Pharaoh's Daughter

[ithildin]

Highlander Season Two

Pharaoh's Daughter, Air Date: April 1994

MacLeod feels the Buzz coming from an ancient sarcophagus and opens it to find Nefertiri, Cleopatra's handmaid, buried 2000 years ago with her mistress. Now revived, she pursues a vendetta against the Immortal Marcus Constantine, who was her lover and her enemy. Mac believes Constantine, who claims that he no longer wishes to fight Nefertiri -- this former Roman General has turned his back on battle and is now a curator, working to preserve history and its lessons. But Nefertiri can't let go of the old grudge, and for the first time, MacLeod is forced to face a woman he loves in Immortal combat. ~ recap via tv.com

Next week will be 'Legacy', and the season three poll. So start thinking about what season three episodes you'd like to discuss!

Comments

[pat-t.livejournal.com]

You know, this show has enough plot holes to sink a ship, but I really liked it. For one thing, it had a really hot sex scene between Duncan and Nefertiri. And I liked that Duncan was having so much fun and giggling so much at first. I liked Marcus, I thought he was a great character. You should read MacG's commentary about this show. She goes into it in a lot more detail. But I still enjoy the show everytime I watch it.

[unovis-lj.livejournal.com]

As Pat says, plot holes galore -- but I love this one, too. It's not one I'd show to pimp anyone into the fandom. It's more a guilty pleasure in the people and some of the smaller scenes.

Marcus Constantine is one of my favorite minor characters in HL, coming right after Darius. I'll never accept that awful tie-in novel as anything other than fanfic (same goes for Amy Zoll and her you-wish poker games with him and Adam Pierson). He would have made a wonderful foil and mentor for Duncan. I'd love to see the difference between his experience of classical culture, art, and history and MacLeod's self-education explored. I love that Duncan took it on himself to confront and kill Nefertiri. I love that Marcus cited Darius, and suggested to Duncan that he didn't know everything about him.

[macgeorge1.livejournal.com]

Hmm. The description above (I know it's taken from via tv.com) is woefully inaccurate and misleading. Duncan isn't "forced to face a woman he loves in Immortal combat." He ends up fighting someone he *made love to*. There quite a large difference. I certainly don't think he loved Nefertiri. He was a little in awe of her place in history and is fascinated by her, but he never loved her (she was the one who seduced *him*, after all) and after she killed Constantine's wife, he was *furious* with her and literally threw her off the barge.

My full episode and TPTB commentary description can be found at:
http://www.wordsmiths.net/MacGeorge/episodes/Season2/Pharaohs.htm

There were a couple of ancillary notations I made which might prove interesting. The DVD contains "extras", and this one included a longer scene between N and Duncan at the barge, after she first arrives: We are shown the full scene where Duncan introduces Nefertiri to the modern world, showing her a clock and a lamp, which she tries to blow out, a hand-held vacuum cleaner, then Maurice calls on the speaker phone to invite himself to dinner so he can make coq au vin. The scene ends with Duncan saying she's going to need some new clothes, and her asking Duncan for a sword (which explains where she has gotten one in the final scene.)

SIDE NOTE: I was checking the Chronicles on the dvd to make sure I had Nefertiri's name spelled correctly, and discovered there was an entry for Nefertiri's encounter with Constantine back in 30BC. It was written by Constantine's Watcher (Septimus Aurelianus, Centurion).


My observations at the time were: This is another one of those episodes that I hadn't cared for previously. I'm still not all that fond of it because when a story is full of huge plotholes I keep getting yanked out of the emotional context, and I get this bad case of "angstus interruptus". That being said, there are several things I think are noteworthy about the story, especially as regards an understanding of or illumination of Duncan's character and/or actions in other episodes.

First, we have a clear example of Duncan's reverence for age, and fascination with people and times other than his own. The awe with which he looks at what he has found in the sarcophagus is complemented by his easy acceptance of and admiration for Constantine (and so his immediate recognition of and fascination with Methos should come as no surprise). His pain over killing Nefertiri wasn't just about killing someone he found beautiful and whom he had taken to his bed, it was about what she was and what she represented.

Second, we see *another* example of the nasty, horrible Watchers doing nasty, horrible things. Why would *anyone* wonder why Duncan sometimes has a hard time trusting Joe?

Third, rarely have we seen Duncan as furious as he was with Nefertiri after she had killed Angela, an innocent mortal - what for Duncan is the ultimate sin for an Immortal to commit. Why didn't he challenge her over it? I think he felt responsible and guilty as well as angry. His own guilt stayed his hand, plus the fact that N was someone out of her own time who had little understanding of modern mores and values, plus the fact that he had taken her under his protection, plus the fact of who she was.

And on the completely purulent side, we also got to see a lovely sex scene. The best part for me was when Duncan kissed her as he grasped her long hair in his fist. We have TenderLover!Duncan and MasterfulLover!Duncan in the same scene. What more could a girl want? I also liked it when N gazed at Duncan while he was asleep, gently running her fingers over his back. Nice when it's not always the woman who gets ogled.

[robi-travels.livejournal.com]

I liked the show, but not one of my favorites.

Sex scene - yes. Loved the bit of N trying to walk in heels. Think Duncan has issues with killing lovers. Once he has taken someone to bed - they are a possession, a clan member, and are to be protected, not killed.

I agree he is fascinated with age and things older and different from himself and culture - N, Darius, Marcus, Methos. However, all presented themselves as good, reformed or at least benign. When he met an older evil - Kronos - he had no trouble with killing.

Actually found the idea that women use sex as a weapon and tool to get what they want very refreshing. N makes no bones that she uses it and ask if women still do. duncan reaction to that was adorable.

Roberta

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

I really liked Marcus Constantine. Now, for some reason, I'd always thought he'd been killed at the end. It wasn't till recently I realized he'd survived. So that made me happy, because I thought he was a great character and would have loved to see him again. And rewatching it a few weeks back for the first time since the original airing, I couldn't help but drool over the possibilites of Marcus meeting a certain 2000 year old Roman General from Forever Knight [g]

[mischief5.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed N's no-holds-barred style of swordfighting. Right or wrong, good or evil, she was fierce and Nia Peebles played the character very well. AS others have said, a guity (and yummy) pleasure!

[weesam.livejournal.com]

This episode bugged me right from the start. MacLeod senses an Immortal in a truck, so he follows the truck? Why would he do that? The Immortal could have been the driver, quite innocent, no reason to assume otherwise at that stage - so why did he follow?

I could never get past the strangeness of this and so couldn't really enjoy the episode, although I did like Constantine and wish we had seen more of him. He reminded me a little of a non-religious Darius.

[keerawa.livejournal.com]

MacLeod always tracks down unknown Immortals. That's his style. They might be a friend, an enemy, a random stranger just passing through. But he feel slike he needs to know.

I recall the beginning of "Comes a Horseman". Methos an Duncan walk out of the gameshow. They both sense an Immortal, MacLeod goes looking for him, while Methos pulls a quick fade.

[weesam.livejournal.com]

Yes, he does have the habit of wanting to know who's around, as he put it in Comes a Horsemen, but following a truck, which could be just some poor slob of an Immortal going about earning his daily crust, struck me as taking it to the extreme. Almost obsessively so.

In comes a Horseman, the person was somewhere nearby, and could be a threat, but a person in a truck is just driving by, not a threat or interested in MacLeod in any way, so why go looking for trouble?

I guess it's the one personality trait of MacLeod's that baffles me - I want to say "just let it go". But then, if he hadn't followed there would have been no story, and we wouldn't have met the interesting Constantine.

[sabzevarian.livejournal.com]

Agreed, no wayis Marcus dead. That was just "a bad dream" like Highlander the Source, IMO.