This is the beginning of what I consider the best seven-episode run in the entire show. While they've had a couple of really solid episode groups before (S1's "Band of Brothers" and a few episodes after it, S3's "Song of the Executioner" and a few episodes after it), this is the longest and most consistent run of quality they ever had. Everything from "Comes a Horseman" to "The Modern Prometheus" are A+ episodes, and knocking out those seven episodes is a big goal of mine for the near future. Then after that I've just got the final 14 episodes and one movie and then I can pretty much put the site in an antique store (have a couple other series' to finish first, too).
"Forgive Us Our Trespasses", if placed last in those seven, could even be a good place to end the series outright and have it be an introspective ending. "Duende" would also be a great finale, if you want to go out with a big battle (but it's a pretty average episode, carried entirely by the final battle). Considering that S5 is so abbreviated and ends four episodes sooner than previous seasons, they sure upped the quality level to compensate. In my view, anyway. I'm sure more than a few people would disagree with my assessment of "The Ransom of Richard Redstone" being included in this "incredible seven-episode run" but just work with me here. A Richie comedy episode is some needed levity at this point.
Aired on February 3rd 1997, this coincided with the beginning of the Sting vs NWO storyline in rasslin', and AOL chat rooms were going nuts around that time talking about both. Would Methos turn on the Four Horsemen? Who would join Ric Flair's Four Horsemen to fight the NWO?
Kronos is the biggest bad guy in this entire show; while Kalas has a longer duration of being a threat (a five-episode arc rather than two - though Kronos does pop up again several times later... sort of), Kronos is the bigger threat by a lot, and feels more like he belongs in a Highlander movie. Both of them have the distinction of having prior wins over Duncan, as well.
This season's theme of running from your past and the unavoidable consequences of not facing it...really comes to a head here.
R.I.P. Death, 2800 BC - 2026 AD
Cause of death: Chuck Norris
R.I.P. Chuck Norris, 1940-2026
At least he took Death down with him.
Duncan and Methos leave a live game show broadcast, where Methos was a contestant (against Duncan's advice) and got really popular with the audience over the course of the afternoon despite losing. As they leave, Methos says he may not know pop culture, but he could tell you how tall Nero was, how many ships.... while Duncan rolls his eyes.
Why does Duncan look so annoyed all the time? Well, in this case, it's because he's concerned someone recognized Methos and will come looking. And he's right.
They sense someone nearby, and Methos decides this is a good time to get out of dodge, leaving Duncan to deal with it. WOMP WOMP.
The visitor in question? Kronos. He's over 3,500 years old (and that's just what we know of), making him possibly the oldest immortal that Duncan ever fights in this show. If he never existed, the population of Earth would probably be 10% higher than it is today. Fun Fact: The actor who played Kronos said in an interview that Kronos wasn't necessarily "evil", he was just doing the function he was put on Earth to do. Just doing what came naturally. And I'd agree with that. Kronos is a wolf. Wolves aren't evil...they're population control.
1867, Texas. In our time, Duncan only knows Kronos as Melvin Koren, scourge of the Wild West. In this flashback, Duncan is a member of the legendary Texas Rangers, hunting down criminals. A bloodthirsty killer (Koren) has been leading a pack of bandits and just pillaging everything in their path. Men, women, children, doesn't matter, they just do whatever they want.
"They call him El Gato. Say he has nine lives. He been shot, stabbed, even heard he was lynched. He just won't die."
The Rangers track Koren's group for days, mainly due to the tracking abilities of Trained Native American Duncan. His accent is pretty much gone and he's even more sour in this era than he is in the modern era, for obvious reasons.
Wild coincidence that this episode has this, on this particular week. Many decades later, the Texas Rangers would surge to superstardom when Chuck Norris became Walker: Texas Ranger.
Before long, Duncan is able to find Koren's gang by following the broken twigs and the horse droppings, while listening to the sounds of the wind and the birds.
"Ah hope yew can shoot as well as yew kin track" say the Texas Rangers.
A huge firefight erupts between the Rangers and the gang. I was going to say it's unfair for Duncan and Koren to be having a fight like this and involving a bunch of humans who won't get back up afterwards, but when has evil ever played fair? It isn't like Koren is going to just send away all his minions and face Duncan one-on-one. Besides that, his whole gang needs to get killed (today we'd just put these vicious jackasses in prison and spend taxpayer money housing and feeding them 3x a day for the rest of time)
Koren retreats into a nearby barn, so of course Duncan gives pursuit while the minion legion fights it out outside. It's like the Lionel Castle Gate battle in Final Fantasy Tactics, Ramza vs Gafgarion.
They fight it out, and our first hint that this isn't a regular immortal of the week is that he has a huge distinctive two-handed bastard sword, one that you can still buy today from the sword-makers in Toledo, if you have $500:
It's probably the nicest villain sword in the series. It's about time a villain got a signature weapon like this, and I don't think we've really had a villain carry a distinct signature weapon since Slan Quince in episode 1.
This sword is very similar to Kurgan's weapon in Highlander, but different enough, much the way the Macleod Family Claymore is different between the movie and show, or Connor/Duncan's katanas are different. Here's Kurgan's weapon:
I think I prefer Kronos' version of the two-handed death sword. It looks nicer than Kurgan's. It's good to see the series try to do something better than the movie did (the time for it to have little brother syndrome ended after Season 1).
What would be a more effective weapon, between the two? Their blades are about the same length/width/design, so it's the hilt and cross-guard where most of the differences are. Kurgan has those spikes emerging from the cross-guard, while Kronos' cross-guard is more barb-oriented.
Regardless of any comparisons, back to the episode.
Disaster strikes as Koren gets the upper hand on Duncan and has him on the ground. It didn't take long either. He could have gone for the killing blow, except instead he tossed his swords and went for...
...a nearby scythe. Yes, he decided a scythe would be a better thing to kill Duncan with. Opting for style over substance could have been a costly mistake against a foe of Duncan's caliber. Either way, this momentary lapse in judgment was enough time for the Texas Rangers to get into the room and blast him.
The Koren Gang is no more...except sure enough, Koren busted out of his grave.
Back in the present, Kronos has vanished, and Duncan turns around to run into Cassandra (who also has a pretty nice sword).
So...Kronos is looking for Methos, and Cassandra is looking for Kronos, who Duncan only knows as Koren, so she has some explaining to do. What is this, an immortal congregation? And does it have to happen in Duncan's town?
The last time we saw Cassandra was back in Prophecy, where...
"I'm going to need some birth control if this goes on much longer" - Actual line from the blooper reel
There are a few blooper reels for the series, found on the DVD sets. This one has always been my favorite of them. It also contains...
#TheThreesomeFansDeserved
Come on, Highlander showrunners! USA Network would have allowed it! They let Shawn Michaels prance around swinging a giant hotdog in the air like an hour later on Monday nights.
In any case, Cassandra has a story to tell about the Four Horse...
......was that spiral stairway always there in the corner? Where does it go?
...right, the Four Horsemen. Not just a fable or a metaphor, they were real, and they plowed across Central Asia circa 1200 BC. Wonder if they ever encountered the Kane Trio, and who would have won the ensuing Survivor Series matchup if they did.
Who am I kidding, these guys would have kicked the Kane Trio's ass, even if one of them stayed out of the fight to make it even. Now, add Kurgan to the Kane Trio for a four-on-four and you have something. I'd still give the Four Horsemen the edge, largely due to how lame Kane's two allies were, but a lot of it comes down to whether Kronos would beat Kurgan or not. Could go either way really.
This random guy carrying a bundle of sticks freaks out when the Four Horsemen appear, and runs for his life...leading them right back to the village, which I'm sure they would have found anyway.
People are nomadic villagers, for the most part, during this era. Life is difficult, and these villagers don't exactly have militias. That guy whacking the camel with a stick to urge it onward? Joke is on him, the camels are gonna be the only thing left at the end of the day.
Pestilence, the leader, gives the signal to attack. This is what they do, they just destroy everyone in their path, take their stuff, make love to their women, and move on.
Four organized guys armed with Bronze Age weapons and armor might as well be a tank division against disorganized villagers with stone age armaments who are blindsided by the attack to begin with.
Death is distinctive, as he rides a white horse unlike the others.
Pestilence unmasks as Kronos. The population of the world isn't very high at this point in time, and their cutting a path across Asia has an exponential, compounded effect on the world's population in the future. Like I said, population control.
In any case, he runs Cassandra through, giving her her first death and turning her into an immortal, then they drag her off.
They take off, with the village left in ruins. There's nothing left. Except the camels. They're fine, and free to go about their business. The Four Horsemen aren't monsters.
Cassandra spares us the gritty details about how the Four Horsemen kept her as a sex slave, when she didn't even know what was going on or how she was unable to die. And definitely not how to fight back against them or kill them. All four of them were immortal.
Someone think of Kronos here. He had to spend several thousand years trying to recapture his glory days by forming new groups, only to have all of them absolutely pale compared to the Four Horsemen. They were a rockstar group compared to the Koren Gang. It's like going from being a member of KISS to being a member of Nickleback.
Joe doesn't even believe the story, or that the Four Horsemen were real. He's under the impression that the Biblical story was just an allegory or a metaphor, not based on four actual men.
Yanno, with everything he's seen, should he really be that incredulous at this idea?
Elsewhere, Methos is ambushed while walking to his car, taking a throwing knife to the sternum right after sensing an immortal. The shocked look on his face is the look of 5,000 years about to come to an end outta nowhere to some unknown assailant.
Oh shit, it's Kronos. He's gonna kill Methos! They're dead serious about putting heat on the immortal of the week here!
Well, originally Methos was supposed to be slain by Kalas in the finale of S3. It's been a good run.
Kronos drags Methos back to his lair, where he's holding a chain ominously. What's he planning to do with that?
He gives Methos a choice: Join forces with him and "ride again", or die. To which Methos says "Welcome back, brother"
DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNN.
Kronos is as serious as a heart attack, and looks like a more evil version of Bono.
He doesn't particularly trust Methos, but he's re-forming the Four Horsemen, and Methos is...one of them. Long as Methos doesn't try to screw him over, he'll let Methos live.
The fact that Methos doesn't even slightly entertain the idea of fighting (even just to try and escape) Kronos really puts over how strong Kronos actually is. He agrees to go with him on an expedition to find the other two Horsemen and get the band back together.
Methos swings by Duncan's place. Not to ask him for help, because he wouldn't put this on Duncan either. He's just here to say something came up and he won't be around for a bit. Is he planning to flee Kronos and hide somewhere, or is he legitimately going with Kronos back to Europe?
....and what are they looking at?
Cassandra storms out of the elevator, and she's not happy. "YOU!" she says, like 1980's Hulk Hogan before hitting the Big Boot and the Legdrop.
Methos suggests that she doesn't know him and it's a case of mistaken identity. She thinks otherwise!
The Horsemen camp is significantly more malevolent than the homely village from earlier, as Pale Horse Death rides through the smoldering ruins of the world.
Death unmasks, and...yep, it's Methos, during his rockstar phase.
Cassandra tries to kill him with a very Bronze Age dagger, and he easily fends her off. Of course, that dagger wouldn't have done much anyway.
It seems that Methos is going to keep her as his sex slave for a while. Well, that's just great. She asks where her villagers are.
Methos helpfully points her in the direction of her friends and family:
Holy Shit.
Yeah, Methos was a pretty bad guy, it seems.
Methos is all ready to get to rapin' when a brawl breaks out nearby, and this means it's time to finally meet the other two Horsemen.
From left to right, here's Caspian (Famine) and Silas (War) and they're fighting over a blanket. Silas saw it first, but Caspian killed more people, so he thinks he's entitled to it. Silas says that women and children don't count. You know, this Silas seems alright, for a murdering psychopath.
Caspian draws a knife on Silas' throat, so Methos jumps in and puts his own blade at Caspian's throat. "TRUST ME, IF I HAVE TO LOSE ONE, IT WILL BE YOU" he says. What happens if they did somehow lose one (likely due to infighting like this)? Do they put out a recruitment call? "Room for Fourth Horseman, only apply if immortal". More likely they'll just kill and do their thing until they find someone suitable to join the group.
Methos really acting like the leader of the group here, but I think he's more the Donatello, the brains of the operation.
Kronos shows up and slashes the blanket in half so they can both have one. He's the Leonardo of the group.
Since neither Caspian nor Silas is a party dude, they're more like Bebop and Rocksteady.
Caspian is obviously hard to work with, and actually reminds me a lot of Kurgan. Kronos likes him in particular, because Caspian is the most vicious.
Silas is just a big destroyer, but he also has some curiosity about things and doesn't like killing defenseless folk (though he'll look the other way on the others doing it all day).
Both of these guys could have been a Highlander Villain of the Week and both would have been really good/memorable ones. Caspian in particular could have carried a two-parter. So there are no slouches in this group.
This scene ends with Cassandra attempting an escape, only to be caught by Methos, who says he's going to keep killing and reviving her until she learns to obey him, before stabbing her.
......well. It's all well and good to talk about how compelling Evil Methos was and so forth, but actually seeing it again is jarring.
Back in the present, Duncan restrains Cassandra while Methos runs away. Methos running away from a lady is always hilarious. In "Till Death" when he sprinted away from Gina, I had the biggest laugh out loud moment in this entire series.
Well, Cassandra isn't amused, and tells Duncan to stay TF out of her way. Duncan is so confused right now. How could Methos, the guy who avoids fighting at all costs, be Death, the most murderous of the Four Horsemen?
And I'm like...bro, remember Darius? People can change a LOT.
Joe thinks Cassandra is the crazy one, and can't imagine Methos actually being Death of the Four Horsemen. A mild-mannered guy who never looks for a fight...can we imagine him murdering people for fun?
Methos goes back to Kronos' Lair, which I think is some sort of abandoned submarine base. Kronos knew Methos wouldn't be a flight risk, because Methos knows better, Kronos would just find him.
...which begs the question of why it took this long for Kronos to find him to begin with, given that they last saw each other about 2000 years ago. Well, in the episode's deleted scenes, we see that after running together for about a thousand years, Methos made an attempt to escape from Kronos by locking him in a well in Greece. With the ancient world being a lot harder to track people down in, once he finally got out, Kronos completely lost him after that for a long time.
Also, those scenes with Methos and Kronos were deleted for a reason... as interesting as they sound, they were some of the most comically bad scenes in the series. Not sure why. The point is that they were all about Methos trying to get away from Kronos and live his own life. Not sure what happened to the other two Horsemen or when they separated from the group. It's probable that after the disappearance of Kronos, they all dispersed to the winds.
Kronos says that Methos is one of a kind, and that no one understood the "true use of terror" the way Methos does. Methos noticeably stands up straighter, and seems to like the memory, on some level.
...but wait! Methos makes a Hail Mary attempt to sneak attack Kronos with his back turned, and...
Kronos easily repels the attack. This guy shows like zero weakness whatsoever. He would kill Methos, but at the same time he's kinda happy to see Methos still has killer instinct.
Methos tries to explain that he's changed and doesn't want to be Death anymore. Kronos believes that the old Methos is still in there, missing the freedom and the power.
All of that said, it's pretty clear that Kronos doesn't trust him at all. No, before they re-form the band, Methos is gonna have to prove himself by doing something: Swear to kill Duncan Macleod.
Methos is a little confused by this. Kronos and Duncan fought a long time ago, but what is Duncan to him? Kronos has fought a lot of people, and Duncan is Methos' friend. To which Kronos says that he wants Duncan dead precisely because he's Methos' friend.
Methos swears. He'll kill Duncan. In exchange, Kronos will kill Cassandra. No loose ends.
This was some serious business in 1997. Nothing like any of this happened in the series before now.
Next, Methos is confronted by Duncan, in what might be the most iconic scene between them in the entire series. Ya know what, I'll just quote it verbatim:
Duncan: "Is what she said true?"
Methos: "The times were different. I was different. The whole bloody world was different, okay?"
Duncan: "Did you kill all those people?"
Methos: "Yes. Is that what you want to hear? Killing was all I knew. Is that what you want to hear?"
Duncan: "It's enough."
Methos: "No. It's NOT enough. I killed, but I didn't just kill fifty. I didn't kill a hundred. I killed a thousand. I killed TEN THOUSAND. And I was good at it!"
Methos: "And it wasn't for vengeance. It wasn't for greed. It was because... I liked it! Cassandra was nothing. Her village was nothing. You know who I was? I was Death."
(Duncan throws Methos against the car, Methos laughs uproariously)
Methos: "Death, Death on a horse. When mothers warned their children that the monster would get them, that monster was me. I was the nightmare that kept them awake at night. Is THAT what you want to hear? The answer is yes. Oh yes."
"We're through." says Duncan before storming off.
Methos didn't ask for any of this when he woke up this morning.
Duncan is going through all kinds of emotions at the prospect that on pure kill count, Methos might be worse than any of the opponents he has ever fought, and that he did horrible things to his close friend Cassandra. Even if we're talking about things that happened more than 2000 years ago, the lack of justice ever being served on such an absolute monster is the sort of thing that he normally can't abide.
Joe has a retort: Vietnam.
"You think when we fought in a village, all the bullets managed to miss the children?"
It's a good defense of Methos, but it's an entirely different situation. He and his fellow troops weren't trying to do horrible things, they were put in an impossible situation where they didn't always know friend from foe or what the point of their being there even was. It's a pretty big leap to go from that to four unkillable tyrants rampaging across two continents and just destroying and pillaging everything in their path as a way of life because it's fun.
Also, and nobody's gonna like this, but it's another "he who is without sin cast the first stone" situation. How many men would love to rampage across a continent, slaying foes and hearing the lamentations of their women? That isn't just Methos' default state, it might actually be the human male's default state.
So which side am I on here? I don't know. Joe isn't making the point he thinks he's making, but I also don't think Duncan should be judging Methos for simply going along with the way of the world at that time: Might makes right, and so forth.
This scene ends with a phone call on Joe's Blocky 90's Cell Phone. It seems the Watchers have finally found Kronos...because they were tailing Cassandra and SHE found Kronos. Uh oh.
Cassandra is the closest thing this show has to a Paladin (besides the main character) and I'm starting to think that SHE should have been the focal point of The Raven if they wanted to do a spinoff with a female character. Yeah, Amanda is more interesting from a writing perspective, but Cassandra over here is a lot more powerful, a lot more...Highlandery, and has 3200 years of flashbacks to draw from instead of 900.
Kronos says he almost didn't recognize Cassandra on her feet instead of on her back.
Cassandra: "Centuries pass, nations come and go, and you haven't changed at all."
Cassandra tries to cast a spell on him, telling him his sword arm grows heavy and he's too tired to put up a fight.
...Kronos just completely no-sells it and says it won't work on him, he's too old and too powerful.
Also, for whatever reason, he wants her to "make love" to him before he kills her. ...has that ever worked?
They battle it out, and it's a short battle (if a bit hard to see) where Cassandra puts up a really good offense but Kronos never so much as takes a scratch or gets out of breath. He easily repelled her to the point that I think the fight only went on for any length of time because he found it amusing. He wields a two-hander with the agility of a weightless one-hander.
Kronos and Cassandra get separated, and Cassandra runs right into Methos, who knocks her out and carries her off to safety. That's awfully altruistic of him.
While trying to hunt her down, Kronos runs into Duncan. Looks like everyone showed up. Duncan thinks that Kronos killed Cassandra already and that he's too late, so he's pissed.
All Duncan knows for sure is that Melvin Koren has got to go. This has been a great villain of the week episode, really one of the best ones, and we'll be dealing with the ramifications of Methos' history for a while. Say bye to Melvin Koren, everyone.
The battle is joined! Despite having just defeated another foe, Cassandra no less who is no slouch at all, Kronos is able to easily fend off Duncan's attacks.
Elsewhere, Methos angrily throws Cassandra into a nearby river. Once again, he didn't ask for any of this when he woke up this morning.
The brawl between Duncan and Kronos continues as Kronos disappears into the machine-works of the refinery. This is a lot like the final fight of Highlander: Endgame.
Also, the OST in this episode is REALLY good, especially in this part.
Kronos manages to do one surprise attack from among the machinery that is so ninja-like that it's up there with the Xenomorph sleeping on the escape craft at the end of Alien.
Nearby, Methos is hurling molotovs and using gasoline to create walls of fire to try and bring this fight to an end. The grand puppeteer, Methos, doing everything he can to manipulate events.
Duncan goes coat-off, last seen against Haresh Clay, because this Kronos guy doesn't seem to be losing a step.
Things turn into an INFERNO MATCH and all things considered, this is one of the best fights of the season.
Kronos manages to knock Duncan on the ground, the same way he did in the barn during their first encounter. This time Duncan isn't dazed enough for him to grab a scythe, and fights back from the ground until...
...the fire gets to be too much, and breaks up their fight. Kronos was clearly in the lead on points, and still seems to barely even need to take a breath.
Duncan on the other hand is pretty beat-up and out of breath. It's wild to see him not only have a tough time with an opponent, but also be saved by the bell.
Back at the ranch, Cassandra turns out to still be alive, and it looks like this is gonna be a multi-parter. She says this won't be over until both Kronos and Methos are dead. So things have officially gotten complicated, and slaying Kronos alone - IF Duncan can even pull that off - isn't going to be enough to un-fuck the timeline. Something is going to have to give with Cassandra.
Back at the other ranch, Kronos is INFURIATED with Methos for interfering and causing the double-DQ, asking why he saved Duncan.
Methos smartly says that the fight could have gone either way, and he couldn't take the risk of losing Kronos.
Naw man, Kronos is right, he was well in the lead, and Methos knew it, that's why he torched the place.
Kronos decides that Methos is clearly not Horsemen material anymore since he protected Duncan, and is about to lop off his head...when Methos reveals that he knows where the other two Horsemen are. That's right. He tracked them down, and now he's keeping that knowledge as insurance so Kronos doesn't off him.
This is why Kronos likes Methos so much. Always thinking, always plotting.
"The Horsemen will ride again" says Kronos.
What is Methos up to?
What's the plan?
And if Duncan weren't around, would there be anything stopping Methos from going evil again?
-----
Before I go, I want to spotlight the comments of the Reunion episode from Season 4. Some interesting thoughts over there.
In retrospect, Duncan really does come off like the bad guy in Reunion. The thing about Highlander is, everybody's a shade of grey, everyone's done some bad things in the past. When you have THAT MUCH past, it's impossible not to have a long list of mistakes. Which makes his judging of Methos kind of uncool...but at the same time, Methos' crimes really are severe. I'm still not sure where I fall on this debate. Though I'll say this, Methos not confronting his past before now could easily cost him everything.
Next up: Revelation 6:8. Next Monday at 7 PM, the original airdate of these episodes on USA Network. Back in 1997 the only time I ever watched any WWF Raw was a couple minutes here and there due to the Highlander lead-in. "Who is this Shawn Michaels guy who kinda looks like Duncan?"
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