'Unholy Alliance'

[ithildin]

Highlander Season Two

Unholy Alliance, Air Date: February 1994

Xavier St. Cloud returns, killing Immortals with the help of mortal mercenaries who shoot his prey, making his kill easy. His next target is MacLeod but, warned by Dawson, Mac and Charlie just manage to escape death -- though the dojo is all but destroyed in the gunfight. Renee Delaney, a CID agent investigating the mercenary angle, gets on the case. MacLeod goes after Xavier himself, and Charlie insists on coming along. During his battle with St. Cloud, MacLeod spots James Horton, the Hunter who killed Darius. Distracted, Mac is 'killed' and falls down an elevator shaft out of beheading range, and Charlie is badly wounded and lies near death. Blaming Dawson for helping Horton escape alive, MacLeod warns him not to cross his path again.

As Charlie regains strength, MacLeod accepts help from Dawson one last time, and barely misses catching Xavier and Horton. He then follows their trail to Paris -- accompanied by the persistent Renee Delaney. They track down Horton, and when he almost escapes, he is shot by Joe Dawson. MacLeod, with the help of his humorous new neighbor Maurice, then tracks down Xavier and finally takes his head. In a coda, however, we learn that Horton still lives.
~ recap via tv.com

Next week will be Pharaoh's Daughter

Comments

[macgeorge1.livejournal.com]

Unholy Alliance II, summary and miscellaneous commentary at:
http://www.wordsmiths.net/MacGeorge/episodes/Season2/Unholy2.htm

Misc. comments: The actor who plays Xavier (rock singer Roland Gift), got a lot better with each fight scene, and this is a pretty good fight, overall. I love the little trick DM does when he uses his foot to flip a fallen sword into his hand. The Quickening in this is also interesting, and it seems clear that Duncan has at least some capacity to deflect the energy away from himself, giving some credence to the notion that after he beheaded Kalas in Finale II at the end of Season Three, that the destruction of the general area around Kalas' headquarters was deliberate.

There is a final scene between Renee and Duncan in a park, where Renee makes her interest very clear (if it wasn't already). She asks, "Do you think, someday, that you and I..." she shakes her head. "Oh, God this is embarrassing." Then she laughs. "How come you haven't come onto me yet?"

[Hmm. He's already kissed her a couple of times. But I know what she means. She has made all the moves, and he has just kind of gone along for the ride. It seemed like at every turn he was still thinking and talking about Tessa.]

My General Comments: Some big stuff going on in this episode, but what is going on in Duncan's head? I think he is still grieving over Tessa, and there is something about Renee's independence and strength that is tugging those strings. But he also sees her as an individual and is torn between wanting to move on and grasp what happiness he can (as he says to his Immortal friend's widow), and still too mired in grief to let his heart feel that much. There is also the problem that she is a cop, and a curious one at that, and represents a threat to his identity. So he ends up being entirely reactive in the relationship, leaving Renee to make all the moves, frustrating her and sending her mixed signals.

His friendship with Joe is never really shattered, although it comes awfully close. He holds Joe at least partially responsible for Charlie getting hurt, and for the death of his Immortal friend, because his saving and protecting Horton allowed him to run amok. But Joe is nothing if not persistent. He can't make it right, but he'll do whatever it takes to both stop the killing and to repair his friendship with the Immortal he's been watching for 15 years, and of whom he says in the intro, "There can be only one. Let it be Duncan MacLeod." First he dares visit Mac, even in the face of Mac's last words to him ("The next time I see you will be the last."), and gives Mac an address, practically begging him to believe him. Then, it is clear Joe is "the friend" who let Duncan know Xavier had gone to Paris. Finally, Joe steps up and in the face of Horton's plea ("But we're family!"), says harshly, "I'll light you a candle," and pulls the trigger on his unarmed brother-in-law.

And at the end, we still have Horton hiding in the distance, watching MacLeod say his tender goodbye to Renee, and we know we haven't seen the last of the bastard, yet.

I've never been fond of the "perpetual bad guy" story line seen in a lot of super hero comics. Somehow, whether it's Lex Luthor, The Penguin, or whoever, never getting closure on a bad guy is very unsatisfying, for me. But Horton was such a really great bad guy, keeping him around for one more round (well, one and half, actually, if you include the whole Ahriman sequence) worked for me.