Saturday, February 1, 2025

Highlander 5x02 - The End of Innocence

 

One of my favorite episodes, almost entirely because the "bad guy" is one of the most formidable and cool immortals in the show's run. Duncan faces a serious threat this time around, and we get the return of Richie. Except now he's bad-ass heel Richie.


Our first glimpse of Richie in ten episodes. He's having a recurring nightmare where he's training at the dojo. This weird slightly-quirky "jazzy" music is playing throughout the scene and it's SUPER inappropriate, and it plays intermittently throughout the whole episode.

Duncan shows up in full Evil Duncan mode, which is slightly-less menacing due to the jazzy music quirking its way into our ears.

He easily defeats Richie and goes for the death strike! This would be horrifying if not for the silly jazzy music, which implies that some sort of harmless mischief is afoot.

Richie snaps awake. This dream that Duncan would kill him has been haunting him regularly for a while. So all that time he was gone? Yeah, that was the longest he's ever been MIA from the show. His absence might be one of the reasons why I consider S4 a lull between two superior seasons. Not sure.

Elsewhere, we get an awesome kata sequence with Duncan training.

Joe Dawson shows up, and...well, if you remember how Season 4 ended, Duncan still wants nothing to do with the guy. He says that Richie is turning to the dark side and has been head-hunting, picking fights with immortals (and winning) while training heavily and generally acting like an asshole. So basically he has started down the path of a bad immortal. How long until he changes his name to a K-name?

Dawson recounts talking to Richie about Evil Duncan and that whole disaster. Needless to say Richie was traumatized by being nearly-killed by the guy he trusts more than anyone else. Even though Dawson insists that Duncan wasn't responsible for what he did because he wasn't in his right mind, Richie disagrees and thinks Duncan is fully responsible.

Speaking of being responsible, Duncan feels bad about everything but he's taking no responsibility for whatever trouble Richie is in now. He tried to reach out / call / whatever for the past few months and it was impossible to get ahold of Richie. Would have been cool if they showed us any of that, because as far as us viewers are concerned Duncan just completely forgot about Rich after "Something Wicked".

Richie has more flashbacks to that very episode while he struggles to sleep, tossing and turning.

He wakes up to The Buzz, and...it's Duncan. Thanks to Joe, he found out where Rich was hiding out and decided to pay him a visit after all.

Duncan explains that he's been trying to reach Richie and apologize, but Richie isn't having it. He says that with all of his recent training, Duncan will have a much harder time defeating him next time.

So basically he's having nothing to do with Duncan. Truly, the Fellowship is shattered on this show, as shattered as it's ever been.

Richie goes to a local bar and loses an arm-wrestling match to this hot bartender because he gets The Buzz again at an inopportune moment. Who is it this time?

This good-looking chap is Carter Wellan, a thousand year old Englishman who isn't particularly into fighting and would rather just buy a beer and make friends with new immortals he encounters.

Richie, on the other hand, is now Full Sith Lord and isn't here to make friends, he's here to make money. He's got a chip on his shoulder and he dares Carter to knock it off.

Carter might not want to fight, but that doesn't mean he's unprepared. We haven't seen what Richie has been up to, but I'd like to think this guy is his toughest challenge ever.

The battle is joined! And it's a good battle, as they have a blistering brawl in this construction site. Richie is outmatched by Carter, but he's still much-improved from the last time we saw him fight.

Richie pulls off the win by cheating and kicking Carter in the groin, then going for the killing strike. SHIIIIING!

We don't see any of this quickening, weirdly enough. I hate when we have the rare opportunity to see someone besides Duncan get a quickening, and they cheap out and don't show it. This has happened several times.

Elsewhere, noted beastly moor immortal Haresh Clay shows up at the bar to meet his friend Carter.

This guy is one of my favorite immortals in the entire series. He's basically a Super-Xavier.

He tracks down Richie and Carter just in time to see Richie driving away from the corpse of his fallen opponent.

Bad news, Rich: Not only is Haresh the lifelong mentor and friend of Carter...he also caught Richie's license plate.

Richie gets home, and before he can even lay down for a rest, somebody is banging on the door. Yep, he's here already.

I imagine this is what would happen if someone killed Richie and Duncan had to avenge him. Not like we can fault Haresh here.

Haresh smashes through the front door. Just literally breaks it into pieces with a barrage of strikes.

Then, with a giant Moroccan scimitar, Haresh proceeds to smash all kinds of stuff in this hovel while Richie dives for cover.

Richie manages to retrieve his sword (the same one Duncan gave him several seasons ago) and put up some defense... just in time for Haresh to BREAK IT IN HALF with one swing.

Richie can't even get a single bit of offense off and now he's got a broken sword, so he LEAPS OUT THE WINDOW and hopes for a soft landing.

Haresh emerges, now well-aware that the slayer of his protege is, in fact, no threat to him whatsoever. Not sure he's even in a hurry to catch up with him now. He'll let his prey flee, and surprise him later.

Elsewhere, Duncan is polishing his sword when Joe Dawson rolls up uninvited. When is he gonna get some locks installed in this place?

Joe has bad news. Richie's in trouble. As Joe just called a few scenes ago, he picked a fight with the wrong guy. Duncan is rattled at seeing Richie's broken sword, and asks who it is.

Joe: "It's HARESH CLAY."

Duncan's face does even more to build Haresh as a threat than his rampage earlier did. This episode is textbook "how to make a new character a big deal really fast".

Italy, 1657. Duncan was about 65 here so we're very early in his immortal tenure. Here he is learning swordsmanship from Graham Ashe, a freaking ancient dude who actually taught Ramirez some of what he knew.

Fun Fact: This isn't too long after the 1631 Italy flashback in Highlander Endgame where Connor is trying to teach Duncan fencing and Duncan just wants to swing a big ol' claymore around.

He easily beats Duncan in their spar, as Duncan's speed and perception stats are very low here, and Graham has a second-nature knowledge of the sword.

Duncan's reaction to finding out Graham taught Ramirez, who is of course a legend due to Connor's stories.

He thinks Graham is unbeatable, and Graham reminds him that there's always someone better, just as Ramirez was felled by Kurgan. I don't know, I always thought Ramirez basically got the better of Kurgan in their fight and just slipped up a bit at the end. I mean he got the killing strike on Kurgan and it was mere luck that saved Kurgan.

Graham says there's more to life than learning the sword. "The sword just keeps you alive for the good stuff. There's so much to discover, like music, art, philosophy. Imagine what you can see with a thousand years."

Duncan, at this point, still hasn't learned what bathing with soap is, and words on a page might as well be inscrutable arcane hieroglyphics, so Duncan probably doesn't quite follow all of this.

Haresh and Carter happen along, just going about their business. Carter is carrying a standard like a European squire, while Haresh is in full Moorish garb, which is an interesting dichotomy.

Graham gets so freaked-out that he tells Duncan they have to run away RIGHT NOW.

Crazy how this guy who once taught Ramirez some of what he knew... is going into full run-for-your-life mode at the sight of Haresh.

This actually has a lot in common with the Xavier scene in "Finale: Part Two". Haresh is here to fight the more-notable immortal Duncan is with, rather than Duncan himself, the teacher in question is afraid to fight, and so forth. There are differences, though. The Xavier scene is in the 1750's, a full century after this, and Duncan is more experienced / ready for challenges at that point. Whereas here he isn't sure what to do and just retreats.

Graham tells Duncan that the nearby ruins of a church should be sufficient holy ground and to stay there. Graham is like totally defeated already. Man has gone from cocky and bold to "I don't know what to do" in the space of 30 seconds.

With Duncan hiding nearby, Haresh and Graham are free to have their fight to the death. Carter seems completely un-concerned, no doubt from centuries of watching Haresh maul his foes.

Haresh's scimitar is one of the better swords in this series. It's huge (much bigger than this shot would imply) and you can see the weight behind every swing.

At one point he knocks Graham's sword out of his hands, and instead of finishing him, Haresh takes a knee and graciously allows his foe an extra chance.

It doesn't work out, and Haresh overpowers him a second time with a flurry of swings.

Graham is so over this, and asks Haresh to just spare him because he wants to continue living. He's a lot older than Haresh, and letting go after all of that time has to be rough.

Duncan goes into shock, seeing the guy who defeated him so easily now being humbled by an unstoppable killing machine.

Haresh...is appalled that Graham is asking for mercy. He lives by immortal code, and would never ask for mercy or accept it. To see another man pathetically beg for his life is worthy of derision. Request denied, and that's it for Graham Ashe.

Duncan is going to have to figure something out. This isn't just any immortal of the week. This is someone Duncan could actually lose to. If he does nothing, Richie is 100% dead. He's in a no-win situation here.

Anyway, he needs Joe Dawson to leave now. "I thought I told youse to scram!"

Elsewhere, Richie employs his lockpicking skills to break into a sword museum. Really? He isn't just going to go ask Duncan for a sword? ...I guess not. He did ask Joe for some money first and Joe said no because he's NOW going to honor the Watcher oath of not intefering.

Not sure if the money was for Richie to buy a new sword, or get the hell out of town.

Richie grabs the best sword he can find and wrestles it out of its case, setting off all the museum alarms in the proc.......wait, who's that in the background?

GET OUTTA THARRRR

This guy is like The Terminator.

Haresh gets electrocuted when he connects with an electrified case on a swing miss, allowing Richie to run away.

...right into the horde of police showing up to investigate the museum break-in. I wouldn't be so cocky about this, Richie.

Wouldn't surprise me if Haresh goes and gets arrested as well just so he can follow Richie into jail.

Duncan bails out Richie and asks him to go for a drive so they can talk. Something that would have been a foregone conclusion in the past, but now Richie damn near refuses to even give him a few minutes.

Richie eventually gives in, since Duncan has information on the guy who's after him. Duncan tells the story of Haresh and Graham, making sure to leave out the part about what happened after Graham was killed, and why Duncan didn't go after Haresh to get revenge. What, did he hide in the ruins of the church for the rest of the day or something?

Duncan implores Richie to step aside and let him handle Haresh, since he has an old score to settle (with the side-benefit of saving Richie's life).

Get this: Instead of accepting this lucky break, Richie actually resents Duncan protecting him and wants to deal with Haresh himself.

Duncan: "This is my fight."

Richie: "Well then you better find this guy before I do."

lol

wtf

lol, this f***in' guy

After more "I can take care of myself" sass from Richie, Duncan basically begs him to accept an incredible gift: The sword of Graham Ashe. This is a significant upgrade over that flimsy saber that Richie had for the entire show up to this point. Would be cool if this also marked the beginning of Richie being portrayed as a bigger threat in the show universe, but it doesn't really.

I remember seeing this as a kid and thinking it was the beginning of the path toward Richie becoming the main character of the show, or getting a spinoff. Again, no such luck. Even though Duncan's rad, I always hoped someone else would take over as main character at some point just to put a new spin on things, and went back and forth between thinking it'd be Richie and thinking it'd be Methos. Two completely different potential shows. As a kid, the idea of Richie having to take over the show and ultimately avenge Duncan by defeating whoever defeated Duncan... was a pretty cool idea. As an adult, I can see that a Methos show would be infinitely superior, due to the potential for thousands of years of flashbacks.

Duncan and Richie decide to go find Haresh and deal with this, and somehow luck into finding out where Carter Wellan's funeral is.

Haresh is the only person at the funeral. Well, that's depressing. But also not unexpected.

Haresh was wondering when Duncan would show up to avenge his friend. And wondering. And wondering.

Duncan needs for Haresh to leave Richie alone and settle the score with him instead.

Haresh: "Do you know what it's like to have a friend for 900 years? No, he was my friend longer than you've been alive."

At this point Richie is becoming insistent that he be the one to take on Haresh, so Duncan finally tells him THE TRUTH.

HE needs to be the one to fight Haresh, because...

After slaying Graham, Haresh taunted Duncan about being his next opponent, if he had any honor.

Duncan... hid in the ruins of the church for the rest of the day instead.

...Dammit.

Haresh walks right over to a horrified Duncan and stabs Graham's sword into the wall next to him, so he's got a memento of the occasion.

They then take off, yukking it up about how pathetic Duncan is.

One of the big early traumas for Duncan, leaving him with the same fearful complex that he had with Martin Hyde back in the day.

Richie agrees to let Duncan fight to save his honor and avenge his friend.

Richie should be agreeing to let Duncan fight to save his ass.

Richie's character in this episode is actually kind of a problem. He's overconfident to the point of appearing quite stupid, and the whole thing about him headhunting to begin with seems really incongruous with what Duncan taught him all those years. They might have actually hurt his character a bit with this episode.

Time for the big showdown, one of the best fights in this series. Katana vs Scimitar.

They bow, which is how you know things are more serious than usual.

Everything about this is presented as a fight between two equals, and it's one of the most memorable scenes from the show.

The battle is joined! Well, it's more like a war. This battle is cool for me after all my lamenting about Duncan not facing quality opponents.

Duncan scores first blood!

The soundtrack of this fight is perfect, an intense round of battle drums with the clangs of the swords functioning as an extra instrument.

Second blood is drawn! Tit for tat!

Haresh bows, while still locked on target. Duncan has finally earned his respect.

Another round of vicious strikes, followed by a sudden...

...behind-the-back death-move that I know Duncan has used before. Can't remember where though. Totally vicious move.

Duncan shows mercy and says they can call it even at this point if Haresh walks away.

However, Haresh is no hypocrite, and isn't going to ask for or accept mercy, so he tells Duncan to finish things.

Duncan really doesn't want to do this, his respect level for the guy is too high.

Followed by the most reluctant shiiiiing of all time.

Thish ish... day completely turning to night for an entire city for about five seconds. At least it turns back to day, unlike that other time when it just kinda stayed night, completely borking clocks around the world.

We don't see what happens after the fight (we never do, actually) but I'd like to think Duncan buried Haresh next to Carter, since they were right nearby.



Back at the ranch, Joe and Richie talk about how Joe quit the Watchers.

Oh yeah, I didn't mention this subplot. Joe had the Watcher tattoo removed and everything so that he could try to be a regular friend to these guys without the conflict of interest.

Duncan says that Joe needs to rejoin the Watchers, because someone needs to make sure the immortals are remembered. He wants what they are and what they've accomplished to be recorded, not just by some clerk, but by someone who CARES.

Joe takes heed of this and decides to rejoin the Watchers. So we're right back where we were before and that didn't last long. ...didn't he just get the tattoo removed? Well, he can get a new Watcher tattoo on his other wrist, I guess.

Everyone has a chuckle and it seems the band is back together!

Interesting, if super-underutilized character. He's no Constantine (the king of underutilized immortals) but it would have been cool to see this guy somewhere else in the series, considering how early Duncan knew him.

It just me, or was he maybe fibbing a bit about training Ramirez? He's about 200 years older than Ramirez, yes, but Graham got so thoroughly decimated by Haresh that it's hard to believe he taught Ramirez. Maybe he just like, taught him a move, and then it became a cool thing to tell people about for the rest of time once Ramirez became one of the most well-known immortals. Like "Oh yeah, I once tapped out Jon Jones during a friendly sparring match in Jr High

For being a thousand years old, this guy seemed like less of a threat than he should have been (luckily for Richie). He was basically an extremely average immortal, maybe slightly below-average, in threat level. However I think there is a good explanation for this. Besides that Richie won by fighting dirty (kneeing him in the groin to get the upper hand), there's also the major factor that Carter was a squire for most of his past. Haresh was the one who did all of the fighting, as far as I could tell, and got all of the EXP and kills. Carter merely functioned as his friend/student/squire and likely had to do very little fighting of his own. Similar to Richie in the modern era, only over a much longer span of time.

This damn guy was so bad-ass that it's a shame he was only in this one episode. He's easily in the top echelon of immortals throughout the entire show, the S-Tier who can hold their own with Duncan. Like I mentioned, he's kind of a Super-Xavier, a similar character in some ways but considerably more formidable. Unlike Xavier, he also had a sense of morality and principles (with an adherence to immortal rules above all else, so no mercy).

Haresh and Carter are basically an alternate take on Duncan and Richie, a master and student dynamic who occupy a grey area of alignment. They're not really good or bad, they're just warriors getting by. In some alternate universe I could see Haresh being the star of this show with Carter as his protege. Yeah, Haresh is THAT bad-ass and charismatic. He's a fully believable threat to Duncan, and not only that, is also on the same level in life. A guy who has been around the block a hundred times, has accumulated plenty of wealth and experiences, and would have been cool to see more of. Truly a notable counterpart to Duncan, and stands head and shoulders above most of the immortals in the show.

Final thoughts on this episode: Is the "End of Innocence" in question Richie, or young Duncan, or both? It's a really good episode, but I think it lost a little bit of ground by switching the focus to be on Duncan getting back his pride rather than Duncan standing up for Richie. It never felt like Richie learned a lesson, as a result. Because of these things, the episode didn't work as well as it could have. All in all it's an 8.5/10 episode that could have been a 9.5/10 with the focus shifted just a bit. Season 5 is off to a damn good start, and so far I stand by my assertions that it's the best season. S3 might be generally regarded as the pinnacle of the show's run, but S5 feels like the show has finally matured. Everything about this felt thoughtful and ahead of its time.





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4 comments:

  1. Because I am that guy, it is entirely possible Ashe taught Ramirez but was not Ramirez’s first teacher. After all, Duncan and Connor had multiple teachers. So for all we know, Ashe taught Ramirez in 450 a.d., being the latest in a lumpen of teachers for Ramirez. The book adaptation of the original movie states Ramirez had many teachers over the centuries.

    And this episodes carries on my notion of the fifth season’s theme of your past catching up with you. For Richie, it took a day. For Clay, his actions in 1657 caught up with him in 1996. Next week we see Carl Robinson deal with something that happened in 1860.

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    Replies
    1. Richie went through the immortal experience on fast-forward.

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    2. Yeah, I expect Ashe was just one of Ramirez's many teachers. Probably just someone who taught him a certain variety of fencing to expand his repertoire.

      The last several episodes of S6 would have fit well with S5's overall theme. Could probably lose everything in-between and not lose much.

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  2. There are a lot of immortals like Haresh Clay who could almost carry their own arcs on this show. Him, Grayson, Paul Kinman, Kamir, Consone, etc. Still, I'd rather be left wanting more than feeling like I've seen too much of them.

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