Since Mac tried to take Richie's head in Something Wicked (after trying to take his head in Shadows), and disappeared, Richie has gone off to make a name for himself. He is apparently pretty good at the sword slinging, too, because he still has a head attached to his shoulders. Richie picks a fight with Immortal Carter Wellan at a bar, and takes his head.
So happens that Wellan was Immortal Haresh Clay's long-time partner, and Clay killed Duncan's mentor Graham Ashe and humiliated Duncan back in 1657. Clay goes for vengeance against Richie and in their first encounter, breaks Richie's sword. Richie now needs a sword. He asks Joe for the money to buy one, but Joe (ever faithful to his Watcher oath) says no. Richie tries to steal a sword and gets arrested. Mac bails him out of jail.
Richie is wary of Mac, having learned the big TCBOO lesson in spades while Duncan was under the influence of the Dark Quickening, but he takes Ashe's sword when it's offered. Mac and Richie go after Clay, and Mac is forced to tell Richie the whole sordid tale of how he and Graham Ashe were accosted so long ago by Clay and Wellan; and how Ashe sent Duncan to holy ground from where Duncan saw Ashe beg for his life before being beheaded by Clay. Then how Duncan cowered on holy ground, unwilling to fight the man who had just killed his mentor.
Stark and utter humiliation being a compelling argument, Richie agrees that the fight belongs to Mac, and Mac finally meets Clay with his sword and beheads him.
Mac and Joe have a warm moment in which Mac admits that Joe's the kind of guy who ought to be Watching the Immortals.
Questions:
1. Does this episode mark the end of Richie's innocence, or is something else implied?
2. I rather liked Graham Ashe, though I suppose it's oh-so-very-gauche for an Immortal to plead for his life when he is about to be beheaded. Does Duncan's humiliation for his own refusal to meet Clay after Clay takes Ashe's head include embarrassment for Ashe? Is that why Duncan was so exceptionally humiliated by the whole affair? 3
. Carter Wellan was good looking and seemed good natured. What was there about him that made Richie challenge him? Was Richie just set to challenge any Immortal who crossed his path?
4. Is Duncan's conduct at the time of Ashe's beheading supposed to demonstrate to us that Duncan wasn't always the paragon of Immortal virtues that he is today? Are we supposed to like him more, despise his period of weakness or perhaps be filled with pity at his youthful lack of courage?