'Shadows'

[ithildin]

Highlander Season Three

Shadows, Air Date: November 1994

MacLeod is tormented by visions of his own death, beheaded by a mysterious dark-hooded figure. Anne tries to convince him to seek medical help, but instead he turns to his old friend Garrick, who has spent centuries studying the mind. MacLeod saw Garrick in the 17th century when MacLeod barely escaped being burned as a witch. What MacLeod didn't know was that Garrick was unable to escape as well.

Garrick convinces MacLeod that the dark-hooded figure is a racial memory that haunts all Immortals and that the way to defeat it is to not fight it, to accept it for what it is. When MacLeod, haggard and exhausted, faces the specter for the last time, puts down his sword and refuses to fight it, the figure goes for MacLeod's head -- until at the last moment MacLeod realizes the figure is Garrick, seeking his revenge after all these years. In the tag, Anne, frustrated that MacLeod won't open up to her despite their intimate relationship, leaves him. ~ recap via tv.com

Next week: They Also Serve

Comments

[horsedoovers.livejournal.com]

I really disliked Anne.

[pat-t.livejournal.com]

I really liked this episode. I think it was a really good concept. It let us see that immortals could have mental problems even after obtaining their immortality and that coming back to life wasn't all that it was cracked up to be.

Duncan's emotional distress was obvious and I think Adrian did a great job in this. And as much as I don't like Anne, in this episode, I fully understood her concern and frustration with Duncan and his evasiveness. She cared about him and she tried to help him. He actully treated her rather badly here.

[pat-t.livejournal.com]

This popped up in my email this morning and I thought you would like it.

From Carmel:
.....I really really really do try and find other shows that engage me the
way Highlander did and still does but I just can't seem to find one....don't
get me wrong - I love West Wing...Gilmore Girls ...Alias....but when
push comes to shove it's my Highlander DVDs that get pulled out. We
(Nancye, Aine, Karen Scott) are having a HLWW planning and plotting weekend
for Vancouver and tonight for a well earned break put on Shadows from Season
3. Wow - what an episode! Adrian was superb in it; it was a great story;
the sword fights were amazing as was the location shooting around
Vancouver....and my heavens but what a Kata we were treated to. I thought
that the Garrick character was played very well - superb musical score - and
all this in an 8 day shoot!

What I also particularly liked was the continuing threads and references:
Duncan's susceptibility to illusions; the pathos of his near killing of
Richie which got played out for real in Archangel; recognising David A's
comment in the Behind the Scenes clips that Evil's greatest trick was to
convince us that it doesn't exist and remembering that he put those very
words into Duncan's mouth in the tag scene of Armageddon when he is in the
Bar with Joe.

So - why is Duncan so susceptible to mind games? We saw it in him as a
child with Cassandra and again in Prophecy; Ahriman, Garrick....his falling
victim to the dark quickening (something we are told was so rare that there
was no record of it in the Chronicles)....in order to 'save' him, Methos
also resorts to an illusion (the underground cavern and the pool) and uses
the illusion to lead Duncan back.....

Of course, I also use the above to posit the possibility that Connor is not
dead at all but used the powers he inherited from Nakano to trick Duncan
into thinking that he has killed Connor (meanwhile Connor has retreated to
another haven, one day to re-surface....)....

You know - I love this show as much as I did when I first came across it-
probably more so because of the way it has stood the test of time in terms
of its overall quality on so many levels.

p.s. make sure you listen to F Braun's commentary on just how exhausting
this episode was to do - FIVE sword fights + the kata....no wonder
Adrian/Duncan looked ragged and haggard! Of course, it's a look that he
wears so well - LOL.....

[pat-t.livejournal.com]

BTW, that was posted on HLWW for anyone not on the lists.

[mamamia1964.livejournal.com]

I think that this is the only episode that I've never seen the entire story. While I too can't stand Anne, I understand why she reacts the way she does. Actually, there's this part of me that wondered why the heck she kept up withthis crazy acting guy that's always mysterious and dangerous anyway. After all, it's not like she'd really known him all that long. The wierd factor had to have made her nervous...but, I guess the hot sex kept her around.

I agree with the post about it being strange how vulnerable DM was to illusion. Was he really MORE susceptible than others? Was this a sign of something special about Duncan? He supposedly was the Champion, so maybe he had to be susceptible to suggestions, illusion. OR maybe this was a contrast to his great strength. I dunno.

I have to admit that this is the one show that I've hung onto over the years. Well, besides ST-TOS. (I've loved that show for so long that I don't even think about how its wrapped its fingers into my psyche.) My husband laughs at me all the time about my HL obsession, but all the things that the previous commentator made aobut HL... well, ditto for me!

[macgeorge1.livejournal.com]

I really like this episode for a lot of reasons. The visuals are terrific, Garrick is played by an excellent actor (Garwin Sanford), and the whole pacing of the episode, emotionally and visually (especially that first balletic dream-fight sequence, the sword kata and the shadowy fights in the dojo), is excellent. Garrick’s studio is also a study in subtle, layered visuals that add tremendously to the feel of Garrick’s madness.

In general, the whole notion that Duncan is vulnerable to manipulation, that he can doubt himself to the point where he stops functioning effectively at all, is a wonderful exploration of a character and adds tremendous depth and complexity. You just don’t see that in episodic television, and the fact that the writers, producers and actors were prepared to take that risk, to go to dark places and have the hero acting very unheroic just makes me very happy. Also, having this episode immediately follow “Obsession” is an interesting juxtaposition, where we are shown just how human Duncan really is.

I also thought Stan Kirsch was very good in this episode, although the secondary story was really relegated to back seat status. He had several excellent scenes, alternating successfully between providing a little much-needed comic relief, but also showing some real acting chops in the tension and high emotion between he and Mac. The scene where Richie insists that he couldn’t kill Duncan, even when Duncan would want him to, is creepy when you know what eventually happens between them.