highlander4

Homeland

Brothers In Arms

It took me an unfeasibly long time to figure out who was aiming at whom when I saw this for the first time
I don't think it's ever explained. What is Kord doing at the airport?
Nobody should be forced to fight their way back to consciousness to the sound of someone singing army chants
"Long time since anyone called me boy scout" god I should hope so, it's something I'd put a stop to as soon as possible
Whilst Vancouver makes a very shoddy South Pacific, it makes a surprisingly convincing Vietnam
It's just their bad luck that they crib a plot from the only recent Vietnam film I've actually seen. "Casualties Of War" anyone?
That's a surprisingly well done scene
Most of the less recent past wouldn't have shot him though
These people know distances, none of this '20 miles in an afternoon after a tennis match' Jeri Taylor crap (if you've read 'Pathways' you know what I mean). 16 miles is a long way
It disturbs me that the dojo floor is so sweaty it requires a mop
Weren't they heading back to try and find a peaceful solution to the troubles in her country?
"Won't fire" and they say forewarned is forearmed...
I know this eventually falls under the heading of 'giving him something to live for', but doesn't it seem a bit more like taking advantage when he's down?
Joe's just a bit better at keeping his mouth shut
It's paintball, get over it
Maybe Joe could get his bar consecrated...
Okay, he's good, it's lovely to watch that kind of classic sidewards fencing stance next to Mac's much more head-on two-handed style
"Everybody keeps saying that" and everybody's going to be right
Pushing him off the roof was just mean
Charlie desperately wondering why MacLeod couldn't have told him this earlier. Perhaps before he got stabbed in the gut by a man he couldn't kill

The Innocent

Callum Keith Rennie is absolutely gorgeous as Tyler, although he does look like a ferret, very sexy ferret but... I think it's something to do with the teeth
I'm slightly worried by Mikey's reciting the train timetables, I'm far more worried by the fact that my Dad can actually do this with the entire British railway network
They're very fond of shooting these western things in that sepia monochrome rather than in colour. Possibly that's to create atmosphere and so on, but personally I suspect it's to hide quite how green the Vancouver scenery actually is
Did Mac have to make his point by dragging Chaske through the entire town? Could he not have subtly sneaked in the back, or pretended the Indian was his, or something that might have been ethically wrong but would probably have prevented the poor boy from getting shot in the back?
American Railways do have bloody ugly locomotives don't they
Mac is naked for no good reason
This would be more impressive if it wasn't for the fact that since 'Dramatic License' I haven't been able to listen to the Hallelujah Chorus without breaking into giggles

Leader Of The Pack

Why is the art department doing classes on arms and armour? That just seems more of a history department kind of thing
"Can he teach?" Do they care?
I would prefer to have mares in a battle, they're a lot more predictable than stallions and generally a sight more vicious as well
The Duchess is an arrogant little bitch
Impressively it is actually the punk who killed Tessa, who's thirty second appearance two years ago leads to a whole episode
Umm bathrobe...

Double Eagle

Is he hustling someone at Mah Jongg?
Those are some very threatening sideburns
That see-through shirt is quite slutty for MacLeod
Did she acquire a lisp with the French accent?
I would be suspicious if someone started welcoming me that enthusiastically
Lack of chalk? Overdue library books? No one turned up today?
"I'm not French" which actually she is
"Some rat's got it and he's probably winning" in Richie's defence, I would have laughed too. God I love that line
Amanda appears to be wrapped in a moon blanket
If she was intent on fighting, she would just have stabbed him when he turned around, well, I would anyway
How did Kit get off the bottom of the ocean?
Notice Amanda doesn't actually apologise
If I'd picked the queen I would have gone "I win, I win" and not been gracious at all

Reunion

"South Pacific" you expect everyone to suddenly burst into song
They've filmed this scene before, tracks in the sand
Also very large and flat for a Pacific island, and kind of overcast
He's not the captain any more, they've taken away his pistol and his cocked hat
"Be grateful I don't take your head" well, he'd have nowhere to put it on a ship
Oh, why am I not surprised that they've met before?
"Real family", Mac thinks 'do you think we'd have hellspawn like that?' Actually, I think they probably would
He's 800 years old and they still give him milk at dinner?
Truly horrid early mediaeval wig
That's quite a weight of sword for Amanda, let alone Kenny
Surviving by wearing a succession of silly wigs, fooling people into thinking she's someone else
Poor Kenny's having to sleep on the couch whilst these two make out
"Tell me the truth" in other words, lie through your teeth as convincingly as possible
"Rainy day" in Seacouver? That'd be tomorrow then
Am I going to get a chance to say "Oh my God, you killed Kenny!"? Actually no
Mac and Kenny doing some kind of bizarre square dance
They're both very toothy women aren't they? Does he have a thing for toothy women, how many teeth did Tessa have?
No! Not the dry ice!
Mac's always right about people, it's one of his most annoying characteristics. Dumb and right at the same time
Satisfying amount of naked MacLeod in this episode

The Colonel

Amanda is less than impressed by Joe's lemon cut
That's a horrible top. Awful wig too, and it's not even a flashback
Very punctual henchmen
As he proves he's not Mel Gibson
Oh don't make such a face, it'll go back in
How does MacLeod feel about Amanda bringing other women back to his apartment? I have no answer to that question
Generic war footage from 'For Tomorrow We Die'
Is that "stop" punctuation or instruction? "War over. Stop!"
It's another bad wig
Oh, I'd have to do it. Tied to a chair, threatened with a tarantula, and still I'd have to shout "You can't handle the truth!", I wouldn't be a fringedweller if I didn't
No, that's in next week's lesson plan
Ambulance, Amanda
You wouldn't have thought MacLeod was one of the world's greatest readers
Intimating a slightly different relationship between Joe and MacLeod
You expect him to do Riverdance at any moment, his hands are in the right place
Ah, how men talk about things in Scotland

Reluctant Heroes

He looks like a very young Peter O'Toole
Well, it was a bit of a Flash Gordon question really
Never ask that question "What's the worst that could happen?"
"Entertained" "I play the piano awfully well..."
Quite a nice disclaimer, as long as Queen Anne doesn't turn out to be immortal
There are security cameras... And courts aren't especially keen on confessions forced out of people at gunpoint
That's right, give the crazed woman alcohol, that'll calm her down
"Where's my sword?" Well, if he doesn't know...
"Not a rich man" despite the $200,000 he threw at Richie
He knows somebody's standing behind it
He never tried to pay Mac to testify
She is so dead
Oh that was helpful Mac, perhaps the shop owner needs to take the fringedweller approach and go for the third, unavailable option
"The ear of royalty" on a string round his neck perhaps? Although not the toes, because that would be weird. It makes you wonder where he lost it
Instant barbecue if you have a quickening in there
"Sister from San Francisco" oh that's right, bring another innocent into the firing line

The Wrath Of Kali

I'm sorry, I'm finding it a very hard sell with the turban
Here human, human, human...
With a microscope and some very long tweezers
They should be very proud they taught the British anything, tea and polo isn't a bad haul really
Points for effort, although if you were married to weasel boy, you'd try it on with MacLeod too
Well, he's exploring something...
Nice move, 5.4, 5.5? No, maybe just a 5 as he nearly dropped her on the swoon
The camera shaking is cheap, a torpedo hasn't just hit the Enterprise
On behalf of the archaeological conservators of this world, you don't mend antique vases with superglue
I wonder where in Vancouver they used to double for India?
She's a raving nymphomaniac...
Where's the fun in being perfect? You'd miss out on all that comedy potential when you screw up
You still haven't been in love, you've just had some really good sex
Where else would you bury someone?
He's set fire to a couple of his ex-girlfriends hasn't he? Yeah, but they were dead at the time. That's what I meant, he just hasn't buried that many, he seems to have torched them instead

Chivalry

Well, she could still do that, but she wouldn't get much of a response
How would you know if it was mid-life?
He should have kept Richie there, it's not easy to hang a door by yourself
And what exactly does she grab? Whatever comes to hand
As the poor model thinks, 'is there some kind of subtext here I'm not getting?'
Although there is neither singing nor chocolate, relieved about the one, slightly disappointed about the other
This is where me and a friend knackered my season four tape by rewinding it one too many times to see Adrian stand up naked in the bath
Oh my god he's wearing pantaloons
He seems to be missing her mouth a lot, there's romantic kissing and then there's sucking her nostrils
"Have breakfast in bed" I think she just did
She's dressing him in curtain after curtain, like Julie Andrews in 'The Sound Of Music', he's just a very large Von Trapp child
No, he just sets fire to then
He's got very silly trousers on. It's a martial discipline in itself, fighting without tripping over your silly trousers. Perhaps that's the key, your enemies are too busy laughing at your silly trousers to attack
That's possibly my favourite Methos line ever "not only are you naive now you are weaponless", I think it's the total satisfaction in the delivery that does it
All this could have been avoided by hiring a male artist
I bring you here, I dress you in my best curtains, and this is how you repay me...
Love the panicked rub at Methos' neck when Mac takes the sword away
Look carefully and you'll see Mac sneak down the grass behind them, so it looks like he's come all the way up the path
He's not burning this one. She's probably too waterlogged
God you could use the gap between her breasts as an umbrella stand
"Been dead 400 years ago" yes, probably when she kissed him up against the coach
Why should Kristin let Maria work for someone else? She signed her, did the portfolio, the photographs, why should she then let someone else make a profit from her?
The girl clings to Peter like she's Clamp the Mighty Limpet. I'd be frightened of overbalancing us both, and pulling him in too. Then he'd be lying on top of you, soaking wet, where's the fear factor?
The move Methos uses to kill Kristin is the same one that Mac used on him in the dojo
They're all beige, how hard a choice can it be?
"Got plenty of time" no, he hasn't

Timeless

How does he know the immortal's above the stage? I didn't think the swish came with a direction finder
Love the way she takes the other wine glass, there's the sign of healthy paranoia at work
What kind of acoustics do you get in a gym?
Methos missing the perfect opportunity to retaliate by explaining the rules of cricket
The French hate Paris
MacLeod encouraging Claudia to play nice
Yet another example of how easy it is to get straight British men n women's clothing
"A shrew..." that's Mac getting the point then
"Very good at what you do" which considering what he's doing is something of a relief
He really should have gone with the blonde wig
Why the lingering shot of Claudia then?
There isn't a woman in the world who wouldn't fall for that line
Or that one
Although if she heard herself being referred to as "the help" she might have second thoughts
That's the best line ever for a dramatic exit, especially if you declaim the "exeunt" too
Notice he doesn't do it in Swahili
"Husband, lover, seven dwarves," and apparently loads of spare bedrooms

The Blitz

Something Wicked

Is there a more pointless pursuit in the world than watching golf?
I'm reserving judgement on the captioning
They were the lentils from 'Shadows'. God I've been watching this show for way too long if I'm starting to recognise lentils
Richie desperately trying to make it seem more exciting, "spiritual scud-missile"
You'd have thought that being a four-hundred year old immortal would be a pretty strong base for open-mindedness
What is this place? Some kind of giant Canadian treehouse?
Flashback from 'Line Of Fire'
Of course they can blame him for that, you jump out in front of somebody's horse and start waving your arms about, you should know you're going to cause an accident
That's surprisingly Celtic for a Native American holy place
Mac and Coltec meditate their way through a Pink Floyd projection
That's a good close-up for a security camera
He was planning on watching golf, that's got to be a sign of mental instability
Got to love 50's MacLeod, "you dig?"
Nice if oddly-placed shot of the Northern Lights
Joe taking a mature attitude to the problem
I don't get the 'Wonderful Life' metaphor
Freeform jazz poetry, now if that doesn't prove he's beyond help, nothing will
Richie's doing a damn good job against Mac here, not many immortals last that long
Oh well done Joe!
They manage to cram a huge amount of stuff in 48 minutes here

Deliverance

Not entirely sure about the little knitted hat as a sign of evil
I like Davis the boat captain
The allegedly perceptive Sean Burns completely failing to pick up on Duncan's murderous tone of voice
I'm not sure that replacing one hallucination with another is the best practice in the world
"Wifey"?
Is she in the habit of inviting strange brawny sailors into her house?
Nice jumper
Good shot Dominique! That'll teach him to bait a woman he's just screwed over
The Volvo not perhaps the best choice for a quick getaway vehicle
He's just slightly misplaced
So he's tried to kill Richie, beaten the crap out of Davis, slept with his wife, nicked a car and thrown Methos across the church, but in the act of ultimate evil, Mac proves he's really gone bad by running a stop sign
For such a major character, it's surprising just how little time Sean Burns actually has on screen
Love the way Sean is stretching his hand out and stealthily backing away at the same time
Oh for crying out loud Mac, the Church council have only just replaced those chairs from last time the place got trashed
Healthy dose of paranoia from Methos. "It might be better if I kept that..."
I'm just waiting for Mac to slip on the damp steps and land on his arse
Ooh, and we're back in the front cover of 'A Saucerful Of Secrets' again
I'd never really thought about it before, but all that ivory carving must be a nightmare to get clean
Is PW doubling for the other MacLeod in this sequence? There's just something in the way he moves that seems very familiar

Promises

Ooh, even for 'Highlander' that's an awful flashback beard, and some equally terrifying flashback singing
I wonder what beach they use for the desert scenes?
Perfect excuse to get Duncan to take her shopping in Paris
Is that the same dress Amanda wears in 'To Be'?
Nice to see the President in a formal fez
Kassim needs to hire better lackeys, that or just do it himself
Mac tries the 18th century equivalent of looking busy and holding a clipboard
Somehow I don't ever think the princess is going to find out
Nice to see Rachel finds the idea of being married to Mac ludicrous
He sent a gun in a shoebox? That's either very or not at all professional and I can't decide which
Those screens seem all but designed to hide assassins behind
I'm always amazed that this episode is only 48 minutes long, I know 2 hour films that don't have this much plot
Mac didn't honour his word, why would he expect a power hungry dictator to be any better?
Oh poor boat!
"He ran wildly to the open window Comrade Chief Investigator." "No I didn't! No I didn't!" "...we were counting, and when we reached three, away he went..."
Maybe they were aiming for Notre Dame and missed
Won't Mac get hot fighting in the big chunky sweater?
Some lovely white/black colour coding here as the pov changes
They haven't been together that long, it was a different boat in season one, unless it was the same boat and they just changed the name
And you so think it's going to end there...

Methuselah's Gift

Just for the record, I think this is possibly the best single episode of 'Highlander' they've ever made (run close by 'Duende')
Brief appearance by Dan Giger in the crowd
Well, if you will go eyeing women up on the street...
Love the "research" lady
You can't usually see the Tower from Mac's barge, have they moved it after the explosion?
Scared out of her mind, but she still had time to do her nails
Spying tip, the trick is to actually read the paper
The worlds only visual spelling pun, watch out for the man going for his gum
It never occurs to Mac to follow the guy in the car by getting into his car, he has to try and run after it?
Again, I can't believe they pack this amount of story into 48 minutes and still have to pad it out with flashbacks from 'Legacy'
Methos can look as righteous as he likes when he refuse to deny trying to kill Amanda, but really, he's just being snotty
Amanda seems to know more about Methos than Mac does. What is their history?
Now this is what I was picturing for Angel in 'Dead End'
The rottweiler I'm babysitting can hear that cat and keeps trying to eat the TV
Would it have been to tough to pretend he didn't know he was immortal and had died for the first time? In the long history of the Watchers that must have happened at least once
That quickening's going to ruin Stern's office
Methos goes through a series of incredulous expressions
Not going to cry, not going to cry...

The Immortal Cimoli

You never see circuses on TV anymore, they used to be on every bank holiday afternoon, like 'The Empire Strikes Back'
"Twice a night, three shows on Saturday" I make that 15 shows, where does Amanda get 23 from?
I'm fond of Jean-Phillipe
Unsurprisingly, Case is scared off by clowns
Case must be a very dull immortal
The plan was to stop Mac getting killed, and it worked
Well, it's something to put on the posters, 'The Headless Magician'
You'd have though Vegas would have sprung for some new posters

Through A Glass Darkly

Huge yay for Dougray Scott, who, despite appearances and accents, is actually Welsh
This is like getting injured in a friendly two weeks before the cup final (or in a pointless and insulting Premiership play-off when you've already won the league, they just make you play a few more games before they give you the trophy)
Yes, but a barge floats when it floods
I'm fairly sure you shouldn't peg 200 year old sheets of paper up like it's laundry
My sound's a little dodgy, is that Russian Methos swears in?
Warren has the white Camarguais this time, that's usually Mac's horse
He's too short to be Liam Neeson
"You're whole bloody life..." hell, I'd be tempted to whack anyone who said that to me
I sense some doubt abut the 10,000
This is very shapeless episode. I'm not sure if it's badly written or badly edited, but it's trying to make too many points all at once and they all get lost. We only need either the separate flashbacks or the cross-cut one, not both

Double Jeopardy

Love the extra sparklies on the diamond
I wouldn't even hear the police at 5am, let alone have them actually get me out of bed
Back to this on-screen captioning that they used in 'Something Wicked'
"Wouldn't"? I think she already has
Handy break-away window in the otherwise solid stone wall
Bernard is an effete little snob
Working together perhaps, but MacLeod was under the impression that this was a date and the Inspector wasn't invited to that...
He's like T-Rexstasy or The Bootleg Beetles
Actually, here he sounds a lot more like Kuyler
That hard to find '86 Chateau d'Amazonian Tree Frog
Well, she was after the death penalty
How the hell is he keeping his balance on that girder?

Till Death

Nothing like three and a half feet of finely honed steel to spice up a marriage
She's got them like kittens on a piece of string
Immortal mice! With little swords and everything!
"Comely"? He'll be calling her a wench next
Both being very, very careful on the slippery tiled floor
Top threat, "a foot shorter and an octave higher"
Never tell her the giant vulture metaphor or she really is leaving
Why divide the record collection? Take it all and anything you don't want you can try and skip across the Seine
Lobster mate for life? There's something I didn't know
Well, at least he can admit he's wrong...
"N. O." Pause as MacLeod frantically spells...
Plying Methos with tea and custard creams
Like the sound of a ten year honeymoon
Love the very deliberate feet
Robert professionally katherining Duncan there
Yep, they are hideous sheets, nothing like as nice as Angel's

Judgement Day

Why isn't Joe in Paris with Mac in the first place and why do the Watchers need the deception, couldn't they just call him back to HQ?
This was the first Methos episode I ever saw, and right from the beginning I was beating him to his own dialogue. "Yes, yes I know"
"Find it again" he buried it under a rock somewhere in Outer Mongolia, only to be foiled by a Scotsman with a spade
That's a shoddy piece of parking, "don't worry I can walk to the pavement from here"
That's the same chateau, just from the other side. Also the same chateau that Kristin had in 'Chivalry'
I like deliberately intoning guy
They need bigger trees
"Way in," Methos of course, just tries the front gate
As this was the first non-season one episode I'd seen, these flashbacks were actually quite helpful. They are from, 'Watchers', 'Hunters', 'Watchers' again, 'The Colonel', 'Turnabout', 'The Vampire', 'Cross Of St Antoine', 'Methos' and 'Finale pt II'
Mac's just doing that to be destructive
I would have complained here, regional co-ordinators are not ordinary field watchers and therefore aren't a jury of his peers
Unfortunately on the falsifying chronicles charge he's more than guilty, and my inner historian is jumping up and down saying 'shoot him, shoot him'
Do the Watchers honestly think that Duncan MacLeod is the only immortal to find out about the Watchers. Hell, if he figured it out, I'm surprised they're still a secret society at all
Methos manages to change Mac's mind by agreeing with everything he says
Joe's secret plan, 'I might not be able to stop you, but damn I'm going to make you feel guilty for doing it'

One Minute To Midnight

What's the reference in the title? I can think of an Iron Maiden track called "Two Minutes To Midnight" but I doubt that's what they're aiming for
Mac has a little-black-saving-the-universe hat
Extensive training in repairing bullet wounds in 1453
Didn't it occur to them to unload the wagon before trying to lift it?
For an immortal who's at least 65 years old, Irena doesn't put up much of a fight. Isn't she carrying a sword? And why doesn't she use it to cut that bastard's balls off?
Well, he was dead, it wasn't like they thought he was going to need his boots
I adore the whole scene at the funeral parlour, "we're not that close..."
Methos' patent Harry-the-cat look
My god it's a symbol of his inner mortality! That coffin just perched on Joe's shoulder...
Yes, but kill all the immortals, and you're out of a job