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1-5: Band of Brothers, For Evil's Sake, For Tomorrow We Die
"Really? We are trapped in a room with a machine that can cut off my head. Now that's a longshot."
--Connor MacLeod in Peter Bellwood's original Highlander II script
"Really? We are trapped in a room with a machine that can cut off my head. Now that's a longshot."
--Connor MacLeod in Peter Bellwood's original Highlander II script
"Really? We are trapped in a room with a machine that can cut off my head. Now that's a longshot."
--Connor MacLeod in Peter Bellwood's original Highlander II script
"Really? We are trapped in a room with a machine that can cut off my head. Now that's a longshot."
--Connor MacLeod in Peter Bellwood's original Highlander II script
I think "Band of Brothers" is one of the two best in Season 1 (along with "The Hunters"), and among the best in the entire series. I especially love the flashback showing how Mac met Darius.
But I've always found one moment in the episode...hard to believe. Until this episode, there'd been no suggestion that Mac and Tessa might want to leave the U.S. any time soon. Now Tessa is going to France. Mac says he wants Richie to go with her, and surprises Richie by giving him a plane ticket. But it's completely implausible that an 18-year-old, from Richie's background, would have had a passport!
OK, we can say Mac has gotten him one. And since Richie didn't know anything about this suddenly-planned trip, Mac couldn't have gotten it in the "normal" way. We can assume he went to an Immortal friend who specialized in producing fake passports for fellow Immortals. There was no reason why Richie couldn't get a legitimate passport; it just couldn't have been done on extremely short notice. (Richie himself didn't immediately think of the "passport problem"; and Tessa, who probably did think of it, was familiar enough with Mac's strange doings that she kept her mouth shut.)
But why had Mac thought he might want to get Richie out of the country quickly? Originally, there wasn't any good reason. But we can come up with one if we're deciding to think of Endgame - the version shown in theaters - as canon! We can say that at some point in that fall of 1992, Mac had taken a trip to New York, been there when Connor's mysterious "Enemy" killed Rachel...and he'd realized he and the people close to him might also be at risk.
"Really? We are trapped in a room with a machine that can cut off my head. Now that's a longshot."
--Connor MacLeod in Peter Bellwood's original Highlander II script
Band of Brothers - Very good episode with the introduction of Darius. I enjoyed the background on how they met. You didn't fear fear in Duncan's eyes too often. This and Courage stick out for me as times Duncan was definitely afraid for his life.
For Evil's Sake - I enjoyed this episode, although, from the start, you want Kuyler to die. He has that douche quality about him. The look Duncan gives Kuyler right before taking his head is amusing.
For Tomorrow We Die - A good intro for Xavier. The first time I watched this, I kept expecting him to break out a verse of "She Drives Me Crazy".
"It's Rock & Roll. If you aren't breaking some sort of law, then you are doing it wrong." - me, answering a bandmate's question of what would happen if someone called the law on us for playing too loud at an outdoor show.
Something I've thought of re "Band of Brothers"... It seems sort of odd that Grayson talks as if he believes the final "Gathering" is not only real, but destined to come soon. And Mac doesn't dispute that: but his believing in it is more understandable, since he's recently been with the "Gathering"-obsessed Connor. (I'm assuming a reality in which, back in 1985, Connor actually did think briefly - and of course, wrongly - that he'd become the "One." I imagine that whenever Duncan spends some time with him, he finds himself buying into it, only to dismiss the idea within a few weeks.)
The problem here: In 1992, it was easy for "young" Immortals to think the "Gathering" might be triggered by the turn of the millennium. People were associating that with all kinds of things! Most of those "young" Immortals had never met one they knew for a fact was over a thousand years old. But Grayson had, of course, been around since at least...400 CE? He would have known the last turn of a millennium hadn't caused anything extraordinary; there was no reason to think this one would be any different. And however many Immortals he might kill, he couldn't prevent new pre-Immortals' being born.
"Really? We are trapped in a room with a machine that can cut off my head. Now that's a longshot."
--Connor MacLeod in Peter Bellwood's original Highlander II script
And really, since the TV series presents a world with hundreds of immortals still alive in the present, it's unsurprising that a Gathering couldn't wrap up over a single week in NYC. Three decades may seem like a long time, but that's almost unavoidable unless they ALL show up at Madison Square Garden and book the place. Even then, the poor guy who wins the Prize is also stuck with a room full of dead bodies in a stadium that's suffering some major structural and electrical damage.
"Really? We are trapped in a room with a machine that can cut off my head. Now that's a longshot."
--Connor MacLeod in Peter Bellwood's original Highlander II script
My new theory is that The Source appeared because the last Immortals weren't killing each other. It's what happens when the Gathering is stymied! I'm watching For Tomorrow we Die right now, and came to this thread to comment. Except I forgot what I was going to say...
Xavier in For Tomorrow We Die "No I kill them because... what's the difference? They all die anyway." So what happened before he was in danger of being guillotined, and after he left Darius. What was he going to say? How did he go from "I don't sleep with virgins and I don't kill children," to this?
I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I'm not a huge fan of "Band of Brothers". I don't think it's bad—it just doesn't grab me for any reason. I think a part of that has to do with the reporter whose character I really don't like. I don't like any of the female reporter/agent characters that they tried to introduce at various points. Who the peace maker characters are exactly is also left pretty vague. Cool beheading though.
I like "For Evil's Sake". The antagonist is portrayed well and he drinks absinthe and so obviously has good taste. But yeah, I guess he's really just one more bad immortal. That French police character that they always dubbed horribly is in this one too, which is always a distraction.
I agree with Tootsie that we don't see Xavier at his best in "For Tomorrow We Die". There's just something not quite right about the idea of him using gas, not just in the larger context of the series, but even just with the way that his character is played in this episode alone. There also seems to be something of a contradiction here, because during the World War scene Xavier introduces himself to Macleod, but in later episodes we learn that they actually met long before that point.
I'm still thinking of the "Source," etc. I'm guessing the majority of fans are like me in refusing to accept that - and, perhaps, anything other than HL:TS - as canon. I prefer to think the "Gathering" is nothing but a myth. And I'd guess there are thousands, at least, of Immortals alive at the turn of the millennium! With more than enough pre-Immortals being born to replace those being killed.
But in my fan fiction, I had it turn out that Connor was a member of a small subspecies - they actually did have a compulsion to kill one another - and for them, that "Gathering" in 1985 was real. Connor was the victor, but only briefly imagined he'd "become mortal"; the only "Prize" was having the Quickenings of all that subspecies.
Well, The Source more or less said that the Gathering and the Prize were nothing but a myth. At the very least, the Gathering was something completely different than what we saw in the first film. Instead of gathering to fight each other until only one remained, they were gathering to find the source of immortality, turning on each other along the way for the right to be the one who enters the Source and receives whatever prize it has to offer (which turned out to be a baby...whoop-de-doo). That's why I'd just as soon not count it as canon: I'm vehemently against the idea that the Gathering is a myth.
"Really? We are trapped in a room with a machine that can cut off my head. Now that's a longshot."
--Connor MacLeod in Peter Bellwood's original Highlander II script
The Source is a badly made film, unbelievable re the future of the world, and has a plot I hate (Methos is going to die, MacLeod is going to become mortal). Nothing like that is required to deny the Gathering!
Actually, I wrote one fanfic in which I had some characters conclude that the Gathering in 1985 was real...but it only involved a small "subspecies" to which Connor belonged. Only they felt some otherwise abnormal "compulsion" to kill one another. But all Connor "won" was possession of the Quickenings of all members of that subspecies who hadn't already been killed by other Immortals. (The reason I invented the "subspecies" was to explain Connor's supposed ability to breathe under water!)
Just an additional thought: I'm guessing there are many Immortals unknown to the Watchers.
Three excellent episodes and the introduction of four great new immortals! Darius who would become a semi regular character, Grayson his one time disciple who should have returned. Kuyler, who was creepy and playing the Joe Spinell role for all he could and Roland gift in his first of many appearances as the dangerous Xavier St.Cloud! Sadly Werner Stocker died so we don't know what the writers had planned for him...
JB
But would he have still died the same way if the actor hadn't of passed as well?
JB
Don't ask how I respond to such questions in person. The only thing I can say is that he might not have died offscreen. It looks like the storyline would have remained the same, as that episode was meant to introduce the Watchers. What we would not have had, if I understand correctly, is Fitz.
Okay, thanks for that dubious! Fitz in this episode isn't the Fitz we come to know and love later on I've always felt as here he seemed a little subdued!
JB
Okay, thanks for that dubious! Fitz in this episode isn't the Fitz we come to know and love later on I've always felt as here he seemed a little subdued!
JB
You would be too, if you were supposed to be Darius. (trying to be funny)
Fitz was probably designed as a one appearance character like most of the immortals in the series but as you say he was taking Darius's lines, Roger Daltrey was unable to inject his character with any of his own personality like he did in most of his other appearances in the later shows!
JB
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