HLS5: 'Revelation 6:8'

[ithildin]

Highlander Season Five

Revelation 6:8
Air Date: Feb. 1997

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 via TV.com

Next week: Duende

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[macgeorge1.livejournal.com]

Part 2...

Whatever judgments are made and whomever makes them, Methos has, in some deep part of his soul, recognized that Kronos could not be allowed to live, not just for his past acts, but for the very essence of who he was. Methos’ dilemma was that, at one time, he was no different from Kronos, and no less worthy to die. The fact that Methos wanted desperately to live at virtually any cost also cast him more into Kronos’ moral cesspool. And that brings us to the fight with Silas. Boy, is it ever clear he didn’t want to do that, so why did he? He couldn’t possibly know the outcome of the fight between Duncan and Kronos. It could go either way, so he didn’t do it to help MacLeod.

Then did he do it just to save Cassandra? In my opinion, that was truly at the heart of his actions. The self-disgust he manifests when he talks about Cassandra dying a dozen times in the desert being worth it just to get away from them makes it clear to me that Cassandra is a living representative of all those he had wronged so horribly so long ago. I don’t think Methos knew until he was faced with the idea of Cassandra’s death at the Horsemen’s hands, he finally did that which, up to that point, I don’t think he had been ready to do – to lay his life on the line for a concept, a notion of honor, a belief that it was the *right* thing to do.

Duncan, it should be noted, never suggested that Methos deserved to die, only that he was appalled at the history that Cassandra had related, and that he felt betrayed that Methos had lied to him. He has certainly killed and/or hunted for personal vengeance (Kern. Culbraith. Kiernan.), so he understands Cassandra’s feelings, but he also knows today’s Methos and has learned to trust him with his life. Every step of the way, Methos’ actions can be interpreted as either self serving and manipulative, or altruistic, and Duncan never really knows which, but he chooses to cling to the possibility that Methos is still the man he originally believed (or wanted him) to be. Very, very complicated, and not easy to get past the sense that Duncan had been played for a fool, and dangerously so.

It is hardly surprising that in the end Duncan is still angry and suspicious that he still doesn’t know what Methos’ agenda really was, whether he *and* Cassandra had merely been pawns manipulated to extricate a dangerous thorn from Methos’ side. Methos’ only true moment of complete vulnerability had been when he wept at the loss of his friend Silas – a simple man, but also a beast who had smiled as he watched Caspian murder the doctor, and as he watched Kronos prepare to kill Cassandra with the knife she had stabbed him with so long ago.

Did Cassandra decide not to kill Methos because of Duncan? At least partially. He was the voice of reason, of sanity. He had been telling her all along that vengeance would never bring her peace – a lesson he had learned the hard way. It was something she knew intellectually but until that moment she hadn’t come face to face with the power of letting go. Not killing Methos must have been incredibly freeing for her, once she was past the immediate emotional crisis. She finally let go of thousands of years of hate and fear and took back her life. I’d like to think she might have done that on her own, but Duncan’s voice demanding that Methos live was the small push she needed to make that break with her past.

... cont.

[shadadukal]

Every step of the way, Methos’ actions can be interpreted as either self serving and manipulative, or altruistic

I kinda think they're both, although more self-serving and manipulative than altruistic.