HIGHLA-L Digest - 13 Apr 2005 to 18 Apr 2005 (#2005-36)
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Mon, 18 Apr 2005 22:00:09 -0400
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Topics of the day:
1. Season Six DVD Commentary: Diplomatic Immunity
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Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 09:35:03 -0400
From: kageorge <kageorge@erols.com>
Subject: Season Six DVD Commentary: Diplomatic Immunity
html version of commentary, including screen captures, can be found at:
http://www.wordsmiths.net/MacGeorge/episodes/Season6/DiplomaticImmunity.htm
HL COMMENTARY: James Thorpe tells us that Season Six was his first
season “on staff” where he participated in coming up with the
storylines. The challenge was to come up with a show that would honor
the Highlander franchise but still be “Adrian-lite.” They came up with
an immortal scam artist, but the scam goes horribly wrong and this
wacky, happy-go-lucky little guy becomes a monster out for revenge. It
wasn’t as dark as Highlander usually is, but it has its dark moments
where this cute little guy becomes a killer.
Thorpe says writing is always painful, especially for him, because it is
a confrontational moment when he begins. It’s about fear that he is
going to be inadequate to the task, that up to now he’s been a fraud and
a phony and this is the script that will expose his failure. Once he
gets into the script and the characters, he will usually blaze through
it and afterwards look at it and feel good about it.
AP said in this season he was primarily dealing with the concept of “not
being the MacLeod of old,” but still maintaining elements of who he was
from the past. MacLeod had much more “clarity of mind” and engaged
people more mentally and Adrian wanted to express that with his
physicality. The approach was not a lot different, but MacLeod did deal
with situations differently than he would have in earlier seasons.
OUTTAKES: We see the series of shots taken, then edited together, where
the actor and the stuntman create the action scenes where “Willie” gets
run over two different times.
DIRECTOR’S COMMENTARY: Richard Martin says the dialogue in the prologue
was all improvisation. He says he really liked Jasper Britton, who
played Willie, and still keeps in touch with him. He also points out his
own (“f**king brilliant”) performance as a cameo actor, playing the guy
Willie and Molly are about to scam when Duncan interrupts them.
Martin mentions that Adrian and Jasper had a good rapport and that
Adrian really admired Jasper as an actor. He also says that Jasper had
to re-voice over 300 lines because of background noise problems, and he
had never done it before, but managed to do a really expert job at it.
The reason the scene between Willie, Duncan and Molly was on top of the
barge was because it was way too hot inside to film there. Other
comments were about how he liked various shots and how they were set up
to emphasize emotions or relationships.
THE EPISODE: The prologue is a flashback to London, 1969, where a
wealthy gentleman and his young female companion (not his wife) are
driving in his Rolls Royce along a country road when out of nowhere they
run down and kill a man who suddenly appears in the road. A pretty woman
runs out, hysterically wailing about how there’s no insurance and her
kids will starve, and threatens to go to the police. Eventually she
takes money from him, and after he drives off, her “dear Willie”
revives, revealing that it was all a scam.
The episode begins with a reception at the U.S. Consulate in Paris,
which Duncan is attending. He is friends with Edward, the American
Consul General, who complains to Duncan about the rounds of parties and
dull conversation. Duncan leaves, but feels the presence of another
Immortal as he walks down the street. He turns the corner and lo and
behold, here is the same (much older) woman once again weeping
hysterically over her husband’s body, in the process of extorting money
from yet another victim. Duncan intervenes even as she continues to
struggle with him over Willie’s supposedly dead body, and the ‘mark’
gets away. Willie revives and curses Duncan, saying “You always were too
noble for my own good!”
We get a flashback to London, 1836, where Willie is in the midst of a
duel of honor. Duncan sternly warns Willie not to kill a mortal, but
Willie assures him he has no intention of winning the duel. Turns out
Willie had embezzled from his partner, thus causing the challenge. Of
course, now that Willie is “dead”, he can escape with the money.
In the present, Duncan appears to really enjoy Willie’s company, and
officially meets Molly Ivers, his adored mortal partner in crime for the
past 30 years. Duncan is amused as he good-naturedly allows the
n’er-do-well Willie to weasel a loan of money out of him.
We see Edward, the Consul General, parking his Mercedes and going into a
house with a younger woman on his arm. A younger man watches and using
his own set of keys, takes the car, snorting coke as he drives away.
Willie and Molly walk down the street as she berates Willie for getting
money from MacLeod when they didn’t really need it, but Willie explains
he just enjoys doing it, and they spot the young man driving erratically
in the expensive car. Willie wants to scam the driver, but Molly is
reluctant, saying they don’t need the money, but sweet-talks her into
it. They go through their usual moves, but the drugged-out young man,
however, responds to Molly’s threat to call the police by picking up a
brick and bashing her head in. Willie revives as the car drives away,
only to find Molly dead as he catches a glimpse of the driver’s license.
Willie is distraught and grief-struck, certain the police won’t help. He
asks Duncan for help in finding who killed Molly, vowing to kill him in
return, but Duncan insists that when they find the culprit, they will
let the police handle it. Reluctantly, Willie agrees to do it Duncan’s
way, but mutters darkly, “for now,” behind Duncan’s back.
Duncan finds out that the car is owned by the American embassy, and he
goes to Edward for more information. During the trip, they talk about
how they each became who they are. (Duncan, on how he got to be who he
was, says it happened: “One day at a time, just like everybody.”) When
Duncan urges Willie to give up “the life”, Willie angrily counters that
it wasn’t ‘the life’ that killed Molly, but the “bastard in that car!”
When Edward identifies the license number they have as belonging to his
own car, Willie goes berserk and has to be restrained, and they are
escorted from the embassy. Outside, Willie is livid but Duncan finally
convinces him to go back to the barge and wait while Duncan sees what
additional information he can find out.
Duncan and Edward stroll in the garden as they discuss the issue, and
Edward says he can provide an alibi for the time of the murder. He wants
to avoid any hint of scandal, but offers to give Duncan the woman’s
number if he wants to confirm the alibi. Duncan believes him, but then
asks what Edward isn’t tell him, since it had to have been someone using
Edward’s car who killed Molly. Edward tells him there’s nothing else he
has to tell him.
Later, Edward confronts his son, Steve – the young man who killed Molly
– asking about a missing spare key and demanding to know if he took the
car. “How the hell could I?” Steve asks angrily. “You used it to visit
your whore.”
An ugly confrontation follows, with Edward asking several times whether
Steve killed someone as the son complains about how he is always accused
of everything, how everything is always his fault, and then coldly (and
unconvincingly) denies killing Molly. When a horrified Edward tells his
son to get out, he answers calmly, “It doesn’t matter whether I killed
her or not. Thanks to you I have diplomatic immunity.”
Willie doesn’t believe in Edward’s innocence, despite Duncan’s
assurances. Willie finds himself a plumber’s truck and manages to
finagle his way into the embassy with a story about a plumbing
emergency, and the rather vicious use of a wrench on the head of a guard
and a butler.
Edward hangs up from a phone call from Duncan warning him to watch out
for Willie when Willie enters, ready to shoot Edward, only to get shot
himself by a bodyguard. Later, Duncan encounters a nervous, jumpy,
strung-out Steve while waiting to see Edward, and learns Steve is being
sent back to the States.
When Duncan asks Edward about it, Edward admits it was Steve who killed
Molly. In another walk in the garden, Edward tells Duncan that he’d
always tried to do the right thing, but the life of a diplomat’s son was
hard when they were always moving from country to country, or long
periods of separation.
Willie crawls onto a garage roof on the grounds of the embassy and takes
aim at Edward with a sniper’s rifle, but Duncan feels his presence,
grabs a startled Edward and tries to drag him towards shelter, but
Willie shoots Edward, whose last words are to beg Duncan to look out for
his son.
Back at the barge, Willie arrogantly refuses to apologize for killing
Edward and wants to shrug off their differences and ‘move on’. When
Duncan, who seems to be very carefully holding onto being calm, doesn’t
respond, Willie announces he thought Duncan was a “bigger man than
that.” Duncan grimly insists that it wasn’t Edward who killed Molly, and
when Willie derides that idea Duncan finally loses his temper, grabbing
Willie and yelling at him that the only thing Edward was guilty of was
protecting his son, who was the real killer.
Unconcerned about the fact that he’d killed an innocent man, all Willie
can talk about is “that little puke” who killed Molly, but Duncan says
the family has paid its debt and if Willie goes after Steve, Duncan will
go after Willie. “Granted you’ll try,” Willie acknowledges coldly.
“Nothing else you could do, no one else you could be. That’s your code,
MacLeod. But I’ve got a code of my own!” Willie leaves, and Duncan goes
to his chest and takes out his katana.
Duncan goes to see Steve at the embassy, and Steve is obviously totally
wasted. Duncan orders a reluctant Steve to sit, and then calmly tells
about Molly, who she was, where she was born, what the women he killed
was like, giving her a human face. Steve orders Duncan to leave,
threatening to call security, but Duncan tells him his father died to
save his life. “It was his gift to you. Don’t throw it away.”
“I don’t have to listen to this,” Steve says.
“No you don’t. But you have to live with it,” Duncan replies, then he
feels another Immortal and tells Steve if he wants to keep breathing, to
lock the door.
Duncan confronts Willie on the grounds, but Willie is determined to kill
Steve. They fight and in a neat move, Willie ends up with his sword
taken right out of his hand and Duncan holding the hilt of the katana at
his throat. Duncan tells him he’ll live as long as the boy lives.
“Goddamn you, MacLeod. Who are you to say who lives and who dies?”
“Exactly!” Duncan says grimly, telling him that if he hears of Steve’s
premature death, he’ll come after him.
Willie agrees, then shifts move, congratulating Duncan, wanting to
immediately put their differences behind them, holding out his hand for
a shake. But Duncan can’t bring himself to take Willie’s hand, and walks
away, leaving Willie looking devastated.
Duncan goes back to Steve and tries to talk him into turning himself
into the police, asking how much cocaine it will take to get over the
guilt of Molly’s and his father’s death. “If you want any type of life
at all, you have to face this!” Duncan insists, telling him he’ll get
him a lawyer, and personally be there for him. Steve tells him to get out.
“One more chance, Steve,” Duncan offers as he prepares to leave.
“For what? Prison?”
“Redemption.”
But Steve isn’t interested, and Duncan walks away, leaving him to live
with his own guilt.
MY COMMENTS: This episode is mostly interesting as a study of Duncan’s
character and how his responses are both similar to and different from
previous situations where he was faced with an Immortal who killed
mortals, and mortals who killed other mortals without remorse or regret.
First, we have the familiar situation of Duncan enjoying the company of
someone who openly defies convention and lives happily outside the law.
He did chastise Willie for his scamming ways, forcing him to acknowledge
that his scams didn’t always just take from those who could afford it.
However, so long as no one was injured or killed, Duncan was prepared to
not only look the other way, but to enjoy Willie’s devil-may-care attitude.
We’ve seen this before in Duncan’s love of Amanda and Fitzcairn, of Kit
O’Brady and others who are inclined to walk on the wild side, take risks
and ignore consequences. I’ve always felt that Duncan envied their
ability to not care so much about consequences, but that it was beyond
him to do that. Willie asks him how came to be the way he was, and
Duncan answers, “One day at a time, just like you.”
But then comes the whole conundrum of finding justice for Molly and
dealing with Willie’s obsession for vengeance. Duncan kept trying to
slow things down, to *not* leap to judgment, and insisted that if they
found the guilty party, the person should be subject to mortal justice.
I thought the scene after Willie had killed Edward to be very
interesting. Duncan immediate reaction to Edward’s death is fury, then
grief, but by the time he sees Willie back at the barge he is
preternaturally calm, holding his emotions in rigid check. It is only
when Willie gloats about the killing and refuses to even consider that
his action wasn’t justified that the veneer of calm falls away and
Duncan’s true emotions are exposed.
So we see that Duncan is still subject to the same frustrations and
pressures he always was, and under pressure he reverts to old habits,
slamming Willie bodily up against the fireplace to tell him he murdered
an innocent man. I don’t think he had intended to reveal that Steve was
the killer because he didn’t want to put Steve at risk, but his outrage
overwhelmed him. Poor Duncan screwed up again.
Then, of course, he has to protect Steve, since, after all, he was the
one who put Steve in jeopardy from an Immortal. He reluctantly takes out
the katana and wields it with his usual expertise, but never puts the
blade to Willie’s throat, only the hilt. Even then, I think he might
have forgiven Willie, but he saw that Willie had no sense of the
terrible consequences of his actions either to Molly, who died as a
direct result of their scam, and no regret over Edward’s unnecessary
death. When you think about it, that’s what this episode is about –
consequences.
Duncan sees consequences, feels them in his soul, wears them like a
millstone around his neck. I think we are seeing that Duncan has yet to
truly forgive himself and that he lives with a sense of great regret and
loneliness. His face lit up when the free spirits that were Willie and
Molly just suddenly dropped into his life. But they were so unlike him,
so unaware of how easily Immortals could damage the lives of those
around them, that Duncan must have felt even more alienated by the time
the whole experience was over.
All he could do was try to help the one remaining living mortal involved
in the mess whose life had been so damaged by contact with Immortals,
but Steve (nicely played, by the way, by Alexis Denisof, of “Angel”
fame) also had no sense of consequence either, blind to anything but his
own self-destructive wants and needs. Quite sad, really.
There were a few annoying plot holes in this episode. It took Willie an
extraordinarily long time to revive as Molly and the ‘mark’ squabbled
over how much money she would accept. Also, if Willie was ‘dead’ while
trying to run their scam when Duncan stumbled upon them, how did Duncan
feel his presence? The whole lax security issue at the embassy was
problematic, even though it was filmed pre-9/11.
I thought the performances were really quite good by all concerned. The
episode, however, wasn’t particularly emotionally compelling in large
measure *because* Duncan was working so hard at being the calm mediator
that we didn’t get that emotional jolt that accompanies our vicarious
enjoyment of his pain – hey, I know that sounds harsh, but it’s true!
Duncan suffers so beautifully. <g>
MacG
All episode commentaries at:
http://www.wordsmiths.net/MacGeorge/episodes/indexframeset.htm
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End of HIGHLA-L Digest - 13 Apr 2005 to 18 Apr 2005 (#2005-36)
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