Highlander (1992) s05e17 Episode Script

Step by step Old enough to realize That there's no Destiny No, there's no Destiny No, there's no Byron! Byron! Byron! Byron! Did you get my tape? I'm Jerry! Jerry Jeremy! "In the confusion, Love a man, not an illusion" "I could never be all that you dream.
" You listened to it.
Come on, Jerry.
Let's go for a ride.
This is for real! As real as it gets.
And when it's up, you die And when it's up, you die And when it's up, you die And when it's up, you die And when it's up, you die Come on, Jerry! Spit out the fear and taste the glory! Just one more step.
Help! Feel it, Jerry! Revel in it! This is to be mortal and to seek the things beyond mortality! The world is watching, Jerry.
Can you fly? Sure.
Can we talk about the music? Are you ready? First we jump-- then we lay down some tracks.
You and me, Damon and Pythias.
Batman and Robin.
All you need to do is soar, Jerry, like an eagle.
If you're not living, you're dying, Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! I'm cool.
Good.
Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! - Batman and Robin.
- No guts, no glory.
Geronimo! That was a very good try.
He is Duncan MacLeod, the Highlander.
Born in 1592, in the Highlands of Scotland, and he is still alive.
He is immortal.
For 400 years, he's been a warrior, a lover, a wanderer, constantly facing other Immortals in combat to the death.
The winner takes his enemy's head and with it, his power.
I am a Watcher, part of a secret society of men and women who observe and record, but never interfere.
We know the truth about Immortals.
In the end, there can be only one.
May it be Duncan MacLeod, the Highlander.
Here we are Born to be kings We're the princes of the universe I am immortal I have inside me blood of kings I have no rival No man can be my equal Take me to the future of your world We're late, you guys.
This kid's great.
We picked him up in London.
Came to every show, every night.
Well, well.
Look who's here.
Good to see you, man.
All right.
- Byron? -TheByron? Hey, Doc.
Hey.
- It's been a long time.
- You've become kind of famous again.
Yeah, I, uh, just can't seem to shake it.
Uh, Duncan MacLeod, Joe Dawson.
Any friend of Doc's.
-That kid's not bad.
Who is he? -That's Mike.
He's from London.
- You were great, Mike.
- It's a rush.
It was beautiful, man.
Thanks, Joe.
Great chops, kid.
I'm sorry.
Hold on a minute.
You're who I think you are, aren't you? I've got every CD.
Imports, everything.
Man, I've been a fan of yours forever.
You mean to tell me you knew him all this time and you never told me? Yeah, "Doc.
" It seems the good doctor grows weary of our entertainments.
As spectator, surely.
As participant, never.
Dr.
Adams, your effrontery shocks me.
You aren't shocked, are you? You would be if you saw him at his labors, cutting up corpses, up to his elbows in rotting flesh and maggoty entrails.
There are some questions about life that only the dead can answer.
Only the dead and poets.
Well, then I shall have my answers when the Shelleys arrive.
Or rather, Percy Shelley and that woman Mary he calls wife that he seems so interested in seducing.
Oh, look, Byron! What do we have here? Byron, sit down.
This band which, bound by yellow hair, is thine, sweet girl, thy pledge of love.
It claims my warmest, dearest care, like relics left of saints above.
Oh, I caught it! Oh, I don't know-- I'll cherish it forever.
You know him? Hans Kershner.
He thinks I slept with his wife.
Did you? Of course.
Hold on.
- Haah! -Hyah! Hold it there, you scoundrel! Hyah! Come on! You can't get away! You can't escape! Come on! Go on! Hyah! Giddap! Next time, send your wife! Am I as dangerous as my reputation, Doctor? You are mad, sir.
Are you trying to get us killed? You speak of death, yet note how quickly your heart beats.
You seem more alive than ever, sir! "So to the last, "and in the verge of our decay, "some phantom lures such as we sought at first, "but all too late, so are we doubly cursed.
"Love, fame, ambition, avarice, 'tis the same.
"Each idle and all ill and none the worst, "for all are meteors with a different name, "and death the sable smoke who vanishes in the flame.
" Bravo! It's all drivel! My God, I bore even myself! I thought it was wonderful, Lord Byron.
You are too critical of your poetry.
And for the evening's entertainment.
It'll take more than Morpheus' smoke to quiet me today, Shelley.
I trust you had a pleasant journey this afternoon, sir.
Only if one enjoys dancing near the halls of death, Mrs.
Shelley.
I love to dance.
What have you to quiet a troubled soul, Doctor? The mind has been wounded in life's battles.
You cannot wound a spirit.
How ridiculous, Lord Byron.
Shall we test your theory, my little nymph? Shall I kill you here and now? - Lord Byron, no.
- I think you've taken this jest far enough.
Shall I watch your spirit rise up before me and pluck it from the air? I only-- Shelley, the laudanum.
Next time preserve your ignorance for one more deserving than I.
Is there no relief to this eternal boredom? We need better diversions.
What exactly did you have in mind? New stories.
I say we call forth the armies of the night and do them battle, soul to soul, till they, or we, cry, "Hold, enough" and give over the field.
Sounds thrilling.
Sounds morbid.
Stories of horror to bring forth our own ghosts from deep within us, from those dead humors rattling around the midnight of our souls.
Yes, but who shall be first to amuse and frighten us tonight? The quiet Mrs.
Shelley, perhaps? You mock me, sir, yet I have felt death.
I've held it to my arms.
I hope never to feel the like again.
Yes, but feel it you did.
In tasting grief, in tasting fear, is that not the time we truly live? And so, fair muse, what ghosts have you to share tonight? I am-- I am afraid my imagination fails me at present.
Ah, but look, dear lady.
Your neighbor greedily gulps the nectar of creativity itself.
Drink the laudanum, my love.
Drink.
To stimulate your imagination, my dear.
-What melodrama is this? -Your wife has had enough, sir.
Take care of her, good Doctor.
Into your hands I commend her spirit.
Clara? My baby Clara.
I dreamt she came back to life.
She had a beak for a mouth.
And I was in the forest.
There was a man-- a monster, a beast.
I couldn't tell what it was.
Sometimes-- Sometimes I w-- I wonder who's the more unhappy, those who die, or-- or those who live.
Perhaps, dear Mary, death is not truly journey's end, but just another turn in the road.
If we believe that, we can live without fear.
Bravo.
Bravo.
Be still! Still.
So still.
Almost like death.
Yet look, she stirs.
Is she not beautiful? That she is.
Now let her rest.
Ah, but does she want to rest? I say we take her and push the bounds of our passion to heaven itself.
And I say we leave before we push the bounds of decency.
Decency means nothing.
All that matters is this moment-- the three of us here in this room.
Look at her.
Feel the hunger.
What is the point of living if we don't taste what life has to offer us? Come on! Enough.
I said, enough! How dare you! This is my home, my life.
I will do with it as I choose.
Unless, of course, you choose to stop me.
Put it away and let her be.
I would rather have your poetry than your head.
Very well.
As a favor to you.
Man, that was amazing.
It's like Jimi Hendrix was in my head, and I was just playing along.
You wanna open for us tomorrow night? Maurice says it's okay.
Of course, man.
I'll do whatever it takes.
You already did.
So come by in the morning.
We'll run a couple of tunes-- Hey, Mike, you wanna come jam? Serious? I'm only asking once.
Yeah, sure.
I'll see you in the morning.
I'll be there, man.
I can't believe this is happening to me.
Take it easy.
Don't get crazy.
Now or never, Mikey! Okay.
Yeah, uh-- I gotta go.
He's an arrogant son of a bitch.
A lot of geniuses are.
He's connected.
He could make that kid's career with one phone call.
Yeah.
He's in the big time now.
How do you feel? I'm too scared to think.
Of course you are! You're scared to death! Suck it in, man! Savor the fear! Jump! You can do this.
Look deep.
Let it fly.
That's it! Life, death, fear! Hang on, Mike! Now you're alive.
Now we play.
Bravo.
- You're the man.
-Come play with me, Mikey.
- You really think so? - I said so, didn't I? Didn't I say so? Oh, yeah.
So, uh, you're gonna run by the studio tomorrow and lay down a few tracks, meet some people? You know it, man.
Nightcap, anyone? No, I'm okay.
I gotta get goin'.
That's cool.
-Mikey! So, what time tomorrow? Actually, tomorrow's a little busy.
So maybe I'll get my manager to send by a couple tickets for tomorrow night's show.
Oh, Mikey, stay and play.
Please? Can't you play with me? You don't know what you're missing.
Come on, baby.
What's the story? You're the man.
Hey.
You're late, brother.
Sorry.
You know, you don't wanna do this, we don't have to.
No, no, I'm ready.
Take a look.
Come on, tune it up.
Okay? -You with us? - Yeah.
All right.
Let's give it a whirl.
Two, one, two, three.
- What? Why don't you get a little sleep? We'll try this later.
Tough night? No-- Uh, uh, yeah.
Yeah, it was hot.
Byron thought I was great.
I was flyin'.
It looks like you still are.
Hey, uh, he give you a little something to help you fly? What are you trying to say? Look, maybe this is none of my business-- We're talking about Byron here.
You should be happy for me, not bitchin' at me.
All right? I'm out of here.
Take five, guys.
Boy, oh, boy, I sure screwed that up.
Somebody did.
I'm gonna talk to Byron.
Wait.
I'll go with you.
Worried about the kid, huh? Yeah.
He's in a tough spot.
To make great music you have to experience life.
The good and the bad, huh? Hallelujah.
Sometimes the man is not as strong as the music.
Life, my friend, is in the details.
I like almonds.
Not cashews, almonds.
Shelled, roasted, unsalted.
And fed to me by women-- tall, beautiful women with long, black hair.
I know you want to make me happy.
Afternoon, boys.
Still lacerating the help, I see.
It's good being the star.
You and Mike had quite a session last night.
Yeah.
Kid's got a good shot.
That's why we're here.
Gotta rev the engine, or you're just idling.
Don't understand how you guys can live without it.
Just fine, thanks.
So did Mike, until last night.
Oh, that's better.
Immortality gets pretty damned dull after the first couple of centuries, doesn't it? What's the secret, Doc? What do you do when there's nothing left but the dark, cold emptiness that stretches out for centuries behind you and when you look in the mirror all that you see is the abomination that you are? The sun will set and oppose the enemy.
Shall we? I confess, I'm afraid to go in.
It's just his way of being entertaining.
They're only ghost stories.
Told by master wordsmiths.
Lord Byron's words will live forever.
What have I to offer in such company? Your heart.
Your dreams.
Your nightmares.
Is that where you found your story? Pray, tell me.
Not now.
Come.
Let us show Byron and Shelley that they do not have the only creative minds of the day.
We'd almost despaired of your company.
Hark, Percy.
The good doctor is in love with your Mary.
What do you say to that? I say run, and fleet be thy feet.
Fly from love, that horned beast that impales all men.
It seems my destiny awaits.
With your permission, my friends, I take my leave.
Jealous husband? Uh-huh.
Hans, my good friend.
Come in, man, and warm thy sodden self by my fire.
That is for my wife.
This is for me.
Defend yourself.
Alas, my good man, I am but a poet, not a warrior.
What you are is a cuckolding cripple.
You are not ready for this.
Give way.
Try me, and you shall see a poet's mettle.
Think, man, who you would kill.
Would you be Lord Byron's murderer? You shall be Lord Byron's first conquest.
Well, then, try me, boy.
Come on.
He lives! Yet-- Yet I thought-- It was a trick of the storm.
I'm not Claire.
Do not speak to me like a fool.
I've seen him die and live again, while my daughter Clara lies buried in her grave.
How can he live while my flesh and blood turns to dust? Explain.
There is no explanation.
He is not governed by the rules of mortal flesh.
He is of a different kind.
How do you know this? How can you know it? Because I am like him-- immortal.
I beseech you.
Tell no one.
We must live in secret.
Or you would be hunted.
For the perversion of nature that we are.
Poor, tormented creature.
The sad hero of a never-ending story, resurrected by lightning to eternal life and eternal loneliness.
An interesting bit of entertainment this was, I'll wager.
Come.
There's a fire inside and stories to tell if you have one.
I do.
Mine will be about the anguish of immortality.
What will you call your story, Mary Shelley? Frankenstein-- the Modern Prometheus.
A man born of fire.
"Light, feeling and sense will pass away, and in this condition must I find my happiness.
" Frankenstein, gentlemen.
Mary Shelley's greatest work.
The point is that we are all Frankenstein's monster, doomed to walk the frozen tundra for eternity.
Or the streets of Paris, as the case may be.
But at least this gives us the illusion of life.
If you think that's what life is all about, then you're already dead.
- So speaks the hero.
- You listen to me.
This is no illusion, no poetic fantasy.
This is real, and it's a warning.
Leave the kid alone.
Your friend's a mess.
He's a genius.
He's pathetic.
It's very easy to think that way.
Did you ever starve to death, MacLeod? Byron feels hunger like that every day.
Twenty thousand people screaming his name, it's not enough to fill the hole inside him.
He always wants more.
He alwaysneedsmore.
- You should try it sometime.
- Yeah, well, I know what it's like to be empty.
It's no excuse.
"She walks in beauty, like the night of cloudless climes and starry skies.
" "And all that's best of dark and bright meet in the aspect of her eyes.
" Yes, I know the poem.
How do you think like that, how do you write like that and not be a little larger than life? Charlie Parker, van Gogh, Mozart-- messed-up guys.
Yeah, da Vinci, Bach-- normal guys.
And still great artists.
Yeah, and Byron is also a great artist.
He's given the world great poetry.
But at what price? Come on, old man! Come and get me! Are you still there? Missed me! That's the difference between you and me, kid.
I embrace life, and you run from it! Daddy doesn't want you playing in my sandbox! I didn't tell them to come.
I swear.
Details, kid! They just don't get it.
Well, of course they don't get it! They never will, because they're dead and they don't even know it.
The world is full of small men with small dreams.
What do you want, Mike? Are you ready to grab onto life with both hands and squeeze it till it screams for mercy? I'm ready.
I don't think so.
You wanna play in the big time, you gotta be a big boy.
Go home, kid.
I said go home! Come on! What are you waiting for? - Hey.
Thanks for nothing, guys.
- What's the problem? Did I ask you to mind my business? Stay out of my life.
If he wants to play in little clubs like this the rest of his life, fine.
- I'm not.
All right? - Hey, Mike! Mike! You think Byron gives a damn about you? You think he cares whether you live or die? He's my shot.
Yeah, maybe.
Hey, Mike.
You're still opening for us in a couple of hours.
All right? Keep your mouth shut I'm hooked I'm hooked I can't turn you off So Mummy say you could come out and play? I don't need anybody's permission.
By George, I think he's got it.
Let's celebrate.
Name your poison.
Now, Mike, I hope you're not going to let me down again.
Mike never show up? No.
I should have figured.
I mean, who would choose my life over Byron's? You would.
Yeah, but he wouldn't be in this spot if it wasn't for me.
Don't hold yourself responsible for him.
Hey, you would.
I'll see you later.
Damn him.
Damn him! Byron! Byron! Byron! Hey, Doc.
It's gonna be a killer show tonight.
I'm not here for the show.
Well, the party doesn't start till later, but, hey, make yourself at home.
Leave town.
Say what? MacLeod's gonna be coming here.
I'm telling you as an old friend that it would be a good time to go on tour in another country.
And disappoint my fans? I told you.
I've got a show to do.
Used to be more than a show.
There was a time when you were reaching for the heavens.
There is no heaven.
It's just an illusion for fools and innocents.
I have no hope, no dreams, no poetry left.
All I feel is this raging hunger.
And all I hear is my own voice screaming my failure.
You know what I've become.
Yes, I know.
But you know who you are, Doc? You're the guy in the audience, and I'm the guy on the flying trapeze.
Who do you think's having more fun? Who do you think's gonna live longest? Who cares? I do.
Do you want a tombstone that says, "He lived for centuries," or do you want one that says, "For centuries he was alive"? You're not listening to me.
I don't want a tombstone.
You hear that? They're playing my song.
Paladino's dead.
I know.
Byron didn't force him to do anything.
That's a lot of crap.
Mike's dead because of Byron.
No, Mike is dead because of Mike.
- Move it, buddy! Comin' through, bud.
The kid idolized him.
Maybe he didn't pull the trigger, but he sure put the gun in his hand.
"To live like me, you have to be like me"? Mike couldn't do that.
He wasn't immortal.
Which is not Byron's fault.
Mac.
Mac, wait! Think-- Think-- Think about the poetry.
Think about the music that he's made, that he will still make.
You gonna kill all that as well? And what about Mike? What music could he have made? Want me to take care of him? Leave me.
Go on.
All right, let's get outta here.
Give him some room.
Come on.
Let me guess.
You want an autograph.
You hear that? They love me.
Doesn't help, though, does it? Tell me, is there anything you despise more than yourself? Byron! Byron! Byron! Byron! Well, guess you won't be needing this.
Makes us even.
No.
Now we're even.
"Foil'd, bleeding, breathless, "furious to the last, "full in the center stands the bull at bay! Byron! Byron! Byron! Byron! Byron! "Mid wounds, and clinging darts, and lances brast, "and foes disabled in the brutal fray.
"And now the matadors around him play, "shake the red cloak and poise the ready brand.
"Once more through all he burst his thundering way-- Vain rage!" "The mantle quits the conynge hand, "wraps his fierce eye-- 'tis past-- he sinks upon the sand.
" You're the one that was You're the one that is You're the one that always Will be No one mortal is able To lift your veil I can see your light in the distance I can see you shine in the distance Isis, mighty mother I can feel your presence I know you're with me I know you're with me I know, I know, I know, I kno I know, I know, I know You're with me Dead, but undead I'll be Osiris is my name And our love And our love I can see the light in the distance And our love I can see you shine in the distance And our love And our love Conquers all I can see your light in the distance I can see you shine in the distance I can see your light in the distance I can see you shine in the distance Matter and antimatter.
Byron knew that too.
His life had become one long tragedy.
We all know how those end.
"My task is done.
"My song has ceased.
"My theme has died into an echo.
It is fit.
" And here we are We're the princes of the universe Here we belong fighting for survival We've come to be the rulers of your world I am immortal I have inside me blood of kings Yeah! I have no rival No man can be my equal Take me to the future of your world