Friends Will Be Friends
mac's companions
At times Highlander: The Series appears to be very much a one-man show. It features a supporting cast rather than an ensemble cast: all characters significant only insofar as they impact Duncan MacLeod. Nonetheless, these characters are well-drawn and adored by fans. Each has a unique view on the strange world they inhabit. (The women in Mac's life are discussed in One Year of Love)
Richie Ryan (Stan Kirsch) Every hero needs a sidekick. Richie basically
volunteers for the position when he breaks into Duncan's antique shop, and then witnesses Duncan, Connor, and Slan Quince brandishing swords. Mac and Tessa decide to give Richie a home. Richie likes to believe he's a streetwise smart-ass, but in reality, he's a naive kid with a barrel of lame jokes. In the first season, he often finds himself deceived, betrayed, and heartbroken as he digests "life lessons" under Duncan's watchful gaze.
Richie's real tutelage begins in the second season, after he and Tessa are shot by a mugger. He revives, now Immortal. Duncan patiently teaches him sword work and provides moral guidance. Richie, however, isn't content being in Duncan's shadow. In Under Colour of Authority, Richie's decision to kill Mako, an Immortal who might not have deserved death, demonstrates his defiance. In later episodes, such as The End of Innocence, Richie is portrayed as tough and grown-up - Duncan's equal, making his own choices, for better or worse.
Richie has increasing reason to fear his teacher, the one he should trust most: Duncan attacks him twice, in Shadows and Something Wicked. While in both cases, Mac is controlled by outside forces, it's enough to give Richie nightmares. Unfortunately these come to fruition in Archangel, wherein Duncan is tricked into killing Richie. The Highlander spends a year in mourning, preparing to avenge this wrong.
In many ways Duncan and Richie aren't the typical hero and sidekick. They can't fight together according to the rules, and have different approaches to the Game (Richie goes at it with far more enthusiasm.) Rather than the old mentor dying, Duncan goes and offs the kid. Still, Duncan wouldn't learn much from a quiet, diligent student, and without Duncan, Richie might have remained a scared street kid.
Joe Dawson (Jim Byrnes) has his eye on Duncan: it's his job, after all. Joe has been Duncan's Watcher since 1979. Mac moves through the centuries without realizing that the Watchers have been recording his history. Thus, Joe tells Duncan when they first meet, "I probably know more about you than you know about yourself." Mac has the misfortune of meeting Joe around the same time as James Horton, Joe's brother-in-law and leader of the murderous Hunters. Joe has to convince Mac that most Watchers are benign and trustworthy.
When the Highlander learns of the Watchers' non-interference rule, he is adverse to accepting Joe's help, or looking into matters Joe deems important. (Duncan being a stickler for rules.) After a couple more scuffles with Horton threaten their burgeoning friendship (in Unholy Alliance I & II and Counterfeit I & II), Mac eases up on his Watcher: he even becomes a fixture at Joe's blues bar.
Joe can relate to Duncan in several ways, despite being a "mere mortal." The two men share traits such as stubbornness, solitude, and adherence to principles, as well as sensitivity and the need to kick back once in a while. Joe's past doesn't span centuries, but he's endured pain and loss. As we see in Brothers in Arms Joe was a soldier in Vietnam who lost his legs to a land mine. Through the Watchers, he has new purpose and direction in life, but also faces new dangers and difficult choices.
Joe is often around when Duncan needs him, even if Duncan doesn't want him to be. Joe faces the Watcher Tribunal in Judgement Day, accused of treason for his friendship with Mac. The two prevent an all-out war between Watchers and Immortals through their mutual trust. Joe appears briefly in the films Endgame and The Source, now and always a welcome sight.
Methos (Peter Wingfield) What does one expect to find in the world's oldest man? " Einstein? Freud? Buddha? Sorry... I'm just a guy." While living 5000 years has given Methos a cynical outlook and sarcastic wit, his words of wisdom are few and cryptic. To protect himself from ambitious Immortals and curious Watchers, Methos joins the Watchers himself under the guise of Adam Pierson, a grad student working on the "Methos Case" and ensuring he never gets found. Duncan is the first to discover his dual identity in Methos, and the two bond almost instantly. While Duncan might have expected a mentor in the vein of Darius (see below), with Methos he can enjoy a cold beer and classic rock tunes.
Much of Methos's past remains a mystery, though we know that he rode with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as Death: looting, killing, and raping in the Bronze Age. Duncan feels understandably betrayed when he learns of this in Comes a Horsemen and Revelation 6 : 8. Methos, however, has changed over the millenia from someone who takes everything he wants to someone who preserves that which is most important. He plays the remaining Horsemen against one another to help Duncan defeat them in the present day. Thus, he proves his dedication to good and regains Mac's trust.
Methos prefers living in the shadows and watching to being active in the game, though when challenged he proves a capable fighter. He is not bound by rules and honour like Duncan. For instance, he's "a man born a long time before the age of chivalry." He manipulates others to his advantage, but to greater ends and in his friends' best interests. Methos believes Duncan "too important to lose," and has been the Highlander's salvation on numerous occasions, such as in the films Endgame and The Source.
Darius (Werner Stocker) Once a fearsome general, Darius experienced a "light quickening" at the gates of Paris and was transformed into a man of peace. Now a Catholic priest in a distinctive robe and cowl, he preaches the virtues of peace and non-violence to many other Immortals while remaining on holy ground. He and Duncan first meet on a battlefield during the Napoleonic Wars, where he convinces Mac not to choose sides in the wars of mortals. While Duncan takes this to heart, stepping away from the front lines of war, he is unable to remain a true student of Darius and maintain a pacifist lifestyle. The two part as friends.
Charlie DeSalvo (Philip Akin) runs a martial arts gym into which Duncan and
Ritchie stumble one day. After Duncan gives him a thorough demonstration of his skills, Charlie
welcomes him and eventually sells him the gym and the loft above. Being half black and half Italian,
Charlie knows what it's like to be unique. Charlie - an ex-Navy Seal - suspects something unusual in
Duncan, due to his evasive behaviour and uncanny fighting skills. He sees Mac survive after Horton shoots him in the heart, and Duncan promises afterwards to tell him his secret before Charlie dies. Charlie later falls in love with Mara, a freedom fighter in the Balkans, and joins her cause. When Charlie returns to the States, he is shot the Immortal Andrew Cord in Brothers in Arms. Keeping his promise, Duncan tells Charlie who he really is. Charlie is remembered as a spirited, genuine friend.
Hugh Fitzcairn (Roger Daltrey) was born in 1190 in Sussex, England. He enjoys
the simple things in life: wine, women, and song. He and Duncan, while best buds, rival each other
in everything from golf to winning the affections of a lady. Duncan sees these competitions as a bit
silly, but Fitz isn't above cheating to come out on top. Their bickering gets them into some
frivolous adventures over the years, including breaking into the Tower of London in The Stone of
Scone and solving a murder mystery in Unusual Suspects.
Fitzcairn first appears as a potential victim of Horton's killings in The Hunters, in which Mac saves him from the guillotine. Fitz isn't so fortunate in Star-Crossed, when Kalas takes his head. Fortunately, he continues to appear in flashback episodes. He is Duncan's unlikely guardian angel in the series finale, and shows Mac what the lives of his friends would have been like without him. Fitz provides many of the show's funniest moments and always lights up the screen.
Maurice Lalonde (Michel Modo) is an eccentric Frenchman who lives in the barge next to Duncan in Paris. His own boat is a colourful but cluttered home, so he often finds his way next door. There, Duncan discovers Maurice hanging out laundry, or even borrowing his toothbrush! Still, the Frenchman's cooking skills win him Mac's appreciation - or at least tolerance - and he's very grateful that the Highlander's generosity allows him to indulge his taste for fine foods and wine.
Maurice most often provides comic relief, though he gains some depth in Reasonable Doubt when the life of his niece Simone is threatened by an Immortal. In this episode, Duncan also realizes Maurice's reasons for drinking. Still, he remains an entertaining presence.
Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) The lead of the original 1986 Highlander film, Connor has a different role in the TV series: that of Duncan's teacher. As he says, they are "same clan, different vintage." Connor becomes Duncan's teacher after his first death, and the two remain connected like brothers for four hundred years. Connor convinces Duncan to re-enter the Game and defeat the evil Slan Quince. Over the next decade, Connor's sense of loss and despair so overwhelms him that he joins the Sanctuary, kept sedated by drugs, reliving the past. In the film Endgame, he reemerges to make the ultimate sacrifice in the fight to stop Jacob Kell. Taking Connor's head is one of Duncan's most heart-wrenching experiences. Duncan buries Connor next to his love Heather in Glencoe, Scotland and bids him to find peace.
Connor is more understated character than Duncan, but possesses many similar personality traits. His presence in the Highlander universe is pervasive.
