Highlander - Episode Guide

Duncan McLeod is roused from his peaceful existence with the love of this life, Tessa Noel, when he is challenged to Immortal combat by Slan Quince, an Evil Immortal. An old friend and Clansman, Connor MacLeod, comes to try and convince Duncan to once more join the fray in the battle of Good versus Evil. This episode also introduces Richie Ryan, a kid from the streets whom Duncan befriends after catching him breaking into his antique store.

After seeing Duncan's miraculous recovery from what should have been a fatal accident, an unethical ER doctor kidnaps the Highlander to study his recuperative powers and determine his secrets.

The immortal Grayson attempts to drive his former mentor Darius out of holy ground by killing Darius' pupils.

Duncan goes up against an Immortal who uses poison gas to give himself an edge in the battle against other Immortals... and to wipe out any mortals who get in his path.

A mysterious death at the Paris Opera re-acquaints Duncan MacLeod with one of the strangest Immortals he has met in his many travels over the centuries. Ursa is a hulking giant -- more beast than man -- who Duncan rescued from persecution centuries ago, delivering him to sanctuary in an abbey. The abbey has long since been destroyed and Ursa now lives under Paris. He has become enamored of a past-her-prime opera singer who tries to use Ursa's innocent soul to murder her rival.

Grace Chandel has been a Good Immortal, working for the betterment of mankind as a midwife, doctor, and scientist over the centuries. Her one weakness is another Immortal, Carlo Sendaro, a former lover who is obsessed with her and refuses to let her go. He slays Grace's current (mortal) lover and, when she refuses to run off with him, frames her for the killing. She turns to her old friend Duncan MacLeod for help.

A group of mortals calling themselves the Hunters--and who know who and what the Immortals are--come gunning for them, starting with Darius.

A mortal named Pallin Wolf is a Hunter, one of the renegade Watchers who believe the Immortals must be eliminated. He uses mortals as bait to kill Immortals. He lures the Immortal James Vincent to his house using James' girlfriend and kills him, getting the advantage by tricking him into a sealed room that is completely dark, then stalking him with night vision goggles. Meanwhile, Greta, a Gypsy fortuneteller whom Duncan and Tessa meet in a restaurant, warns Tessa to leave the city because she is in danger. When Wolf kidnaps Tessa, MacLeod returns to Greta, asking for her help. But she's mostly a hustler and not accustomed to getting actual visions, so the clues she can provide are meager. Finally, Mac finds Wolf's house, where Wolf is waiting for him. He meets Wolf in the dark room, and all seems hopeless until he remembers a matchbook Greta gave him with her phone number in it. Lighting the matches, he regains the advantage and kills Wolf. MacLeod frees Tessa with Richie and tells them to leave while he searches Wolf's house. However, as Tessa and Richie head for the car, a young junkie accosts them for money and shoots them both, in an act of senseless violence. 

Richie returns, on the run, turning to MacLeod for help. An Immortal has been following him, refusing to confront him, but committing grisly murders wherever Richie goes. Richie is arrested for the murders. Mac learns that Immortal hunter Martin Hyde is behind the murders: considering the Quickening of a green Immortal like Richie not worth the taking, Hyde has been hounding him in order to drive him to his teacher. MacLeod must clear Richie of the murders and defeat the evil Immortal.

The people of a tiny Balkan nation are rising up in arms against an oppressive dictator. Paul Karros, a vibrant, charismatic leader, commands the freedom fighters. Karros is an Immortal who once served as a slave under Roman oppression and fought his way to freedom with Spartacus. Since that time, whenever the ordinary people have been fighting against oppression, Karros has been at their side. Karros and his assistant, Mara, have come to the U.S. to drum up support for their cause. MacLeod and Karros fought together in the Mexican Revolution, and Karros tries to convince MacLeod to fight with him in this just cause. MacLeod turns him down, but Charlie is tempted both by the cause and by Mara. When Father Stefan, a local liaison, is critically wounded in an assassination attempt, MacLeod realizes that Karros is determined to fight the war at any cost -- even at the cost of sabotaging peace negotiations by killing those who trust him. When Mara discovers the truth, she threatens to expose him. Karros responds by attempting to kill her. MacLeod is forced to challenge and defeat his old comrade. When Mara returns home to the Balkans, Charlie goes with her.

What happens to a kid who hits Immortality before he hits puberty? MacLeod and Richie take in 10-year-old Kenny, who asks for their protection after the fatherly Immortal who was protecting him is beheaded. Kenny, we discover, is not the sweet little lamb he appears to be. He has been Immortal for nearly 800 years, and has survived all that time by convincing other Immortals to take him in and protect him -- and then taking their heads. Kenny tries to get MacLeod, but he is continuously thwarted by the presence of Anne. Kenny attempts to get Anne out of his way, but MacLeod, realizing the truth about Kenny, manages to rescue her. He goes after Kenny to stop him from killing again, but Kenny manages to escape by blending in with a group of innocent children.

Immortal David Keogh, once an indentured servant, is a noted craftsman with his heart set on marrying his sweetheart, Jill. Unfortunately, Jill does not agree. Although she loved Keogh once, she was unable to handle it when he confided the secret of his Immortality. Now Keogh won't leave her alone and she's coming to MacLeod, whom Keogh respects and might listen to, for help. But Keogh won't listen, convinced that Jill needs him as much as he needs her. In flashback, we see a time in MacLeod's life when he, too, was obsessed with a woman he couldn't have. When Jill is killed in a tragic accident while trying to get way from Keogh, Keogh blames MacLeod and swears vengence.

MacLeod is tormented by visions of his own death, beheaded by a mysterious dark-hooded figure. Anne tries to convince him to seek medical help, but instead he turns to his old friend Garrick, who has spent centuries studying the mind. MacLeod saw Garrick in the 17th Century, when MacLeod barely escaped being burned as a witch. What MacLeod didn't know was that Garrick was not able to escape as well. Garrick convinces MacLeod that the dark-hooded figure is a racial memory that haunts all Immortals and that the way to defeat it is to not fight it, to accept it for what it is. When MacLeod, haggard and exhausted, faces the specter for the last time, puts down his sword and refuses to fight it, the figure goes for MacLeod's head -- until at the last moment MacLeod realizes the figure is Garrick, seeking his revenge after all these years. In the Tag, Anne, frustrated that MacLeod won't open up to her despite their intimate relationship, leaves him.

Lawyer Robert Waverly is leaving his mistress' apartment with his video camera when he sees MacLeod locked in combat with an evil Immortal. Waverly makes sure he gets it all on tape -- the fight, the death, the Quickening. He then tries to cut a deal with MacLeod: if MacLeod kills Waverly's wife, then Waverly won't go to the police. When Kurlow, partner of the Immortal MacLeod killed on the tape, comes after MacLeod, Waverly, unaware of what he's dealing with, proposes another deal. A la ""Strangers on a Train,"" Waverly will kill Kurlow and MacLeod will kill Bruno's wife, and no one will suspect a thing. Waverly challenges Kurlow, who kills Waverly easily and MacLeod is left to save Waverly's wife and get rid of Kurlow.

To save his own hide, petty hoodlum Benny Carbassa, the Nathan Detroit of Immortality, turns MacLeod over to an aging gangster determined to see MacLeod dead before he dies. In the midst of this, Anne returns, having convinced herself that MacLeod will open up in his own time and determined not to push him too hard. In flashback, we see MacLeod's first meeting with Benny, in 1938 at the Coconut Lounge, a club operated by two young brothers who are rivals for the same torch singer.

Recent Immortal Michael Christian has been on an incredible string of luck, taking a number of heads from unarmed and vulnerable opponents, including May-Ling Shen, who taught MacLeod the martial arts in 1780's Mongolia. Christian's Watcher, Rita Luce, has been doing more than just watching, supplying Christian with classified information on the other Immortals and their weaknesses. MacLeod, unaware of Christian, goes on a vision quest to his cabin on Holy Ground -- deliberately leaving his sword behind. The race is on for Joe Dawson to figure out Rita's secret before Christian sets his sights on MacLeod.

When a religious leader, John Kirin, dies on Anne's operating table and then returns from the dead, his believers know a miracle has occurred. MacLeod knows better. He watched as Kirin, then known as Kage, massacred POWs in the Spanish Civil War and left a band of Cambodian refugee children to die at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. Kirin swears that experience changed him forever, turning him from a man of war to a man of peace. When a tabloid reporter trying to get the goods on Kirin winds up dead in MacLeod's dojo, MacLeod is certain Kirin is responsible. Kirin protests his innocence and realizes the real killer is Matthew, one of his faithful disciples trying to protect him. Kirin confronts a disillusioned Matthew, who manages to kill Kirin before dying himself in a rain of police bullets. In the Tag, Kirin and MacLeod have made peace as Kirin takes to the road, hoping to do good elsewhere.

In the 1600s, MacLeod sought refuge in a monastery founded by Paul, another Immortal. There, he encountered Kalas, an Immortal monk with a heavenly singing voice. When it was discovered that Kalas was routinely taking the heads of Immortals as they left the sanctuary, he was expelled from the monastery and the music that was his life. Paul and his choir have been lured out of their monastery for a concert tour, and MacLeod discovers that Kalas is after revenge. Meanwhile, mysterious deaths at the hospital seem linked to negligence on Anne's part. It becomes evident that Kalas is trying to destroy MacLeod's friends before coming for him.

When a street gang guns down Immortal Ceirdwyn and her mortal husband, she calls upon her skills as an ancient Celtic warrior to exact her revenge on the gang members, one by one. At the racetrack watching Richie's success at racing, MacLeod befriends a young pickpocket, the brother of one of the gang members, and learns of the killings. MacLeod, who has known Ceirdwyn since before they helped smuggle Bonnie Prince Charlie out of Scotland in 1746, feels he must stop Ceirdwyn and make her see that revenge is not the answer -- a lesson she helped MacLeod learn in the bloody aftermath of Culloden. In return, Ceirdwyn helps MacLeod see that, although loving a mortal can be dangerous for the mortal, it is the mortal who must choose whether to take the risk. MacLeod calls Anne. Meanwhile, Richie "dies" in a fiery crash during a race, a collision that also takes the life of the champion, Basil.

MacLeod decides to tell Anne the truth about his Immortality and she flies to Paris to be with him. En route, Anne helps save the life of a young woman, Tasha, who turns out to be smuggling drugs for the Russian Mafia. Tasha is the lover of Kristov, the head of the Russian gang and formerly the leader of the band of Cossacks MacLeod encountered on his way to the Orient in 1750. Concerned about Tasha, Anne tries to convince her to testify against Kristov, while Kristov is determined to make sure Tasha dies before she can testify. Richie is kidnapped by Kristov as a pawn in this game. MacLeod must choose between taking down Kristov or saving Richie and Richie finds he must grow as an Immortal -- or die.

MacLeod's old friend, Kit O'Brady, comes into town in search of a good race horse and a change of luck. MacLeod knew Kit back in Gold Rush San Francisco, when Kit ran the Double Eagle Saloon. Kit lost the Double Eagle to Amanda in a poker game and has blamed her ever since for his string of bad luck -- and he's vowed to kill her. When Amanda chooses to breeze back into MacLeod's life while Kit is there, MacLeod is hard pressed to keep them apart and to keep them from killing each other.

Running for his life from Immortal Terence Kincaid, Kenny runs straight into Anne Lindsey's emergency room. Stashing Kenny in the hospital chapel, Anne calls MacLeod for help. MacLeod agrees to harbor him for one night only, but when MacLeod gets him home, Kenny discovers his long-lost teacher there -- Amanda!

Dawson's life is on the line when the Watchers try him on the charge of treason for his friendship with MacLeod. Watcher deaths have risen dramatically since Dawson first told MacLeod about the Watchers and the Tribunal is determined to punish Joe and stop the killing. MacLeod and Dawson argue his case, but even as the trial goes on, the Watcher killings continue.

Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, Dawson's high school sweetheart Betsy walks into his. Meanwhile, MacLeod's got his hands full with Johnny K, a teenaged mobster wannabe when MacLeod knew him during Phrohibition, who's now a cold-blooded assassin. The only rules Johnny K knows are the rules of the street, and MacLeod's going to have to play by them if he wants to keep his head.

MacLeod knew him as Melvin Koren, a desperado who left a trail of death and fire across the Old West, but Cassandra remembers him as an evil far older. He is Kronos, leader of the Four Horsemen, mounted Bronze Age raiders who murdered, raped, and pillaged their way across two continents. Never was a band of Immortals more cruel or more feared. He destroyed Cassandra's people and she's been hunting him across the millenia. But Kronos has a different target now -- Methos.

One by one, Kronos is putting the Four Horsemen back together. Once they struck fear in the hearts of men with sword and axe. Today, their weapons of destruction are different, but their goal is the same: to bring mankind what it fears most, the Apocalypse. Only Duncan MacLeod stands between them and the end of the world.

Spanish swordplay, like Spanish dancing, is equal parts passion, skill, and strict discipline. The Immortal Otavio Consone is a master of both. An arrogant Spaniard who 150 years ago tried to teach MacLeod the sword art called ""The Mysterious Circle,"" Consone vied with MacLeod for the hand of a beautiful senorita, with tragic results. Now MacLeod must protect a Flamenco artist and her daughter from Consone's revenge.

According to official statements by the British government, the theft of the Stone of Scone, the legendary royal throne of Scotland, from Westminster Abbey in 1950 was simply a rowdy schoolboy prank. But was it? Or was it actually the bungled work of three rather hapless Immortals, attempting to fulfill a promise made centuries before?

A flashback episode: Fitzcairn and MacLeod enlist Amanda's help in stealing the Stone of Scone.  She agreed thinking it a gem, rather than the boulder beneath the monarch's throne.

After the Scottish massacre at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, Duncan MacLeod was a man possessed, obsessed with killing the English bastards who had destroyed his people. Now Immortal Steven Keane has come to make MacLeod pay for his murderous crimes. Amanda urges MacLeod to take Keane's head and be done with it, but in his heart, MacLeod knows that Keane is right -- he is a murderer -- and that Keane is judging him just like MacLeod has judged so many others.
 

Lord Byron, the brilliant Romantic poet, is alive and well and living the decadent life of a rock star. He lives life way over the edge and has taken some promising young musicians over the edge with him. When following in Byron's footsteps tragically ends the life of Dawson's protege, MacLeod is faced with a decision -- is the beauty and genius that is Byron worth the cost?

The dead are walking the streets of Paris. The forces of evil are coming. Is MacLeod being readied for some higher calling -- or is he simply losing his mind?

An archaeologist whose research predicts the imminent release of a thousand-year evil also predicts the champion who can defeat it: Duncan MacLeod. Duncan must confront this demon and save mankind, but not without great personal loss.  Richie theorizes this millennium cycle is the reason immortals exist in the first place, but Joe and Methos are not buying it...yet.

Once every thousand years, the Zoroastrian demon Ahriman returns to wreak havoc on the earth. He has already brought destruction to Duncan MacLeod's world, having caused Richie's death at Duncan's hand. But now MacLeod returns to Paris to take up his mantle as Champion and vows to destroy Ahriman. Sophie Baines knows how to defeat the demon, but is she MacLeod's ally, or another pawn in Ahriman's game?

With the help of Father Beaufort and Joe Dawson, MacLeod finally begins to find a crack in Ahriman's armor. But he soon learns, along with Dawson, that anyone who helps the Champion becomes fair game for the demon. Joe is torn by guilt as Watchers -- friends -- are murdered by Ahriman, while Father Beaufort has his own inner demons to contend with. Not even Holy Ground is sanctuary, as MacLeod wrestles with Ahriman in the final battle... Armageddon.

Now that his grandson, Carl, manages the bank, George Thomas can relax with his old friend, Duncan MacLeod. But the good life is cut short when George's car explodes in a ball of flames - leaving MacLeod to find George's killer. The trail leads to Alex Raven, a beautiful Immortal with a taste for danger and a fifty-year-old promise to fulfill... no matter what the cost.

Embezzler, charmer, and con man extraordinaire, Willie Kingsley has a knack for turning up dead... and profiting from it handsomely. But when one last con goes horribly wrong, resulting in the death of his mortal wife, Willie turns to Duncan MacLeod to help him track down her killer. MacLeod wants justice... Willie wants revenge.

Police at her heels, killers on her trail, Kyra is on the run, with no memory of who -- or what -- she is. In the streets of Paris, she runs into Duncan MacLeod, who spins a wild story: that he and Kyra were lovers once, some three hundred years ago. That she is a soldier, a warrior. That she is Immortal. Kyra doesn't believe a word of it... but if it isn't true, then why is someone after her head?

Four hundred years ago, Devon Marek was a spoiled aristocrat with a passion for the hunt. His first teacher, Duncan MacLeod, forced him to give up his lands and title when he became Immortal -- and Marek's never forgiven him for it. Now Marek has built a new empire, and he's ready to hunt his most dangerous prey yet: MacLeod. Obsessed with revenge, Marek imprisons the Highlander in a deserted highrise office building... with a gang of deadly mercenaries on his tail.

A flashback episode set in 1929 has Immortal Hugh Fitzcairn enjoying the life of an English lord. He has good friends, a beautiful wife, trusted servants ... until one of his nearest and dearest "murders" him, that is. It occurs before he can establish a new identity for himself, and he believes his wife may also be at risk. In an almost farcical version of an English Country House Murder Mystery, he challenges Duncan MacLeod to identify his killer while he lurks and gets in the way. Fitz is determined to uncover the identity of his own murderer -- before more bodies start piling up.

All immortal bounty hunter Reagan Cole wanted was a holiday in Paris with Duncan MacLeod; what she got was international intrigue, a hunky underwear model, and an assassin. She witnesses the murder of a photographer who accidentally took a picture of the elusive assassin with a million-dollar price on his head. She needs Duncan's help to track the man down.

Seven hundred years ago, the Immortal Bartholomew sent thousands to their deaths during the Crusades, amassing a fortune in God's name. He decimated Immortal Katherine's village, including its healer Berta, Katherine's dear friend. Now she is determined to take his head - if only she can keep her mortal husband, Nick, from interfering with the Game.

Methos and Joe Dawson join forces when past indiscretions threaten their lives, and loved ones in the present. Morgan Walker has been nursing a grudge against Methos for two hundred years, and now he may finally get the chance to take his revenge - by kidnapping Joe's daughter.

The popular series lays down its sword after six seasons in this stirring finale: Liam O'Rourke, MacLeod's old enemy, kidnaps Joe and Amanda and will trade their lives for Duncan's head. Methos, unwilling to let MacLeod die so easily, begins a shootout with O'Rourke's group, which temporarily kills MacLeod. During this time, he goes on a dream journey with his old friend Hugh Fitzcairn, who shows him all the good he has done in his life and what the world and his friends' lives might be like without him.

MacLeod continues his dream journey with Fitzcairn, revisiting friends to see how their lives might have been without him: Fitz died three hundred years ago; Horton has taken over the Watchers; Joe Dawson has been reduced to a bitter, penniless vagrant; Amanda is a black widow; and Methos has rejoined the Horsemen to avenge his fiancée's death. If you think that's bad, wait till you find out what's happened to Richie and Tessa. The episode concludes with Mac thanking his friends, Amanda, Methos, and Joe, for being in his life.

Immortals, they have secretly dwelt among us for thousands of years, locked in an eternal game of combat. But their origins have been shrouded in mystery. The answers, Prophets say, are to be found in The Source. As The End of Days approach, the last band of eternal warriors lead by Duncan MacLeod, the Highlander, have set out on a treacherous quest to find the origin of their immortality. But to learn the ancient truth, they must first defeat The Guardian of the Source, a powerful and ruthless killer who'll stop at nothing to bring them all to a painful end in this thrilling new chapter of the legendary Highlander saga.

10 years after Highlander - the Series left off, Methos, Amanda, and Joe are doing some catching up.