'The Darkness'

[ithildin]

Sorry this is a day late.

Highlander Season Two

The Darkness, Air Date: October 1993

A mortal named Pallin Wolf, one of the renegade Watchers who believes the Immortals must be eliminated, lures an Immortal to his house and kills him, getting the advantage by tricking him into a sealed room that is completely dark, then stalking him with night vision goggles. Meanwhile, a Gypsy fortuneteller they meet in a restaurant, Greta, warns Tessa that she is in danger. When Tessa is kidnapped by Wolf, MacLeod returns to Greta, asking for her help. But she's mostly a hustler, and not accustomed to getting actual visions, so the clues she is able to provide are meager.

Finally, Mac finds Wolf's house, where Wolf is waiting for him. He meets Wolf in the dark room and all seems hopeless until he remembers a matchbook Greta gave him with her phone number in it. Lighting the matches, he regains the advantage and kills Wolf. However, as Tessa and Richie are heading for the car, a young junkie accosts them for money, and in an act of senseless violence, shoots them both. As Mac mourns, Richie tentatively sits up, healing -- he is an Immortal. But Tessa is gone. ~ recap via tv.com

Comments

[lilliew.livejournal.com]

As a casual HL fan (haven't seen every episode), this eps always annoyed me with the way they killed off Tessa and made Richie an immortal. The random act of violence at the last minute just seemd so cheesy and not realistic for me, like it was thrown in there at the last minute. I guess I just like these types of things to be a little more dramatic and real.

The Dust in the Wind song still sticks with me after all this time (was it this eps or the next one?) Well, Kansas is still one of my favorite classic rock bands.

[black-op.livejournal.com]

Hear, hear! I once went to a concert with Kansas and Styx. Good times.

[macgeorge1.livejournal.com]

Well, it was a shocker, but I think there was more thought put into it than you may have recognized. First, the actress playing Tessa (Alexandra Vandernoot) had asked to be let out of the show because she wanted to move back to Belgium, so they had to kill her character off (she couldn't be alive, but not around, not with her history with Duncan). Second, they had always had in mind that Richie was going to end up an Immortal.

To do it as they did, following Duncan's proposal and rescue of her, was really about Duncan's determination that Fate wouldn't control his life and that he could protect the people he cared about. Then Fate kicks him in the ass. Unkind, but the fact that Duncan's life was imbued with darkness due to the nature of who and what he was became a theme that the writers exploited again and again.

You may not have liked the result, but it wasn't done without some consideration of what came before and what was to come after.