Friday, September 5, 2014

Highlander: The Series 2x17 - Warmonger

This is a fairly bland episode, but the good news is that it might be the last bland episode.



I believe this episode is about George W. Bush.

It begins with... Jesus Christ!

That young lady is attempting to seduce the president of an unnamed country into scrapping a peace treaty. He refuses.

"When I was your age, I'd scrap fifty peace treaties to get into that."

Fedor Emelianenko The president's shady advisor, Drake, shows up. He too insists that the president scrap the treaty.

"Didn't you hear?" says Drake. "You were found dead tonight."

"History will damn you for this!" says the president.

"I am history." BLAM.

...well, more like "pew!" with the silencer and all.

Next thing we know, Fedor Drake is accosted by this sassy female reporter who wants answers. If this got any formulaic it'd be an early S1 episode.

Now, Duncan runs into... HIS FUTURE SELF? MY GOD!

...no, but that guy really does look like someone's future self. After Duncan bumps into Drake at the opera, this guy tells Duncan about how Drake killed his family in his country of origin and can't be allowed to take power because he's a vile Nazi.

Why do people always burden Duncan with their problems? This guy should have a yellow exclamation point above his head.

Another flashback! Back in the day... it was cloudy all the time then too.

Duncan forms an alliance with Young Hagrid! Can anyone stop the hottest new tag team in wrestling?

Drake's nefarious minions arrive and cart away Duncan's friends. Seems he's been doing this power grab thing for a while.

Meanwhile, Drake... wait, that's Fedor.

Meanwhile, Drake schemes.

Duncan confronts Drake, wanting him to let his friends out of his political prisons. Drake agrees, on one condition: They never fight each other unless they're the two last of their kind. Duncan says fine.

Back in the present, Sassy Reporter Who Isn't Afraid To Cross The Line For The Truth is having lunch with Drake. Duncan shows up all "Sup!"

Meanwhile, the Future Self guy tries to shoot Drake as they leave the restaurant. Drake's goons immediately gun him down. Duncan is infuriated. And here we have one of the issues with this mediocre episode... Drake doesn't really DO anything bad. We hear about him doing bad things, but aside from the first scene of the episode we don't actually see any of it. All we've seen is him bowing to Duncan's demands to free prisoners. And his bodyguards shot this guy, but...uh...this guy sought THEM out and shot at THEM.

In the hospital, he's all "kill Drake" and Duncan is all "I can't" and Old Mario is all "I hope you burn in hell"

Wow. I don't like this guy very much.

Duncan feels bad. Why? The guy pretty much made his own bed here.

Meanwhile, Drake meets with the Vice President. This guy is about to take over, and he's much more receptive to Drake's war agenda than the president was. Okay, now he's getting a bit bad. His goal is to start a conflict in Eastern Europe.

Duncan goes and meets with Drake again. Why does Drake keep making time for this guy?

Meanwhile, this guy dies. But first, he summons Duncan and foists his Dying Wish upon our hero: Kill Drake. I guess Dying Wishes overrule Promises, or something.

Despite having everything he wants now, Drake takes the Sassy Reporter Who Knows Too Much hostage. This coincides perfectly with Duncan's mental wrestling with the Dying Wish!

Drake arrives at the airport in his one car motorcade, and Duncan is already there. He's going to break the Promise to uphold the Dying Wish, and Drake is like "Well, okay!"

Drake's sword is wavy and awesome.

The battle is joined! This taking place in an airplane hangar is fitting, considering the theme of the episode. Wait, where are Drake's bodyguards? You can't tell me he's actually gonna fight Duncan on the up-and-up, knowing he has no chance.

Drake is stealthy, and at one point attempts to sneak up on our hero.

A staredown ensues. This is surprisingly competitive, but Duncan never shows any signs of struggling.

WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN?

Next thing we know, there are quickening explosions, and a trench-coated figure stumbles out of the hangar. I guess he left the guards outside when he sensed an immortal.

Weirdest fight ending yet, since we didn't even see it.

Of course, it's Duncan, who pulls a fast one on Drake's guards and saves the Sassy Reporter.

The headlines the next day. I wonder what all of the small text says. It could be gibberish, but knowing this show I wouldn't be surprised if they actually made up full news reports just for this shot.

He has her over for drinks afterwards and she makes some joke about them knowing each other in the Biblical sense. Though it was one of those jokes-but-not-really jokes. I'm fairly certain they do it.

Well, mediocre episode here, but the next three are top-shelf. S2 is winding to a close, and so is my coverage of the show.


2 comments:

  1. Nice recap. Very little to say about this one. Boring. I have to admit I wondered about the bodyguards, too, though. If you're a wealthy immortal who can afford an armed security team and aren't willing to go blade-to-blade, it'd be pretty easy to stay out of the game unless you're tricked, like Durgan was. You think Drake would have just made a run for it, but that wouldn't have fit the formula.

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  2. This isn't the last time that Duncan makes a deal with another immortal as I remember, it'll happen again in a much better episode later on

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