HLS4: 'Through A Glass, Darkly'

[ithildyn]

Highlander Season Four

Through A Glass, Darkly, Air Date: May 1996

MacLeod's old friend Warren Cochrane is hiding a horrible secret he can't bear to remember. Realizing that an Immortal who won't remember what he is is soon a dead Immortal, MacLeod tries to help Warren by reminding him of the history they shared together, of their battles for

Comments

[amberleewriter]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, one of the reasons I continue to rewatch Highlander all these years later has to do with the fact that episodes take on additional depth as the seasons progress. "Through A Glass Darkly" is one of those episodes.

I know that David thinks this episode folds in on itself -- caves under its own weight -- and there is a certain amount of truth to this. Rashomon, the classic by Kurosawa, has been rehashed in various ways over the years. The problem with the POV change based story is that you must always wonder which view is "truth." There is a tension which must be maintained for the method to play properly. This tension is absent for me in "Darkly." With Highlander we always assume that Duncan's position is the one of right (even when this is sometimes not the case) because he is our main character and hero. Also, the fact that they introduce Cochrane as "damaged" mentally -- having amnesia and possibly unstable -- does nothing to make us question Duncan's recollection of events. Putting Warren's recollections on an even par with Duncan's might have given this episode an added layer of tension to an otherwise dark and somewhat slow and repetitive episode.

The interesting things, for me, about this story come in the form of implications. Methos has lost Alexa and has returned to Paris to inter her body and grieve -- an interesting location choice. He is still a part of the Watchers and has access to files. He has free run of Shakespeare and Company and chooses to spend time there in spite of the fact that Don was killed at that location. Duncan and Methos both agree that whatever is wrong with Warren must be psychological -- that Immortal healing precluded it being a physical injury (which I found interesting). Methos implies that while Warren clearly has issues that his memories of the situation might not be entirely out of order because people have differing points of view. Methos, in a clearcut bit of black and white cynicism, tells Duncan to simply kill Warren instead of helping him. Heck of a suggestion and telling of how "Methos" may "play the game."

Then we learn Warren killed his student.

Yet again, Highlander writers set up something that becomes laden later. MacLeod can't fathom the idea of a teacher taking a student's head. He chooses to force Warren to live with his action instead of "putting him out of his misery." How much more filled with meaning are the scenes between that pair after the events of the Ahriman arc?

Overall, the real story was about different ways individual Immortals deal with grief and death; how they cope with disappointment, disillusionment, and inability to achieve their dreams. I had always hoped they would revisit Warren as a character post-Ahriman. I thought it would have given the writers another opportunity to examine these issues from a fresh perspective. A further Warren story might have delved deeper into Duncan's healing process and focused on the idea of redemption and atonement. Sadly, however, we never got to see such an episode. Instead, we get to play with the possibility in fiction.

[ithildyn]

Methos, in a clearcut bit of black and white cynicism, tells Duncan to simply kill Warren instead of helping him.

One of my favourite Methos moments.