'They Also Serve'

[ithildin]

Highlander Season Three

They Also Serve, Air Date: February 1995

Recent Immortal Michael Christian has been on an incredible string of luck, taking a number of heads from unarmed and vulnerable opponents, including May-Ling Shen, who taught MacLeod the martial arts in 1780's Mongolia. Christian's Watcher, Rita Luce, has been doing more than just watching, supplying Christian with classified information on the other Immortals and their weaknesses. MacLeod, unaware of Christian, goes on a vision quest to his cabin on Holy Ground -- deliberately leaving his sword behind. The race is on for Joe Dawson to figure out Rita's secret before Christian sets his sights on MacLeod. ~ recap via tv.com

Next week: Song of the Executioner

Comments

And I step out of the lurker corner...

[amberleewriter.livejournal.com]

As a Joe fan, this is one of my top five. It set the tone for Judgment Day and let you know that if Joe's relationship with Duncan were "out of the closet" that there would be very large consequences. I didn't care for Rita, but I could understand some of her motivations. They really weren't that far from Joe's. Rita cared about her Immortal and got involved. How much further was it for Joe to be like Rita? Where was the line?

It was also interesting to see Watchers together. It was particularly interesting to see a combination of "veterans" with "young blood" and hear the differences in opinion; to see the way they discussed their assignments.

Sometimes the idea of the Watchers was hard to swallow -- not as an organization, because having some mortals know about Immortals didn't seem a bit stretch -- but the idea that Immortals didn't know they were being followed seemed daft; particularly when modern Watchers seemed so bent on keeping their distance. The extras on the DVDs seem to indicate that this was not so much the case in the past -- that having someone follow an Immortal into a military situation, onto a boat, as a part of an expedition, or to have them be a member of a village where an Immortal had settled was very common. The idea that an Immortal wouldn't notice a Watcher hanging around when they must conceal what they are from mortal society just seemed a bit strange. I mean, how do you get to be 400, 1000, or even 5000 years old and not be observant enough to notice that mortals are following you from place to place? (Unless, of course, that mortal finds a way to insert themselves into the Immortal's life as a friend, companion, or lover.) This episode did little to dispel those problems for me but at least addressed the idea of fraternization head on and I respected that.

At any rate, for me the crux of the episode lay Joe's ongoing difficulty of keeping his "oath" while remaining a friend. It was painfully clear with Ian's disapproval and death that the stakes of Joe's friendship with MacLeod had gone way up. Joe was a man getting backed into a corner by his own choices and morals -- something we normally saw Mac having to deal with. By the end of this one I felt for Rita though I didn't like her, I was heartbroken over Ian's death, and I thought that Joe and Mac had a heck of a lot more in common in the way they approached decision making. I wondered if Mac and Joe being friends could be worth the cost for either man; another issue that HL built upon over and over again.

What I think might have made this episode more compelling is if they had cast Michael differently (or given him a few more lines). He seemed arrogant and unlikable so it was difficult for me to understand how Rita could transfer her attachment to him (even if they gave her son's death as the reason). If Michael had looked more like, say, Richie -- seemed more earnest instead of having a perpetual scowl -- I could have understood a mothering instinct taking over (much less any sort of attraction). I suppose they could have been trying to make a statement that Michael was a manipulator, that was using Rita, but if they were it didn't work for me. Killing Ian like she did was a huge step to take. I just didn't see her as that desperate or that in love.

Finally, there's May-Ling. We don't see much of her in comparison to someone like Amanda or Fitz but, like Hideo Koto, I think May-Ling was turning point for Mac. While he always respected woman as women, in this episode he had a woman as a teacher -- as his "superior" -- and I think she (in combination with his experiences with women like Rebecca, Amanda, and Ceirdwyn) helped him realize that a woman was an equal in the game. Most of the time, we see Mac in "hero" mode or "seduction" mode with a woman. While he does manage to win May-Ling over into his bed, he spends plenty of his time before that re-evaluating the idea that a woman being "soft," "small," or a sex object is a detriment. May-Ling doesn't take crap from him, or anyone, and lets him know that a man's "assets" can also be his biggest vulnerabilities -- just like a woman. I really enjoyed watching Mac absorb that lesson and, in so doing, come to a greater understanding of himself.

Re: And I step out of the lurker corner...

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

Glad to see you leave the lurker's corner :)

Re: the Watchers...

[sinanju.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the unlikelihood of paranoid immortals not noticing (for thousands of years) that their every move is being tracked just destroys my suspension of disbelief.

Equally bad is the question of how the Watchers support themselves? They're not a spy ring--with the deep coffers of some national government footing the bill, like the CIA or the NSA. I've heard people argue the "they loot the bodies/estates of dead immortals" defense, but I don't buy it. Most immortals aren't going to be rich; those that are--especially in historical periods--are going to be well known and the Watchers, secret organization that they are, are going to be last in line at the feeding trough.

They're not a church, which can depend upon revenue from the believers to pay their way.

Nor are they providing a service of any sort. It's not like they're expending all this manpower and treasure to acquire information anyone can _use_. Nobody is even supposed to know about it.

...but then I remind myself that "it's just a show, I should really just relax!"

Re: the Watchers...

[amberleewriter.livejournal.com]

Well, the supporting the organization part isn't as hard for me to get. Let's face it, all the Watchers seem to have "day jobs" or full-time work in some other field as a "cover." James has the bookstore (where Joe and, apparently, at least one other watcher works). Don Salzar has a bookstore and the sign says it has branches in several cities in multiple countries. Later, Joe has the bar. I assume that these businesses are initially funded by the Watcher organization and used as income which would be funneled through various holding corporations into a larger entity. Everyone from large business conglomerates to the mob has done this for years so I can't see it as a big problem to accomplish. Some of the DVD/Chronicle stuff indicates that men like Shapiro, Velmas, and other "Tribunes" are employed by a "mega corporation." All the Watchers would have to do is get a few good MBA's, stock brokers, and investment people to manage things. After all, aside from Immortal "drifters" (most of whom seem to be the nasties that they deem "too dangerous" to assign a regular Watcher), it should be pretty easy to have your people simply get jobs or open up businesses in a location where an Immortal settles down (and have them return the majority of the profits back into the organization's kitty) thereby keeping their people both doing something plausible and making a living. I'll bet good money Kristin's watcher was either in publishing or a photographer. Richie's man was a bartender. Ian was on Cord for a while and, guess what, was in the military and likely drawing a salary from Her Majesty's Government at the time. In fact, until the modern age I'd say that most folks probably didn't get much financial support, if any, from the greater whole of the Organization and were pretty much left to fend for themselves. *shrugs* I'd imagine that you'd be paid more in "connections" for private sector work that would allow you to move around than you would be in actual money. Kind of like joining a greek house at university: that costs you money but you meet a lot of people and there's quite a bit of cache involved in being part of the group. So for me, that's not so much a problem, it's the whole paranoid Immortals not figuring it out thing that doesn't work for me.

Re: And I step out of the lurker corner...

[simonesa.livejournal.com]

How much further was it for Joe to be like Rita? Where was the line?

This is a very interesting question because Joe has helped MacLeod out with immortals he thought were dangerous to Mac. The only difference so far is that Joe would never help Mac to set someone up. Of course, I don't think Mac (except in case of Dark Q) would fight someone unarmed. Still it is clear that Joe is pulling for Mac to win. Even the intro to the show changes to have Joe say "May it be Duncan MacLeod."

Re: And I step out of the lurker corner...

[amberleewriter.livejournal.com]

And, it seems to me, that the Immortals that Joe gave him information about were pretty much universally "not-nice-folk" -- Immortals that did things to mortals but could not be contained by mortal law, were brutal hunters, or were otherwise bad by having a name starting with K. ^_^

Really though, this was one of the questions this episode brought up for me -- how far would Joe go and how did he draw the line when he'd already, basically, crossed the original long ago? This is one of the reasons I enjoyed the show so much. It brought up difficult questions like this and didn't always take the easy wrap-it-up-in-60 way out.

Re: And I step out of the lurker corner...

[simonesa.livejournal.com]

And to complicate matters even further, when he discovers there is an immortal in the core of the watcher organization. And could it be that Methos is the only one who ever played watcher? Never the less, Joe looks the other way and even becomes great friends with Methos after he learns the truth.