HLS4: 'The Blitz'

[ithildin]

Highlander Season Four

The Blitz, Air Date: February 1996

ER trauma surgeon Anne Lindsey responds to the call for help after an explosion devastates a subway station, but when a subsequent explosion rocks the station, Anne is trapped. MacLeod remembers WWII London where he and the woman he loved, reporter Diane Terrin, were trapped in a bombed air-raid shelter during the Blitz, running out of time and air. MacLeod is desperate to rescue Anne before he loses her like he lost Diane.

Next week: Something Wicked

Comments

[amberleewriter.livejournal.com]

I think this post will catch me up with all the ones I missed while on the road. (Not that I think my comments will generate much discussion at this point.)


I agree with the assessment that the "present day" storyline is the weakest link in this episode. Frankly, I never liked Anne. While I understand the creation of her as a concept -- from an intellectual standpoint pairing a doctor with Duncan allows for some interesting possibilities from a writing standpoint and the exploration of a life/death dichotomy -- but she just never worked for some reason. Every time she was part of an episode I wanted to fast forward.

The fact that I really liked the flashback story in this episode only made the ridiculousness of the "present day" premise stand out in harsh relief. Anne, as a doctor, would have known better to go down there in the first place (much less to do so at her advanced stage in the pregnancy). It completely threw me out of any form of suspension of disbelief.

As for the flashback - what fun! Certainly it was sad, but Diane was great. It made her death all the more poignant as she seemed such a great match for Duncan (everything, IMHO, that Anne was not). One of the most difficult things, to me, about being an Immortal is the fact that those you care for will die while you continue on. To me, one of the most interesting things is how any Immortal could manage to stay sane and/or not succumb to bitterness and despair over time given this fact. Many of the "bad guys" (like Grayson) seem reasonable to me if, for no other reason, this one fact. When you watch mortals die over and over and over again it must, at some point, seem that their existence (and your involvement with them) is futile. Even Connor seems to have a certain level of distance he keeps between himself and other mortals due to the fact that he knows he must ultimately watch them die (or that the nature of the game will place those he cares for in the path of danger).

Duncan is one of those Immortals who manages to retain some portion of his "humanity" and continually allows himself to become involved with mortals in spite of the knowledge that it can only end in some kind of heartache (either for him or for the mortal). In other episodes he is placed in situations where the issue of his inability to have children is also brought up as a point of difficulty. There is a part of Duncan which seems to long for a "mortal" life and having him deliver Anne's child -- having her name the child for the woman Duncan viewed as a mother -- and to have him give Anne and Mary the house all emphasize both his longing for family and a desire for lifestyle which he knows he can't ever have. Is this part of what makes him "good?" Is losing this sympathy or desire for mortal life part of what turns Immortals "bad?" Is it part of what keeps an Immortal "current" and engaged in the changing world around them? Unclear but something this episode always makes me wonder even as I shake my head at Anne and think the writers must have needed to pass the pipe that day.