James Horton is dead, so why does Duncan MacLeod keep seeing him? It is a mystery until you look at what Duncan MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod really is. If you believe in that sort of thing.
Before Mac met Connor MacLeod, who taught him all about Immortality, Mac wandered around. In 1625 he met a hermit, not Carl the Hermit, but a hermit nonetheless, who told Mac all about how he had fought the Big Evil that appears every thousand years and how Mac was going to be the next to do battle with the Big Evil. Mac is the Immortal Champion Presumptive. Then the hermit beheaded himself and Mac received his first Quickening.
Years pass ... teedledee, teedledee, teedledee, teedledee ... Mac is in Paris and Horton is just everywhere. Archaeologist Landry tries to tell Mac about the Millennial Evil (AKA Big Evil) but the conversation gets interrupted by Horton. Mac goes after Horton. Richie goes after Mac. Apparently Millennial Evil went after Landry, 'cause he's dead now.
And what's Kronos doing running around Paris? Methos get a little concerned about that one.
Landry's granddaughter Allison is able to tell what Landry never got around to telling. Millennial Evil has a name, which is Ahriman, and it's time for Ahriman to make his millennial appearance. Ahriman is a Zoroastrian demon and Duncan MacLeod is slated to fight him and end his new Cycle o' Evil. It's an EvilCycle, not a bicycle and not a motorcycle, and it's bad to the bone. It proves this by killing Allison and making the evidence point to Mac.
Now's where it gets complicated. Joe and Methos are trying not to think Mac is insane. Richie sees Horton, and Horton is holding a gun on Joe, but when Richie calls Mac to tell him this, Joe is actually with Mac but Richie doesn't listen. They never listen. Richie rushes to save Joe. Mac rushes to save Richie, who seems to be the only one who doesn't think he's insane. It's good to have at least one friend who doesn't think you're insane, even if insane is the best description of your current mental outlook.
There they are. Mac and Richie and Horton and Kronos, and Mac is fighting Evil for all he's worth. Richie sure looks evil. Eyes all glowin' red and everything. Makes sense that Mac would take a swing at him, so he does.
Richie's head falls off his shoulders, not really being attached anymore, and Mac discovers that it weren't the Evil Incarnation Richie at all, but our very own Richie Ryan, Mac's student and friend. The onliest one who didn't think he was nuts in the first place, which as it turns out was kind of a mistake, and he should have been protecting himself from an obviously delusional Mac instead of standing there, clothed in concern and innocence, waiting to join the formerly Immortal Bowling Team.
Joe and Methos come on the scene. Mac is rather obviously distraught, but Methos won't whack him to end his pain. Joe weeps. Mac leaves.
Questions:
1. Why didn't Richie duck? Fate?
2. Mac is the subject of Cassandra's Prophecy and he's the Immortal Champion, too. He is destined to meet Ahriman in battle, so might that possibly mean that all those battles he fought as a typical Immortal playing The Game were foregone conclusions? Did we need to hold our collective breath as Mac fought Consone and Kronos? Is The Game merely a training ground for Immortals annointed as Champion and fated to meet Ahriman?
3. Since we're getting into fate and prophecy, there's Methos, who doesn't seem to have a fate, except the fate of living for a very long time. That makes him normal. A regular guy who just lives for a very long time. Do we suppose it's at all possible that Methos refused to take Mac's head because Mac's Fate wouldn't allow it? Is it at all possible that Methos has been more-or-less on Mac's side all this time because he knew of Mac's destiny? {Note:It would have been really awesomely cool if Methos had been The Guy Who Stood At The Side of All the Immortal Champions as they fought the Millennial Evil. But that doesn't seem to be his role. I just think it would have been cool. Would have made his long life have purpose. Not that it needs one.}
4. Mac's mental stability is called into question on a regular basis, and yet he's The Man. Does a champion have to be mentally pliant in order to weather the shifting seas upon which his life must sail?
5. Is Mac destined to live in a cave some day and await the coming of the next Immortal Champion? If he has to behead himself, wouldn't that sort of take him right out of The Game?
6. Who is the archangel in this episode, and why?