|
Starring:
Adrian Paul (Duncan MacLeod) Guests:
Valentine Pelka (Kronos)
Written by Tony DiFranco |
| |
| ||
Kronos, voiceover: "Once we rode out of the sun bringing death on the point of a sword. No man and no immortal could stand against us. We were death on horseback." Scenes from last week.
The Ukraine
(Just a picky note. The font used for the locations is different than the usual Chancery-looking stuff they usually use. Don't know what it's called.)
Methos: "I've been spending too much time in cities."
Kronos: "Two days on an aeroplane and another two on a horse. I hope you're not wasting my time."
Methos: "I thought you enjoyed my company."
Kronos: "Even for you Methos, my patience has limits."
Methos: "Ah! this is the place, I'm telling you he's here."
Kronos: "Have you ever done anything else?" Goes on to say that "this is what I've dreamt of every night for the last 2000 years. The four of us reunited."
Methos: "Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase 'Dream Team.'"
Kronos says it will be like the old days, only better, that whatever they want, they will have.
Methos: "Or else we take."
Kronos: "That's the spirit."
They stop as they hear the sound of an axe. Cut to an axe splitting wood as Kronos says, "It's Silas."
Methos: "It's been over a thousand years. He may not remember us."
Kronos: "He'll remember. What we were you don't forget."
Methos wonders if he'll come with them, but Kronos is confident that he will. Silas senses them as they approach, and turns, axe in hand. He makes a growling noise as they walk the horses up to the clearing, then raises the axe and flings it so that it buries itself in the tree between them. He looks at them for a moment, then his face splits into a grin and he laughs.
Silas: "Brothers!"
He strides forward as Methos approaches, and lifts him off his feet in a huge bear hug, both of them laughing.
Methos: "Good to see you, too, Silas."
Silas: "We ride?"
Methos: "We ride."
Duncan: "Well, Methos and Kronos are, under different names, different lives."
Cassandra: "This is pointless. We're just wasting time. We may as well go find Kronos."
Duncan: "Oh, yeah? And starting where? If they're alive that's where he'll be going."
Joe searches the database first by pulling up all the white male immortals with no first death information, then narrows the search looking for names that resemble their real ones. Eventually they find Evan Caspari, who Cassandra recognizes as Caspian. According the records, he's in Romania, in an asylum for the criminally insane. Cassandra and Duncan leave to find him.
Methos: "Well, we'd like him now."
Dr. Cernavoda: "We have procedures, gentleman. Patience is a virtue. I'm afraid my hands are tied."
Kronos, tossing an envelope in front of him: "Then perhaps this could help you to untie them. 25,000 dollars, U. S."
Dr. Cernavoda nods and tucks the envelope away. He leads the Horseman down to the cellar, asking them what they want with Caspari.
Kronos: "Rehabilitate him."
The doctor is incredulous, saying that they can't be serious. Methos asks what Caspari did, and Cernavoda tells him that they aren't even sure how many people he killed.
Dr. Cernavoda: "They found parts in his basement, his garden . . . in his freezer."
Silas wonders why they didn't execute him, and the doctor says in less progressive age they would have. "But today," he says, leading them down into a dank, dark cellar, "we are more humane."
Dr. Cernavoda: "But today we are more humane."
They continue walking down a corridor, a patient comes towards them. As he reaches them he looks in fear at Kronos.
Patient: "He's here, the dark man is here!!"
Dr. Cernavoda: "[Can't work that bit out] He's harmless, he's been saying that for 30 years."
Kronos: "One day he may be right."
Dr. Cernavoda chuckles: " and one day Romania will be a superpower."
They walk on and suddenly Methos Kronos and Silas feel the buzz. Cut to Caspian in the cell also feeling it. Methos looks around: "Very humane!"
Kronos strikes through the chains with his sword. Caspian is on the doctor in a moment, and strangles him while the others watch. He begs them to get Caspian off, but Kronos asks, "Why?" As Dr. Cernavoda is strangled, Methos turns away and pushes towards a corner of the cell.
As Caspian kills the Doctor, Methos backs into the corner.
Caspian looks at Methos: "Stop!"
Methos looks bewildered.
Caspain moves to where Methos is standing and picks up a cockroach from where Methos was about to place his foot: "They are better alive."
Methos: "Bon appetite." He looks away distastefully.
Kronos: "Come Caspian, I have bigger game for you outside."
They walk off. Methos is the last to leave, as he does so, he drops a book of matches on the ground.
Inside the base, torches have been lit, but the place is still very dark and dreary. Silas is calling for Methos, climbing up the stairs to a large open room. Methos is sitting in a chair, reading a book (It looks like a Bible, actually, black-bound with red-edged pages.) His chair is one of four metalwork chairs that are placed around a round table, and each of the Horseman's weapons are laid in front of their chair.
Silas, laughing: "What the hell is this place?"
Methos: "This is Kronos's idea of Camelot."
Silas sits down in his chair, asking where are the stables, and the horses, but Methos just shakes his head.
Silas: "Then how do we ride?"
Caspian, standing by the wall, laughs at him.
Caspian: "Where have you been for the last 2000 years, idiot?"
Caspian: "Where have you been for the last 2000 years idiot? Living in the woods? Do you think we can just mount up and gallop down broadway."
Silas: "We can do whatever we please."
Caspian: "Four guys on horseback" . . . etc.
Silas: "They wouldn't think it for long, would they?"
Caspian walks over, carrying a rat in a cage: "We're having a friend for dinner. Tell me, what goes best with rodent, red or white?"
Silas: "Eat him and I'll eat you."
Caspian: "You're crazy. You should have been in the madhouse, instead of me."
Silas grabs his axe, and Caspian his sword. Methos glances at each of them, then goes back to reading as they face off right in front of him. Kronos enters at that point, and makes them lay down their weapons.
Kronos: "We never raise a blade against each other. Isn't that right, Methos?"
Methos finally looks up: "You said it." He smiles a little and returns to his book.
Kronos walks around the table. "We are the Four Horsemen. No other band of men has ever been more cruel or more feared." Holds out his arm. "Remember that."
Silas takes hold of Kronos's forearm, and Caspian holds Silas's. Methos says nothing, but rises to join them, finishing the square.
Back at the asylum, Duncan is asking one of the doctors when Caspari escaped. She tells him that he escaped last night, but all she knows is that they found Dr. Cernavoda's body that morning.
Cassandra, impatient: "Let's go."
But Duncan, persists, asking if he had any visitors. The doctor says the records don't show any, then excuses herself to talk to the police. Duncan grabs Cassandra and heads for Caspian's old cell.
Cassandra: "Kronos and Methos already have him. I don't know why we're wasting time in this hellhole."
In the cell, though, Duncan finds a book of matches on the floor.
Duncan: "This is why. Hotel de Seze, Bordeaux. Methos must have left it."
Cassandra: "The question is what for."
Duncan: "You think he's setting us up."
Cassandra, laughs: "Don't you?"
Duncan: "Maybe."
They emerge into the hallway again.
Cassandra: "But we're going anyway?"
Duncan: "It's the only place we've been invited."
At the submarine base, the Horsemen are walking side by side down a long corridor, Kronos explaining his plan to them.
Kronos: "Silas, my brother, why would we ride with sword and axe when today there are weapons of unimaginable power?"
Methos: "Weapons ready to plunge the earth into generations of darkness."
Kronos: "If we choose. What more could we ask for? What better time for us to come together than in the scientific age. Just think of what men like us could do. Men without conscience, without fear. Think of the destruction, the devastation, the death, a world of anarchy and madness. Now, you think of that, and dream."
As they walk, Kronos gradually moves in front of the others, but Methos begins to fall behind. When they turn the corner and enter Kronos's lab, he is the last one. The lab is like the rest of the base, dark and old, but with tables of test tubes and other equipment. There are monkeys in cages at one end, and they walk past them on the way to Kronos's vault.
Kronos: "The weapons of today are different but it all comes down to the same thing. There are the conquerors and there are the conquered."
Caspian: "You want to conquer the world with monkeys?"
Kronos: "Not with them." Opens the vault. "With this."
The vault opens, and he shows them a test tube full of clear liquid, sitting a bubbling vat.
Kronos: "Glorious virus. AIDS, Ebola, and now mine. It doesn't have a name, and it doesn't have a cure."
Caspian asks if Kronos has a plan.
Kronos: "I have a few thoughts. I have a few dollars, enough for a start. And now we have Methos, and now we'll have a plan."
Methos: "What did you have in mind?"
Kronos: "Once we rode out of the sun, bringing death at the point of a sword. There was no man, and no immortal, who could stand before us. We were death on horseback. They called us the end of the world. Well, gentleman." He picks up the vial. "I want to give them what they fear most. The Apocalypse."
Cassandra: "Dead end."
Duncan: "He left that clue. He'll get in touch."
Cassandra: "He's done nothing but lie to you. That's all he ever does."
Back at the base, the Horsemen are at the table. The others are sitting, but Kronos is pacing. He's saying scornfully: "A bomb with the virus in a fountain. How many do you think that will kill? You've gone soft, Methos."
Caspian, mocking. "I'm scared." To Methos. "Are you scared?"
Methos, piqued: "It's a prelude. Have you read Aristotle's Poetics? No, of course not, you haven't even seen Casablanca." Turns to the others. "What is the first rule of great drama?" Pauses for effect. "Start small, and build." Kronos turns, getting interested. Methos goes on. "A fountain to get their attention. Then, a public pool, to kill a hundred. Then, a stadium, to kill ten thousand, then...one drop of the virus in the city's water supply..." Spreads his hands. "Within a week..."
Kronos, grinning. "Has a nice ring to it. I forgot how good you were, Methos."
Methos smiles modestly.
Kronos: "We begin tonight."
Hotel de Seze. Duncan is standing on the balcony, looking out. Cassandra comes out and leans next to him.
Cassandra: "He's not your friend. He's no one's friend. He's putting the Horseman back together, you have no idea what that means."
Duncan: "It's Kronos who's behind this. Let me deal with him, then we'll worry about the rest."
Cassandra: "Kill Kronos, you've cut out the heart of the Horseman. Kill Methos, take the head. They both have to die."
Duncan: "Even if you get your revenge, the memories won't end. Killing can't erase what happened. Only living can do that."
Cassandra: "Nothing can do that. Nothing."
Duncan puts his arms around her and holds her.
[I usually don't mention the music, but I think it's important right here that the music has a very sweet sound, light and pleasant. It colors the way the scene "feels," if that makes any sense.]
Silas: "Methos! You look troubled."
Methos: "Just thinking."
Silas: "Ah, you were always good at that, eh? Well, after all these years you still are."
[Methos says something that ends in "too." Just a couple of words, but no idea what he says.]
Silas: "Well, nothing like the old days, is it?"
Methos: "What do you mean?"
Silas: "I don't like this killing from a distance. I like to feel my axe in my hands, look into my enemies' eyes before I strike."
Methos: "Soon enough."
Silas turns to him, surprised but smiling: "You don't think the virus will work?"
Methos, resigned: "It will work." He moves closer. "Silas. For two thousand years we have lived without this. We have lived without the blood, the fear, the power."
Silas: "And for two thousand years I have dreamed of the day when we would ride again!" Smiles. "Like you always said, Methos: we live, we grow stronger. And then we fight."
Methos looks at him impassively for a moment.
Methos: "I'll see you later." Turns and starts walking off.
Silas: "Do you think he'll let me have one?"
Methos stops: "What?"
Silas: "Monkey! I like this one." Chuckles to the monkey in the cage in front of him.
Methos: "I'll ask him."
Silas: "Thank you, brother."
Methos leaves.
Back at the hotel, Cassandra has just gotten out of the shower. She's wearing a robe, her hair up in a towel while she looks for her hairbrush. Duncan is sitting a chair, lost in thought.
Cassandra, casually: "Will you kill him, Duncan? Can you kill him?"
Duncan, not entirely convincingly: "If I have to."
Cassandra: "You will."
Duncan gets up from his chair: "Did it ever occur to you that maybe he's trying to help us?"
Cassandra, exasperated: "No."
The phone rings. Duncan answers it.
Methos: "Elysium church, thirty minutes. Come alone." He hangs up.
Duncan, into the dead phone: "I'll be right down." Hangs up.
Cassandra: "Was that him?"
Duncan tells her no, that it was something wrong with his credit card. He leaves, telling her he'll be right back.
At the church. Duncan comes in, and sees Methos sitting near the front, head bowed, hands clasped between his knees. He raises his head slowly as Duncan walks in. Duncan stares, then starts walking around the back of the seats, not coming any closer to him.
Duncan: "Well, I'm here."
Methos, quiet: "Yeah. Thanks."
Duncan turns and looks at him, faintly accusing: "Why did you lie to me?"
Methos: "About what?"
Duncan: "About Cassandra, about who you were."
Methos: "I have been many things, MacLeod."
Duncan: "And who are you now?"
Methos looks away, smiling faintly: "Why'd you think I didn't tell you? I knew how you'd react. What I've done, you can't forgive. That's not in your nature. Will you accept it?"
Duncan, raising his voice for the first time, stepping forward: "Accept what?! That a friend I trusted with my life slaughtered innocent people? For what, a few head of cattle? What are you going to tell me, Methos, 'that's how the world was?'"
Methos stands: "No, the world was how we made it."
Duncan: "No, the world was how you chose to make it." Methos turns away. "How you chose to slaughter her people and ... burn her village."
Methos, still not looking at him: "And I chose to take her prisoner."
Duncan: "And...?"
Methos: "There's more."
Kronos: "Another day well spent, Methos." Methos doesn't answer. He glances over as Cassandra walks as Cassandra walks across the camp, carrying a cup. She's clean and well-dressed, wearing a white robe and a torque around her neck.
Kronos: "Let's celebrate, divide our bounty."
Methos: "You can have my share, I'm tired." Leads his horse past Kronos as he stares at him.
Inside Methos's tent, Cassandra waits for him, smiling. She gives him a cup of something to drink, and follows him as he walks by and sits down. He barely acknowledges her, but when he says something about the drink being good she tells him that she cooled it in the river for him. She takes a cloth and starts wiping his hands, then his face. He turns to her and lifts a hand to touch her cheek, but they both turn as Kronos walks in.
Kronos: "My compliments, brother. You taught her well in everything, I see." He leans down and picks up a piece of fruit from a basket. "And it seems she keeps the best fruit for you."
Methos: "It's no different from the rest."
Kronos: "Maybe it just tastes better in here. Made quite a prize of her, haven't you?"
Methos: "She's no different from the others."
Kronos: "Except you seem to prefer her to all others. Why is that? Have you grown attached?"
Methos stands and faces him and says, a little forced: "No."
Kronos: "Good. I didn't think you'd make a mistake like that, brother. Because now it's time to share the spoils of war."
Methos tightens his jaw, looks down at Cassandra, then back to Kronos. He walks away as Cassandra gapes after him, astonished, her mouth hanging open in disbelief. She cries out for him as Kronos pulls her out, begging, but Methos does nothing. He stands, peeling a fruit, then presses the knife bewteen his palms as he hears her calling for him. Night falls, and Cassandra is finally relenting, begging Kronos not to hurt her anymore. She goes to her knees in front of him, dragging her nails down his tunic, and starts kissing his hand, but as soon as he's distracted, she grabs his knife and stabs him. Methos starts up as he hears Kronos scream, and gets up in time to see Cassandra run from his tent.
Methos, voiceover: "I could have stopped her, but I didn't."
Duncan: "So what are you doing with Kronos now?"
Methos: "Same as always, trying to survive. And if you want Cassandra to live, you'll get her as far away from here as you can."
Duncan makes a noise of disbelief: "What, and let Kronos go?"
Duncan: "What and let Kronos go?"
Methos: "You don't have a choice Macleod! You can't stop him. I can't stop him" His voice rises with every sentence. "Nobody can!"
Duncan, disbelieving: "Yeah, four guys on horseback are gonna rule the world."
Methos: "The world doesn't change, not in 500 years, not in 5000. It's only the details that change. Kronos didn't torch those villages for a few coins, he torched them to watch them burn. And now he'll have a nuclear bomb or a planeload of Napalm but the effect will be the same. The world living in fear of the Horsemen."
Duncan: "And you expect me to let that happen? You should know me better than that!"
Methos: "I came to warn you." He tells him about the virus and the fountain, and about Kronos's plans. It "will only kill a few," he concludes, "but it's a start."
Duncan, understanding: "The water supply's next."
Methos: "Bright boy."
Duncan jerks his head briskly: "Let's go."
Methos: "Oh, no no. If I go up against him, I lose."
Duncan stares, not believing: "Going with the winner?" Methos smiles smugly. "So why are you here, Methos? What game are you playing?"
Methos: "It's in the bottom fountain just above the water line. White, then black, then red."
Duncan: "Don't do this. You have a choice."
Methos: "And you have . . ." Checks his watch. "Twenty-four minutes."
He watches as Duncan leaves.
In the hotel, Cassandra gets up as she senses another immortal. She goes to the door, asking, "Duncan, what took you so long?" but when she opens it she finds the other three Horsemen standing there. Kronos steps in, smiling.
Kronos: "I'm afraid Duncan is otherwise engaged"
Kronos: "I'm afraid Duncan is otherwise engaged."
They enter the room.
Kronos, looking at her: "Am I wrong? Don't I owe you something? Too bad you didn't know you had to take my head to kill me."
Cassandra: "I'll take it now."
She lunges for her sword but Caspian gets there first.
Kronos reaches into his jacket and takes out the knife that she used to stab him with in the flashback.
Kronos: "I've waited a long time to give this back to you."
He walks towards her as she cowers with fear.
Kronos: "Not much of a plan, was it?"
Methos: "Well, I'll think of better."
Kronos: "By the way, where were you?"
Methos: "I was just--"
Kronos: "Warning your friend. You didn't really think I wouldn't know you'd tell MacLeod, did you?"
Methos: "It's not like you think it is."
Kronos: "It's just like I think. My dearest brother, that's what makes you my perfect right arm. We think alike." Methos laughs. "We always have."."
Methos smiles: "I doubt that, Kronos. No one thinks quite like you."
Kronos: "Spoken like a true scholar." Reaches into his pocket. "Look at this." He holds up a remote control. "All I have to do is punch in a few numbers, and a small vial explodes in the reservoir above Bordeaux. And then, well, you know what happens next, don't you?" Methos says nothing, just stares straight ahead, wooden-faced. Kronos goes on. "We all have our own little plans. I'm sure you won't disappoint me. Come with me. I have something else to show you."
He takes him to the cage where Cassandra is being held. She's lying on the floor, groaning, not seeming fully conscious.
Kronos: "She was asking about you." Methos closes his eyes. "You knew exactly what you were doing when you sent MacLeod to that fountain, didn't you? So I did what you expected. I went and got Cassandra while she was unprotected. That was the plan, wasn't it?" Methos nods minutely. "You see, I know you better than you know yourself."
Methos, calm: "Which is why the plan was perfect."
Kronos: "Your plans always are." Methos smiles modestly again. "I wonder what your friend MacLeod thinks of you now, though."
Methos murmurs: "Think I care?"
Kronos: "You should. You lured him away. When he comes back he finds that someone's stolen his woman . . . If that--if that was me, I'd want you dead."
Methos: "Well then we should prepare for MacLeod to come here."
Kronos: "Already thought of that."
For the first time, Methos looks surprised, and a little worried, but manages to ask casually: "Did you send Caspian or Silas?"
Kronos chuckles: "Both."
Duncan is walking down the street, and stops as he senses someone. He turns to see Silas waiting, axe in hand.
Silas: "Welcome home, boy." He advances, but as Duncan walks to meet him he senses someone else, and turns to see Caspian behind him. He wavers between them, and they both close on him fast.
Silas: "You kill one of us, the other takes your head while you're down."
Caspian: "If you kill one of us."
Duncan chooses to face Caspian, and they exchange only a couple of blows before Caspian pulls a dagger and slashes Duncan's cheek. Duncan backs away, then runs with both of them in pursuit. They split up to catch him, and Caspian confronts him alone as he flees to a bridge.
Caspian: "It's been a long time, Highlander. You're gonna taste good."
Duncan: "Yeah, well you're gonna go hungry." Duncan faces him, one hand held at his back, and as Caspian comes for him he whips out his own dagger and gives Caspian a matching cut.
Duncan: "Two can play at that game."
Silas comes up as they fight, and watches. Duncan and Caspian trade a flurry of blows, both of them using sword and dagger, but after a long engagement the final exchange ends with Duncan taking Caspian's head. He stares at Silas as he realizes what he's done, and makes for the edge of the bridge as the Quickening overtakes him. Duncan staggers at the brink, overcome by the first shocks, but as Silas swings he manages to fall over the edge into the water, the lightning still lashing around him, and striking up between the bridge and water as he sinks. Silas watches until the last of the Quickening is gone, then picks up Caspian's sword and stalks away.
Methos: "You should eat." Cassandra kicks the bowl across the cage. "This is familiar."
Cassandra: "I'm not your sorry little slave anymore. I know what I am now, what you are. You may have fooled MacLeod but you've never fooled me."
Methos, his voice breaking a little: "I wasn't trying to fool anyone."
Cassandra: "If MacLeod knew what you really are he'd've taken your head long ago."
Methos: "Well he had his chance. He didn't." Long silence. "It wasn't all bad, when we were together."
Cassandra: "I only served you because you forced me."
Methos, gently: "Don't hate yourself." Gets up and walks around to the side where she's sitting, saying, "Stockholm Syndrome. It's like Patty Hearst. Hostages come to rely on their captors for food and approval, and they fall in love."
Cassandra's been staring at him in disbelief, and now she laughs: "I never loved you."
Methos: "You thought you did. You thought I would protect you. You forgot what I was."
Cassandra, hitting the mesh and shouting: "I forgot nothing! I'll take your head with my bare hands, yours and Kronos."
Methos: "I've seen what happens to people who go up against him. If we want to survive, we will keep him happy."
Cassandra: "I didn't do it then, and I won't now. I'd rather die."
Methos: "Well then you'll die. And you can forget about MacLeod. MacLeod is dead." He walks away.
Macleod is crossing a road. He approaches a man locking up a pet shop.
Duncan: "Excuse me Monsieur. If I wanted to import 100 monkeys who would I talk to?"
Owner: "This is a pet shop monsieur, not a circus."
Upstairs, Kronos has just heard from Silas that Caspian is dead.
Kronos: "Never again will we be four."
Silas: "I'll go back out."
Kronos: "No. No. You come with me." They go downstairs, and he orders Silas to stay with Cassandra. "If MacLeod even gets close, you kill her."
Cassandra: "He's alive?"
Kronos: "Not for long." He goes to the Methos and tells him to come with him. "You and I are going to poison a city." Methos follows him quickly, while Cassandra watches and Silas begins to sharpen his blade.
Upstairs again, Kronos and Methos are headed towards the steps when they sense an immortal. They look up, and find Duncan blocking the top of the stairwell. Kronos starts climbing, with Methos right behind him.
Duncan: "The Three Horseman of the Apocalypse. Doesn't exactly have same ring now, does it, Kronos? What are you going to do now?"
Kronos: "You're not going to be around long enough to find out."
Duncan: "Oh. We'll see about that." He draws his sword.
Kronos, warningly: "Think of Cassandra." He offers Duncan a choice. If he doesn't fight, Cassandra lives, but if he fights, win or lose, she'll die. "C'mon, MacLeod, your life for hers. What do you say?"
Duncan looks at Methos, who says nothing.
Duncan: "I think she'd rather be dead."
Kronos: "Tell Silas to finish her. And let her know it was MacLeod's decision."
Methos heads down the steps, and Duncan calls: "Methos, don't do this!"
Methos pauses, and looks up at him: "Like you said, I go with the winner." He sprints off.
Duncan and Kronos start to fight.
Methos, sword in hand, goes to the cage.
Silas: "MacLeod's here?"
Methos, after a long pause: "Yes."
Silas opens the cage and drags Cassandra out. But as he raises his axe over her, Methos puts his sword in front of her, not looking at either of them.
Silas: "You're challenging me? For the girl's head? Take it. She's yours, brother."
Methos: "I am not your brother." He puts his sword against Silas's blade.
Silas, astonished: "How can you do this? How can you go against what you are?"
Methos, getting angry: "You don't know anything about me!" He strikes against Silas's axe, and they begin to fight.
The camera moves to follow them, and comes out with Duncan and Kronos in the lab, fighting among the tables and tubing. Kronos compliments Duncan as he momentarily escapes the fight behind a pillar.
Duncan: "There's more."
Kronos: "I'm sure there is, knowing you've just killed your woman. Maybe you'll meet again in the afterlife."
Duncan finds him, and they begin to fight again. The scene shifts between them and Methos and Silas, as they each pursue the fight over the base. Eventually, Duncan and Kronos end up on a platform above the submarine bay. As they struggle, Methos and Silas burst onto the lower platform, Methos falling down the ramp as he loses his sword. He gets to it and kneels to pick it up as Duncan and Kronos spot him.
Kronos, bitterly: "Methos."
Methos looks up at him, frozen with Silas above him. Silas turns to look at Kronos, and Duncan looks at Methos, and expression of poignant disbelief on his face. Kronos looks at him, too, and his face twists in anger. Silas and Methos start to fight again, and Kronos rises to face Duncan.
Kronos: "You still don't understand, do you MacLeod? I AM THE END OF TIME!"
Duncan turns from watching Methos fight, and grins ferally: "You're history."
The four of them continue to fight, and Duncan gets his blade at Kronos throat just as Silas makes a wild swing at Methos, falling to his knees behind him. Duncan takes Kronos's head, and Methos takes Silas's, not even looking at him at he swings behind him. Duncan looks down at Methos, who looks back up at him as he finishes the move that took Silas's head. Then the Quickening begins for both of them. In the midst of the wind and lightening and fireballs, part of the energy spirals out of Duncan's left eye, and moves until it meets with Methos's right eye. For a moment, they're connected, both of them still crying out, then the energy is sucked into Methos, and they both drop to their knees as the Quickening ends, Methos's shoulders heaving as if he's being sick. A shadow runs down the ramp behind him as he falls forward.
Methos, crying out: "I killed Silas! I liked Silas!"
Cassandra, shrieking from behind him: "Now I'm supposed to forgive you?!" She raises Silas's axe over Methos's head as he kneels.
Duncan: "Cassandra!"
Cassandra stares at Duncan, not believing her ears: "You want him to live?!"
Duncan: "Yes. I want him to live."
Cassandra raises the axe again.
Duncan: "Cassandra! I WANT HIM TO LIVE!"
Cassandra stops, staring at him in livid anger. Methos's sobs are audible now, and he doesn't make any move to get away from her, just kneels on the floor crying. Cassandra finally lets the axe fall, and walks away while Duncan buries his face in his hands. Methos continues sobbing brokenly as the camera slowly pulls back, and Duncan rises and takes two slow steps towards him as the scene fades out.
Methos: "I tried not to think about it."
Duncan: "You could have killed him. Why didn't you?"
Methos: "I wanted to. But we were brothers. In arms, in blood, in everything except birth, and if I judged him worthy to die then I judged myself the same way. And I wanted to live. I still do." He walks away.
Methos sighs: "What do you mean?"
Duncan: "You knew he'd come after Cassandra, and you let him because you knew I'd come after her. You couldn't kill him, but you hoped I could."
Methos: "Maybe."
Duncan: "Maybe."
They walk out of the cemetery, and Duncan stops Methos just outside.
Duncan: "Methos. What about Cassandra?"
Methos: "One of a thousand regrets MacLeod. One of a thousand regrets." He walks off, and Duncan does the same.
"And I saw, and behold, a pale horse, and its rider's name was Death, and Hades followed him; and they were given power over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth."
In case the production number slipped by, this episode was, in fact the 100th produced episode of the series, hence the hoopla. Also, it should be noted (for those who, like me, often skim the credits bit of things like this) that this episode was directed (very nicely, in my humble opinion) by Adrian Paul.
Until "The Ransom of Richard Redstone."
These pages are written by Jinjifore and are translated into HTML and maintained by Ian.
Disclaimer: All the dialogue, characters, situations, and darn near everything else belong to a bunch of fine and talented folks at Rysher Entertainment and Panzer/Davis, and in particular the dialogue belongs to the credited writer of this episode. Me, I just wrote the rest down in my own words, which belong to me, but the episode itself was made by the aforementioned people and is owned by them. This humble synopsis isn't meant to infringe on their rights, and I'm sure as heck not making any money from doing these.
Everything not belonging to Rysher, et al, ©Copyright 1997 by Jinjifore
Feel free to copy and distribute as long as this copyright notice and disclaimer are included, except where local bandwidth laws apply.
Also, check out Ian's home page.
Celtic clip art courtesy of the Celtic Art Web Page.
| Last Rev: H71 [ 1 Jul 97 ] |
Back to the Index Page