Duncan and Richie go to meet up with his old immortal friend, Jim Coltec. On his way to meet them, Coltec runs into an evil immortal and kills him. Now it appears he has had a dark quickening. Duncan tries to help Jim, flashing back to the past when Jim helped him in the aftermath of his Native American family's death.
Remember in season one in 'Band of Brothers,' when Duncan describes how Darius was a warrior and conqueror but changed after he killed a holy man who was the oldest living immortal at the time? Turning his back on killing and becoming a holy man himself? Remember's Richie's question: -- "You think that this holy guy's quickening went to Darius and made him good? Well, does that mean that, like, if a really good Immortal, like, chopped the head off a really bad ancient Immortal that he could, you know?"--
Well, here we have that premise. Jim was a really good immortal that apparently killed several really evil immortals in his quest to "take the evil inside of himself." Jim appears to be some kind of ancient medicine man or shaman. He refers to himself as a "Heyoka." Someone that takes evil and hate into himself to rid the world of it.
I liked seeing the aftermath of Duncan after his Native American family was killed. It was interesting to see what happened to him. He was on a revenge quest and hated the government and white men, despite being one himself. But I have a problem with Jim coming along and "taking his hate away." I prefer to see characters struggle and overcome their inner demons themselves. I mean, yes a friend helping and prodding yes, ok, but for it just to be magically taken away? It just seems lazy to me. I like to see character development and the struggles and conflicts, the revelation and self-awareness that they need to change. I like to see sometimes a big event that happens that causes them to reflect and change. Not magic.
I get the feeling that Adrian Paul really reveled played "Evil Duncan." It must have been refreshing for him as an actor to do something different with his character and visit the dark side. He did a great job here. The fight with Richie was actually funny in many ways because evil Duncan made it funny.
As for the supernatural stuff, the dark quickening, Duncan turning evil, it didn't make any sense to me. There didn't seem to be any way out. Duncan tried with Jim. There weren't any remnants of good Duncan showing him struggling and agonizing. I mean they inserted a tiny bit at the end with Joe, but it just wasn't good enough. Hearing the story about Darius back in season one sounded good, but I wonder if they actually would have shown it, how it would have been. I think now it wouldn't have been very good given this same type of writing on the show. I found they never did a good job with supernatural stuff in this series.
This is part one of a two-parter as Duncan ends up in France in the second part. The ideas are interesting but didn't play out well. I did enjoy all the flashbacks though, and evil Duncan. I gave it an 8/10.
Remember in season one in 'Band of Brothers,' when Duncan describes how Darius was a warrior and conqueror but changed after he killed a holy man who was the oldest living immortal at the time? Turning his back on killing and becoming a holy man himself? Remember's Richie's question: -- "You think that this holy guy's quickening went to Darius and made him good? Well, does that mean that, like, if a really good Immortal, like, chopped the head off a really bad ancient Immortal that he could, you know?"--
Well, here we have that premise. Jim was a really good immortal that apparently killed several really evil immortals in his quest to "take the evil inside of himself." Jim appears to be some kind of ancient medicine man or shaman. He refers to himself as a "Heyoka." Someone that takes evil and hate into himself to rid the world of it.
I liked seeing the aftermath of Duncan after his Native American family was killed. It was interesting to see what happened to him. He was on a revenge quest and hated the government and white men, despite being one himself. But I have a problem with Jim coming along and "taking his hate away." I prefer to see characters struggle and overcome their inner demons themselves. I mean, yes a friend helping and prodding yes, ok, but for it just to be magically taken away? It just seems lazy to me. I like to see character development and the struggles and conflicts, the revelation and self-awareness that they need to change. I like to see sometimes a big event that happens that causes them to reflect and change. Not magic.
I get the feeling that Adrian Paul really reveled played "Evil Duncan." It must have been refreshing for him as an actor to do something different with his character and visit the dark side. He did a great job here. The fight with Richie was actually funny in many ways because evil Duncan made it funny.
As for the supernatural stuff, the dark quickening, Duncan turning evil, it didn't make any sense to me. There didn't seem to be any way out. Duncan tried with Jim. There weren't any remnants of good Duncan showing him struggling and agonizing. I mean they inserted a tiny bit at the end with Joe, but it just wasn't good enough. Hearing the story about Darius back in season one sounded good, but I wonder if they actually would have shown it, how it would have been. I think now it wouldn't have been very good given this same type of writing on the show. I found they never did a good job with supernatural stuff in this series.
This is part one of a two-parter as Duncan ends up in France in the second part. The ideas are interesting but didn't play out well. I did enjoy all the flashbacks though, and evil Duncan. I gave it an 8/10.
