HIGHLA-L Digest - 5 Mar 2005 to 6 Mar 2005 (#2005-24)
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Sun, 6 Mar 2005 22:00:06 -0500
There are 4 messages totalling 364 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Season Six DVD Commentary: Avatar (4)
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Date: Sun, 6 Mar 2005 18:33:48 -0500
From: kageorge <kageorge@erols.com>
Subject: Season Six DVD Commentary: Avatar
At last life allowed me a few moments to finish the commentary on the
first of the season six episodes. The complete commentary, with screen
captures, can be found at:
http://www.wordsmiths.net/MacGeorge/episodes/Season6/Avatar.htm
COMMENTARY: David T. talks briefly reviews what had happened at the end
of Archangel, and says that at that point it appeared the demon had
triumphed, and Duncan retires to a monastery in Kuala Lumpur and
meditates for a year, apparently abandoning everyone he knew and cared
about. But what he did was not to abandon them, but prepare himself to
prepare to face this great evil. With this setup, the rules the writers
normally followed had changed and they were now dealing with the
supernatural, where the dead could walk and they were dealing with near
god-like forces that were immensely more powerful than MacLeod.
MacLeod’s only hope was to use the “power of good in some way”. They
were lucky that Dennis Berry was directing the episode, and he had a
good grasp of how to effectively use horror elements. David really liked
the woman cast as Sophie Baines, and through the emotional journey she
travels, she makes the choice to return to death in order to help Duncan
defeat the demon.
Hal Beckett is the new composer, and he reports that they catalogued and
organized the music Roger Bellon had written, and a lot of the season
six scenes use Bellon’s music which had been written for previous
episodes, just as long as it was appropriate. It wasn’t always possible
to find the right music for every situation, so he and Don Paenessa
would decide which scenes needed original scoring, which Beckett did and
it was a lot of fun.
OUTTAKES: We see the opening scene where Adrian films the Chi Gung (sp?)
movements, which are a form of martial arts Adrian Paul studies that
doesn’t involve swords. His concentration is intense, which is
especially evident when he stops twice and says he wants to do it again.
We also see the filming of AP working with the rod, dropping it once
with a smiling “oops.” Then, on another take while he’s spinning the rod
over his head he says, “I’m going to keep on doing it, Dennis, until I
get it right.”
On a cut titled “Where the heck is Methos?” we see the opening scene of
Joe at the cemetery, where Duncan appears. In the conversation Joe says,
“Methos disappeared right after you did.”
EPISODE: After a prologue review of the events of Archangel narrated by
Joe Dawson, the episode begins with a lean and sweaty Duncan in a
monastery in Kuala Lumpur, doing some strange and intense breathing and
martial arts exercises as he remembers his friendship with Richie. He
kneels at last and takes a knife and cuts off his hair in chunks,
looking at himself with his hair completely shorn off and murmuring, “No
more tears,” to himself. Then he spins a knife in his palm and throws it
across the room, spearing a drawing of Ahriman from Landry’s book.
It is now a year after Richie’s death, and Joe Dawson visits Richie’s
grave. Duncan appears and Joe is pissed at him for disappearing, but
Duncan just says he had “some things to work out”. When Joe refers to
Richie’s death as an accident, Duncan insists that it was murder, that
he was a tool used by Ahriman to kill Richie. Joe expresses his
disbelief about the whole notion of a millennial demon and that Duncan
was some champion chosen to fight him.
Duncan begs for Joe’s help as well as the help of the Watchers to help
him fight Ahriman. Joe, not sure he believes in Ahriman or in Duncan,
says he doesn’t know, and walks away. The scene switches a nightmare
Duncan has where he is attacked by a sword-wielding Ahriman/Joe Dawson,
who manages to wound him before Duncan wrests the sword away and strikes
back, killing him.
Then we meet Sophie Baines, Jason Landry’s former assistant. She is
given a red rose by a mysterious stranger and she is oddly affected,
almost in a trance, and a white rose ominously bleeds red.
Then we are back at the cemetery where Duncan is still by Richie’s
grave. Ahriman/Horton appears, urging him to go back to the monastery to
hide, then Ahriman disappears.
NOTE: The timeline in all of these scenes is confusing, at best.
Joe is at a new place called Le Blues Bar, strumming his guitar and
considering his history with MacLeod, how he had witnessed Mac fight and
argue over the years for doing the right thing, for having faith in
yourself and others.
Duncan has movers clear out the barge, putting his things in storage,
leaving it almost completely bare. Outside, Joe Dawson shows up, telling
him “You know this is insane… you’re asking me to believe in a demon,
something I can’t see, maybe never will see. How do I do it, MacLeod?”
Duncan thanks him for considering it and turns away, but Joe calls him
back. He says that maybe he can’t believe in the demon, “But MacLeod, I
believe in you. Whatever this thing is and wherever it takes you, I’m
in.” They clasp hands. Duncan says they need to look into the legends
and history of evil for some flaw, for some weakness. Joe agrees, but
then tries to give Duncan his katana. Duncan refuses to take it, saying
that he’ll find another way to deal with the situation if another
Immortal comes along. “You always were a stubborn son of a bitch,” Joe
grouses, and tells Duncan he’ll call him as soon as he has anything.
The scene with Joe is intercut with scenes of Sophie, with her rose,
going to a nearby bridge over the Seine. In her trance-like state she
jumps off the bridge into the water, then comes up, flailing and crying
out for help. Duncan sees her as Joe drives off, and he dives off the
bridge after her, going deep several times before pulling her out of the
water, unconscious. He gives her mouth-to-mouth until she chokes out
some water and regains consciousness, bewildered about where she was and
what had happened, claiming she must have slipped from the bridge.
She insists that she’s all right and thanks him for saving her life, and
Duncan offers to take her home. Then we see an overlay image of two
other men taking Sophie out of the water, but in that version Sophie is
dead and the white flower drips blood as it turns completely red.
The next day, Joe visits the stripped-down barge and Duncan tells him he
did it to remove all distractions, and that he meditates to keep his
focus to fight the illusions and chaos of Ahriman. Joe is dubious, but
tells him that Landry had an assistant, and Duncan recognizes that it is
the woman he had rescued from the river. When Joe goes to the university
to find her, he discovers that there was a fire at Sophie’s office,
burning all her research records.
Duncan goes to Sophie’s house, meeting her thuggish, angry younger
brother who insists that he go away. Duncan then spots Sophie on the
street talking to Horton. As he approaches, Horton drives away and when
Duncan questions her about it she says the man was just asking
directions. When Duncan tells her the man she was talking to was Ahriman
she thinks it’s a joke, that Ahriman isn’t real. When Duncan insists
that she knows Ahriman is real, that it is the end of the millennium and
Ahriman is walking the earth, Sophie’s brother Andrew attacks Duncan
with a wrench, thinking he’s trying to hurt Sophie. Duncan easily stops
Andrew but Sophie is upset and asks Duncan to leave.
As Duncan walks away and turns the corner a car drives towards him,
revving its engine, then it tries to run him down. When the car
eventually crashes, Duncan finds it empty with the car radio blaring
Horton’s voice saying, “And here’s one for my old friend Duncan
MacLeod!” and hard rock music blares painfully loudly until Duncan yanks
the radio out of the car.
Duncan and Joe sit by the river and Joe says he has more than two dozen
watchers looking for records of Ahriman, that he lied to get their
cooperation, telling them he had a lead on an Immortal older than
Methos. He expounds on various ancient myths of evil, but they generally
circle back around to an entity that fits Ahriman’s profile and alleged
location, and that there is always a ‘champion of the good’, an avatar.
(Duncan: “A human with godlike qualities sent to face evil.” Joe: “Like
Immortals.”) Then Joe tells Duncan that Sophie Baines had been found
dead, drowned in the river. Duncan doesn’t him believe since he had seen
her since her alleged death.
Horton/Ahriman shows up at Sophie’s place to tell what he is and that
she died the day before. She freaks and tries to phone the police, but
it is Ahriman who answers, talking to her on the phone and in person at
the same time. She runs out and drives away but Ahriman is there
wherever she drives until she deliberately runs him down. Unfortunately,
he then just appears next to her in her car.
In the meantime, Duncan is visiting the morgue to see if Sophie is truly
dead. Sophie ends up there, screaming for help, but Ahriman is still
there, no matter where she turns. He sends her into the morgue to find
Duncan who demands to know who she really is, but she insists on seeing
what he’s hiding. He steps aside and she uncovers her own body, is
horrified and runs away. As Duncan watches her reaction he realizes she
is a pawn in Ahriman’s plan. Outside, Ahriman is there, waiting for her.
In shock, she ends up getting in the car with him and they drive away.
Duncan goes back to the barge, and feels Ahriman’s presence before he
appears. Ahriman congratulates him for learning “new tricks” then
threatens to destroy everything Duncan loves. Duncan furiously throttles
him, but Ahriman turns into Sophie and Duncan jerks away, dropping her.
Ahriman reappears and taunts him about the nature of good and evil, then
offers to give him anything, even to bring his loved ones back from the
dead. When Richie appears it distresses him, but Duncan says that
Richie’s dead and that Ahriman can’t tempt him. But then Tessa is
brought back, but even then Duncan says she’s not real, and in a rage he
denies Ahriman.
The scene switches to Ahriman and Sophie walking in a park, where
Ahriman tells Sophie that she is alive only because he made it so, that
he gave her another chance.
“Your not… him,” she states incredulously.
“Of course I am,” he answers smugly, then causally changes a blue ball
that a boy kicks his direction into a red one.
Finally, she is convinced that he is Ahriman but she hasn’t no idea what
he wants with her. “I’m nobody.”
But he disagrees, telling her that she is good and kind, and that for a
small favor – killing Duncan MacLeod – he will allow her to continue to
live. He says he could make her do it, but it must be of her own free
will. She absolutely refuses, but then he takes her hand, draining the
life from her as she gasps in agony. Ahriman tells her to think of her
brother, Andrew, that he will never have a decent life without her, that
he will make sure of it.
Duncan meets Sophie on a bridge over the Seine and she tells him about
Ahriman’s offer and his threat if she didn’t kill him. “He said it’d be
easy. It’s not.”
“It never is,” Duncan answers calmly.
She says she shouldn’t even be there, then asks Duncan if he’s the
champion. He doesn’t answer, but she assumes he is and says that he is
the only one who can defeat Ahriman. She begs him to do something,
asking him if he has any power to save her, but he just shakes his head.
Duncan asks her to help him based on her extensive knowledge of the
legends about Ahriman. She says she doesn’t know how to defeat him and
that every champion has to find his own way.
Then suddenly Duncan is shot in the back, killed by Andrew.
Andrew hysterically tells Sophie that Horton/Ahriman had told him that
if he killed Duncan that she would live, that everything would be all
right. Sophie struggles with Andrew, insisting that he not kill Duncan
for her, but Andrew pushes past her, lifting a machete just as Duncan is
reviving.
Sophie screams at Andrew, crawling up on the railing of the bridge. “He
said I could do anything because I loved you! He was right!” And she jumps.
“Why!?” Andrew weeps, looking out over the water.
“Because she loved you,” Duncan answers, and we see the red rose
floating in the water turn white.
MY COMMENTS: This episode is difficult to comment on because so little
is resolved in it. We get Big Evil doing Bad Things and learn that
Duncan is the focus of Big Evil’s ire/hate/fear/whatever. We learn that
Duncan has spent a year in a monastery studying meditation and
perfecting more martial arts techniques, and that at some point in that
process he pushed past grief and settled into grim determination to do
whatever it took to deal with whatever had used him to murder Richie.
All that part of the plot all seems consistent with Duncan’s character,
and it is now made clear that Ahriman is no figment of Duncan’s deluded
mind. We also have Joe as our Doubting Thomas, but faith is what keeps
Joe at Duncan’s side.
Unfortunately, in that thread there seems to me to be some messianic
message underlying this episode, where faith in one person’s goodness is
relied upon to defeat a godlike evil power that cannot be seen. This
isn’t a theme that I like at all, frankly, since Duncan’s strongest
appeal is that he is human, vulnerable and fallible, that he makes
mistakes but can learn from them, can grow and change. As David A.
intimated, I think that the events of the AAA arc, taken as a whole,
were intended to push DMotMC past the heroic stereotype and into a more
introspective place where he didn’t have to live up to the expectations
(his own or others’) of being caretaker to the world. But the pervasive
gotta-have-faith theme, combined with the whole
Champion-with-godlike-powers bit works against the very essence of the
fundamental humanity that makes Duncan a great character.
On the other hand, the portrayal of Big Evil was nicely done for
episodic television, especially in the use of Sophie Baines, who worked
well as a personification of decency and innocence (although I found her
brother unconvincing, with his lower-class English accent which was
inexplicably totally different from hers). Horton makes a great Ahriman
and I thought they managed to use some simple plot devices relatively
effectively to convey that Ahriman was an entity of great power that
operated virtually invisibly in the world (although the whole red/white
rose bit was hackneyed and overused).
On the whole, I found the episode interesting but quite unsatisfying.
Even a ‘to be continued’ episode ought to have some sense of closure
about something, and this one didn’t.
In my opinion, if they had had PW available for the story it would have
been completely different and probably much, much stronger because it
would have involved more character and relationship development and
interaction, which is HL’s strong suit. But that’s a ‘coulda been’ that
we’ll never see. Too bad.
MacG
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Date: Sun, 6 Mar 2005 21:14:58 EST
From: Highlandmg@aol.com
Subject: Re: Season Six DVD Commentary: Avatar
Hi
I think if we had Methos in this episode we would not have seen Duncan leave
I think Methos would help train Duncan both in mind and body. Methos would
probaby have known how to defeat Ahriman. I think we might have seen Methos
training Duncan 24/7 and It would have been entertaining to see Duncan a student
again
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Date: Sun, 6 Mar 2005 21:17:29 -0500
From: kageorge <kageorge@erols.com>
Subject: Re: Season Six DVD Commentary: Avatar
Highlandmg@AOL.COM wrote:
>Hi
>
>I think if we had Methos in this episode we would not have seen Duncan leave
>I think Methos would help train Duncan both in mind and body. Methos would
>probaby have known how to defeat Ahriman. I think we might have seen Methos
>training Duncan 24/7 and It would have been entertaining to see Duncan a student
> again
>
>
>
Interesting. How do you think Methos would come around to actually
believing in the existance of Ahriman? Or maybe he believed all along,
but didn't want to admit it?
MacG
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Date: Sun, 6 Mar 2005 21:28:21 EST
From: Highlandmg@aol.com
Subject: Re: Season Six DVD Commentary: Avatar
I hit the send button in place of spell check last message before I was
finished
Hi
I think if we had Methos in this episode we would not have seen Duncan leave
and disappear (If he did Methos would have found him) I think Methos would
help train Duncan both in mind and body. Methos would probably have known how
to defeat Ahriman. I think we might have seen Methos training Duncan 24/7 and
It would have been entertaining to see Duncan a student again. Duncan needs
Methos here to get over Richie death. Just think Methos throwing Duncan to
the mat a few times. just remember Duncan is in a rut here and needs his ass
kicked. No more mopping around for Duncan.
<Interesting. How do you think Methos would come around to actually
<believing in the existance of Ahriman? Or maybe he believed all along,
<but didn't want to admit it?>
Methos had to be around the last time Ahriman was around or he heard about
it. I don't think he realized it until it was too late. I have to believe that
Methos cared about Duncan not to let him go alone at this.
Mary
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End of HIGHLA-L Digest - 5 Mar 2005 to 6 Mar 2005 (#2005-24)
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