Duncan had already taken north. They are attacked, Jeffrey
tries to protect Duncan and gets shot in the leg. They are taken to
Andersonville prison, where Duncan promises to get a doctor for Jeffrey
to look at his leg, which has become infected.
Turns out the head of the prison is William Culbraith, the Immortal in
question, who initially seems not so bad, although he is a brutal
disciplinarian to keep control of the prison population with too few
guards and too few supplies to keep his own men fed and cared for, much
less the prisoners. Culbraith is sick of war and is longing for his wife
and adopted children, but he feels he is doing his duty and can’t afford
mercy.
In the present, Duncan challenges Culbraith and is about to take his
head when Richie runs up, yelling at him not to do it. Duncan pauses
long enough for the guy to roll off the dock into the water and escape.
Duncan is pissed, but Richie is unrepentant, saying the fighting has got
to stop, that “we can end it.”
We switch back to Andersonville, where Jeffrey’s leg has gotten gangrene
and needs to be amputated to save his life. After a long night, with
Jeffrey shivering and ill and Duncan caring for him, in the morning,
Duncan is waiting impatiently outside Culbraith’s office when a dispatch
arrives, letting Culbraith know that Culbraith’s wife and children had
been killed. Culbraith then denies Duncan’s request for a surgeon.
“Agony is what this war is all about,” he answers coldly.
Duncan sits holding Jeffrey as he suffers until Jeffrey finally begs him
to end the pain. Finally, weeping, Duncan carefully but forcefully snaps
Jeffrey’s neck.
Richie tries to tell Duncan that Culbraith was probably doing what he
felt he had to do, and Duncan doesn’t know what made him like he was.
“You’re right,” Duncan answers. “I don’t. And I don’t care.”
“But Mac, evil only exists because of fear. That’s what Methos is
talking about,” says Richie. That gets Duncan’s attention, who gives
Richie an especially dubious look when Richie tells him, “Listening to
him is like listening to some kind of saint.”
Up in the loft, lo and behold, who is lounging on Duncan’s bed but ‘our’
Methos. Duncan says he thought M. was out wandering the world. “Mmm.
Tibet. Yak butter plays hell with the digestion,” Methos mutters.
“Besides, I’ve had all the enlightenment I could use.”
Duncan says he should have kept all the “crock” he’d been feeding Richie
to himself, and Methos realizes that the “other Methos” must be in town.
He’s never met the guy, but heard rumors that someone had been using
Methos’ name, spreading the message of peace, and that if “he wants to
play Methos, let him,” and says that “Imitation is the sincerest form of
flattery.” Duncan insists that Methos try to convince Richie the other
Methos is a fraud.
At Joe’s, Richie is dubious that the unimpressive “Adam Pierson” is
Methos, but says it doesn’t matter, that is isn’t the messenger that is
important, it’s the message. Duncan says that message will get him killed.
We see Culbraith at the docks as he is visited by the Other Methos
attempting to deliver his message of peace. They are interrupted by
MacLeod, hunting for Culbraith. OM asks him to put up his sword, that
it’s what Darius would have wanted. Duncan says the OM isn’t Darius, and
even if OM convinced all but one Immortal to put down his/her sword, all
it would take was one to break the peace. “Will you be that one,
MacLeod?” OM asks gently, and puts himself in between Duncan and
Culbraith. Duncan frowns at him, but then leaves. OM then urges
Culbraith to “choose peace,” and walks away.
OM is planting flowers in a garden when Methos arrives, looking bemused.
Methos says he was always told that Methos was a myth, and asks him if
he was a friend of Socrates, and that he’d always wondered what
Cleopatra was really like. OM answers enigmatically, and Methos draws
his sword and comments that OM seems very vulnerable, that a lot of
people might want the head of a 5,000-year-old man.
“A lot of people might want to listen to a 5,000 year old man,” OM answers.
Methos notes that in all that time, he must’ve gained a lot of
“knowledge, wisdom, that sort of thing?” OM says his beliefs are very
simple, that there’s no such thing as evil, only fear. Methos asks him,
“So Genghis Khan and Hitler were just children playing up?”
“They were men driven by fear to commit evil acts,” OM replies, but
Methos only comments that if their mothers had truly loved them, it
would have been a different world. He asks if OM thinks they can really
end the Game. “I think it’s worth trying,” OM answers.
“Even if it costs you your head?” Methos asks, briefly moving his sword
to OM’s throat.
“Can anyone live for 5,000 years and say they did nothing?” OM asks,
standing up. “Risked nothing? Merely stayed alive? It’d be pointless.”
Methos smiles. “Some might think that experience was worth saving.”
“I’m not one of them,” OM responds. “But we can talk about it.” Methos
casually says he’s got a prior engagement and walks away, slipping his
sword back into his coat. OM says he didn’t catch Methos’ name, but
Methos never gives it to him.
Back at the bar, Methos is deriding OM. “A little pathos, a little pop
psychology, the guy is either delusional or he’s a fraud, and you,” he
accuses MacLeod, “are buying it! What’s next? Friendship rings, the Love
Boat?” But Duncan says he hasn’t bought anything, that OM just made him
think. “Oooo,” Methos sing-songs, then warns him not to think too much,
that they can’t afford another one “on the list.”
Joe says he did some “checking on this Methos flake,” then looks at
Methos and adds, “the other one,” and that there’s a trail of dead
Immortals being left in OM’s wake, that they are suckered into putting
down their swords and the next Immortal they meet whacks him.
Duncan and Richie chat on the steps of a church were Richie says he
wants OM to be right, that he doesn’t like killing, and that change has
got to start somewhere. Duncan insists that they have no choice in the
way they live, that, “There’s a lot of evil out there, Richie. It’s up
to people who can to stop it, and if we don’t, if we do nothing, then
evil wins.” Richie says he respects Duncan more than anyone he’s ever
known, but that he has to make his own decision.
Richie meets OM, and tells him giving up his sword goes against
everything he was taught, then OM gives a speech about how we always do
what we’re taught. When Richie asks him if he’s afraid to fight, OM
urges Richie to attack him, and when Richie finally does, OM easily
throws him to the ground. Then he urges Richie to attack him with his
sword, and in one move OM disams him, saying it isn’t that he won’t
fight, it’s that he refuses to kill.
Richie goes to the loft and gives Duncan his sword. Duncan is
distressed, but lets him go.
Culbraith visits OM at the garden, saying he’d thought about what OM had
told him. OM tells him he knows Culbraith can change. “If I wanted to,”
Culbraith answers, “and I don’t,” moving his sword to OM’s throat. OM
says it’s a mistake, that he had looked into Culbraith’s heart and
reached him. But Culbraith is only after the head of Methos. OM kneels
before him, saying he doesn’t believe he was wrong in his judgment of
Culbraith, that he would kill an unarmed man. “Believe,” Culbraith
answers, and takes his head.
Duncan, Methos and Joe are hanging out in Duncan’s dojo office, with
Methos snidely commenting on Richie being OM’s newest disciple. When Joe
asks what he would do, Methos replies that his standard response was to
do nothing. Joe says he thinks he liked the other Methos better. “You
asked!” Methos comments irritably, and heads for the men’s room.
“Is it just me, or is this guy really being a jerk!” Joe calls out after
him.
Duncan says it’s Richie’s decision, that he taught him how to survive
and that what he does with it is up to him, that it’s about integrity.
Joe says that it is a mistake that will cost Richie his life.
Richie finds Culbraith sitting in OM’s chair in the garden, thinking
that he is also one of OM’s followers, but Culbraith draws a sword on
him. Richie tries to convince Culbraith to not fight while dodging
Culbraith’s attack.
Methos comes back from the loo, talking about some guy tortured in the
Spanish inquisition, who refused to say what the torturers wanted. He
died screaming in agony, but he kept his integrity. Duncan finishes his
drink, and leaves. Joe gives Methos a shrewd look. “You are one
calculating son of a bitch,” he comments.
Back at the garden, Culbraith kicks Richie down a hillside, and Richie
is still trying to talk Culbraith out of the fight. “We were meant for
war!” Culbraith insists, slicing Richie across the belly. Just then they
both feel another Immortal and Duncan appears on the hillside above
them, and throws Richie his sword. Richie gets to it just in time to gut
Culbraith, then take his head.
The Quickening is… awful. ‘Nuf said.
Back at the loft, Duncan and Methos and Richie are hanging out. Duncan
comments that it “would have been nice” if peace between them was really
possible. Richie says he doesn’t even know what OM’s real name was, and
maybe he wasn’t right, but he was a good man.
“Listen, I’m sorry I disappointed you, kid!” Methos says with a sigh of
exasperation and gets up to leave.
“Old timer!” Richie calls. “Got any words of wisdom for me?”
“Nope,” Methos says, and leaves.
MY COMMENTS: I liked a number of things about this episode, but I have
to agree with David A. that Ron Perlman’s performance had no real
emotional resonance or no passion. He was so intent on being the
personification of wise and calm that his presence on screen was flat
and colorless.
The Andersonville flashback was emotionally strong, if visually rather
sparse. It was one of the few times that I felt they didn’t really
capitalize on an opportunity to show us a distinct time and place. The
“prison” was hardly the horrific, overcrowded death camp we know from
historical reports, but the scene where Duncan has to break Jeffrey’s
neck was particularly poignant and almost hard to watch.
All the “real” Methos scenes were terrific, and the contrast between OM
and the real Methos was deliberately played up in a way that showed us a
simultaneously very harsh and coldly pragmatic but caring person, and
emphasized how little we know of the “real” personality, motives and
thinking of the character.
As a villain, Culbraith was poorly done. They started out well by giving
him a real reason for becoming hard and cruel, but in the present day
scenes his character was without any focus at all.
I found it interesting that Methos in some ways contradicted his view
expressed to Duncan in “The Valkyrie”, where he implied that if it
hadn’t been Hitler, it would have been someone else, since “history
makes men.” His comments to the OM implied that he considered Genghis
Kahn and Hitler truly evil men. Of course, consistency has never seemed
to be something Methos cared much about. <g>
MacGeorge
All Episode Commentaries at:
http://www.wordsmiths.net/MacGeorge/episodes/indexframeset.htm
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Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2004 20:50:05 -0400
From: kageorge <kageorge@erols.com>
Subject: Messenger addendum
As a footnote, MacLeod’s Chronicle (I assume because of the content that
it was Dawson’s private chronicle) for the episode, reads: “If this was
March 6, 1995, and the guy claiming to be Methos that Duncan MacLeod
just met answered that, yes, in fact he had figured it all out and made
sense of it all – and that the answer was to lay down your sword and
strive for brotherhood among all Immortals – how would MacLeod have
reacted? It was so easy for him to laugh off the preaching of the fake
Methos now, knowing what he knows about old but not particularly wise
Immortals, but how about back when he thought the legendary Methos, if
he existed at all, would be like Yoda, not like some guy who hung out at
the bar all day running up a tab. I’m not so certain he wouldn’t have
been just like Richie, and bought the whole show hook, line and sinker.”
There is a chronicle entry for the “Unknown” Methos written by Adam
Pierson, reporting that he believes that “at long last, our search is
over,” because Methos had been found.
In addition, there is a follow-up entry written by A. Zoll as an
addendum (after the Horseman episode), starting out: “Yeah, right, this
man was Methos like I’m Princess. Di.”
MacG
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End of HIGHLA-L Digest - 16 Oct 2004 to 17 Oct 2004 (#2004-190)
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