Benny Carbassa! Benny, Benny, Benny! The most annoying non-K'Immie with a C ever created. Small time hustler, who can't ever seem to make a hustle go his way. Always broke. Always in the know. Always on the edge of disaster. This time he pisses off gangster-turned-philanthropist Simon Lang, who was Sid Lankovski in his gangster days and still retains his organization and social skills. In exchange for Lang's not sinking him to the bottom of the river in cement overshoes, Benny offers him Duncan MacLeod. Or Duncan MacLeod's grandson, who is really Duncan MacLeod, whom Sid shot and killed in as part of a coup against Joey, his brother and true leader of the gang.
Got this? Whew! Try to keep up.
In 1938 Duncan drops in to the Coconut Lounge, meets Benny, and sweeps Joey's girlfriend and chanteuse Peggy McCall off her feet. Joey doesn't like it but is content to send Mac off with a few threatening gestures. Sid arranges for Mac to meet Peggy after the show, then kills both Mac and Joey in a confrontation neither man wanted or expected. Sid inherits the club, Peggy and the organization. He has rehabilitated his image through the years, so when Benny tells Sid (now Simon Lang) that Mac is talking about his role in Mac's death, he decides Mac must die.
Oh, just accept it. It's convoluted but entertaining from a certain point of view.
So Benny gets Mac down to Simon Lang's boat, where Mac is ambushed and sent into the cold water ... from which he walks the next day, promising *not* to kill Benny. After Benny removes the handcuffs from Mac, Mac seems willing to break his word, but doesn't, which is a gigantic mistake if you ask me, but no one is asking me.
Dr Anne reappears and tells Mac that she's been pushing too hard and she won't push any more. By the way, there's a big sock hop down at the hospital and wouldn't he like to shake a leg? Always up for a dance, Duncan accompanies Dr Anne to the sock hop which is really a formal dinner and dance in honor of (who else?) Simon Lang, who recognizes Duncan from trying to kill him a couple nights before. Also recognizing Duncan is Simon's wife Margaret, who used to be Peggy McCall.
Benny is really in trouble now!
Next day, Simon and his goons get Benny so they can kill him. Duncan shows up. Margaret shows up. Gunplay. Margaret shoots Simon dead. No Quickening. Mac wipes her fingerprints off the gun. Mac goes home. Benny shows up. Duncan gives him a bus ticket back to Chicago and a roll of quarters for food. Benny protests, but turns down neither ticket nor quarters.
Duncan ruminates as Peggy sings on the old record player.
Questions.
1. Benny would have been an easy kill. Wouldn't have required much of a Quickening. A few sparklers, a cherry bomb or two. Wouldn't even have mussed Duncan's hair. Were we due a Quickening at the end of this episode? Were we cheated?
2. Margaret seems to accept that Duncan is Duncan after lo these many years, and is still his handsome self. She has aged naturally and gracefully, still an obviously beautiful woman, but describes herself as dried-up. Shouldn't she even wonder that Duncan is still younger than springtime? Ask the question? Inquire as to his beauty regimen?
3. Benny seems to make it through Immortality without drawing a sword. He seems to think all Richie needs is a nice jacket. Is this any sort of indication that If You Ignore The Game, The Game Goes On Without You? Duncan already owns a nice jacket. Why doesn't this theory work out for him? Would it have worked out for Richie if Richie had stayed in his former chosen profession of used car salesman?
4. Did Dr Anne return for the hair or the pants? Or did she just need a date for the prom?