Brian Cullen is The Guy to Beat in Immortal terms, at least in 1810. But the years go past and Brian's reputation and need to defend it causes him to lose his courage. He turns to drugs and alcohol, becomes reckless, dangerous, and downright murderous. During a game of highway chicken, he causes a wreck with a bus and the resultant injuries and deaths. Brian is an old friend of Duncan. They've been friends since the good times, and Duncan has tried to rescue Brian from his taste for opium in the past. Now Brian displays a case of raging paranoia, taunting Duncan with the prospect of losing his own nerve. Duncan's reaction is to try and help.
Duncan begins to date Dr Anne, whose beeper cuts their first date short. Brian still sees himself as The Guy to Beat and convinces Duncan to meet him in a garage. He needs Duncan's help to kick the drugs. Duncan goes, and Brian runs him down with a van. Duncan retaliates, and both men die temporarily. Then comes the most brutal fight ever filmed for Highlander.
The two men go at each other relentlessly. Duncan wins the battle and beheads Brian, takes the Quickening, then weeps for the loss of an old and dear friend.
Still red-eyed from weeping, Duncan meets Dr Anne outside the hospital, and she offers to buy him breakfast.
Questions:
1. At times it seems that Richie's main purpose in Highlander is to point out the attributes of Duncan's old friends and acquaintances that Duncan seems to overlook. He's sort of an Immortal lightning rod, meeting folks randomly and trying to convince Duncan that his (Richie's) perspective is more neutral and less biased than Duncan's own. As often as not, Richie is correct about people. Except for women. Richie is always wrong about women. Discuss.
2. Duncan asks himself occasionally if living a "good" life will keep a person from going bad. Except for a taste for single malt whisky, he doesn't seem to have many vices. However, his innate trust in his old friends occasionally backfires in a major way. Brian's case is one. Would Duncan still be Duncan if he approached old friends with more suspicion and less trust, or would that put him on Brian's path toward destruction?
3. If Duncan spent a couple hundred years in drug addiction and spiritual dissipation, would his hair and pants suffer?
4. Theoretical: if an Immortal dies of alcohol poisoning or a drug overdose, does he wake up with a hangover, or does death cure it? Note: The battle between Duncan and Brian was *so* brutal, that it had to be cut in order to meet standards for television. If you ever have a chance to see F. Braun McAsh speak about being sword master of Highlander, try to be there.