Highlander 5x06 - Money No Object

 

This picture looks like it should be accompanied by 1930's honky-tonk jazz, like the entirety of the movie Babylon. This is a great comedy episode, and more fun with Amanda after the heartfelt episode we got last time. Not sure why Amanda gets hated-on online, because she's quite likeable in these episodes.

WHOA HEY LOOK, it's Richie! We're getting the not-often seen Richie/Amanda pairing, as Amanda is on her way to her "bank". It's a seedy place out in the boondocks that "doesn't ask questions"

These two actually have a lot of chemistry and tension. It might just be because Amanda can have chemistry with basically any guy. She has a real "way with men", she does. Richie still isn't going to go into this weird establishment. He's had enough trouble with the law, dammit! HE AIN'T GOIN' BACK!

Amanda goes in solo, only to find...the bank is being robbed! By an immortal! What are the odds?

The guy grabs Amanda and runs off, blasting a tommy gun into the air. No word on if he also said something about "youse coppers"

Richie gives chase, but unbeknownst to Richie and knownst to us...

...Amanda is actually going with this guy willingly, because he's her old friend Cory Raines.

Played by Alex Krychek from The X-Files. Holy shit. He was already right in the middle of that show, at this point. And judging from how happy he looks throughout this episode, I'm guessing this was a Roger Daltrey situation where he was only making room for Highlander because he really liked the show.

Looks like he was also in the Season 2 episode "The Fighter" a little earlier in time.

He proceeds to RUN RICHIE OFF THE ROAD, sending Young Richard into a nearby pond.

Cory is having the TIME OF HIS LIFE while Amanda is kind of upset and hoping her friend is okay.

Cory hears "friend" and thinks "competition", as we do. So it seems Cory and Amanda have been an item on and off, much like her and Duncan.

Ahh, so now she must choose!

We'll find out what happens when two on-and-off relationships finally run into each other.

Cory has a surprise for Amanda. It's their old getaway car, a 1927. They used to use this to escape after they'd rob banks. Cory wants to take her for a spin in it and reminisce! Amanda is just kinda going along with all of this because she's happy to see him.

Down the road, Richie finally climbs out of the pond, looking real haggard. "The showrunners brought me back FOR THIS??"

Cory proceeds to barrel down the road (fairly slowly) in a new car, running Richie off the road AGAIN.

He flops RIGHT INTO THE POND. Why not just step out of the way, like a matador? OLE!

After presumably bathing (sorry ladies, it isn't shown), Richie helps Duncan figure out what happened. He's able to pick the car out of a lineup in Duncan's Big Book of Cars.

Elsewhere, Cory is so happy to see Amanda that he's pecking her on the shoulder while they sip wine and talk about old times.

Guy loves her like crazy. I've been in this precise situation a bunch of times in the past. Just bein' so happy to see somebody (after a break) that you can't get enough of 'em.

Amanda, however, squirms away from his advances, because she's kinda taken, sort of. She's a serial monogamist, one guy at a time, even if she does switch guys around every so often.

Meanwhile, our heroes track down the only local mechanic who can work on that particular car, and try to get some info about who owns it.

This involves Duncan turning into Enraged French Filmmaker "Jacques Paree" and ranting in a perfect French accent. Guy clearly has a strong grasp of French, which makes me wonder why we never ever hear him speak it to a French person despite half of the show taking place in Paris.

"ZE GODS! ZEY MOCK ME!" says Jacques Paree.

The end result? The mechanic gives them the address of the guy who owns the car while Richie tries not to crack up.

Duncan is such a charismatic leading man when he's allowed to be, and this show is SO MUCH better when he isn't moping around all the time.

They find the car in question, and Cory's not-so-humble abode. Which means Amanda must be nearby. Time to rescue her! I hope she isn't being tortured!

...well, no, she's sipping wine on the couch with the guy. This leads to a FOUR-WAY SHOWDOWN!

Dear God! The tension in this room is off the charts. Who will betray whom? Who will win the hand of Amanda? All the motivations and intrigue makes Game of Thrones look like Chutes n' Ladders.

Cory: "What's the big deal? You're an immortal. It's all in fun!"

Richie: "All in fun??"

Duncan realizes that not only is Amanda not in need of their assistance, she's actually having a great time, and is "positively glowing"

Indeed, she's the belle of the ball over here. Everybody wants her!

Cory proposes that all four of them get naked and get in the hot tub. Well, he doesn't say the naked part, it's implied. Everyone knows what happens in the hot tub.

Duncan balks at this and says "You know what they say, two's company, and four...is unsanitary"

I've been wondering what episode that quote was from for literally about 15 years. I remember this from when I was a kid. I started using the quote in casual conversation, and probably got in trouble for it lol

Meanwhile, back in 1927! Amanda is so cute in a turban. She's cute in pretty much anything.

How Highlander: The Raven managed to make Amanda completely unappealing / not attractive is beyond me. Somehow accomplishing those things is a FEAT. More on that in a few here.

Our heroes are driving from town to town so she can do her circus act, and we learn here that Duncan barely knows how to drive at this point. Well, cars ARE new-fangled in 1927. ...Relatively. ......it took the man like 80 years to learn how to read, cut him a break!

They stumble upon Cory robbing an armored car. He uses guns to get people to comply, but he never, ever actually hurts anybody, and you can tell that immediately. He even gives some money to the armored car guards before he takes off!

Amanda is intrigued...and her loins are ON FIRE.

They catch up with Cory (at Amanda's behest) only to discover that he's giving away all the money he stole to a destitute family so they can have a fresh start at life.

Duncan is unimpressed with his Robin Hood antics, while Amanda is deeply impressed.

After Cory gives the family his car as well (since theirs was falling apart), he hitches a ride with our heroes. In the back, of course, even though I'm sure Amanda would have been fine sitting in his lap.

Things don't go smoothly for long, though, as the police are onto them!

Cory: "You'll never take me alive, coppers!"

HE SAID THE LINE

These two pretend that Cory was holding them hostage, as Cory himself gets riddled with bullets.

Duncan: "THERE THERE DEAR, THERE THERE"

Our heroes (read: Duncan) dig up Cory. Sounded like he was awake in there. What if they didn't dig him up? Man, he could have been screwed. Unless he developed the Kill Bill wood-breaking technique.

Cory wants our heroes to go with him to do more crazy stuff. Duncan is staying right here. Amanda wants to go...unless Duncan wants her to stay with him. DOES he want her to stay with him?

Duncan does the "IDC do what u want" thing, which clearly disappoints her, and she takes off. Well, that's what inaction and cowardice will get you. If you care, let 'em know.

I guess Duncan is going to be hitch-hiking for a while. It's great how these flashbacks are in Sepia Tone. Sepia: Delightful and Underrated

Next we get a magnificent montage of the exploits of Cory, Amanda, and Duncan circa the late 1920's.

"YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE, COPPERS!"

At first, the whole scheme was him robbing banks, her being the getaway driver, and him pretending she was his captive once they got caught. He'd get himself killed, she'd find him and dig him up. Before long, this stopped working as well, so they dropped the act and just became a bank-robbing duo, actually escaping rather than letting him get shot up.

Amanda is SO COOL.

I mean, Jesus. Look at 'er.

Safe to say this was the time of both of their lives! Who needs Duncan, anyway?

All good things must come to an end, and eventually they both had too much notoriety to continue. They got slain, Duncan dug them up, and they went back to living normal lives.

Cory wants to go back to all that fun they had back then...by robbing the FEDERAL RESERVE.

Somewhere, Ron Paul's ears perked up. "IT IS TIME."

Duncan thinks all of this is crazy and that she needs to probably stay away from this Cory guy. Amanda correctly surmises that he is merely Jelly. Meanwhile, Richie just plain doesn't like the guy. "He thinks everything is a joke" says Richie. Well, that's why Amanda likes him.

There's a B-Plot with investigators trailing Cory, that I've largely ignored because quite frankly it just isn't interesting.

Amanda says that Cory guaranteed nobody would get hurt, and Duncan is like "IT'S THE FEDERAL RESERVE"

The ensuing argument causes Amanda to storm out, and Richie tells Duncan he was real smooth. ZING.

Duncan chases after and implores Amanda to reconsider hanging out with this Cory guy.

Amanda just thinks he's jealous, and incapable of articulating it. "We've been hanging out for over 300 years and you still have no idea what I want" she bellows before storming out.

Well Duncan, Richie was right. That was smooth. Way to just run her off...right into the waiting arms of Cory.

Guy probably has the champagne ready to go over there. It's gonna be a WILD NIGHT at Casa Del Cory tonight! Yeah, put yourself in Duncan's shoes, then wrap your head around THAT mental image.

Richie drops by the house (Cory is out) and tries to talk Amanda out of running off with Cory. She asks if Duncan sent Richie to tell her this, he says no, and she's clearly disappointed. Seems like what she wants is some sign that Duncan actually values her and wants her around, but he isn't capable of that for whatever reason. Maybe he used up all of his caring on Tessa?

Amanda: "Why didn't he tell me to stay?"

Richie: "Because, dear, nobody actually tells you anything."

What is this?? Richie swooping in as the mature voice in the room in this episode, striking the nail right on the head.

Amanda appeals to Richie's old heist-ing nature by telling him all about the plan. It involves setting off a car bomb as a distraction. He isn't down.

Later, the detectives show up and apprehend Amanda! Meanwhile, Richie jumps out a window and escapes.

This means nobody will be there to meet up with Cory and carry out The Plan! Nobody except...

...Duncan, who immediately punches Cory in the face for putting Amanda up to such a bad idea.

Turns out Cory's car bomb is going to accidentally kill a marching band, so our heroes spring into action! They could disarm the bomb, or redirect the marching band, but instead...

Duncan drives the car to a safe place where it can blow up without injuring anybody...only to find that the handle of the door is rigged to fall off. Wow. Wow wow wow.

Duncan then gets BLOWN UP.

Why did Cory have the handle rigged? What is even happening

Cory breaks the fourth wall by looking DIRECTLY at the camera and going "That's gotta hurt!"

Things turn into a Bugs Bunny cartoon as an incensed (and soot-covered) Duncan climbs out of the debris. He's ready to kill Cory, but he can't, 'cause he needs Cory's help to find Amanda.

Our heroes interrogate Cory and find out that the guys after him (who have Amanda) aren't actually detectives at all! They're henchmen working for a huge mafia boss that Cory ripped off. Well, this just got WAY worse for her. They hatch a plan, though. They'll bring the money he stole, in exchange for Amanda, and Cory will pretend to be wearing a bomb suit so that the henchmen will get freaked out and run off. Or something.

Long story short, the bad guys are waiting for Cory to show up with THE MONEY, while Amanda no-sells them and tells them how smelly they are.

Cory shows up covered in bombs, scaring off the henchmen and rescuing Amanda. Well, whatever works.

Duncan proceeds to remotely detonate one of the bombs, blasting Cory to smithereens. DAMN.

Specifically, a bomb that was in this nearby shed that Cory was supposed to walk to after the exchange, for some reason.

Anyway long story short, everyone's got very different reactions to Cory getting blasted. Also Duncan accidentally headbutts Amanda on the nose during this scene and it's hilarious, they left it in.

TIT FOR TAT, SIR!

In the immortal words of...Cory, "it's all in fun"

Cory then leaves town (to escape the mafia) and Amanda decides she should probably head back to Paris for a while so said mafia forgets about her too.

Duncan finally grows a pair and lets her know he'd rather if she stayed, and she's very happy to hear it. She's still heading out, though.

"See you in Paris!"

Well, that's unfortunate, no more Amanda for a bit. At least we seem to have Richie around again, hopefully for the rest of the season, though.

Duncan's alone, yet again. It seems to be where he functions best.

Great episode here, probably the second "great" episode of Season 5 so far (with the first being End of Innocence - the other ep with Richie in it - COINCIDENCE?)

Another Matthew McCormick protege. We've had a higher than usual amount of immortals being introduced and actually surviving their debut as of late. It's almost like they're world-building and fleshing out a roster of characters that can be brought back for future stories. ...without much time left on the clock. If only we got a Season 7 (or a Methos show) eh?

This guy is actually a pretty damn cool character. He'd be a GREAT recurring guest star and would add a lot to this season, but alas... it's back to X-Files with 'em.

How Highlander: The Raven managed to make Amanda completely unappealing / not attractive is beyond me. Somehow accomplishing those things is a FEAT. More on this later.

And now, it's later: From what I understand a lot of it came down to the actress herself freaking out IRL, dyeing her hair blonde (thus crippling the very identity of THE RAVEN), and thinking her co-star was a government plant put there by Bill Clinton to keep an eye on her.

...which is a whole other thing I don't want to get into. I'm guessing the failure of The Raven wasn't just down to her freakout, though. The producers didn't really know what to do with the show or the character, so they defaulted to "generic cop show" and had her stopping criminals. At least they didn't default to their other favorite idea, "post-apocalyptic".

I've been back and forth on whether or not to cover The Raven on here. It'd be a pretty sour note to end on, and I'd much rather end with Season 6 and Highlander Endgame. Don't worry, I'm sure I'll also get to Highlander III, winner of "best sex scene in a Highlander movie" in my April Fools magnum opus. Also my most-viewed post ever in history, with a massive view count, which is hilarious. Either way, if I did cover The Raven, chances are it'd be in a more abbreviated format where I just give a quick rundown of each episode and talk about what worked and what didn't. 50/50 on it right now.

With the current format of these episode posts, they take a while to put together. Like a "put all day aside" type of while, and the idea of spending that kind of time on The Raven isn't appealing. I can only imagine how rad that series COULD have been if it had delivered the Amanda we know from episodes like this.

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