Highlander: Under Color of Authority
Jan. 14th, 2006 04:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI've now watched as far as 'Under Color of Authority'.
This was the episode that changed me from a casual viewer to a Fan. And, specifically, a Richie fan. At the end of the episode, Richie leaves, and I went online to see when he'd be back.
Of course the first thing I found was about Archangel.
But then I found Clan Denial, so that worked out.
I fall for Richie in this episode because he's trying so hard. His 'ask for help reflex' might have been underdeveloped at the start, but his 'offer help' reflex has always been if anything overdeveloped. Especially where pretty girls are concerned, but it wasn't even about that at the start. She needed help, he could help her, and to him it was really that simple.
And then everything went so horribly wrong.
He didn't set out to be a killer. He wasn't intending to be judge, jury and executioner, unlike Mako. He just got a momentum going. And he thought this was what they were supposed to do. Like Mac in the previous episode, Immortals fight each other to the death, because its what they do. So, Mako kills a girl Richie just slept with - and Richie doesn't do half measures, he meets a girl and its always the real thing right from the start, however briefly that lasts he believes it when they first get together. And Mako kills her. And he might claim accident, but he hounded her until that accident happened. So, Richie gets mad, blames him, and they're both Immortals, so there's something that they do.
The momentum carried them through half the fight. Then Mac tried to get them to stop, to walk away. Richie says its gone too far.
Was that the moment he *should* have stopped?
What about his experiences so far says he would have *survived* that?
I mean this guy caught him in the shower, about as unarmed as can be. Richie can't rely on being ready this time.
Flip side, Mako caught him in the shower, and all he did was warn him off. This isn't a guy who plays the game for the sake of it.
But Richie is pissed off, he's just seen his lover killed by this guy, and he at least should be scared. He's wound himself up to the point where he can do something about it.
Is it the right thing?
He asks Mac later, and Mac just says its done.
So, Mac doesn't think so.
But the key moment was after Mako jumped through the tabletop.
That was the moment that saved Richie's life, I've no doubt. Richie is lucky, not skilled yet.
But Mako starts saying something about law and then stabs Richie.
And Richie beheads him.
I have to say, that moment looks to me like pure reflex. He's injured so he strikes back.
Would he have finished it?
Last time he went after another Immortal with a sword, it was also against Mac's explicit advice. But he won the fight. He had her at his feet, helpless. And he couldn't do it. Couldn't kill her.
And he was guilty about that. Because isn't that what Immortals do?
So here he is, not running on some complicated or deep philosophical system, not working on morals and ethics and principles, but on law - the Rules, the way Immortals deal with each other.
Which is what makes Mako the mirror of Richie here. They all mirror each other in complex ways. But Mako lives by the law, and thinks he *is* the law, not bringing anyone else into it.
Richie tries to live by the law, which is new for him, and his understanding of it is very shallow, not complicated at all. Mako killed a girl, Mako should die. Richie fights him. Richie wins.
But Richie is never sure he did right.
And that just makes him interesting. That little speech at the end, about how life isn't how he expected, about how he had a plan and now it'll never work that way - everyone gets to that point some time. And Richie has to work though that.
Of course, unfortunately, he has to work through it somewhere else, where we don't always get to see it. Kind of annoying to a Richie fan.
Richie is like Xander, the human who brought us in to this world. But unlike Xander he gets to be a Slayer too, and find out first hand how hard it is. Is fascinating.
This time of viewing I'm getting to be quite a bit older than him. 10 years older than first season Richie, actually, which is a big change. So my perspective on him has changed. But I still think his story is great, and I still love the character.
And the blue eyes. And the smile. ;)
Richie Forever.
This was the episode that changed me from a casual viewer to a Fan. And, specifically, a Richie fan. At the end of the episode, Richie leaves, and I went online to see when he'd be back.
Of course the first thing I found was about Archangel.
But then I found Clan Denial, so that worked out.
I fall for Richie in this episode because he's trying so hard. His 'ask for help reflex' might have been underdeveloped at the start, but his 'offer help' reflex has always been if anything overdeveloped. Especially where pretty girls are concerned, but it wasn't even about that at the start. She needed help, he could help her, and to him it was really that simple.
And then everything went so horribly wrong.
He didn't set out to be a killer. He wasn't intending to be judge, jury and executioner, unlike Mako. He just got a momentum going. And he thought this was what they were supposed to do. Like Mac in the previous episode, Immortals fight each other to the death, because its what they do. So, Mako kills a girl Richie just slept with - and Richie doesn't do half measures, he meets a girl and its always the real thing right from the start, however briefly that lasts he believes it when they first get together. And Mako kills her. And he might claim accident, but he hounded her until that accident happened. So, Richie gets mad, blames him, and they're both Immortals, so there's something that they do.
The momentum carried them through half the fight. Then Mac tried to get them to stop, to walk away. Richie says its gone too far.
Was that the moment he *should* have stopped?
What about his experiences so far says he would have *survived* that?
I mean this guy caught him in the shower, about as unarmed as can be. Richie can't rely on being ready this time.
Flip side, Mako caught him in the shower, and all he did was warn him off. This isn't a guy who plays the game for the sake of it.
But Richie is pissed off, he's just seen his lover killed by this guy, and he at least should be scared. He's wound himself up to the point where he can do something about it.
Is it the right thing?
He asks Mac later, and Mac just says its done.
So, Mac doesn't think so.
But the key moment was after Mako jumped through the tabletop.
That was the moment that saved Richie's life, I've no doubt. Richie is lucky, not skilled yet.
But Mako starts saying something about law and then stabs Richie.
And Richie beheads him.
I have to say, that moment looks to me like pure reflex. He's injured so he strikes back.
Would he have finished it?
Last time he went after another Immortal with a sword, it was also against Mac's explicit advice. But he won the fight. He had her at his feet, helpless. And he couldn't do it. Couldn't kill her.
And he was guilty about that. Because isn't that what Immortals do?
So here he is, not running on some complicated or deep philosophical system, not working on morals and ethics and principles, but on law - the Rules, the way Immortals deal with each other.
Which is what makes Mako the mirror of Richie here. They all mirror each other in complex ways. But Mako lives by the law, and thinks he *is* the law, not bringing anyone else into it.
Richie tries to live by the law, which is new for him, and his understanding of it is very shallow, not complicated at all. Mako killed a girl, Mako should die. Richie fights him. Richie wins.
But Richie is never sure he did right.
And that just makes him interesting. That little speech at the end, about how life isn't how he expected, about how he had a plan and now it'll never work that way - everyone gets to that point some time. And Richie has to work though that.
Of course, unfortunately, he has to work through it somewhere else, where we don't always get to see it. Kind of annoying to a Richie fan.
Richie is like Xander, the human who brought us in to this world. But unlike Xander he gets to be a Slayer too, and find out first hand how hard it is. Is fascinating.
This time of viewing I'm getting to be quite a bit older than him. 10 years older than first season Richie, actually, which is a big change. So my perspective on him has changed. But I still think his story is great, and I still love the character.
And the blue eyes. And the smile. ;)
Richie Forever.