Highlander (season 5)

Highlander: The Series Season 5
Country of origin France/Canada co-production
Broadcast
Original channel Broadcast syndication
Season chronology
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To see each highlander season and a brief summary of each episode please check List of Highlander episodes

This article contains episode summaries for the fifth season of the American drama/adventure television series Highlander; the season's episodes began airing 23 September 1996 and finished on 19 May 1997.

The original airdates (U.S.) are listed here for each episode.

Starring:

Episodes

# Title Original airdate
5x01 "Prophecy" 5 October 1996
5x02 "The End of Innocence" 12 October 1996
5x03 "Manhunt" 19 October 1996
5x04 "Glory Days" 26 October 1996
5x05 "Dramatic License" 2 November 1996
5x06 "Money No Object" 9 November 1996
5x07 "Haunted" 16 November 1996
5x08 "Little Tin God" 23 November 1996
5x09 "The Messenger" 30 November 1996
5x10 "The Valkyrie" 1 February 1997
5x11 "Comes a Horseman" 8 February 1997
5x12 "Revelation 6:8" 15 February 1997
5x13 "The Ransom of Richard Redstone" 22 February 1997
5x14 "Duende" 1 March 1997
5x15 "The Stone of Scone" 26 April 1997
5x16 "Forgive Us Our Trespasses" 10 May 1997
5x17 "The Modern Prometheus" 17 May 1997
5x18 "Archangel" 24 May 1997

Prophecy

MacLeod encounters an Immortal seer, Cassandra, whom he met as a child in Scotland. Cassandra related a prophecy to the future Immortal, that he would fight and vanquish a great evil. Now, centuries later, the Immortal Roland Kantos is after Cassandra. He has the power to mesmerize people with his voice, and captures MacLeod, intending to kill him once Cassandra is dead. Macleod eventually defeats Kantos, resistant to his foe's hypnotic voice thanks to candle wax he had used to plug up his ears.

The End of Innocence

The last time Richie Ryan saw Duncan MacLeod, MacLeod was about to take his head. He was stopped by Dawson's bullet, but Richie's world was shattered. Now Richie's back -- kicking butt and taking heads. One of those heads belonged to Carter Wellan, and now Wellan's good friend Haresh Clay is out to avenge his comrade. MacLeod has his own long-time grudge against Clay, who humiliated and destroyed one of MacLeod's finest teachers. MacLeod must try to rebuild Richie's trust while they vie to be the one to face Clay in combat.

Manhunt

Carl Robinson, the former slave turned baseball player, has finally found the good life as a Major Leagues star -- but when Carl is challenged by another Immortal and witnesses find him standing over the decapitated body, Carl is forced to go on the run from the cops. He turns to MacLeod for help when he is pursued by Immortal lawman Matthew McCormick, who has more than just a professional interest in taking Carl into custody.

Glory Days

MacLeod has to deal with Johnny K, a teenaged hood who doesn't play by the Immortal rules. And Joe has to deal with an old girlfriend.

Dramatic License

Duncan finds himself cast in a romance novel along with an old opponent. Duncan wants to know how much the author, Carolyn Marsh, knows about him, but his rival wants to kill her.

Money No Object

MacLeod and Amanda are reunited with Cory Raines, the charming, smooth-talking "Clyde" to Amanda's "Bonnie" during their five-state crime spree in the 1920s. Amanda, always ready for a little larceny, is tempted by the carefree and adventurous lifestyle Cory offers her and takes him up on the offer when she realizes MacLeod won't beg her to stay with him. But MacLeod rides to the rescue when one of Cory's schemes goes astray.

Haunted

Jennifer Hill believes the spirit of her dead husband Alec, an Immortal, is still with her. She comes to Alec's old friend MacLeod and begs him to appease Alec's spirit by killing the Immortal who took Alec Hill's head. Richie finds himself strangely attracted to the grieving young widow -- until she realizes he's the very same Immortal being sought by Duncan.

Little Tin God

Derek's faith in God helped save him from a violent life on the urban streets. When the young gospel singer is killed in a drive-by shooting, he awakens in the arms of God and is given the gift of eternal life. But what's he to do when his God recruits him as a warrior in the Holy War against Satan...and Satan turns out to be Duncan MacLeod? Duncan must face this delusional Immortal. Recruiting gullible new Immortals to do his bidding, Derek challenges MacLeod on holy ground, the one taboo battleground for Immortals.

The Messenger

An Immortal is going around pretending to be Methos, encouraging other Immortals to give up the Game. Luring Richie into this dangerous frame of mind, MacLeod's fight with William Culbraith -- another Immortal who led the Confederate prison camp Andersonville and whose own personal tragedy led him to give the orders that killed a mortal comrade of the Highlander's -- is interrupted. Dawson warns about this phoney, who convinces Immortals to lay down their swords. But it always ends in tragedy; the converts are then killed by the next Immortal to come along, with the fake Methos continuing on his hopeless mission of preaching pacifism. An incredulous Methos confronts the impostor, and upon realizing he is genuine concludes he is daft. Culbraith, however, has other plans and takes the Messenger's head thinking he is Methos, hoping the Quickening will give him the strength to defeat MacLeod. In the end, however, it is Richie who takes Culbraith's head.

The Valkyrie

Ingrid Henning failed in an assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler during WWII. Since then, she has made it her mission to take out rising monsters before they can achieve political power, having concluded that Hitler's position protected him. Now, Henning is after a racist politician whose star is rising. MacLeod must confront his one-time comrade before her crusade takes the lives of innocent people.

Comes a Horseman

MacLeod renews an old battle with the Immortal Kronos, who turns out to be thousands of years old and more than MacLeod can handle. To make matters more complicated, Cassandra is after Kronos to settle a score of her own. During the Bronze Age, Kronos led a small band of Immortals called the Four Horsemen on a raid that destroyed the seer's village and enslaved her. When Methos is revealed to have been one of the Horsemen, MacLeod tells him their friendship is over. The oldest living Immortal is forced to join up with Kronos, who has reunited the Horsemen. He manages, however, to break up what was supposed to be the decisive battle between MacLeod and Kronos, saying it could have gone either way.

Revelation 6:8

The Four Horsemen are reunited. Cassandra is their prisoner. And worst of all, Methos has apparently rejoined his old comrades. As MacLeod makes plans to rescue Cassandra and face Kronos for the last time, Methos tries to learn why his companions have gotten back together after thousands of years while attempting to make his peace with Cassandra -- who was his "pet" during her first captivity in the Bronze Age. Kronos' plan is revealed: he intends to use an engineered virus to wipe out most of humanity and conquer the survivors as part of an eternal empire. Methos eventually betrays his former comrades, with he and MacLeod simultaneously battling Kronos and Silas to the death in their own respective fights. The result is a double quickening as MacLeod and Methos win the day. Cassandra wants to avenge herself upon the redeemed and remorseful Methos, her former tormentor, but Duncan exhorts her to let him live. The centuries have truly changed Methos after all, and he had in the end helped to save humanity. Afterward, Methos implies that he had set up the entire confrontation with Kronos hoping MacLeod could do what he himself never could -- take his Immortal brother's head.

The Ransom of Richard Redstone

The Chateau LeMartin has been in Marina's family for generations, but now the slimy Carlo Capodimonte threatens to foreclose on an old loan and take the chateau for himself. Desperate to save the family heritage, Marina kidnaps an American millionaire in order to pay off the loan. Unfortunately for Marina, the rich and charming "Richard Redstone" she has tied up in the cellar is none other than Richie Ryan.

Duende

Spanish swordplay, like Spanish dancing, is equal parts passion, skill, and strict discipline. The Immortal Otavio Consone is a master of both. An arrogant Spaniard who 150 years ago tried to teach MacLeod the sword art called "The Mysterious Circle," Consone vied with MacLeod for the hand of a beautiful senorita, with tragic results. Now MacLeod must protect a Flamenco artist and her daughter from Consone's revenge.

The Stone of Scone

According to official statements by the British government, the theft of the Stone of Scone, the legendary royal throne of Scotland, from Westminster Abbey in 1950 was simply a rowdy schoolboy prank. But was it? Or was it actually the bungled work of three rather hapless Immortals, attempting to fulfill a promise made centuries before?

Forgive Us Our Trespasses

After the Scottish massacre at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, Duncan MacLeod was a man possessed, obsessed, with killing the English bastards who had destroyed his people. Now Immortal Steven Keane has come to make MacLeod pay for his murderous crimes. Amanda urges MacLeod to take Keane's head and be done with it, but in his heart MacLeod knows that Keane is right -- he is a murderer -- and that Keane is judging him just like MacLeod has judged so many others.

The Modern Prometheus

Lord Byron, once one of the greatest and most scandalous writers of the 19th Century, is now a rock star. Methos remembers when his escapades led to a senseless fight that ended in a quickening witnessed by Mary Shelley, author of "Frankenstein." Byron's debauchery and substance abuse have only increased with time. He lures an up-and-coming musician under Joe Dawson's tutelage into his dangerous lifestyle, and MacLeod becomes involved. Tragedy finally strikes, with Dawson's musical protégé dying from a drug overdose. Methos finally realizes that his former pupil is beyond hope, and MacLeod fights Byron to the death.

Archangel

Two archaeologists, Foster and Landry, are exploring a tunnel and they come face to face with a statue. Landry the more experienced and superstitious recognizes the statue as the ancient Zoroastrian demon Ahriman who plagues the world every thousand years by coming into human form. Foster is killed and Landry escapes. Landry warns Duncan that he is the champion who is to defeat Ahriman but both he and Richie think the man is crazy. But later Duncan sees James Horton, Kronos and other people he had killed before. Methos and Joe think he is losing it but Richie is willing to stay by his side whatever it takes. When Richie sees Horton taking Joe in a car to a racetrack with a gun to his head Richie calls Duncan and tell him he is going after them. Duncan who is with Joe at the time sees that it's a trap. He gets to the racetrack and is confronted by Richie, Horton, and Kronos. Ahriman has taken their form. He fights them but they disappear every time he attacks them. Then the real Richie appears and Duncan, thinking it is Ahriman, delivers the fatal blow. Joe and Methos arrive just as Ahriman in Richie's form laughs and leaves. Duncan runs away and Joe is left crying on Methos' shoulder. Richie is gone forever.

See also