Highlander 5x04 - Glory Days

 

The first Season 5 episode that I don't actually like. It isn't bad or anything but it's got some issues. Very much a filler-y "villain of the week" and the villain in question is one of the weakest in the series. Both in terms of physical ability and overall persona. At least it has a good subplot with Joe Dawson.

We start with this wily assassin taking out some wealthy businessman before stealthily escaping the premises disguised as a skateboarding kid. <Too-soon bad joke about healthcare CEOs here>

He returns to his lair, which is in some sort of storage locker, and contains all kinds of disguises. Safe to say this assassin is also a master of blending in.

Elsewhere, Joe gets a visit from his old friend from high school, Betsy. She totally no-sells Duncan like he isn't even there, because she's so excited to see Joe.

Apparently they dated all throughout HS, and she's been wanting to see him again ever since. They lost touch because he got sent to Vietnam, and he never reached out when he got back.

Well...shit.

Duncan meanwhile seems thrilled that Joe has a potential girlfriend all of a sudden, and does everything in his power to make sure Joe agrees to her offer of going out for dinner.

But wait! After she leaves...Joe gets legitimately angry, which is super rare, and yells at Duncan for not minding his own business. Duncan then obliviously goes off to the local storage lockers to get some parts to fix the beer machine.

Who does he find lurking in there? That assassin guy from the beginning! And of course they know each other from Back In The Day (tm).

New York, 1929. Duncan is in full mobster mode at this point in time, gambling and wearing hats.

If I were an immortal, I wouldn't be so cocky about hanging out with mobsters. Immortals aren't impervious to sleeping with the fishes, and it might be years before somebody fishes them out.

The assassin shows up, and in 1929 he's just a wannabe gangster and servant-boy for the mobsters. He's a real wise-guy, and has no idea he's immortal. Oh yeah, his name is "Johnny K" which is the most 30's Wiseguy name ever.

I think this is the first time we ever actually see Duncan sense a pre-immortal, and it's similar to the normal buzz except the other guy doesn't sense him back. Which brings me back to episode 1 of the series, and how Richie showed up at Duncan's Pad at roughly the same time as Connor and Slan Quince. So when Connor senses someone at the beginning of that episode, it could have been literally any of the three.

In any case, Duncan tries to talk him about hanging around with mobsters, telling him he can do better with his life, but Johnny K is a real wise-guy and he isn't hearing any of it! He's gonna move up the ranks and be like Capone, dammit!

Well, it was a half-hearted attempt to befriend a pre-immortal, but I guess it's time to back off and let him make his own mistakes.

Fast-forward a bit, Johnny K witnesses a drive-by shooting, says nothing to the police, and goes to the boss who ordered it to see if he can parlay his silence into a job (and also Respect+)

...so the mobster BLASTS JOHNNY K TO SMITHEREENS!

Turns out he'd rather just tie up a loose end entirely than have the loose end be one of his boys.

Man, Johnny K was just trying to get a seat at the table, fit in with the local power-brokers, and they just plain killed the guy.

They toss him in the alleyway outside the club he works at, which Duncan is conveniently hanging out at. Duncan immediately goes into full "first teacher" mode explaining to Johnny K how immortals work.

This, however, is a waste of time. Johnny K doesn't need any help! He's cocky and arrogant and thinks that now that he's immortal he can pretty much do whatever he wants.

He's basically a more block-headed version of Danny Cimoli, and I didn't know that was possible. That said, he's a cool character and has a lot of ingenuity. Guy could probably go far in life if he wasn't so arrogant.

Back to the present, he SHOOTS DUNCAN.

By the way, this guy is supposed to be nineteen years old. NINETEEN. The Watcher Chronicle for the episode says as much, and I thought maybe it was a typo, but the episode itself treats him like he's nineteen as well. The characters are constantly calling him "kid", he acts like a kid, and his entire persona is "super young guy out of his element"

He has a chance to kill Duncan, and instead runs off because some random guys show up. Is that an Einstein shirt?

Just-shot Duncan is having a really bad time of it for a few minutes here. And this brings up the age-old question: Why don't more immortals just shoot their opponents and then go in for the kill? If that's allowed, then any of 'em can defeat any of the others if they're shady enough. Hell, the bad ones would have a massive advantage over the ones who fight fair and there would probably be a significant lack of good immortals. Every immortal should carry a gun and the ones that don't should pretty much all be dead. So what gives?

"This proves that evil will always triumph over good...because Good is Dumb."

Later, Duncan tracks down the guy's lair, a nearby trailer.

Side Note: A lot of these episodes really need to be an hour long instead of traditional 90's forty minutes, just to flesh out all the things they gloss over.

Of course, Johnny K has the place rigged to blow up, and Duncan barely leaps clear of it once he realizes it's a trap.

Man, Johnny K is really good at doing everything to kill his opponent except actually fighting them. ...which is pretty smart. Since he can't fight and refuses to anyway, chances are he hasn't really gotten many immortal kills in the 65 or so years he's been immortal, and probably zero without cheating. He claims to have killed around 250 mortal men though, and made lots of money doing it.

Back at the ranch, Joe tells Duncan why he should have "butted out" on the Betsy situation. You see, the last time he saw her was...right before he went to 'Nam. He never saw her after that. Which means she has no idea that he lost his legs, and that's why he never called her after he got back.

Duncan finally gets it.

This subplot is the main thing the episode does well, and it gives us a hint of the rarely-seen fact that Joe Dawson is actually a mess under the surface. He seems like a cool, collected dude who has it all figured out, but he's one loss-of-purpose away from just completely checking out on everything and becoming an angry drunk hermit.

Joe finally agrees to meet up with Betsy for dinner, and looks SUPER DAPPER.

Before they go out, Joe needs to be upfront with Betsy that he does not, in fact, have legs. The football star she knew who could run like the wind and "dance the night away" didn't come back from 'Nam.

She's shocked, but more than anything else, seems like she's finally got some weight off of her knowing the reason why he never reached out after he got back. All this time she thought he'd just moved on or forgotten about her, when in actuality he'd just had his life destroyed in a stupid war.

The dinner happens without a hitch and all is well in Joe-Land! It's great to see Joe actually doing well, especially considering just a few episodes ago he nearly lost his best friend Duncan due to his own colossal mistakes.

They have the "it's been 30 years" make-out sesh and go off to have a roll in the hay. No wasted motion with these two! Time is a-ticking!

Later, Joe visits The Pad to see Duncan. Joe had a great night, and he's glad Duncan talked him into going. I think this is the first time he's gotten laid since...whenever that GF was that got ganked by that big creepy immortal while Joe was trapped behind a door.

He quickly notices that Duncan is acting like a prisoner in his own home. Unbeknownst to Joe, our hero thinks that Johnny K is lurking nearby with a sniper rifle waiting to shoot him. I have several questions.

A) The window glass is completely cloudy, so nobody's gonna be able to see him in here during the day. Especially not from across the street. Well, unless he stands close to the window wearing a white shirt

B) How would Johnny K even get over here to behead him before he woke up? He'd have to zipline from building to building or something.

C) WHY ISN'T DUNCAN WARNING JOE THAT THERE COULD BE A SNIPER OUTSIDE THE WINDOW

Nineteen year old Johnny K calls Duncan up to menace him some more. Duncan's tired of hiding at home, so he makes Johnny an offer he can't refuse: $100K to point his gun at somebody else.

Joe isn't sure what Duncan's playing at, but he's got a plan. Also, note Joe subtly keeping a steel beam between himself and the window. His military training kicking in (or just common sense).

At the church, we get this great little character moment where Johnny K dips his comb in holy water and uses it to comb his hair.

What an absolute scoundrel. In addition to being a Wise Guy, he's also a total no-goodnik!

Duncan shows up...with no money. He just wanted to get the guy here. Johnny just taunts him a lot, talking about all the guys he has assassinated, while Duncan gets increasingly annoyed. What will it take for him to be left alone in life? Maybe when he doesn't have a show anymore he'll be able to have some quiet. Wonder what Duncan's up to in 2025.

Joe gets angry enough to pretty much completely ignore Holy Ground and put hands on the young lad. Well, if Johnny K is going to just ignore the rules, so can Duncan. Not like they're fighting, anyway.

Later that day, the spritely, youthful Johnny K carries out an assassination mission against another wealthy businessman.

However, things go awry when he notices something.

...his face is on billboards all over the city! This is the work of Joe Dawson, who took a picture of him leaving the church, and Duncan who bought ad space all around town.

Considering Johnny K has spent 65 years operating in the shadows with impunity, having a big spotlight shined on him has to be a terrifying new development.

Elsewhere, Joe is fixing things at the bar (how does he have time to Watch when he's this busy?) when he gets a visit from Betsy and her miniskirt.

This is no joke probably the happiest we ever see Joe in the entire series. So, of course, something bad's gotta happen, right?

Sure enough, she's leaving town, going back to their hometown to deal with work or whatever.

So yeah, their reunion got to last all of a day, basically.

Back at The Pad, Duncan is building...a train track around the room?

He implores Joe to go talk to Betsy and not just let her leave town. Go get her, Joe!

Joe thought he was okay with her going, but he really isn't. When you think about it, the guy gave up many years of what his life should have been. To use a train track metaphor, has an opportunity to maybe jump the rails and rejoin the original track he was on, with the original girl in question.

Mostly, he needs to know that Betsy isn't leaving because of his lack of legs.

That isn't it though. His lack of legs isn't an issue for her. Nope, the real issue isn't him at all. She has a shocking revelation to tell him, one we the viewer have probably already guessed at: She's married.

Joe is devastated. She's flying back to their hometown to see her husband (who she just cheated on). He's going to drive her to the airport and that'll be that.

Man, this episode is all about people who cheat, isn't it?

Back at Duncan's Pad, Johnny K is camped out with a sniper rifle, watching Duncan's silhouette pace around in his living room. Finally, he opens fire, knocking him over!

It was a direct hit! Now all he has to do is...zipline over there?

But wait! Duncan shows up, and we see that this is some sort of parking garage. Turns out Duncan was out and about, and Johnny K gave away his position by opening fire. So who was that pacing around in his living room?

NO! HE USED JOE AS BAIT? WHY?

Johnny K is apparently now at a disadvantage. Why couldn't he just turn around and shoot Duncan? Was he out of bullets after 3 shots? In any case, they have a completely one-sided fight where Duncan knocks him around with ease. There's a cool moment where Johnny tries to tase Duncan and Duncan blocks it with his sword, and that's about it.

Duncan easily dispatches Johnny K and lops off his head. He doesn't even need to do the full SHIIIIING, it's more like a quick little "shing."

The Quickening hits, and I see now why all the cars in the garage are beat-up and dented. They went prop-shopping at the local junkyard.

As for the "man" pacing in the window, it was a mannequin mounted on a train set. Which is cool because all of these elements are things we saw at earlier points in the episode, and Duncan put them all together to fool the guy.

TLDR: PHEW, NOT JOE

We get a quick denouement with Joe telling Duncan why Betsy left, while looking at a football that Duncan left out. Did he leave it out for Joe on purpose, to thoughtfully help him reminisce, or is it just a coincidence? I never know with Duncan.

They go full The Room and play catch with the football.

"So how's your sex life?" says Duncan.

"Pretty darn good this week!"

Well, even though his GF turned out to be married and left, Joe's in great spirits.

Why did she travel out here to see him if she was married, anyway? Is this like the detective who was going to cheat on PAUL because she had to know what she was missing? Or was her intention just a pure curiosity about how her old friend was doing? The latter, I think.

Spry youth Johnny K! He assassinated lots of people and wore lots of disguises. An interesting idea for a bad guy that probably would have worked incredibly well in a different show. This guy could have been a season-level Big Bad in a show like CSI or something. Here, he was completely ineffective and no challenge whatsoever to Duncan, despite flagrantly ignoring the immortal rules.

And again, what's stopping other immortals from doing the same and shooting their opponent, anyway? Honor? This makes honor the worst quality an immortal can have. No, I think there has to be something else to it.

Whoa, wait a minute, his Watcher Chronicle has a second page? This totally reads in Joe's voice, which makes sense because he'd be the one writing it. Joe being his watcher also makes sense, since he was operating in the same area where Joe's Bar is.

...wait a minute, how long have these entries been having second pages? Have I just been missing this the entire time? Time for me to go back and start looking through the episodes for entries like this to add to posts. Yowza.

Other Highlander Posts