Friday, April 3, 2020

Highlander: The Series 3x17 - Take Back the Night

This is a pretty good episode that feels like it should be a part of a larger storyline. Yet another episode that introduces some cool one-off characters and ideas that could have been a lot more, but so it goes. CAUTION: Contains no Methos. Not sure when he'll be back. 

 The shots are going to look a bit different for this episode because I watched it in a different format. This might be the case for the next couple of episodes. Regardless, here's Ceirdwyn, our immortal antagonist (or is she?) of the week.

 She's out with her her boy toy, her man-friend, Stephen. He's a mere mortal, which bothers him in the face of her immortality. They have an argument about something unimportant and he leaves to get the car. That's the last time she ever sees him, because...

 ...he gets gunned down by punks outside. It has turned out that Paris is just as shitty as an American city!

Cierdwyn sees this, so they gun her down too.

 The punks are all like "huh, that was probably unnecessary" before taking his wallet and fleeing.

 Duncan and Maurice are down at the racetrack, cheering for Rad Racer Richie. And by cheering, I mean frowning less sternly than the norm. What are they, German?

 Duncan gets pickpocketed by a street urchin (no, not Maurice).

 Dunk circles around and apprehends the kid, whose name is Paulo. He's from a rough background, and pretty much goes around stealing.

 Elsewhere, Ceirdwyn has awakened from her death and is putting on ACTUAL WAR PAINT to hunt down the gang.

 Flashback...way further back than usual. England in 60 A.D. was in the full throes of Roman invasion, though they found themselves being resisted by the Celts.

 Cierdwyn is one of the fiercest, most vicious Celts. She spends her time with this other lady who may or may not be her lover, making fun of men for how big and slow they are. Meanwhile, the men of the tribe are big slow dwarf-looking guys.

 The Romans! ::Roman Reigns' theme plays::

 The Celts ambush the Roman infantry column and they have this bloodbath in the woods.

This picture is what you'll see next to "The History of Britain" in the encyclopedia, because it's pretty much all a lot of this.

 The Romans form a phalanx to ward off the relatively-primitive Celts.

 From there, they launch spears. Which begs the question, why doesn't anyone ever throw spears back?

 Cierdwyn gets sniped from a distance while fighting, and that's all she wrote.

 ...except she wakes up later, finding all of her Celt allies dead, including her lover. ...I think they're lovers, it's never explicitly said. The show aired in 1995, not 1999.

 Cierdwyn burns with rage and plots the destruction of everyone on the Roman side. This is likely how she met noted Roman immortal Marcus Constantine, who the DVD info-page lists as her first teacher.

 Back in the present, the gang of youths is hiding out on the bad side of town. The Conor McGregor side.

 This dark, smoky places look like they could be in Seacouver. Actually, most of this episode looks like it's actually in Seacouver. Did they film one more episode before they left for Paris, but it aired later so that the mid-season finale would line up with "Song of the Executioner"? It's possible.

 Cierdwyn, wearing Stephen's leather coat, ambushes this very Theon-esque thug when he's away from the others.

 Duncan, meanwhile, is bringing Paolo back to his "home", which happens to be the same place the gang hangs out because he's sorta part of the same group. Peripherally. He's no mad-dog killer!

 They arrive, and Duncan finds a guy who was murdered with a sword...then senses somebody.

 The rest of the gang already left, and she's ready to beat up whoever this new arrival is.

 Duncan walks in, and...they recognize each other, of course. Is this going to be a battle?, not so much. She explains that she's hunting down the guys who killed her top lad, her main squeeze.

 From there we flashback to 1746 Scotland, where Duncan is escorting Bonnie-Prince Charlie after the Scots suffered a crushing defeat to the English. As long as he stays alive, Scotland still has a shot at independence.

 Unfortunately, Bonnie-Prince Charlie is a bit of an arse, and complains all the time. Most people in this land revere him as a great hero, though.

 They arrive back at the hamlet of Duncan, where Cierdwyn runs out and jumps on him. This is a fairly legendary shot from the intro of the show for most of its run, and I never knew which episode it was from until now.

 Yep, in 1746 these two are an item. Cierdwyn is high-energy and likeable here when she isn't LOSING EVERYTHING like in the present.

 She makes fun of Bonnie-Prince Charlie, not realizing who he is, then has to bow in embarrassment.

 Duncan is like -_- at her for this.

 The best way to keep Charlie safe at this point is to dress him up like a lady, FFVII-style. Cierdwyn does her best to make him look like a comely maiden. doesn't really work because he's like six foot four and has a large manly jaw.

Cierdwyn is really great in these flashbacks.

 Time for Duncan to leave again to fight for Scotland. Cierdwyn isn't happy about this, because the she thinks the war is already lost and at this point Duncan is just killing English soldiers for revenge. They have families too, and so forth, and it accomplishes nothing.

 Duncan basically tells her she doesn't understand, and takes off. Ouch.

It occurs to me that having immortals on your side in hand-to-hand wars is practically cheating. Especially if you've got a few of them.

 Back in the present, Duncan gives Richie the rundown of what's been going on. He'd like it if Cierdwyn stopped murdering people for revenge, but he can't exactly tell her not to when the situation was reversed for them in the past.

Richie suits up for battle. TIME FOR THE B-PLOT.


French Vince: "This is some GOOD SHIT."

 Duncan goes back out to Le Zone (the Paris version...we sure this isn't all Seacouver?) to look for Cierdwyn.

 Another flashback! Lots of them in this episode. A bunch of English troops are sitting around laughing about how they just hanged some Scots (who we see...yeah, this show is sometimes rough).

 Duncan gallops through the camp, ripping and tearing!

 Enraged Duncan isn't someone you want coming after you, and he completely mauls these guys.

 Eventually he ends up back at his hamlet, with a Steven Seagal coma beard. He killed English troops, as many as he could find, until he couldn't do it anymore.

 He says he got nothing out of it and that it didn't bring back anyone that they killed. Cierdwyn, meanwhile, is completely gorgeous.

 Back in the present, they're enjoying wine and candlelight at her casa.

 If she wasn't grieving, and if he wasn't missing Anne, there's about a 95% chance that said wine and candlelight would lead to sexiness. Instead, they talk about their feelings, and Duncan reveals that he wants to see Anne again but isn't sure if she wants to see him.

 Regardless, he convinces her to honor her mate by ending her quest for death.

 She goes to his grave and gives him back his leather coat. She says they were together for 15 years, and even if it takes her another 15 to get over him, she'll do it.

 Elsewhere, the hooligans arm up to go after the woman who killed one of them. They've got her address, probably from Stephen's wallet that they lifted. Paolo is like "ey I don't think this is such a good idea guys" but gets ignored.

She was ready to let them all live, and they had to go and do this. Welp.

 Elsewhere, Richie and that German-looking guy he has a rivalry with are kicking at each other on the track. That's right, they're being stupid.

Here's actual episode footage of the result, as Richie ends up taking quite a spill.

Both he and the other guy "die" in a fiery wreck. ...except the other guy actually dies.

Duncan is like "holy shit, dude"

Maurice: "It's a shame, a guy so young. Had so much ahead of 'em."

He then drifts off into daydreaming about all of the women Richie probably could have bedded over the years.

Duncan senses an immortal and gives Maurice the old "it's getting late" to shoo him out.

Richie stumbles in, burned and ashy. Well, now he's officially died twice. That one HAD to hurt. He says he walked here from the morgue. No one noticed him with this Shroud of Turin esque morgue sheet on.

Elsewhere, the goons are breaking into Cierdwyn's house. Thanks to Paolo's snitching, here to cut them off at the pass is...

...Duncan, who expertly dispatches these guys. If you're gonna point a gun at Duncan, don't do it from a foot away. Not being afraid of getting shot means he has no trouble at all grabbing your arm out of the air and slamming you into the nearest wall.

Cierdwyn corners the guy who shot Stephen.

She mulls over whether or not to stab him, while he completely fails to shoot her in response. Duncan walks in and tells her not to do it, to let the police (who are outside) have these guys.

Very reluctantly, she backs off, and French PD swing into action.

Before we go, she tells Duncan that if he cares about Anne, he should call her and tell her the truth.

He realizes she's right, and leaves her to it.

Elsewhere, Anne arrives at Joe's Bar, after Joe told her he had something important to tell her about.

Joe pours her a drink, and sorta comes off like he's flirting with her. She's still grieving over Duncan's "death", and just wants to know why he called her here.

Joe says it's time for her to learn the truth about who Duncan was, then hands her the phone.

She answers it, and it's...



Ceirdwyn was really cool, nowhere near as dour as she looks in this shot. Lot of personality, has a lot of history to draw from. I wouldn't be surprised at all if she shows up again, but I don't think she does. It's a bit of a shame. Speaking of great characters who needed to show up again and didn't...Marcus Constantine. Yeah, they could have done a lot more with both of these characters, but I suppose there's only so much room on a 45-minute show every week.

1 comment:

  1. No Methos? Denied!

    Le Zone is French for... The Zone? Not again!

    I'm just glad that this wasn't another one of the "immortal kills all of the bad guys so Duncan kills her for being a murderer" episodes.