'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

[kathyh]

I think I should have made notes while I was watching this because now I have time to write something my mind's gone blank apart from saying that I agree with Macgeorge. From the perspective of the later seasons it comes as quite a shock to revisit an episode where MacLeod's relationship with Joe was so rocky. No matter what Horton has done he's still a member of Joe's family so his action at the end in shooting him has a lot of impact.

I never much liked Charlie, for no reason that I can put my finger on, but I did understand his huge confusion about MacLeod and his secrets. I presume Duncan thought it was just too dangerous to tell him about Immortality.

I liked Renee Delaney and think that at another time she might have had better luck with Duncan, but obviously he would have had trouble keeping secrets from her.

I suspect I was supposed to find Maurice endearing, instead I just found him irritating.

I thought the montage of Duncan's memories of Tessa was a very nice touch as it was his first stay at the barge since she died. Maurice did serve a purpose in defusing the potential heartbreak of that moment, but I still found him annoying.

The episode was a nice balance of action and character moments and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

[mamamia1964.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I agree. Maurice was just plain annoying. I also agree with MacG. Duncan was too wrapped up in his memories of Tessa to be attracted to Renee. Besides, she was too....obvious?....not as classy as Tessa, that's for sure. In fact, it's always funny to see how different his love for Tessa and Amanda are. Tessa was very classy, while Amanda remains the perpetual sex symbol. They seem to appeal to the two different sides of Duncan. But, he seems to go for long-term relationship with the quieter, less extroverted women. (At least, I never got the feeling that Tessa was an extrovert. But, both Tessa and Dr. A were warm folks.)

Anyway, I'm digressing. I haven't seen these episodes in a while, so I'm searching through tired brain cells here! I liked parts of these episodes, and disliked other parts. For example, I liked the part with Duncan dropping in on the bad guys, just like a Mission Impossible scene. Some of the scenes between Charlie and Duncan are great, while others are just annoying. Renee was annoying for the most part, too. And, I thought that the Immie was a little too over the top.

Finally, I got tired of Horton as the bad guy. But, I did like the growth in Duncan and Joe's relationship. Despite or because of the rocky path, their friendship is precious to both of them.