While we already have a thread for the favorites of each season, we don't have a list of the essential episodes of the show. By "essential" episodes, I mean the ones necessary to hit the main beats of the six-season narrative. I don't necessarily mean good ones--many of the important episodes aren't all that great, while certain great episodes are purely standalone affairs. To put it more precisely, these episodes would be the ones that would best carry the viewer from the events of the original film to the events of Endgame without any confusing gaps. (That's why none of the Raven episodes would be essential, even though I quite like that show.)
I find the question interesting for various reasons. For instance, "Band of Brothers" is an obvious choice, but that episode requires the audience to know who Randi McFarland is. So which previous Randi McFarland episode is actually essential?! She first appears in "Innocent Man," but she only interacts with Tessa. She doesn't have much of anything to do with Duncan directly (as in speaking to him) until "See No Evil," which certainly gives the audience a sense of how much she loves to annoy MacLeod with questions. Perhaps that episode alone is enough to convey the character's shtick? It's also a good Tessa episode, and you'd need a few of those under your belt to get anything out of "The Darkness."
On the other hand, how essential is an episode such as "The Blitz"? It's a good episode, but it's resolving a character arc that probably doesn't need any additional resolution from a big-picture point of view (unless you really need to know what Duncan plans to do with that house). In fact, "Reunion" isn't essential, either. Nor are any of the Season 3 Anne appearances after "Song of the Executioner," where she's initially written out of the show. Whether you find her character interesting or not, her later episodes only really affect her other later episodes, not the big event episodes such as "Finale." Contrast "The Blitz" with, say, "Brothers in Arms," which seems like a pretty disposable episode if you've already included "The Revolutionary" as a send-off for Charlie (and an introduction to Anne, of course), but if you want to set up Ahriman's temptation for Joe in "Avatar," it's actually pretty valuable.
So what say you? The season premieres, mid-season "back to Paris" episodes, and season finales are obvious choices, but what else?
I find the question interesting for various reasons. For instance, "Band of Brothers" is an obvious choice, but that episode requires the audience to know who Randi McFarland is. So which previous Randi McFarland episode is actually essential?! She first appears in "Innocent Man," but she only interacts with Tessa. She doesn't have much of anything to do with Duncan directly (as in speaking to him) until "See No Evil," which certainly gives the audience a sense of how much she loves to annoy MacLeod with questions. Perhaps that episode alone is enough to convey the character's shtick? It's also a good Tessa episode, and you'd need a few of those under your belt to get anything out of "The Darkness."
On the other hand, how essential is an episode such as "The Blitz"? It's a good episode, but it's resolving a character arc that probably doesn't need any additional resolution from a big-picture point of view (unless you really need to know what Duncan plans to do with that house). In fact, "Reunion" isn't essential, either. Nor are any of the Season 3 Anne appearances after "Song of the Executioner," where she's initially written out of the show. Whether you find her character interesting or not, her later episodes only really affect her other later episodes, not the big event episodes such as "Finale." Contrast "The Blitz" with, say, "Brothers in Arms," which seems like a pretty disposable episode if you've already included "The Revolutionary" as a send-off for Charlie (and an introduction to Anne, of course), but if you want to set up Ahriman's temptation for Joe in "Avatar," it's actually pretty valuable.
So what say you? The season premieres, mid-season "back to Paris" episodes, and season finales are obvious choices, but what else?
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