HIGHLA-L Digest - 11 May 2004 to 14 May 2004 (#2004-90)
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Fri, 14 May 2004 22:00:03 -0400
There are 3 messages totalling 369 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Season Three dvds: Mortal Sins
2. HL alums on West Wing & Angel (2)
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Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 00:09:38 -0400
From: kageorge <kageorge@erols.com>
Subject: Season Three dvds: Mortal Sins
David A. talks about how the act of killing someone which, regardless of how
it's depicted on television, is an incredible emotional and metaphysical
event, and yet that aspect is rarely shown. They wanted to have a character
where an act in childhood would reverberate throughout his life. They also
needed to end the relationship with Dr. Anne, and they wanted to give her an
out with some dignity, not have her die or run away and hide. He says one of
the best lines in the show was: "It was not because you killed him that I'm
leaving you. It was because I wanted you to." That played against the core
of who Anne was, and she chose the core of who she was over her love of
Duncan, which played her out as a woman of her own sense of integrity.
Ken Gord says that Mortal Sins was a "firecracker of a show". The director,
Mario Azzopardi, knows how to tell a story as well as anyone, but he's also
very opinionated, and a big personality. David A. also opines that Mario is
a great director, and says that he's also "a major pain in the ass." He and
Mario fought incredibly a lot in this episode. Mario took offense to a
priest having a gun in a church. Ken and David and Mario were on the phone a
number of times and "conversations became pretty loud and pretty rough."
Mario's brother is a priest, and the director didn't want to offend his
brother or offend the church, but everyone else just wanted to tell the
story. There is a scene with a priest at the altar, and on the altar is a
glass of communion wine. The wine is supposed to spill, and it is symbolic,
and Abramowitz wanted it to be red wine. Mario said no, that it's definitely
white wine. But white wine neither shows up well, nor it is like blood,
which was the symbolism they were trying to evoke. Mario freaked out, then
DA insisted and even called up the Catholic Archdiocese in Los Angeles, and
they confirmed that it was red wine. But in some diocese in France,
evidently, they use white wine. So, DA says, "Who cares what it is, let's do
what looks better!" But the director "got this bug up his *ss (why did they
bleep it in one spot and let it go in another?) and we fought and fought and
fought, and to tell you the truth at the moment, I don't remember whether or
not it was red wine or white wine." (Gillian H. tells us later in the video
commentary that it was white wine, but they colored in it post production to
make it red.) But David A. says he'd still work with Azzopardi again, and
they'd probably fight again, but that didn't matter because the bottom line
was the episode really worked.
OUTTAKES: None provided.
VIDEO COMMENTARY: Gillian Horvath and Donna Lettow do audio/video commentary
on the episode and both rate this episode as one of their favorites. Donna
tells us that this is actually the third time the actor who plays Father
Bernard (Roger Bret) has been in an episode. The first time, he was selling
tomatoes in the marketplace in a flashback in "Legacy." He was also Brother
Andre the car fanatic in "Counterfeit."
Donna says the stunt men in France "are insane", and there are lots of
stories about how they have been hurt because they don't want to use that
"pansy ass candy glass". They both comment that there was a lot of shooting
in the flashback and they got a complaint from Adrian about that, "But after
all, it was war," says Donna.
As they watch Bernard and Georges dump Daimler's body in the creek, Donna
discusses the notion of how long an Immortal stays dead after being killed,
which was "as long as we need them to stay dead."
Gillian says, in watching Duncan tell Anne he considers her pregnancy an
opportunity, that his inconsistency on things like whether or not Immortals
are meant to raise children, is one of the things they like about Duncan,
that he gets carried away with his enthusiasms and hopes and wishes and
makes silly mistakes.
Donna says the director had a different idea on how the Quickening worked
than what was generally "approved" by the producers. He filmed the Q so that
Duncan was screaming in pain and ended up being comforted and consoled in
Anne's arms while Daimer's memories passed across the screen. They (the
writers) don't think the memories transfer that way, and besides Daimer's
life was long enough that it would just be WWII images that were seen. So
the Q had to be truncated, and only a part of it viewed, and some of Anne's
rush to Duncan to console him is missing, which didn't make her look good.
Donna questions whether part of Anne's motivation to leave Duncan was
because she witnessed Father Bernard become someone who wanted to kill.
THE EPISODE: Prologue: An elderly priest is holding mass, preparing for
Communion, when a bunch of thugs chase a young black man into the sanctuary,
calling him a "foreign pig". Their leader enters to stop them, saying that
they get a little carried away sometimes, but the priest reacts violently to
the leader's presence, spilling the wine. "You've been dead fifty years!" he
gasps, and we see quick flashbacks to the priest as a young boy looking up
at a German WWII SS officer, who is the same man before him now.
"Little Bernard, is that you?" the man asks.
Duncan is whistling happily, bringing Anne coffee as she reads a magazine in
bed, but she seems preoccupied. It quickly becomes apparent that she is
being moody and a little hostile, and he is clueless as to what is wrong. He
heads out to buy a paper, and passes the priest on the stairs. The priest
stares at him, then follows him and calls him by name, saying they fought
together in the Resistance. Duncan laughs, denying it, but the priest is
persistent, saying, "It's me, MacLeod. It's Bernard."
There is a long flashback to World War II. Bernard is a young boy hanging
around a parish church where Duncan is working for the resistance,
intercepting German radio transmissions and organizing raids. When Bernard
warns them that a Major Daimer and his men are on their way, Duncan hides
the radio and enjoins Bernard to keep their secret. Turns out Daimer is an
SS officer, and an Immortal. They search, and find where the radio was
hidden, but the compartment is empty. After the German's leave it turns out
Bernard took it out and snuck it away in a wheelbarrow of coal. (Clever
Boy!)
The Resistance fighters, including a young Georgess Dalou (whom we met back
in Season One, in "For Tomorrow We Die") attack a convoy, Duncan is mortally
wounded, and stumbles off to try to die unobserved, but Bernard finds him,
and sees him die, then revive. Bernard swears to keep the secret as long as
he lives.
Back in the present, Bernard asks a favor in return for keeping Duncan's
secret, and tells him about seeing Daimler, and says he figured that Daimler
must be like Duncan. Daimler is starting a white supremacist movement and
has to be stopped. Duncan looks appalled and asks what Bernard expects him
to do, but Bernard tells him that it's God's work.
"It doesn't sound like God's work," Duncan replies grimly, but eventually
agrees to talk to him.
"I'm afraid you may have to do more than that," Bernard says.
Back at the barge, Anne seems to think that if Duncan doesn't have to fight
Daimer, there isn't a problem, that "It's all settled." But he tells her it'
s not settled, that 50 years ago Daimer was a murder, and if he still is,
Duncan has to stop him. He tells her that all evil needs to thrive is for
good men to do nothing, and that the only reason he didn't fight Daimer 50
years before was because he disappeared.
Duncan goes to the headquarters of Daimler's white supremacist group, but
Daimler says the war is over and his group is perfectly legal and he works
within the system, and he would like to leave their fight for another time.
Duncan asks him to stay away from Father Bernard, but Daimler tells MacLeod
that it is Father Bernard's guilt that is driving his actions, not anything
Daimler had done.
Duncan goes to Bernard and demands to know why he is so afraid of Daimler.
In a flashback, we see Daimler return to the monastery while Duncan was
gone. Bernard is turning the earth with a pitchfork, and watches as Daimler
demands to know from the head priest who was involved in the attack on the
convoy. The priest refuses, and when Daimler threatens to kill the brothers
of the monastery, Bernard stabs him with the pitchfork. At that point,
Georges Dalou and the others attack, Daimler pulls the pitchfork from his
own body, and collapses dead on top of Bernard. Georges recruits Bernard to
help them hide the bodies, wrapping them in canvas and chains and throwing
them in the river, except that Daimler revives as they push his body in,
groaning and screaming and struggling. "I'll go to hell for this!" Bernard
screams. "No one should die like that!"
Duncan tells the story to Anne back at the barge, and she comments on how
the killing must have haunted Bernard. Duncan tells her to stop worrying,
that it's in the past and that he'll keep it that way, and cuddles her,
kissing her neck, but she's not interested, asking him to stop.
She admits she's been difficult to be around, and Duncan suggests they talk
about it. Anne tells him she is pregnant. Duncan looks stunned, and
immediately seems to emotionally shut down. The baby's father was an old
friend, the encounter happened after Duncan was gone which she was lonely
and reaching out for someone. He says she doesn't have to explain, just
asks, "So what are we going to do?" and Anne says she's going to have the
baby. He nods, and when she asks what he's going to do, he just looks at her
and tells her he honestly doesn't know. But when she gets up, he stops her
and tells her passionately that she has a chance at a normal life, with a
husband and a family - things he can't give her.
"I don't love him. I love you."
"It's not as simple as all that."
"Isn't it?" she asks.
"No. Not for me." Both of them look stricken.
Next we see Bernard meet a white-haired Georges Dalou at a café to tell him
that Daimler was back. Dalou doesn't believe him, laughing when Bernard
tells him Daimler is immortal. "Next you'll be telling me he can fly!" Dalou
chuckles. But Bernard tells him if Georges doesn't believe him, he should
ask MacLeod, and tells him the story of MacLeod's death that he had
witnessed when he was a child. He warns Georges that Daimler will come for
both of them.
Duncan finds Anne on the quay, wanting to talk about the baby. She tells him
it's not his child, he has no obligations. He says he knows that, but he has
an opportunity, that he's still trying to get used to the idea of a child in
his life, that after 400 years it's the last thing he expected to happen. He
tells Anne he believed he was not supposed to have children, and now he
feels different, "like maybe there is a chance. Maybe my only chance," but
that any day someone might come for him, and win.
Anne dismisses that as an issue, since no one knows what's going to happen,
and she can't live her life trying to anticipate that. She asks him if he
wants a child, and with a look of great longing, and touching her abdomen,
he says he does.
Just then (bad timing!), Georges Dalou approaches (Duncan had previously
explained his uncanny resemblance to Georges' friend in the Resistance by
saying he was Duncan MacLeod's son). They go to the café. "Bernard says you
are not who I think you are. He says Daimler is here in Paris, exactly the
same way he was 50 years ago. He says that you two are immortal, that you
don't grow old. What do you think about that?" When Duncan asks him what he
thinks, Georges says, "I think the man I fought with knows me. He knows that
anything he tells me I'd take to my grave."
Duncan smiles and turns around. "It's me, Georges."
Back at the barge, Duncan has told Anne the whole story, and they leave
planning to convince Bernard "that the war's over."
We see Georges Dalou peacefully reading a paper in his home, and cut back
and forth between him and Bernard praying in the church, tormented by
memories of what happened with Daimler in his childhood. Daimler enters
Georges' house, ranting about how he had been trapped underwater by chains
for 50 years, then beats Georges to death with the chains.
Bernard reacts as though he hears Daimler beating Georges, and reaches for a
gun in his pocket. When Bernard hears someone enter the church he panics,
yelling at them to get out and leave him alone, but it's just Duncan and
Anne. Duncan tells Bernard he is safe, that it was over long ago. Bernard
tells Duncan Georges is dead, that the police had found Georges's body.
Duncan tells Bernard to stay in the church, insisting that nothing can
happen to him while he's on holy ground. Bernard talks to Anne about what
happened back in the war, about how watching him drown was so horrible.
Bernard is convinced Daimler is coming for him, and wonders how MacLeod
"stands all the death, all the wars."
MacLeod shows up at Daimler's headquarters, is attacked by his minions, and
dispatches them rather violently, and convinces one of them to tell him that
Daimler went to Father Bernard's church.
Daimler shows up, and Bernard is not convinced he is safe in the church,
despite Anne trying to convince him otherwise. Bernard pulls out his gun as
Daimler tells him he's killed thousands, and that Bernard can't kill him,
all while Anne is trying to convince him to stay on holy ground. Bernard
throws the gun away and runs, with Anne trailing after him. Outside, Daimler
goes after Bernard and Anne tries to stop him. He hits her and she
collapses, then he shoots Bernard. He's about to shoot Anne when Duncan
comes flying in, and attacks, flattening Daimler. He runs to Anne to see if
she's all right. She's weeping, worrying about the baby, and Daimler draws
his sword, yelling "Highlander!"
"Kill him!" Anne growls.
"You'll die for this!" Duncan snarls and they go at it hammer and... sword.
It is a brutal fight and even though Duncan disarms him, Daimler pulls a
dagger and stabs Duncan, all while Anne is watching. Duncan staggers to his
feet and both men retrieve their swords. Duncan impales him, then takes his
head. The Quickening is loud and looks far more painful than most, and
Duncan ends up curled up on the ground in a fetal position.
There is a jarring transition to a bright hospital corridor, where Duncan is
telling Anne that the doctor says she and the baby will be fine. Duncan is
babbling a little, saying for a while he thought they were going to lose
her, and that it was going to be a girl.
Anne announces that she wants to go back to the states, and she wants to go
alone.
Duncan's face falls and he pulls away, saying he understands, that she
almost lost the baby. But when she says it isn't that, he gets defensive,
saying she knew what he was, what his life was like. He circles her, pacing,
distressed. "What was I supposed to do, walk away?"
"No, you had to kill him," Anne says, admitted she wanted Duncan to kill
him. She says she can't live her life like that, that she's a doctor, and
she can't start wanting to take lives. Duncan nods, holding her, looking
caught halfway between grim resignation and tears.
MY COMMENTS: This is a very well done episode with lots of psychological
nuances, but I don't think I hold it in as high esteem as the writers do.
The central story and flashbacks involving Bernard, young and old are
intensely emotional and you could really feel how damaged Bernard had been
by his horrifying experience. At the same time, I found myself thrown out of
the story by aspects that didn't seem very well set up - especially by
Father Bernard carrying a gun in church. They didn't really get me there as
far as taking his character to such an extreme.
Daimler was well played, cold and aristocratic, but with a touch of madness,
especially after his 50 years chained at the bottom of a river. And I really
liked that they reintroduced the Georges Dalou character, and the
conversation between both he and Bernard and he and Duncan was beautifully
done.
Then we get to the whole subplot of Anne being pregnant. David A. described
the writers' intent - to give Anne a dignified exit, where she chose the
core of her identity over her love of Duncan, but I'm sorry, they just didn'
t get there. She got a taste of what his life was like in "Testimony" and
went way out of her way to convince Duncan that they belonged together. Then
she acts like a bitch for a while, and finally confesses she's gotten
pregnant and intends to have the baby and wants to know what Duncan is going
to do about it. She's all wide-eyed and trembly-lipped, bravely insisting
that she'll "understand" no matter what Duncan decides (Yeah, right).
Then, when he takes what is obviously a *huge* leap of faith, does something
contrary to everything he believes about whether he was ever meant to have
children, and decides to be a father to her child, not twenty-four hours
later, she dumps him. Literally. She builds up his hopes, then trashes them,
evidently with zero consideration for his feelings or his emotional
investment in the child and their relationship.
Prior to this episode, I was sometimes annoyed by Anne, but mostly
ambivalent about her, but there are no excuses sufficient to treat anyone
you love like that. "Oh, yes, I'm fine, the baby's fine, and isn't it nice
that it's a girl, and oh by the way, I'm leaving you and you're not going to
have any part of my life or of the child's life that you just committed
yourself to."
That's just crappy and inhumane and I wouldn't do that to an enemy, much
less to someone I cared about. Whatever decision she felt she had to make,
you don't just dump on someone like that. It shocked me at the time, and I
remember looking at Duncan's face and wondering why and how he kept opening
himself up to such pain.
In a response to a list conversation, I noted that I would try to point out
where I think Duncan starts to shut down emotionally over the end of Season
Three and forward into the next three seasons. Here is one such place. As
soon as Anne makes her little announcement, you can see his whole body
language change, and his face goes (almost) blank. It's only when he's
holding her and you can see his face over her shoulder that the pain is
visible. That was a nicely nuanced acting moment, by the way, but then AP wa
s at his best in expressing emotion through physicality.
MacG
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Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 10:01:46 -1000
From: MacWestie <mac.westie@verizon.net>
Subject: HL alums on West Wing & Angel
I'm surprised no one mentioned a HL alum spotting on this week's West Wing.
Donna's sexy photo-journalist Colin was nicely played by Jason
Isaacs--Amanda's immie ex, Zachary Blaine, in HL:TS s1's Lady & Tiger.
Guess he's taking a break from the Harry Potter films.
And, of course, Stacey Travis was on Angel, also appearing in next week's
episode--as usual totally failing to sell her role, in my opinion.
Nina (who has given up on AP landing a plum guest role in a top network
show; no--Charmed & Relic Hunter DON'T count; AP just playing a HUMAN on TV
is a rarity....)
mac.westie@verizon.net
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Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 17:36:27 -0700
From: Pat Lawson <plawson@webleyweb.com>
Subject: Re: HL alums on West Wing & Angel
you wrote:
>And, of course, Stacey Travis was on Angel, also appearing in next week's
>episode--as usual totally failing to sell her role, in my opinion.
*That's* who that was. She looked familiar, but I couldn't place
here. Gotta agree about her lack of acting skills.
Pat L.
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End of HIGHLA-L Digest - 11 May 2004 to 14 May 2004 (#2004-90)
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