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Highlander Season Five
Next week: Prophecy
One Minute to Midnight, Air Date: Sept. 1996
Immortals and Watchers are poised at the brink of war. On the orders of the Watcher Tribunal, every Watcher in Europe is hunting for MacLeod, to bring him in dead or alive. MacLeod discovers that the real killer is Jacob Galati, a Gypsy MacLeod once traveled with, who has vowed to destroy all the mortals who wear the Watcher tattoo, convinced they are all out to destroy Immortals.
~ recap via TV.com
Next week: Prophecy
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Date: 2008-02-12 11:07 pm (UTC)From:...also, Methos and Joe, snarking at each other while lurking behind the gravestone - what's not to like?
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Date: 2008-02-13 12:05 am (UTC)From:And there is lots of great snark in this one :)
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Date: 2008-02-13 01:24 am (UTC)From:There are issues which OMtM brings back from previous episodes (the least of which is the companion episode "Judgment Day"). Things like what happened to the rest of the Hunters? What about the Immortals which might have escaped Horton? What would happen if the idea of the Watchers got out among Immortals; would they be seen as a threat? Would they go to war? What effect would that have in the mortal world? What if Duncan hadn't met Joe and forged a (somewhat) positive bond?
On the other hand, the tie up at the end of the episode, while not neat, also leaves something to be desired. MacLeod shows mercy by not killing Shapiro in retribution for the death of Jacob, but future episodes avoid the complex issues brought up here. What happens to Shapiro? What about the rest of the Hunters? What does the Watcher organization do to prove to Duncan (and any other Immortals that may have been touched by Horton and his ilk) that they are not going to be interfering in the game or going after more Immortals? Though, while these larger issues seem to be left to the viewer's imagination (or are superficially addressed in the "Chronicle" entries), they do set up conflict continued into the season with the return of Richie in "The End of Innocence." Joe and Duncan are clearly still at odds and the questions of ethics raised in OMtM are explored again in macro. Duncan must ask himself what the life of a friend (or student) is worth. Joe must ask if his friendship with Duncan is worth more than his Oath. (Interesting, however, how Methos just shows up later and Duncan never goes through a similar adjustment period as he does with Joe. Methos helped turn Jacob over and was still a Watcher during the period. You would think Duncan would have, at minimum, given him a ration.)
Overall, this is one of my favorite episodes of the entire series. While I would have liked to have seen the Watcher organization issues addressed a bit more in later episodes (or, for that matter, more overall within the series) that's a quibble. The only major criticism I have of this episode is a hold over from the last: I never thought the guy they cast as Shapiro came off well. He seemed very "one note." In the context of OMtM, having Shapiro be an arrogant judgmental ass makes more sense than it did in "Judgment Day" but it still turns me off. Though I understand the need for Duncan to leave Shapiro alive at the end of the episode, I would have been perfectly happy if he had hacked the man to tiny pieces. He, IMHO, deserved it for railroading Joe, having a gun put to the man's head, and turning the entire Watcher organization into what Horton could only have thought up in a wet dream.
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Date: 2008-02-13 01:41 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2008-02-13 07:58 am (UTC)From:... Spoilers ahead ... *g*
Date: 2008-02-13 07:53 am (UTC)From:I do love the moment where Duncan sits on the coffin to keep himself from killing the man who ordered his minions to kill him and Joe, and so many of his friends...
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Date: 2008-02-13 02:10 pm (UTC)From:My summary of my complete description and analysis of the episode was: For me, this is easily in my top 10 favorites, if not my top five, or even my top two. Every single moment is packed with emotional and visual power as the relationships between Duncan and Joe and Methos are pushed and pulled and finally ripped apart entirely, even as they all fight to keep it together, with the best of intentions.
The flashback scenes with Duncan and Jacob and Irena are wonderful, one moment full of life and love and happiness, and the next fraught with bloodlust and anger. Jacob was a tragic character, but one you had to have some sympathy for, for all his obsession with “Blood for blood.” He had lived with prejudice all his life, lived through the Holocaust, where his people were targeted for genocide, and now he was seeing it happen again. His actions were self-destructive but understandable, and he and Irena were clearly people Duncan loved.
Every one of the scenes in the basement of Shakespeare & Company crackled and popped with the depth of emotion and commitment these three men had, both to each other and to the things they believed in. Joe believed in the Watchers, Duncan believed in friendship and felt it was up to him to stop the killing – which he abhorred, and to protect those he loved (and there is no doubt that he loved Jacob Galati); and Methos? He wanted to stop the killing, but was conflicted at every turn, trying to be both Watcher and Immortal, and to make some desultory attempt at self-preservation in the process. In the end, his reaction was totally “right”, that he had lost sight of who he was because he was trying to be everything to everybody, and had ended up betraying one of his own kind.
And Duncan has had it up to his eyebrows with the Watchers, with killing, with conflict and losing people he cared about no matter how hard he tried to keep it from happening. His last speech to Shapiro rings with emotional exhaustion as his anger finally leeches away, leaving nothing but empty bitterness behind.
When I wrote the description of the episode I kept thinking I needed to summarize more, but there was just way, way too much going on, as much as in any 48 minutes of television I’ve ever seen, and yet it still not only told a great, great story, it delivered an emotional knock-out punch.
One of the very, very best.
The entire description and commentary is at:
http://www.wordsmiths.net/MacGeorge/episodes/OneMinutetoMidnight.htm
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Date: 2008-02-13 08:20 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2008-02-13 03:51 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2008-02-13 03:52 pm (UTC)From:The sweater
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Date: 2008-02-13 08:12 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2008-02-13 08:19 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2008-02-13 08:22 pm (UTC)From:See, I told you I was confused. I always thought it was supposed to be Methos who was wearing Duncan's sweater.
I guess I need to pay more attention to the clothes.
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Date: 2008-02-13 08:24 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2008-02-13 09:06 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2008-02-13 10:44 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2008-02-14 12:10 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2008-02-13 11:04 pm (UTC)From:These guys and the closet raiding!
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Date: 2008-02-14 12:00 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2008-02-14 12:07 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2008-02-14 12:12 am (UTC)From:[nods] Uh huh.