Highlander season 5: End of Innocence
Feb. 3rd, 2006 08:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethRichie! :)
Being kind of a jerk
along with everyone else.
Mac pushing Joe around
and Joe letting him and then being unhelpful at Richie
and *then* changing his mind
and all a big mess.
This was not anyone's finest hour.
But it was all entirely plausible and understandable.
Richie was having nightmares every time we saw him sleep. Probably had been for months. This is a guy who now doesn't believe there is any such thing as safe. So what to do? 'There can be only one'. Try to be the one. Play the Game.
Unpleasant, but understandable. Feeling like he hasn't any choice. If the Game is a necessity, play it to win.
There's more subtle ways to do that, but Richie tries the ass kicking approach.
And breaks his sword.
Mac with that fake newbie Immortal said the sword would have lasted if she had made it part of herself.
Was that sword part of Richie?
At the time he's trying to make it all of him.
Imbalance. First lesson - off balance, bad.
Sword breaks because Richie isn't okay. Not whole inside himself.
I like the new sword better. I always felt it suited him better. Plus I just like the shape and the pattern. Its on my shortlist of things to get a tattoo of, if I ever get around to getting another one. (Actually I know I want a sword, but latest idea is to make it a buddhist one, sword of insight type thing. Buddhist swords mean neat things, and have flames on the end. But so do lots of other systems. ANYways, /detour)
Joe is trying to figure out how to be a friend and a Watcher, and Mac keeps telling him he can't be both, so he chooses friendship and leaves the Watchers. That has style. Just his timing was a little awkward for Richie. He's Mac's friend first, and Richie's second, is what it ends up being.
Mac is kind of clunky here. But he gets there in the end. 'Not telling, asking'. And that works. Not least because its kind of new.
Flashbacks, fight to live not live to fight. Fit together fairly well.
Writers weren't half trying to get that guy to mean a lot in a couple of minutes. Fit him into the Teacher line, give him some wise words, make him basically cheerful. And then when he begs for his life it doesn't look like cowardice so much, because he already said he just likes living a lot.
Breaking into the museum to get a sword, makes sense. Breaking into one of the glass displays (setting the alarm off) and trying (and failing) to pull one out of a stone? Not so much making sense when they had swords apparently sitting around on racks in the open. That one not set up so very well.
Richie is no Arthur. What was the test the sword was for? Being King, or some personal qualities thing?
Richie's story continues interesting, with the continued inner conflict bit. And the change and progress. And Richie playing out what he's been taught, and shown, which sort of... highlights how Mac acts, and what he has said, and the differences.
Mac doesn't kill Richie for the headhunting phase. And not just because its Richie. That kind of combat is what they do. When he killed that guy who was hunting even the newbies, Mac felt guilty about it. He offered to let the guy in this ep walk away if it ended there. Mac doesn't consider playing the Game, fighting other Immortals to the death simply because they exist, to fit his definition of evil, or worthy of death. Because There Can Be Only One. If you believe it, live by it, that leads to unpleasant ends.
But Richie changes course by the end of the episode, because it didn't suit him, and now he feels that bit less afraid of Mac, maybe there's another way. So he starts looking.
Is interesting.
Being kind of a jerk
along with everyone else.
Mac pushing Joe around
and Joe letting him and then being unhelpful at Richie
and *then* changing his mind
and all a big mess.
This was not anyone's finest hour.
But it was all entirely plausible and understandable.
Richie was having nightmares every time we saw him sleep. Probably had been for months. This is a guy who now doesn't believe there is any such thing as safe. So what to do? 'There can be only one'. Try to be the one. Play the Game.
Unpleasant, but understandable. Feeling like he hasn't any choice. If the Game is a necessity, play it to win.
There's more subtle ways to do that, but Richie tries the ass kicking approach.
And breaks his sword.
Mac with that fake newbie Immortal said the sword would have lasted if she had made it part of herself.
Was that sword part of Richie?
At the time he's trying to make it all of him.
Imbalance. First lesson - off balance, bad.
Sword breaks because Richie isn't okay. Not whole inside himself.
I like the new sword better. I always felt it suited him better. Plus I just like the shape and the pattern. Its on my shortlist of things to get a tattoo of, if I ever get around to getting another one. (Actually I know I want a sword, but latest idea is to make it a buddhist one, sword of insight type thing. Buddhist swords mean neat things, and have flames on the end. But so do lots of other systems. ANYways, /detour)
Joe is trying to figure out how to be a friend and a Watcher, and Mac keeps telling him he can't be both, so he chooses friendship and leaves the Watchers. That has style. Just his timing was a little awkward for Richie. He's Mac's friend first, and Richie's second, is what it ends up being.
Mac is kind of clunky here. But he gets there in the end. 'Not telling, asking'. And that works. Not least because its kind of new.
Flashbacks, fight to live not live to fight. Fit together fairly well.
Writers weren't half trying to get that guy to mean a lot in a couple of minutes. Fit him into the Teacher line, give him some wise words, make him basically cheerful. And then when he begs for his life it doesn't look like cowardice so much, because he already said he just likes living a lot.
Breaking into the museum to get a sword, makes sense. Breaking into one of the glass displays (setting the alarm off) and trying (and failing) to pull one out of a stone? Not so much making sense when they had swords apparently sitting around on racks in the open. That one not set up so very well.
Richie is no Arthur. What was the test the sword was for? Being King, or some personal qualities thing?
Richie's story continues interesting, with the continued inner conflict bit. And the change and progress. And Richie playing out what he's been taught, and shown, which sort of... highlights how Mac acts, and what he has said, and the differences.
Mac doesn't kill Richie for the headhunting phase. And not just because its Richie. That kind of combat is what they do. When he killed that guy who was hunting even the newbies, Mac felt guilty about it. He offered to let the guy in this ep walk away if it ended there. Mac doesn't consider playing the Game, fighting other Immortals to the death simply because they exist, to fit his definition of evil, or worthy of death. Because There Can Be Only One. If you believe it, live by it, that leads to unpleasant ends.
But Richie changes course by the end of the episode, because it didn't suit him, and now he feels that bit less afraid of Mac, maybe there's another way. So he starts looking.
Is interesting.