HLS4: 'Deliverance'

[ithildyn]

Highlander Season Four

Deliverance, Air Date: February 1996

MacLeod arrives in France, leaving a trail of hate and destruction in his wake. Methos finds him and discovers just how evil MacLeod has become when he tries to take Methos' head on holy ground. After MacLeod kills another good friend, Methos realizes that the only way to save MacLeod

Comments

[amberleewriter]

Yes, I know. Late to the party. In my defense, I was traveling and didn't see most of these posted at the time. Now that I'm home, my two cents.

I think I am one of the few for whom the "Dark Quickening" episode falls flat. I really liked the idea and found the first of the two episodes compelling but tying it up in the manner in which they did seemed, to me, bad writing. Sure, Methos looks great and has some good lines. Yes, Adrian gives an interesting performance as Evil!Duncan. Still, to have Duncan do so many of the things he did (from screwing that man's wife to killing Sean Burns) and then sewing it up in one episode with him in the spring (not to mention what I felt was a distinct lack of threat to Methos' or Duncan's head) just didn't jive for me. IMHO, this needed another episode to really work. They should have given over this episode to Duncan and Sean - the idea that Duncan was now unable to be saved through logic and reason -- then brought Methos in toward the end to find a dead Sean and wonder if they'd lost Duncan for good. A third episode could have given more time to the idea of redemption and internal struggle, could have focused on what a Dark Quickening was, and pulled in the Watchers a bit more thus making some kind of religious based mystic resolution a bit more explicable at the end. It might have worked more on the principal of an intervention at that point as well.

However, this was not the case and I, for one, was very disappointed. Evil!Duncan was interesting. It seemed such a waste to get rid of him in two episodes. I'd have loved to see him out hunting heads just for the sake of taking Quickenings. Getting involved with mortals just to use them. Thieving and whoring. There are, down in there, some very dark things about Duncan and this arc gave them the possibility of exploring those facets of a complex man only to toss the opportunity away. All I can think when I watch this episode is, "Gosh, what a shame." (Oh, and damn does Methos look good in a turtleneck.)