Obsession

One of my constant refrains in this series is the one-dimensional antagonists. Well David isn't one-dimensionally evil, but maybe two-dimensionally psychotic. Evil in the sense of his obsessive misogyny that he thinks he owns Jill.

I really did not like the Duncan MacLeod of this episode. It's not that I hold him responsible for Jill, but I don't think the present day Mac was perfect either. What bothers me is the whole Sarah thing. He was bull-headed stupid (hmm "obsessive") twice with her. I know past history Mac isn't always the smartest but by the 19th century he should be smarter than that. It is interesting that the writers put a flashback within a flashback. (BTW we've seen that footage with the Native American family in an earlier episode.)

Based on that earlier story, it would be easy to assume that Mac became emotionally celibate after that. Here we find that's not the case. The double whammy makes his choices with Tess even more poignant. It is a good addition to his backstory but I just wish he hadn't looked so foolish.

(We are told again that he never married but that gets contradicted much later in the franchise.)

Anne! I see those who think she meddles too much and it is hard to argue against that. I wonder how she has stuck with this weird man who obviously has some shady things in his past or at least shady friends.

Duncan's old immortal friend David Keogh contacts him and announces he's getting married. But when his intended, Jill, turns up, it's clear she's terrified of him.

It's hard to shake the feeling that, having begun the season with six consecutive episodes that end with Duncan chopping someone's head off, there was a stipulation that a new ending had to be found. Unfortunately, judging by this episode and the previous one, all they could think of was Duncan not chopping someone's head off. The result is a hero who doesn't provide any heroics, failing to stop innocents dying or to ensure it doesn't happen again. At least last episode Kenny escaped from their final confrontation. Here, Duncan just walks away, letting the antagonist off the hook with a glare.

And it's so slow. It takes over halfway through the episode for Duncan to even meet Jill, let alone find out exactly what the issue is between her and David. It's never a good sign when there's flashbacks to the flashbacks, as a large chunk of material from Line of Fire gets stuck in the middle of the episode to pad out the run time. This is in the middle of a flashback that basically tells us "Oh yeah, and Duncan was a possessive jealous psychopath once too." We know Duncan's no saint and has done morally questionable things in the past, but absolutely nothing in this sequence rings true.

And unfortunately, Anne is falling into the same trap that limited Charlie's character. She's the token muggle who knows nothing about Immortals, so gets left out of the loop and spends much of her time asking what's going on and being ignored.

To top off what a poorly conceived episode this was, the opening sequence is a disaster in storytelling terms. Jill runs David over, leaving him lying either dead or badly injured. Next shot is him walking down a street right as rain. We don't see him revive, we don't see anyone get a buzz from him. It's like the writers assume we'll know he's an immortal just because he's this week's main guest and not be scratching our heads wondering if we're seeing events out of order or something.

Joe doesn't appear in this episode. Lucky Joe.