Overall view 4^th season:

The 4^th season starts with “Homeland” and for me this is also the very best episode of this season. Episode where Duncan goes back to the Highlands of Scottland. For some people the pacing is not past enough, their problem. It is a bit melodramatic, it gets emotional at times but it is a wonderful episode where Duncan goes home. Of course accompanied with that wonderful song Bonny Portmore, sang by Laura Creamer. Loreena McKennitt sang it for the Highlander 3 movie. Episode two “Brothers in Arms” is almost as strong, where a beloved character, Charlie DeSalvo dies. Because of Joe’s involvement, who is befriended with the immortal who kills Charlie, Duncan severs ties with Joe because he feels they’ve become too close. In the end, Charlie does find out that Duncan is an immortal.

Methos falls in love with a mortal woman, Alexa (episode “Timeless) who has cancer. She initially holds him of, but he is very persuasive and wants to travel with her as long as she is capable. Some heartbreaking moments for Methos and Alexa. The kid immortal Kenny returns. It turns out that Amanda and Kenny also had a history together, they were close. At one point they got separated and never found each other again until they meet at MacLeod’s. Again, Kenny’s jealousy streaks arise again, he wants to keep Amanda for himself and tries to kill Duncan. Amanda and Annie meet and it turns out that they have a click together. Halfway through the 4^th season Duncan gets evil after a quickening where he unintentionally kills another immortal friend after he had one too many bad quickening from killing evil immortals. Episodes “Something Wicked” and “Deliverance”, two strong episodes where we see a Duncan MacLeod who is the opposite of his normal self. He is unbearable, vicious, a-hole behavior and murderous. He almost kills his protégé Richie, it would have happened hadn’t Joe come by to shoot Duncan down just before he was chopping off Richie’s had. As said, shame there is no resolution between the two characters at the end of “Deliverance” because of what happened. Could have been very powerful, Duncan feeling guilty over almost killing his friend. As said, Richie is absent for the rest of the season. Strange that this didn’t happen before, I mean, Duncan has fought some nasty pieces of work in his lifetime.

Anne almost loses her child as she runs into a collapsed building because there are still people inside. Very stupid of her, you can be brave, heroic, but when you also have to take care of an unborn, I cannot imagine any pregnant woman would put that unborn child in danger, especially when there are professionals nearby. Final moment was the best when Duncan gives Anne his just renovated house to her. The episode itself was…mwah. Xavier St. Cloud (Roland Gift) returns in a flashback, in the episode “Double Jeopardy” and a favorite of mine, a flashback episode “Till Death”, where we see Duncan and Fitzcairn (Roger Daltrey) fighting over a woman who ends up with another immortal. They have been married for centuries. One of the best episodes this season, simply because of the pairing of Duncan and Fitz. These two together are hilarious. Also Methos and Duncan are fun together. When Fitz or Methos is in an episode, the episode is always better for it.

Only two real “Watcher” episodes, the last two episodes, “Judgment Day” and “One Minute to Midnight”, where Joe Dawson is charged with treason by the Watchers. His friend Jack, on the board of the Watchers, sets him up and they kidnap him. Of course Duncan is coming to rescue him but instead he too is captured and now he too is suspected of treason. Methos is there too as Adam Pierson, a Watcher researcher. The Watchers somehow believe that Duncan is responsible for killing Watchers to protect Joe Dawson. A bit strange, if you have watched Duncan MacLeod for 400 years, you must know what kind of a man he is, that isn’t capable of doing that. Lazy writing or convenient writing to fit the story?

This season also had some very interesting guest stars. Besides the earlier mentioned ones I saw: Louis Ferreira (Stargate Universe); Peta Wilson (Nikita); Peter Outerbridge (ReGenesis; The Pretender 2001); Dougray Scott (Mission Impossible II; Hemlock Grove); Marc Warren (Doctor Who; Band of Brothers; Life On Mars); Rae Dawn Chong (Commando; The Color Purple; Mysterious Ways); Molly Parker (Lost In Space; Deadwood) and Brent Stait (Andromeda; Snowpiercer; Taken).

This season I graded 1 episode a 9/10, 13 episodes a 8/10 or higher, 6 episodes a 7.5/10 and two episodes a 5/10.

Final Word:

I think the quality of season four is about the same as the third season. Two very strong seasons. When I think of the first season, which was, to be honest, mediocre, I can only come to the conclusion that Highlander the series has only gotten better with each season. Season two already was a big uptick from season one, but seasons three and four are even stronger. I know that season six is very uneven but I do think season five has some of it’s strongest episodes ever, so, really looking forward to that. Having a great time with this Highlander rewatch. Yes, it is different from today’s television, which is a good thing I think. It still holds up, yes, it is a bit slower perhaps, but I don’t mind that at all, in fact, with all the past paced shows we nowadays have, it’s good that you also can back to something less fast paced.