Posted by Jeanne Rose MacWoW on Wednesday, 9 September 1998, at 7:24 a.m.

OK, I'll admit it. The first time around, I pretty much thought that Danny was a twit. I mean, hello, he tried to take Duncan's head - the very person who was trying to help him - just so that he could have his circus act? He makes Richie look positively wise and mature.

Then again, Richie at least knew about immortals before he became one and had to deal with people with swords coming for his head. And there were lots of unexpected levels to Danny's story.

The most powerful one for me was his mother. At the beginning, we see her despairing over her son who keeps playing with toys and doing tricks instead of going to job interviews. But then he becomes immortal and gets a real act together, and she couldn't be happier. (Now, exactly how he came up with the idea and the guts to shoot himself the first time, I should like to know, but anyway.) They didn't make a big deal out of it, but no doubt it meant a lot to him to finally be able to succeed in her eyes.

And then we learn that her husband had abandoned them. Danny said that she had told people he had died so many times she probably believed it. Danny simply couldn't do what his father had done. And from the start it was obvious that telling her the truth was not an option. So, not only did Danny want his fifteen minutes of fame - he couldn't bear to break his mother's heart.

I couldn't help identifying with Danny in a way. It's all well and good for Duncan and Amanda and Methos and Richie to run around learning to fight and avoiding other immortals, but I have a thesis to write. If someone came along and said - you need to leave right now and go to Japan, my first response would also be - hey, I really can't. I have a graduate degree to finish, and several years of blood, sweat and tears have already gone into it. If I just took off right now, no explanation, it would all go to waste.

Danny was a very human immortal - one for whom his new-found immortality was as inconvenient as it would be for most of us. OK, well, it did help him a bit in his chosen profession. But he couldn't use it without attracting the attention of other immortals - a real problem. What's more, he looked as awkward with a sword as I would probably be. And he didn't want to kill anybody - well, who would?

Unfortunately, a rather singular immortal was on his trail. Damon Case, who believed that ritual combat between immortals was a holy duty, ordained of God. Even Duncan didn't quite know how to deal with him. (Now, wouldn't it have been fun if he had been the one to take out the fake Methos?) He wasn't exactly a bad guy - he didn't take pleasure in killing, he prayed for the souls of the immortals he defeated. He only killed because of the Game, a crime that can go either way with Duncan as far as whether he'll kill because of it. In the case of Jean-Philippe, Duncan realized that there was no reason to go after Case. Jean-Philippe had run off on his own, blithely confident, and gotten himself killed in a fair fight - there was nothing Duncan could do.

But Danny wasn't dead yet, and hadn't really had a fair chance to learn to defend himself. (I personally found it awfully convenient that Case felt it was his sacred duty to fight Jean-Philippe and Danny Cimmoli, but not Duncan MacLeod - though to be fair it seems as if he didn't have any doubt that he would win, even against someone more seasoned.) Duncan decided to take it upon himself to fight Case in Danny's place, and defeated him - though afterward he wasn't sure he had made the right decision.

Unfortunately, when Duncan went to tell him the good news, the seed of something that Amanda had said had already flowered in Danny's mind. "If only you had trained, or taken some heads, maybe you could afford that kind of attention." He couldn't run, he couldn't fight - but maybe he could at least take a head. Duncan's head.

Duncan had gone a long way toward sympathizing with Danny Cimmoli - he had even toyed with the idea of going to Vegas with him and protecting him. But Danny blew it when he tried to take the only way out that would solve all his problems, but at someone else's expense. From then on, he was on his own.

When Duncan tells him to go, and is talking with Amanda about how his new trick needs some work, you can tell he's fighting tears. Unprotected, an advertising his existence to the world, Danny wasn't likely to last long, and though Duncan could no longer protect him, he was sorry that it had come to that. I say Duncan should count his blessings that at least Danny didn't do something that would make it so that Duncan himself had to kill him.

Interesting that Duncan ends up briefly returning to the glitz and glamor of the circus himself at the end of the episode - as an escape? Possibly an oblique tribute? (Or was it just Amanda's excellent coaxing abilities?)

I can't help thinking that in a way, Danny died for his mother. A little misguided, perhaps, since his death will also be a blow to her - but at least he didn't abandon her. When he is in the parking garage, and feels an immortal coming and knows he's about to die, I hear more than just a twit talking when he says, "I have to go now. I have to meet someone. I'll be careful. Mama, I love you."

Actually, you know what? Danny feels like one of those Greek heros with the tragic flaw, whose downfall we mourn but for whom it seems as if it were somehow inevitable from the start, pre-ordained by the gods.

JR

P.S. Was it my imagination, or was that "sanctus, spiritus, dominus, sanctus" chant that was used during the quickening the same thing used in Archangel?