'Comes a Horseman' & 'Revelation 6:8'

[ithildin]

Welcome to the thirteenth & fourteenth installment of Methos Episode Discussion. You can find the last one, for The Valkyrie here. All prior episode discussion links can be found over on the sidebar.

I have a hunch this one will generate a lot of comments, so I'm going to try and remember to use subject headers for comments to try and make it easier to sort.

Comes a Horseman & Revelation 6:8, Air Date: Feb. 1997

MacLeod knew him as Melvin Koren, a desperado who left a trail of death and fire across the Old West, but Cassandra remembers him as an evil far older. He is Kronos, leader of the Four Horsemen, mounted Bronze Age raiders who murdered, raped, and pillaged their way across two continents. Never was a band of Immortals more cruel or more feared. He destroyed Cassandra's people and she's been hunting him across the millenia. But Kronos has a different target now -- Methos.
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One by one, Kronos is putting the Four Horsemen back together. Once they struck fear in the hearts of men with sword and axe. Today, their weapons of destruction are different, but their goal is the same: to bring mankind what it fears most, the Apocalypse. Only Duncan MacLeod stands between them and the end of the world. ~ recap and quotes via tv.com

Quotes below the curtain:



Cassandra: My people, take me to them.
Methos: You want to see them? *points* There they are...Caspian keeps the heads, he'll think it'll make him smarter...so far it hasn't worked.
Cassandra: You killed them? All of them?
Methos: Including you.
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Caspian: I fought as well as you. I killed more people.
Silas: Women and children don't count.
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(a dagger is thrown at Methos's chest)
Kronos: Greetings, brother.
Methos: Kronos!
Kronos: I missed you too.
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Methos: I think they love me.
Duncan: They'd love a hammerhead shark if it had a nice smile.
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Joe: Are we talking the Horsemen from the Bible?
Duncan: No Joe, the Kentucky Derby.
Joe: Fine, we'll get my bookie on the phone, who we betting on? War? Famine?
Cassandra: Death
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Methos: Look, I might not know who Chubby Checker is...but I know when it's time to leave.
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Kronos: Well, you can either lose your head. Or you can join me.
Methos: Well, since you put it that way ... welcome back, brother!
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Methos: So I'm a little weak on pop culture. Well, who the hell is Chubby Checker in the grand scheme of things, anyway? I mean I know how tall Nero was, Caeser's favorite food, I know Helen of Troy didn't have that great a face and it only launched a hundred ships not a thousand, and...
Duncan: Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah...
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Methos: I killed, but I didn't just kill fifty; I didn't kill a hundred; I killed a thousand; I killed ten thousand! And I was good at it. And it wasn't for vengeance; it wasn't for greed. It was because I liked it. Cassandra was nothing; her village was nothing. Do you know who I was? I was Death. (Methos laughs) Death, Death on a horse. When mothers warned their children that the monster would get them, that monster was me. I was the nightmare that kept them awake at night. Is that what you want to hear?! The answer is yes. Oh, yes.
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Methos: It's been over a thousand years - he may not remember us.
Kronos: He'll remember - what we were you don't forget.
Methos: And if he doesn't want to come?
Kronos: He'll come...or he'll die.
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Duncan: Kronos was right - you set the whole thing up, didn't you?
Methos: What d'you mean?
Duncan: You knew he'd come after Cassandra, and you let him because you knew I'd come after her. You couldn't kill him, but you hoped I could.
Methos: Maybe.
Duncan: 'Maybe.' Methos, what about Cassandra?
Methos: One of a thousand regrets, MacLeod, one of a thousand regrets.
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Silas: MacLeod's here?
Methos: Yes. (Methos draws his sword)
Silas: You're challenging me? For the girl's head? Take it. She's yours, brother.
Methos: I am not your brother.
Silas: How can you do this? How can you go against what you are?
Methos: You don't know anything about me!
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Kronos: You didn't really think I wouldn't know you'd tell MacLeod, did you?
Methos: It's not like you think it is.
Kronos: Ah, it's exactly like I think. My dearest brother, that's what makes you my perfect right arm; we think alike. We always have.
Methos: I doubt that, Kronos. No one thinks quite like you.
Kronos: Spoken like a true scholar.
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Duncan: Why did you lie to me?
Methos: About what?
Duncan: About Cassandra, about who you were.
Methos: I have been many things, MacLeod.
Duncan: And who are you now?
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Silas: Methos, you look troubled.
Methos: Just thinking.
Silas: Ah, you were always good at that, eh? And after all these years, you still are.
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Caspian: You have a plan?
Kronos: I have a few thoughts. I have a few dollars, enough for a start. Now we have Methos; now we have a plan.
Methos: What did you have in mind?
Kronos: Once we rode out of the sun bringing death at the point of a sword. There was no man and no Immortal who could stand before us. We were death on horseback. They called us the end of the world. Well, gentlemen, I want to give them what they fear most, the apocalypse.
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Silas: Methos! Hey, Methos! What the hell is this place?
Methos: This is Kronos's idea of Camelot.
Silas: Where are the stables, hm? The horses? Well, how do we ride?
Caspian: Where have you been for the last two thousand years, idiot? Living in the woods, and now you think we can just mount up and gallop down Broadway?
Silas: We can do whatever we please.
Caspian: Right. Four guys on horseback. Wild masks. They'll think we're in a circus.
Silas: They won't think it for long, will they?
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Kronos: Two days on an airplane and another two on a horse. I hope you're not wasting my time.
Methos: I thought you enjoyed my company.
Kronos: Even for you, Methos, my patience has limits.
Methos: This is the place. I'm telling you, Kronos, he's here. Would I lie to you?
Kronos: Have you ever done anything else?
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Methos: I killed Silas! I liked Silas!
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Duncan: "The Three Horsemen of the Apocolypse" - doesn't have the same ring to it, does it, Kronos?
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Next up will be Forgive Us Our Trespasses. Look for it next week.

Comments

[sophiedb.livejournal.com]

Methos: I killed, but I didn't just kill fifty; I didn't kill a hundred; I killed a thousand; I killed ten thousand! And I was good at it. And it wasn't for vengeance; it wasn't for greed. It was because I liked it. Cassandra was nothing; her village was nothing. Do you know who I was? I was Death. (Methos laughs) Death, Death on a horse. When mothers warned their children that the monster would get them, that monster was me. I was the nightmare that kept them awake at night. Is that what you want to hear?! The answer is yes. Oh, yes.

Whether or not it was partly for shock value (get it through your head you stubborn Scottish bastard! *cough*), I love that little monologue :)

They almost had absolute power back then, didn't they? On a small scale, and time enough to cover most of the old world at least once a generation. Who needs a castle when you're a nightmare?



But the power didn't corrupt all of them absolutely, not forever (bless). I get the impression that it was more of a constant high, drunk on the fact that no-one could out-plan or out-live the four of them. There wouldn't have been as many Immortals either - small global population with a high rate of natural death in childhood, culling the pre-Immies before they got big enough to hold a weapon.

[eveningblue.livejournal.com]

When I watch this scene, the impression I get is that Methos is trying to push Duncan away. Maybe for his own good or maybe not, I don't know. But the way he turns from defensive and pleading to offensive and angry makes it seem almost like a dare, like "I did those things, yeah, what of it?" Like a challenge.

The Jimmy Scene

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

Now this was a subject I jotted down in my notes last night!

My take on the Jimmy scene was that Methos desperately wanted Duncan to
understand, that what they'd been through together would be enough for
Duncan to remember Methos was his friend, that he cared. But Duncan
judged him and turned his back on him.

I know that my POV differs markedly from most everyone else, but that was my first take on the scene, and it's held up for me over the years.

( have a Jimmy! Not a nice black one like Methos, but I have one. I
have been tempted to paint it black though.)

[majrgenrl8.livejournal.com]

So thoughts on the "break up" (I am so not a D/M slasher and it's totally a breakup scene) scene.

Methos knows he's going to need MacLeod. He's alreay got a plan and he's putting it into action. The question to ask is "Why was Methos loading up his Jimmy at that point?" The answer that I see is: becasue MacLeod could find him there.

Most of this season is Methos teaching MacLeod about moral ambiguity. This is where the lessons start to come of use. Now Methos certainly didn't know that Kronos would show up and want to get the band back together, but he probably always knew it was a possibility.

Methos is a master manipulator. He did what he did to get a specific reaction out of MacLeod. And he got it. What's great about CaH and R6:8 is that we see Methos work a situation from begining to end. We also get confirmation that this is what he's been doing for thousands of years. This is a part of the manipulation.

I always figured that he had a different plan until he found Cassandra at the dojo. He wasn't going to be as devious until he realized he had to be. He was showing up at MacLeod's to let him in on the plan. But once that was scrapped he needed a new one, a better one, one that took care of all his problems resulting from his wild youth.

"Start small and build." Not just a manipulation of Kronos, but a way of life.