Highlander: The Series 3x08 - Obsession

Richie gets to be on the title screen of this one. Go Richie!

::evil rasp:: ENJOY IT WHILE YOU CAN.

We begin with this guy who should really audition for a Clark Kent role. He's visiting the family of the woman he loves, and brought flowers.

The woman's sister is all "she isn't here right now" while barely opening the door.

Clark is suspicious of this, to which the sister reveals that she has a gentleman caller over and needs to get back to the sex. "Not everything is ABOUT YOU" she says.

Meanwhile, the sister is fleeing to her car, terrified of the guy in question. Wait, what?

He spots her and tries to talk to her, only to have her take off. BUT HE BROUGHT FLOWERS.

This results in her driving right over him. WHAT IS GOING ON? Is he a horrible monster?

Speaking of horrible monsters, here's our hero. It's safe to say Duncan and Anne are officially banging. They got to S-Rank 10 between episodes!

Actually, banging is probably like S-Rank 5 in the real world. S-Rank 10 means banging and also liking each other, which leaves out most of our parents.

Also, Anne is a bit of a goddess in a nightgown. Who knew?

As she's leaving, Richie offers her doughnuts. He's like the guy who ushers women out after a night with Tony Stark. She's like "no thanks"

Later that day, Duncan meets up with an old friend...

...this guy! Turns out his name is David Keogh, he's immortal, and he goes way back with our hero. Wait a minute...Keogh? Oh shit. It's a K name!

Flashback to 1825 Philadelphia, where David is asking Duncan to be his best man. They're on their way to meet a woman David is interested in, but he hasn't asked her to marry him yet. He's so sure she'll say yes that he's already planning the wedding. Duncan is like "let her say yes first". Welp, I think we might know what the problem is.

There's no way she'll turn him down! By God, he brought flowers, and cars haven't been invented yet! What's she going to do, run him down with a horse-drawn buggy?

They arrive at the house, where Young Julia's family is all standoffish. She already has two wealthy suitors here and THEY TOO brought flowers.

Duncan is supportive and gives David the go-ahead to tell the father how he feels about Julia, but it's pretty clear that this situation isn't quite the way he made it sound on the way over.

The father laughs at how preposterous David's marriage proposal is. But he's a lowly servant! "I'd just as soon rather she marry Reginald here!"

I think Reginald is one of the gardeners, which means he's the scum of the Earth to this guy.

"Come back when you're a doctor or a lawyer!" he bellows while Julia sits there looking uncomfortable. "Or a corporate tycoon!"

David asks her directly for her hand in marriage. "I think you've mistaken my kindness for something else" she says as she runs from the room. Keogh is just confused at this point. So wait, she -does- like him, but she can't? Or she doesn't, but he thinks she does? Or a little of both?

Duncan is appalled by how rude the family is as he and his friend leave.

Duncan introduces Richie and Keogh. I'd say that it's good Richie has someone his own age to hang out with, except that it DOESN'T EVER APPLY IN THIS SHOW.

Turns out David has met someone amazing. Her name's Jill, and she totally didn't just try to murder him in an earlier scene. What's with giving up the ghost in the first scene of these episodes? This episode and The Lamb should go bowling.

In any case, he wants Duncan to meet his new girlfriend. It's serious, he says. They're in love, he says. Oh, all of the dirt and scrapes? Sometimes she likes to roughhouse. That crazy girl!

After Duncan leaves, Keogh tells Richie about how he was an indentured servant for the first 21 years of his life and routinely beaten. After he turned immortal, the first immortal to find him...pretty much also treated him like a servant and beat him all the time. Duncan was the first person he ever met who treated him like a person. On that, he and Richie agree.

Jill walks into the dojo, looking for Duncan...and runs right into Keogh. Well what are the odds! What is this, some sort of immortal hangout spot now?

Jill doesn't want to talk to Keogh, and Richie gets in the middle like "I don't know what's going on here, man, but it seems like she isn't happy to see you and you should probably back off, bro."

Keogh responds by drawing sword on Young Richard. Richie is like "is this for real?"

Jill runs away while they're facing off, and then Keogh angrily leaves in disgust. Richie is getting too old for this shit.

Where is Duncan during all of this, you ask? Why, he's...

...out on another date with Anne where he sits there distracted the entire time.

He cranks on the charm, so he again avoids losing any S-Rank, but he doesn't gain any either.

Richie tells Duncan what happened. He's none too happy about Keogh's freak-out, and Duncan is putting two and two together.

Flashback time! It's Duncan in Oregon, as he dances around with a bunch of Oregon-folk.

He's got a girlfriend! They're head-over-heels, though Duncan's a little reserved with her because he's still hurting from the loss of...

...Little Deer, seen here. At this point they -legitimately replay about 6 minutes of that other episode- to show you what happened. It'd be one thing if that episode was a couple seasons ago, but it JUST HAPPENED. This episode must have fallen short on time.

We cut back to the Pacific Northwest, where they're having a shag about it. The fact that we're seeing these two in bed and we haven't even seen Duncan and Anne do anything is pretty odd.

Occasionally this program gets sexy. This is one of those times.

The next day, some guy in a saloon is asking about her. Duncan's all "she's with me PAL" like Vince McMahon.

"I'm her husband" bellows the guy. NOT ANYMORE YOU'RE NOT! IF YOU LIKE IT THEN YOU SHOULDA...put more than one ring on it. I've got nothing.

They get into a fight and Duncan proceeds to beat the guy up, prompting the lass to run in and stop the damn match.

She then...runs to her husband's side? Duncan, who also got beat up a surprising amount, is like "huh?"

She then tells Duncan to leave her alone and goes back with her husband.

He's confused and depressed, left to limp out of the saloon.

In the present, he mulls over this while punching the air. He's clearly still incensed from THAT ONE TIME HE GOT REJECTED.

Meanwhile, Jill returns, finally dropping by at a time when Duncan is actually here. She needs help with her Clark Kent problem. He can't be her Superman, it turns out. Can't be her Superman. She knows he and Keogh go way back, and that they're both immortal.

Luckily Richie is here so Duncan doesn't try to sleep with her. YOU DON'T HELP, DUNCAN.

Duncan mulls over what to do. The problem is, Keogh just doesn't get it. It's impossible for the guy to move on. Jill thought he was cool until he went full-stalker, which seems to be a pattern.

Keogh arrives, so Duncan plays mediator and keeps him at bay while they talk this out. Like physically keeps him at bay. The guy does not understand personal space.

He just doesn't understand why he isn't "good enough". Like a lot of episodes, this one is actually really interesting from a psychological point of view. Turns out the only reason she left him is because she found out he's immortal, and it was too weird. Then he got super-possessive and beat a guy up just for talking to her, and she Nope'd out of there.

Keogh continues to NOT GET IT. As if things can't get any more uncomfortable, Anne just walked in.

"Am I interrupting something?"

We really need to put a lock on that elevator or something. Well, at least now the women in the room aren't as outnumbered. FIGHT TEH PATRIARCHY!

Anne asks Jill if they can go somewhere else and talk about this while Keogh angrily sits in a chair. He's Kenny 2.0!

Back to the flashbacks, Duncan's friend is at her cabin in the woods with her husband.

Duncan shows up to ask her to give him a chance. He's sorry for what happened.

When he won't leave the property, the husband comes out and SHOOTS HIM.

Duncan revives and tells her he's immortal and he wants her to know, and she's like "I don't want to know!" while running away.

Honestly, I'm as confused as he is by all of this. Sometimes...things just don't work. Best to move on, not show up on the property and get shot.

Back in the present, Anne is discussing the matter with Jill. She doesn't mention anything about immortals, of course. ANNE CAN NEVER KNOW FOR SOME REASON.

Jill is all like "You don't wanna know, trust me not knowing is better" and Anne is like "dafook is going on around here"

Duncan arrives, and Jill implores him to do "the one thing that can stop David" while Anne continues to be like "dafook" and Duncan's face nearly wishes out loud that she wasn't there for this discussion.

Anne is all "that's it, I'm calling the police!"

During all this hoopla, Jill sneaks out. Duncan is like "plz I don't want to fight you"

He storms out in a huff! Anne continues to wonder why she couldn't have just been born a lesbian.

Elsewhere, Keogh is wood-carving a... vagina? Honestly, I'm at a loss here. What is that?

While wood-carving is in itself a harmless activity, he happens to be doing this in the apartment of...

...Jill, who finds him there and tries to behead him with an axe. Jesus Christ!

When this fails, he corners her on a nearby balcony. YOUR ATTEMPTS TO GET HER BACK AREN'T WORKING.

She's so desperate to get away from him that she climbs over the side of the railing.

Duncan arrives and attempts to diffuse the situation, which isn't easy when David won't shut up.

Keogh makes a sprint to grab her, causing her to panic and fall.

...that's all she wrote. Unless she's going to revive.

::pause::

...nope.

Keogh blames Duncan and ATTACKS!

They slug it out in the basement of the building. If Duncan's going to have to kill him regardless, he might as well have killed him BEFORE Jill died. Oh well.

They battle out to a construction site, as I begin to wonder how nobody ever sees these immortals fighting like this.

Duncan spares him, making this the second episode in a row where he spared an opponent. Too bad Brian didn't get that luxury. Then again, Brian was gone.

I guess with Jill's demise, it isn't really necessary to off David at this point. He'll just end up doing that to other people though.

Duncan has had a rough few weeks. He probably just needs to be alone here, as he continues to not let Anne in on any of what happened. I don't know how she hasn't dumped him yet.

Turns out, he isn't a monster so much as a tragic character. No matter what he did, he was never "good enough" for the people he liked, and it made him lose his mind with possessiveness.

Even though he was spared, he won't be back. Can Duncan get a break from nutjobs? Tune in for the next episode, when the nutjob becomes...Duncan himself!

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