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Oh, why not?
Further thoughts on the next two HL eps. As you can see, willpower has completely gone out the window at this point.
5x09 - Messenger
... yeah, that episode was a lot of fun.
"Five thousand years of wisdom? HIM?"
Hee!
I also love that the show writers remembered that Richie didn't know about Methos. Nice bit of continuity there.
I am randomly amused by fake!Methos's very Methosian sweater.
I keep expecting Richie to die in every episode he's in. And then he keeps not dying. Not that I'm complaining about this, mind. It does make the Richie episodes very suspenseful, though ...
5x10 - The Valkyrie
eh, kind of a middle-of-the-road episode, with some fun bits (mostly involving the characters interacting with each other; I particularly liked the three-way conversation in the bar) and some interesting moral dilemmas. Not a bad episode, but it felt like it retread ground that a number of other episodes already have.
Poor Duncan. His life is hard.
And now some general thoughts on Methos:
I think Methos is developing into a character that is, for me, a lot like ... say, Jayne on Firefly or Gene on Life on Mars (ETA: Or Tesla on Sanctuary, come to think of it) -- characters who I really enjoy as characters, find very entertaining, but don't particularly like as people. I'm increasingly seeing why people kept hinting that Methos in the earlier episodes was pretty much faking the nice-guy persona that I liked at the time. I think they're right -- it's a persona that he puts on when he wants to get something out of someone, or maybe just when he doesn't feel like dealing with the friction that results when he lets his cynical side out to play.
On the other hand, the fun thing about such characters is that you really never know what they're going to do, because they don't really follow the same constraints other people do, up to and including betraying or killing other people, or whatnot. But they don't kill indiscriminately or anything -- they're just loose cannons. It's a toss-up whether they'll, say, do the "moral" thing (for their own reasons) or say "screw it". And that makes them interesting.
I honestly have no idea at this point how much Methos feels or doesn't feel. I suspect I'll know more after we get some Methos backstory, but right now he reads to me as someone who's just been around and done it all to the point where he's become about as jaded and cynical as it is possible to be. It's interesting how different my read on the character was last season than it is this season, because I'm more and more getting the impression that he's been through so much of the kind of thing that Duncan's been going through in the last few seasons (friends lost, lovers lost, betrayals, attempts to change things for the better that only make things worse) that he's gotten to the point where he's essentially going through the motions. He basically stays out of the way, lets life go on around him, and views people with a kind of detached amusement but no particular interest in their fates, good or bad. Initially, I'd seen him as kind of ... world-weary, tired, but still engaged, still capable of loving. This season so far, he reads to me as more of a sociopath -- not evil, I mean, but charming and utterly lacking in empathy; emotionally divorced from the world.
What I haven't really been able to figure out is whether Methos talks a better game than he plays -- that is, he actually cares more and takes more interest in the world than he lets on. I'm generally fairly reluctant to do that with a character ("But deep down he's a big softie! Really!") because it feels like such a fangirly thing to do, especially in the absence of, well, evidence. But it's hard for me to reconcile last season's Methos with this season's Methos without believing that's at least a little bit true, because when it really comes down to the wire, Methos does seem to do the more heroic/moral/self-sacrificing thing most of the time. If all I'd seen of him was this last couple of eps, I'd totally think that there was nothing underneath -- that he's got a lot of layers, but it's sociopath all the way down. But he was definitely in love with Alexa and seemed to genuinely, selflessly care about her. (If there was ever an episode that made me fall for Methos, "Timeless" was that episode.) And he seems to care about Duncan at least a little bit (although I do get the impression, more so now than ever, that his interest in Duncan is not so much interest in Duncan as a person than Duncan as a gamepiece -- Duncan as a means to an end in the Game). So ... I don't know.
I'm a lot less engaged in the Methos/Duncan friendship this season. Their banter is still fun, but I'm worried about the effect on Duncan of spending too much time around Methos. I like Duncan a lot, and his moral center is one of the things I love most about him; I don't like the idea of what he might become under the influence of Methos's bitter cynicism and all-around (apparent) amorality.
ETA: Er, obviously, no hints about future developments, please? I know it's going to be nearly impossible to talk about it without hinting at it, but at the rate I'm going, I should get the rest of the season out of the way very quickly. :)
5x09 - Messenger
... yeah, that episode was a lot of fun.
"Five thousand years of wisdom? HIM?"
Hee!
I also love that the show writers remembered that Richie didn't know about Methos. Nice bit of continuity there.
I am randomly amused by fake!Methos's very Methosian sweater.
I keep expecting Richie to die in every episode he's in. And then he keeps not dying. Not that I'm complaining about this, mind. It does make the Richie episodes very suspenseful, though ...
5x10 - The Valkyrie
eh, kind of a middle-of-the-road episode, with some fun bits (mostly involving the characters interacting with each other; I particularly liked the three-way conversation in the bar) and some interesting moral dilemmas. Not a bad episode, but it felt like it retread ground that a number of other episodes already have.
Poor Duncan. His life is hard.
And now some general thoughts on Methos:
I think Methos is developing into a character that is, for me, a lot like ... say, Jayne on Firefly or Gene on Life on Mars (ETA: Or Tesla on Sanctuary, come to think of it) -- characters who I really enjoy as characters, find very entertaining, but don't particularly like as people. I'm increasingly seeing why people kept hinting that Methos in the earlier episodes was pretty much faking the nice-guy persona that I liked at the time. I think they're right -- it's a persona that he puts on when he wants to get something out of someone, or maybe just when he doesn't feel like dealing with the friction that results when he lets his cynical side out to play.
On the other hand, the fun thing about such characters is that you really never know what they're going to do, because they don't really follow the same constraints other people do, up to and including betraying or killing other people, or whatnot. But they don't kill indiscriminately or anything -- they're just loose cannons. It's a toss-up whether they'll, say, do the "moral" thing (for their own reasons) or say "screw it". And that makes them interesting.
I honestly have no idea at this point how much Methos feels or doesn't feel. I suspect I'll know more after we get some Methos backstory, but right now he reads to me as someone who's just been around and done it all to the point where he's become about as jaded and cynical as it is possible to be. It's interesting how different my read on the character was last season than it is this season, because I'm more and more getting the impression that he's been through so much of the kind of thing that Duncan's been going through in the last few seasons (friends lost, lovers lost, betrayals, attempts to change things for the better that only make things worse) that he's gotten to the point where he's essentially going through the motions. He basically stays out of the way, lets life go on around him, and views people with a kind of detached amusement but no particular interest in their fates, good or bad. Initially, I'd seen him as kind of ... world-weary, tired, but still engaged, still capable of loving. This season so far, he reads to me as more of a sociopath -- not evil, I mean, but charming and utterly lacking in empathy; emotionally divorced from the world.
What I haven't really been able to figure out is whether Methos talks a better game than he plays -- that is, he actually cares more and takes more interest in the world than he lets on. I'm generally fairly reluctant to do that with a character ("But deep down he's a big softie! Really!") because it feels like such a fangirly thing to do, especially in the absence of, well, evidence. But it's hard for me to reconcile last season's Methos with this season's Methos without believing that's at least a little bit true, because when it really comes down to the wire, Methos does seem to do the more heroic/moral/self-sacrificing thing most of the time. If all I'd seen of him was this last couple of eps, I'd totally think that there was nothing underneath -- that he's got a lot of layers, but it's sociopath all the way down. But he was definitely in love with Alexa and seemed to genuinely, selflessly care about her. (If there was ever an episode that made me fall for Methos, "Timeless" was that episode.) And he seems to care about Duncan at least a little bit (although I do get the impression, more so now than ever, that his interest in Duncan is not so much interest in Duncan as a person than Duncan as a gamepiece -- Duncan as a means to an end in the Game). So ... I don't know.
I'm a lot less engaged in the Methos/Duncan friendship this season. Their banter is still fun, but I'm worried about the effect on Duncan of spending too much time around Methos. I like Duncan a lot, and his moral center is one of the things I love most about him; I don't like the idea of what he might become under the influence of Methos's bitter cynicism and all-around (apparent) amorality.
ETA: Er, obviously, no hints about future developments, please? I know it's going to be nearly impossible to talk about it without hinting at it, but at the rate I'm going, I should get the rest of the season out of the way very quickly. :)