One Year of Love
romantic entanglements
The Highlander is attracted to women with joie de vive, a good sense of humour, a unique perpective, and, of course, an open mind. He prefers mortal women to fellow Immortals, perhaps because they carry too many burdens of their own.
Despite his attempts to create lasting relationships, Duncan seems cursed. Indeed, in 1848, the Gypsy Carmen predicts that he will he will bury many women, and marry none. Nevertheless, Duncan's attitude is " Tis better to have loved and lost ..." and he remains open to possibility.
Debra Campbell (Laurie Holden) Duncan's first true romance sets a tragic precedent. Debra is a simple, joyful highland lass, in loved with Duncan but promised to his cousin Robert. The clan forces the men to duel to the death, but Mac finds he can't marry Debra with Robert's blood on his hands. Debra is insistent that she be with Duncan, and threatens to jump of a bluff if he doesn't agree to be with her. But as Duncan reassures her and reaches out, she slips off the rocks and falls to her death.
Centuries later, in Homeland, Duncan returns her bracelet (originally a gift from him) to her grave. He must convince a contemporary relative, Rachel MacLeod, that he is restoring the piece, not taking it. Debra remains close to his heart.
Tessa Noel (Alexandra Vandernoot) If Duncan were to have a "soul mate", it would be Tessa. As the series begins, Duncan has been living with this French sculptor for 12 years. The two meet when Duncan jumps onto a Paris tour boat, on which Tessa is serving as a guide. When Mac tells her he's Immortal, Tessa's first reaction is one of sympathy for the loss he has faced. She stays with him even when she learns of the risks they run in the Game.
Tessa is fun-loving and compassionate, with the ability to capture delicate emotions in her artwork. Though not a warrior, she possesses a quiet strength and outgoing nature, and supports Duncan through his battles. The two informally adopt in Richie Ryan, completing their family.
But just after Mac purposes marriage in The Darkness, a mugger shoots Tessa and Richie, and Tessa dies. Duncan spends over a year mourning her, and keeps her memory close throughout the series. In the finale, Duncan feels his life was worth living if only for Tessa's happiness.
Little Deer (Michelle Thrush) Mac promises watch over Little Deer, the wife of his dead friend, and her son Kahani, Sioux Indians in the Pacific Northwest. Though he's hesitant to stay with her, she's in love, and says her husband's spirit would want this. It's unknown whether Duncan reciprocates these feelings, or simply loves retreating to a peaceful village life after the carnage of the Civil War and the Mexican Revolution. He chooses to ignore the Blue Coats and other possible dangers. But on returning from the hunt one day, he finds the village devastated and his family dead.
This time, someone's to blame: an Immortal headhunter named Kern. They meet in the present day in Line of Fire, and Mac faces one of his most emotionally charged battles. It's likely a release of the anger he feels at having lost many lovers and not being able to settle down to a normal family life; not in 1872, not in the present.
Amanda Darieux (Elizabeth Gracen) A clever, deceitful thief hardly seems like someone with whom the honor-bound Duncan would maintain a 350 year friendship. Yet Amanda's "bad girl" qualities attract Mac, as does her playful spirit. The two reconnect in The Lady and the Tiger.
Though over a thousand years old, Amanda is young at heart, and her curiosity and ambition get her into trouble. Mac is often reluctant to help her out, though he finds himself having fun in the end. He eventually convinces Amanda to give up stealing, even if her skills do come in handy. Her fighting style incorporates gymnastics. While a capable fighter, she doesn't kill mortals or hunt Immortals.
Amanda and Duncan have an "opposite attraction" going. They walk the line between friendship and love for centuries, seeming to fall into a mad attraction, but not being able to stand one another's company for more than a few months. They're both looking for stability and innocent joy in a partner that they can't find in a fellow Immortal.
Still great friends, Amanda helps Mac regain his confidence in the series finale. Later, she falls for Nick Wolfe, a ex-mortal cop, in the spin-off series Highlander: The Raven.
Anne Lindsay (Lisa Howard) This trauma surgeon can't seem to stop running into Mac: at the hospital, in the park - and naturally he offers to take her out to dinner. Anne has an excellent "bedside manner", and her patience, warmth, and sympathetic qualities appeal to a battle-weary Duncan.
Anne also possesses a scientific mind, and continues to pry into Mac's lifestyle, health, and past. He can provide very few answers, until Anne sees him fall to his "death" while fighting Kalas. In Take Back the Night, Duncan's old friend Ceirdwyn eventually convinces him to trust Anne, and she learns to truth.
But Mac isn't the only one with something to reveal: in their time apart, Anne has become pregnant. Duncan briefly flirts with the idea of raising a child, though Anne decides it would be too dangerous to stay together. Mac understands, and the two remain friends. The baby is named after Duncan's mother, Mary. He later restores an old home in which Anne and her child can live. This is as close as Duncan comes to a "happy ending", but for him it's enough to know Anne and Mary are alive and safe.
Cassandra (Tracy Scoggins) Technically this is Duncan's first relationship, though at the tend age of 13, he's unable to appreciate Cassandra's feminine charms. She is called the "Witch of Donan Woods", and does possess some supernatural gifts. She's also Immortal, and meets up with "adult" Duncan in 1996. She leads him to some important self-discoveries (he discusses his present life with his childhood self) and helps him defeat a baddie in The Prophecy. She also succeeds in seducing him.
Any chance of further romance developing is confounded by her complex relationship with Methos in Comes a Horseman and Revelation 6 : 8. Though she feels justified in trying to kill Methos after being abused, Duncan begs her not to do it. She agrees, but likely won't have much more to do with either man.
Faith / Kate (Lisa Barbuscia) Faith is a young woman in England, 1715, similar in spirit to Debra and engaged to Duncan. There's one complication, however: she's Immortal. She doesn't yet know, but Connor and Duncan do, and Mac debates whether to let her continue to age, or to trigger her Immortality. In a mix of passion and desperation, Duncan stabs her, and a confused and terrified Kate awakens from death, then runs into the darkness.
In the film Endgame, year 2000, she's Faith, a fashion designer with a great deal of wealth and power, but no joy, hope, or much will to live, aside from seeking revenge on Duncan. She believes Jacob Kell understands her bitterness, and he rescues her from street life in exchange for her loyalty.
As Faith, this woman is the complete opposite of Duncan's ideal woman, and becomes so by his own hand: a cruel twist. Mac tries to make amends, to show Faith that Immortality doesn't have to be torture. It will likely be many more years before she can let Duncan back into her life - if ever - but he's glad to know, " Faith is dead. It's Kate now."
Anna Teshemka (Thekla Reuten) Duncan has always been fairly up-front with women once he comes to love and trust them, telling them about his unique nature, about the high and low points of Immortality. So it's difficult to understand how Anna could have gotten to the point of marrying Duncan (between the films Endgame and The Source), and still resented his inability to have children, strongly enough to leave him. He too feels (inexplicable) guilt when reunited with Anna, as they seek the Source. Like Carmen and Cassandra, Anna has prophetic powers, seeing visions related to their quest. As they grow close to the Source, Duncan becomes mortal, and makes love to Anna. The final scene reveals that she has gotten her wish, being pregnant with Duncan's child.
Convoluted as the events of The Source may be, it's interesting to imagine Duncan finally bringing up a child of his own.
Others Duncan has had numerous other relationships over 400 years. Some amount to little more than flings, while others carry true emotional weight. Immortal women for whom he falls include Grace Chandel in 1660 and Gina Valicourt in 1696, both of whom become attached to other Immortal men - but remain friends with Mac.
Mortal women dear to Duncan include Vashti of India in 1764, who eventually sacrifices herself to the goddess Kali; Carmen, a gypsy whose palm-reading compels the others banish Mac from their camp; Theresa, daughter of a Spanish nobleman, who dies at the hands of her abusive Immortal husband; Sarah Carter, a frontierswoman who can't handle Duncan's Immortality; Nora, a liberated woman of the 1920s who wants children Mac can't provide; and Linda Plager, a 1940s photojournalist whom Duncan convinces to record beauty. In 1992, she is dying, and he reveals his true nature to her and provides comfort.
