8.1/10232 votes#1 - The Watchers
Season 2 Episode 1 - Aired 10/2/1993
Determined to investigate the death of his old friend Darius, MacLeod follows a lead back to his old stomping grounds in the Pacific Northwest. He meets Joe Dawson, a bookstore owner with a secret; he soon learns that Dawson is a high-ranking member of an ancient secret organization known as The Watchers, who observe and record the lives of the Immortals, passing their archives down from generation to generation. Unbeknownst to Dawson, his brother-in-law, James Horton (the man who killed Darius), has been recruiting Watchers to kill Immortals. We are left with the knowledge that other renegade Watchers may be waiting to try for MacLeod's head.
Director: Clay Borris
Writer: Marie-Chantal Droney
7.5/10212 votes#2 - Studies in Light
Season 2 Episode 2 - Aired 10/9/1993
A fellow Immortal, Greg Powers, invites MacLeod to his photography showing. At the gallery, MacLeod becomes deeply disturbed by the violent images of his friend's work, but what becomes more disturbing than the fact that Greg's personality has been replaced by that of a hardened cynic. As he reviews Greg's work, he comes across a photograph taken of himself 50 years ago which triggers a flashback of a time he spent with a young photographer, Linda Plager. In a chance meeting, the now 73 year old Linda recognizes Duncan as her old mentor and lover of 50 years ago, which thoroughly convinces her nurse that she's senile. Upon learning that Linda is dying, MacLeod longs to tell her the truth. Meanwhile, Greg seduces Richie into his destructive lifestyle and coaxes Richie into a dangerous motorcycle stunt. After a confrontation with Macleod, Greg snaps...frustrated by his inability to feel any real emotion because of the insulation from death his immortality gives him, he attacks Richie, an
Director: Peter Ellis
Writer: Naomi Janzen
7.3/10204 votes#3 - Turnabout
Season 2 Episode 3 - Aired 10/16/1993
Thirty years ago, evil Immortal Quenten Barnes was executed in the electric chair, and promised he'd be back. Escaping the tomb that he has been captive to for the last several decades, Barnes begins hunting down the people involved in his execution. Joe Dawson learns that he has returned and tries to get MacLeod involved in Barnes' apprehension. Mac declines to get involved unless Barnes gets in his way, but when his old friend Michael Moore comes to town, a flashback shows us that Barnes killed Michael's wife and has a long-standing grudge against Michael. Now Mac is involved. He convinces Dawson to share the Watchers' surveillance file on Barnes with him. However, the file isn't much help. As the prosecutor and priest who were at Barnes' execution are killed off one by one, it becomes clear that Barnes will come after Michael next. The story ends with an interesting twist as MacLeod must make a decision that will affect the ""lives"" of two different personalities.
Director: Clay Borris
Writer: David Tynan
8.4/10268 votes#4 - The Darkness
Season 2 Episode 4 - Aired 10/23/1993
A mortal named Pallin Wolf, one of the renegade Watchers who believes the Immortals must be eliminated, lures an Immortal to his house and kills him, getting the advantage by tricking him into a sealed room that is completely dark, then stalking him with night vision goggles. Meanwhile, a Gypsy fortuneteller they meet in a restaurant, Greta, warns Tessa that she is in danger. When Tessa is kidnapped by Wolf, MacLeod returns to Greta, asking for her help. But she's mostly a hustler, and not accustomed to getting actual visions, so the clues she is able to provide are meager. Finally, Mac finds Wolf's house, where Wolf is waiting for him. He meets Wolf in the dark room and all seems hopeless until he remembers a matchbook Greta gave him with her phone number in it. Lighting the matches, he regains the advantage and kills Wolf. However, as Tessa and Richie are heading for the car, a young junkie accosts them for money, and in an act of senseless violence, shoots them both. As Mac mourns,
Director: Paolo Barzman
Writer: Christian Bouveron, Lawrence Shore
7.4/10211 votes#5 - Eye for an Eye
Season 2 Episode 5 - Aired 10/30/1993
When MacLeod and Richie are witness to a terrorist attack on an Ambassador, Richie dives in like a Superhero, cocky with Immortality. In the resulting confusion, one of the terrorists is killed, and another, Annie Devlin, an Immortal, is captured. She swears revenge on Richie, and when she escapes from custody, MacLeod takes on the task of educating Richie so that he will have a chance in combat against her. Meanwhile, Flashbacks reveal an earlier friendship between MacLeod and Annie. Mac renews the friendship, and the two Immortals who have both recently lost their lovers find solace in one another. In the end, Richie defeats Annie but can't bring himself to kill her, and MacLeod convinces her to pursue the blood debt no further.
Director: Dennis Berry
Writer: Elizabeth Baxter, Martin Brossollet
6.5/10194 votes#6 - The Zone
Season 2 Episode 6 - Aired 11/6/1993
The Zone is a burned-out urban wasteland, abandoned by the police, who figure it's easier to just 'let the animals kill each other.' Now the Zone is being taken over by Canaan, a charismatic leader who urges his followers to take the material possessions that have been denied to them. Joe Dawson comes to MacLeod for help -- one of his men, who was observing Canaan, has been killed. Charlie accompanies MacLeod down to his old neighborhood in the Zone and introduces him to Asia, a nurse at the local clinic, one of few people who haven't given up on the neighborhood. After MacLeod learns that Canaan is not an Immortal, Dawson is ready to drop it. But MacLeod has seen the misery in the Zone, and is determined to break Canaan's hold. He convinces Asia that it's time to stand up for their rights, and he and Charlie arrange a meeting of neighborhood residents who want to take back their streets. But Asia is involved with Canaan, and she's used as bait to lure Mac to his apparent death. Canaan
Director: Clay Borris
Writer: Peter Mohan
7.2/10202 votes#7 - The Return of Amanda
Season 2 Episode 7 - Aired 11/13/1993
Amanda, the beautiful Immortal cat-burglar returns to town, telling MacLeod she's retired from her life of crime. He doesn't believe her -- especially when two guys start shooting at them. Mac thinks the guys might be Watchers, but in fact they are FBI Agents. Amanda is in possession of some plates for counterfeit money, stolen in Germany before the War. She's looking for an engraver to change the dates, figuring since she's sworn to give up stealing money, she'll have to print some up. Palance, one of the FBI Agents, sets MacLeod and Amanda up to take the fall for his partner's murder, and demands that they turn the plates over. Mac and Amanda are forced to ""die"" on videotape to catch Palance.
Director: Dennis Berry
Writer: N/A
7.0/10194 votes#8 - Revenge of the Sword
Season 2 Episode 8 - Aired 11/20/1993
Jimmy Sang, a former student of Charlie's, is an up-and-coming martial arts movie star. His latest movie is filming some scenes in the dojo. When a stuntman is ""accidentally"" killed, MacLeod is the first to realize that Jimmy's life is in danger. It turns out that the movie is based on Jimmy's youthful experiences as an enforcer for a powerful gang, and now his former boss wants to see him dead.
Director: Clay Borris
Writer: Aubrey Solomon
7.4/10195 votes#9 - Run for Your Life
Season 2 Episode 9 - Aired 11/27/1993
Carl Robinson is an Immortal who MacLeod first met in 1929 when he rescued him from a KKK lynch mob. Back then, Carl was full of plans -- to be a Major League Ballplayer, to be President. But today Carl has given up hope. He and MacLeod meet up again when Carl steals Charlie's car. Mac tries to rekindle Carl's belief in himself, but Carl doesn't want to listen. When a white cop named Carter tries to kill him, Carl attributes the incident to racism, until MacLeod explains about the Watchers who are hunting them. After Carter's partner (also white) helps Carl and MacLeod bring Carter down, Carl decides to give the world another chance.
Director: Dennis Berry
Writer: Naomi Janzen
7.5/10192 votes#10 - Epitaph for Tommy
Season 2 Episode 10 - Aired 12/4/1993
Tommy is an innorcent bystander who's accidentally killed during a swordfight between MacLeod and the Immortal Gallen. Haunted by the unnecessary death, MacLeod tries to find out more about the dead man -- and discovers he isn't exactly the innocent bystander he appeared.
Director: Clay Borris
Writer: Philip John Taylor
7.0/10184 votes#11 - The Fighter
Season 2 Episode 11 - Aired 2/5/1994
MacLeod's old friend Tommy Sullivan is a scrappy little Irishman, a one-time boxer turned trainer, who can charm anyone into anything. He charms MacLeod into backing his current boxer and charms Charlie into playing Cyrano to help him woo a shy waitress. But when a rival manager who was trying to steal Sully's fighter turns up dead, MacLeod's opinion of his old friend begins to be altered forever.
Director: Peter Ellis
Writer: Morrie Ruvinsky
7.8/10193 votes#12 - Under Color of Authority
Season 2 Episode 12 - Aired 2/12/1994
Richie wants to protect Laura Daniels, a young woman who's on the run from an Immortal bounty hunter, Mako. MacLeod has met Mako befoe and doesn't like his methods, but he knows the other man is lawful. He questions whether Laura is necessarily innocent. Richie doesn't care, he wants to help her anyway, no matter what it takes. MacLeod is torn between doing what's right and helping his friend. Richie defeats Mako and receives his first Quickening, and he and MacLeod realize it's time for him to move on.
Director: Clay Borris
Writer: Peter Mohan
6.6/10179 votes#13 - Bless the Child
Season 2 Episode 13 - Aired 2/14/1994
Charlie and MacLeod come to the aid of Sara Lightfoot, an Indian woman on the run with a baby. She tells them Avery Hoskins is trying to steal her baby. Hoskins and his brothers come after them, and they are forced to flee overland. After a rugged flight through a mountain canyon, MacLeod learns that the baby is in fact Hoskins' son, taken by Sara in retribution for her own child, killed by runoff from Hoskins' mines.
Director: Clay Borris
Writer: Elizabeth Baxter, Martin Brossollet
8.2/10207 votes#14 - Unholy Alliance (1)
Season 2 Episode 14 - Aired 2/19/1994
Xavier St. Cloud returns, killing Immortals with the help of mortal mercenaries who shoot his prey, making his kill easy. His next target is MacLeod but, warned by Dawson, Mac and Charlie just manage to escape death -- though the dojo is all but destroyed in the gunfight. Renee Delaney, a CID agent investigating the mercenary angle, gets on the case. MacLeod goes after Xavier himself, and Charlie insists on coming along. During his battle with St. Cloud, MacLeod spots James Horton, the Hunter who killed Darius. Distracted, Mac is 'killed' and falls down an elevator shaft out of beheading range, and Charlie is badly wounded and lies near death. Blaming Dawson for helping Horton escape alive, MacLeod warns him not to cross his path again.
Director: Peter Ellis
Writer: David Tynan
8.3/10203 votes#15 - Unholy Alliance (2)
Season 2 Episode 15 - Aired 2/26/1994
As Charlie regains strength, MacLeod accepts help from Dawson one last time, and barely misses catching Xavier and Horton. He then follows their trail to Paris -- accompanied by the persistent Renee Delaney. They track down Horton, and when he almost escapes, he is shot by Joe Dawson. MacLeod, with the help of his humorous new neighbor Maurice, then tracks down Xavier and finally takes his head. In a coda, however, we learn that Horton still lives.
Director: Peter Ellis
Writer: David Tynan
7.4/10189 votes#16 - The Vampire
Season 2 Episode 16 - Aired 3/5/1994
MacLeod comes up against Nicholas Ward, an Immortal who conceals his murders by disguising them as popular hysterias. In the 1840's, Ward created a vampire myth in order to conceal the true motive behind his killing the owners of a business he wanted. Mac managed to prevent Ward from marrying (and murdering) the heiress, but Ward escaped. In the present, Mac teams up with Joe Dawson to discover what Ward is up to and protect the young woman he's set his sights on this time.
Director: Dennis Berry
Writer: Jean-Vincent Fournier
7.2/10179 votes#17 - Warmonger
Season 2 Episode 17 - Aired 3/12/1994
In 1918 in the Soviet Union, MacLeod promised the Immortal Drakov that he would not fight him, in return for seeing lives spared. Today Drakov, now called Arthur Drake, still operates behind the scenes of international politics, a cruel puppetmaster who is dragging Eastern Europe toward anarchy. Eli Jarmel, an old man whose family was destroyed by Drake, urges MacLeod to recant his promise, while Beth Vaughn, a reporter, puts her life in danger by investigating both Drake and MacLeod.
Director: Bruno Gantillon
Writer: Christian Bouveron, Lawrence Shore
7.7/10217 votes#18 - Pharaoh's Daughter
Season 2 Episode 18 - Aired 4/30/1994
MacLeod feels the Buzz coming from an ancient sarcophagus and opens it to find Nefertiri, Cleopatra's handmaid, buried 2000 years ago with her mistress. Now revived, she pursues a vendetta against the Immortal Marcus Constantine, who was her lover and her enemy. Mac believes Constantine, who claims that he no longer wishes to fight Nefertiri -- this former Roman General has turned his back on battle and is now a curator, working to preserve history and its lessons. But Nefertiri can't let go of the old grudge, and for the first time, MacLeod is forced to face a woman he loves in Immortal combat.
Director: Dennis Berry
Writer: Elizabeth Baxter
8.0/10197 votes#19 - Legacy
Season 2 Episode 19 - Aired 5/7/1994
When her mentor Rebecca is killed, Amanda is determined to avenge the death, even though it means going up against the formidable Immortal Luther, and very possibly losing her head. She comes to Mac for a final fling before her likely death, and when he discovers that she's after Luther, he tries to take the battle on himself, feeling he has a better chance of survival. Together they discover that Luther is hunting the pieces of an ancient crystal that Rebecca divided among her students, believing that the whole crystal will make him invulnerable and ensure that he is the Last Immortal. In the final confrontation, both Amanda and MacLeod take their turns battling the ascetic Luther.
Director: Paolo Barzman
Writer: David Tynan
7.7/10184 votes#20 - Prodigal Son
Season 2 Episode 20 - Aired 5/14/1994
Richie returns, on the run, turning to MacLeod for help. An Immortal has been following him, refusing to confront him, but committing grisly murders wherever Richie goes. Richie is arrested for the murders. Mac learns that Immortal hunter Martin Hyde is behind the murders: considering the Quickening of a green Immortal like Richie not worth the taking, Hyde has been hounding him in order to drive him to his teacher. MacLeod must clear Richie of the murders and defeat the evil Immortal.
Director: Dennis Berry
Writer: Christian Bouveron, Lawrence Shore
7.5/10194 votes#21 - Counterfeit (1)
Season 2 Episode 21 - Aired 5/21/1994
Pete Wilder just saved Richie from an attack by some guys wearing Watcher tattoos. Or did he? Nothing is what it seems, and MacLeod becomes increasingly wary of Pete, despite Richie's protests that the guy is his friend. When MacLeod's mistrust gets the possibly innocent Pete killed, Mac becomes increasingly unsure of himself. Unknown to MacLeod, his old enemy Horton is pulling all the strings. Horton is secretly training escaped killer Lisa Halle to go after MacLeod while he's troubled and vulnerable.
Director: Paolo Barzman
Writer: N/A
7.7/10180 votes#22 - Counterfeit (2)
Season 2 Episode 22 - Aired 5/28/1994
Joe Dawson arrives in Paris to let MacLeod know that Horton may still be alive and coming after him. However, when MacLeod meets Lisa Milon, a dead-ringer for Tessa (Lisa Halle after plastic surgery), all thoughts of Horton and the Watchers go out of his head. Richie, unsure if Mac is thinking clearly, goes to Dawson for help and winds up taking a bullet for him when Horton tries a hit. Lisa is kidnapped, and MacLeod insists on going after her even though his friends warn him it may be a setup. He can't take a chance on burying her again. When Lisa finally tries to kill MacLeod, he turns the tables on her and Horton at long last gets what's coming to him.
Director: Dennis Berry
Writer: David Tynan
The Best Episodes of Highlander: The Series Season 2
Every episode of Highlander: The Series Season 2 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Highlander: The Series Season 2!
Duncan MacLeod cannot die -- he is a 400-year-old immortal, who has seen his share of humanity's history. Still, he risks his life in battle...
Genres:Sci-Fi & FantasyDramaAction & Adventure
Network:Syndication
Season 2 Ratings Summary
"The Watchers" is the best rated episode of "Highlander: The Series" season 2. It scored 8.1/10 based on 232 votes. Directed by Clay Borris and written by Marie-Chantal Droney, it aired on 10/2/1993. This episode is rated 0.6 points higher than the second-best, "Studies in Light".