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So much for the films
now it’s the turn of the TV series.
Duncan MacLeod was born in 1592 and raised up to be the clan Chieftain. Like Connor he dies for the first time in battle and is driven from his home for refusing to rest in peace.
Important Lovers
As a young man, Duncan was cursed by a Gypsy never to marry and he certainly doesn’t have much luck with his true lady-loves. The first, Debra Campbell, is also loved by his cousin and the triangle ends very badly, with the cousin dying in a duel with Duncan and Debra falling to her death. He also loves a Lakota woman called Little Deer (I think) who is murdered by an Immortal called Kronos (more about him later) along with the rest of her tribe while Duncan is away. When the series starts, Duncan is deeply in love with an artist called Tessa. She survives being kidnapped and menaced by numerous Immortal enemies, only to be killed in a mugging and die in his arms shortly after they become engaged. In Endgame, it is revealed that he did marry once but the woman (Faith or Kate) was pre-Immortal and when he killed her to trigger her Immortality, she fled and never forgave him. There is also a beautiful thief called Amanda who moves in and out of his life but never stays for long.
Richard Ryan
Another important person in Duncan’s life in the series is Rich/Richie Ryan, a streetkid that he and Tessa basically foster. He is also shot in the mugging that kills Tessa, but revives as an Immortal and becomes Duncan’s student.
The Watchers
During the series, it is revealed that there is a secret society of mortals who chronicle the Immortals’ lives, taking an oath only to record and not interfere. Unfortunately, some of them have decided to disregard that and are killing Immortals, calling themselves the Hunters. When they kill a friend of Duncan’s, a priest and pacifist called Darius, he tracks down his own Watcher, Joe Dawson. Working together, they eventually manage to stop the Hunters and get rid of their leader, Horton. They also become friends, though not always easy ones due to Joe’s conflict of interest. Joe is a blues guitarist and singer and runs a bar.
Methos
Methos is the name of the oldest known Immortal, generally thought to be a myth and that is the way he would prefer to stay. He is at least 5000 years old but says he can’t remember anything before taking his first head, so could be older. Methos initially works as a researcher for the Watchers, posing as mortal and investigating the existence of himself under the name Adam Pierson. He is sarcastic and charming, and disclaims any particular wisdom to declare himself to be "just a guy". He has an inordinate fondness for beer and demonstrates a strong interest in keeping Duncan alive. He arrives in Season 3 and brings a whole big pile of slash potential with him. He and Duncan try hard to protect each other while bantering, teasing and flirting and it’s all very sweet. Though, this being Highlander, the angst is naturally never far behind.
The Dark Quickening
Cue the angst. Duncan beheads someone who has beheaded an awful lot of evil Immortals and is basically possessed. He rapes a woman, tries to kill Joe, would have beheaded Rich (his student) if Joe hadn’t shot him and does take the head of another friend. Interestingly, he never tries to kill Methos, and it is Methos that is able to cure him by taking him on a quick trip to a Holy Spring.
The Horsemen Arc
Cue some more angst. This is where it is revealed that there is rather a lot more to Methos’ past than the witty, slightly geeky scholar he apparently is now. Three millennia ago, he was the leader of three other Immortals and they spent a thousand years or so raping, pillaging and massacring their way across the land, murdering or enslaving all those they encountered. They were known as The Four Horsemen and Methos was Death (yes, those Four Horsemen). One of the other Horsemen, Kronos, who coincidentally happens to also be an old enemy of Duncan’s (told you he'd turn up again), tracks Methos down in the present. Unlike Methos, he hasn’t changed since the old days. At the same time, an old lover of Duncan’s called Cassandra, who he knew before his first death, arrives. It turns out that her first death occurred at Methos’ hand and he subsequently raped and enslaved her, before eventually allowing her to escape.
There is a very painful scene between Methos and Duncan where Methos is pushed into telling him that everything Cassandra said was true and that he did it because he enjoyed it. Duncan replies that they are through, they both head off looking devastated and Methos and Kronos join up with the other two Horsemen. It all gets a bit complicated after that, but at the end of the episode, Duncan and Methos between them have killed the three other Horsemen and Duncan stops Cassandra from killing Methos, saying that he wants him to live. At the very end, Methos explains to Duncan that Cassandra is one of a thousand regrets for him, but the trust and friendship has been swamped in betrayal and hurt and it takes a long time for them to reconcile. Leading to a staple of the HL slash genre, the post-Horsemen reconciliation fic.
In the final fight, Methos and Duncan behead their opponents simultaneously and in fairly close proximity, and this seems to cause the energy to flow between them in something called a Double Quickening. I don’t know if there is anything in canon about the effects of that, but it has been explored as a link between them in quite a few stories.
The Ahriman Thing
In the final series, it is revealed that Duncan is the subject of a prophecy, never a good thing as all Buffy fans are aware. There is a demon called Ahriman that rises every millennium and Duncan is the Champion chosen to fight him in the year 2000. The demon initially tries to drive him mad, tormenting him with hallucinations of dead enemies and eventually causing him to accidentally behead Rich. Duncan is shattered enough to ask Methos to kill him, but finally recovers enough to find a way of defeating the thing. Similarly to Endgame, most fans take the view that this never happened and live happily in a Clan Denial where Rich is alive and well.
To Be/Not to Be
The final episodes ever, pretty much a spin on It’s a Wonderful Life where Duncan, who is exhausted and tired of his enemies going after his friends, regains the energy to keep going by seeing how it might have been if he had never been an Immortal. It ends with him declaring "never again", though whether that means he’s never going to give up again or that he is going to walk away to keep the people he cares about safe is open to interpretation.
I promise the recs will be in the next one!
Duncan MacLeod was born in 1592 and raised up to be the clan Chieftain. Like Connor he dies for the first time in battle and is driven from his home for refusing to rest in peace.
Important Lovers
As a young man, Duncan was cursed by a Gypsy never to marry and he certainly doesn’t have much luck with his true lady-loves. The first, Debra Campbell, is also loved by his cousin and the triangle ends very badly, with the cousin dying in a duel with Duncan and Debra falling to her death. He also loves a Lakota woman called Little Deer (I think) who is murdered by an Immortal called Kronos (more about him later) along with the rest of her tribe while Duncan is away. When the series starts, Duncan is deeply in love with an artist called Tessa. She survives being kidnapped and menaced by numerous Immortal enemies, only to be killed in a mugging and die in his arms shortly after they become engaged. In Endgame, it is revealed that he did marry once but the woman (Faith or Kate) was pre-Immortal and when he killed her to trigger her Immortality, she fled and never forgave him. There is also a beautiful thief called Amanda who moves in and out of his life but never stays for long.
Richard Ryan
Another important person in Duncan’s life in the series is Rich/Richie Ryan, a streetkid that he and Tessa basically foster. He is also shot in the mugging that kills Tessa, but revives as an Immortal and becomes Duncan’s student.
The Watchers
During the series, it is revealed that there is a secret society of mortals who chronicle the Immortals’ lives, taking an oath only to record and not interfere. Unfortunately, some of them have decided to disregard that and are killing Immortals, calling themselves the Hunters. When they kill a friend of Duncan’s, a priest and pacifist called Darius, he tracks down his own Watcher, Joe Dawson. Working together, they eventually manage to stop the Hunters and get rid of their leader, Horton. They also become friends, though not always easy ones due to Joe’s conflict of interest. Joe is a blues guitarist and singer and runs a bar.
Methos
Methos is the name of the oldest known Immortal, generally thought to be a myth and that is the way he would prefer to stay. He is at least 5000 years old but says he can’t remember anything before taking his first head, so could be older. Methos initially works as a researcher for the Watchers, posing as mortal and investigating the existence of himself under the name Adam Pierson. He is sarcastic and charming, and disclaims any particular wisdom to declare himself to be "just a guy". He has an inordinate fondness for beer and demonstrates a strong interest in keeping Duncan alive. He arrives in Season 3 and brings a whole big pile of slash potential with him. He and Duncan try hard to protect each other while bantering, teasing and flirting and it’s all very sweet. Though, this being Highlander, the angst is naturally never far behind.
The Dark Quickening
Cue the angst. Duncan beheads someone who has beheaded an awful lot of evil Immortals and is basically possessed. He rapes a woman, tries to kill Joe, would have beheaded Rich (his student) if Joe hadn’t shot him and does take the head of another friend. Interestingly, he never tries to kill Methos, and it is Methos that is able to cure him by taking him on a quick trip to a Holy Spring.
The Horsemen Arc
Cue some more angst. This is where it is revealed that there is rather a lot more to Methos’ past than the witty, slightly geeky scholar he apparently is now. Three millennia ago, he was the leader of three other Immortals and they spent a thousand years or so raping, pillaging and massacring their way across the land, murdering or enslaving all those they encountered. They were known as The Four Horsemen and Methos was Death (yes, those Four Horsemen). One of the other Horsemen, Kronos, who coincidentally happens to also be an old enemy of Duncan’s (told you he'd turn up again), tracks Methos down in the present. Unlike Methos, he hasn’t changed since the old days. At the same time, an old lover of Duncan’s called Cassandra, who he knew before his first death, arrives. It turns out that her first death occurred at Methos’ hand and he subsequently raped and enslaved her, before eventually allowing her to escape.
There is a very painful scene between Methos and Duncan where Methos is pushed into telling him that everything Cassandra said was true and that he did it because he enjoyed it. Duncan replies that they are through, they both head off looking devastated and Methos and Kronos join up with the other two Horsemen. It all gets a bit complicated after that, but at the end of the episode, Duncan and Methos between them have killed the three other Horsemen and Duncan stops Cassandra from killing Methos, saying that he wants him to live. At the very end, Methos explains to Duncan that Cassandra is one of a thousand regrets for him, but the trust and friendship has been swamped in betrayal and hurt and it takes a long time for them to reconcile. Leading to a staple of the HL slash genre, the post-Horsemen reconciliation fic.
In the final fight, Methos and Duncan behead their opponents simultaneously and in fairly close proximity, and this seems to cause the energy to flow between them in something called a Double Quickening. I don’t know if there is anything in canon about the effects of that, but it has been explored as a link between them in quite a few stories.
The Ahriman Thing
In the final series, it is revealed that Duncan is the subject of a prophecy, never a good thing as all Buffy fans are aware. There is a demon called Ahriman that rises every millennium and Duncan is the Champion chosen to fight him in the year 2000. The demon initially tries to drive him mad, tormenting him with hallucinations of dead enemies and eventually causing him to accidentally behead Rich. Duncan is shattered enough to ask Methos to kill him, but finally recovers enough to find a way of defeating the thing. Similarly to Endgame, most fans take the view that this never happened and live happily in a Clan Denial where Rich is alive and well.
To Be/Not to Be
The final episodes ever, pretty much a spin on It’s a Wonderful Life where Duncan, who is exhausted and tired of his enemies going after his friends, regains the energy to keep going by seeing how it might have been if he had never been an Immortal. It ends with him declaring "never again", though whether that means he’s never going to give up again or that he is going to walk away to keep the people he cares about safe is open to interpretation.
I promise the recs will be in the next one!