Highlander
Transcripts:
DVD Extras

David Tynan (Exec. Script Consultant / Writer):

Once we knew we had Amanda -- that is, Elizabeth Gracen -- in the show, we knew we had to do something fun with her. Elizabeth always has a natural sense of comic timing, and in virtually every episode, with MacLeod, Amanda gets into some sort of trouble and gets in over her head. She often has good intentions, but they usually go off the tracks and something bad happens.

This was sort of a further development in the relationship between Amanda and MacLeod. She'd always been a pretty selfish character. She was a hedonist, she liked pleasure for its own sake, liked MacLeod for, you know, a number of reasons-- But there was always a sense that Amanda was in things for herself. In this case she actually tried, for about the first time, I think, in the series, to do something totally selfless. To tackle this enemy of MacLeod's and to finish him off. Of course, Amanda being Amanda, she didn't take everything into account, Kalas gets out of prison in the -- I think in the teaser of the episode -- and she really starts a series of events that's going to put MacLeod, all Immortals, and all the Watchers in danger.

Clip from "Finalé, Part One":
Kalas - All this, just to kill me?
Amanda - Give the man a cigar.

Donna Lettow (Script Coordinator):

In "Finalé", Amanda breaks Kalas out of prison with the idea of immediately whacking him as a gift for MacLeod, but, of course, it didn't work out that way. She didn't count on the fact that Kalas had made a little friend named Nino in the prison, and he used Nino as a weapon against Amanda and was able to get away, leaving Amanda in the spot of then having to tell MacLeod.

Clip from "Finalé, Part One":
Amanda - So you won't kill me when I tell you what happened. [takes a sip of wine, then confesses] I broke Kalas out of jail.

Gillian Horvath (Associate Creative Consultant):

[laughs] Nino. Wow, we got really lucky there, because when you write a character who's off kilter like that, if the casting isn't good, it just comes off farcical. But that -- they played off each other so wonderfully that he just -- every time he's on screen, it adds a little extra zip to it.

Clip from "Finalé, Part One":
Kalas - Run him down.
Nino - [laughs, steps on the gas] Run, you bastard! Go on!

[Lines in FUCHSIA are from the 2003 U.S./Canada DVD set "Finalé, Part 1" interview.]

[Lines in SIENNA are from the 2003 U.S./Canada DVD set "Finalé, Part 2" interview.]

Donna Lettow:

"Finalé" brought all of our family together, or at least all the family except for Richie, you know. We had Joe. This is the return of Methos, who we never thought we'd see again, but we had all liked the dailies of that so much, we liked Peter Wingfield's performance and what he was doing with the character, that the decision was made to bring him back. But we also have Amanda. It was the beginning of... I guess what I call the 'Methos and Joe show'. There was some kind of chemistry between Jim and Peter that came across on the screen, and I think that developed both of their characters for the rest of the show.

[These lines are from the 2003 U.S./Canada DVD set "Finalé, Part 1" interview.]

Clip from "Finalé, Part One":
Joe - Don't make me do this. [pulls back his jacket to reveal gun at his waist]

David Tynan:

Just as Joe Dawson is going to step out of character in a sense, for Joe, and kill Christine, the wife of a Watcher -- Christine is about to go into the Tribune offices or Herald offices, I think, of a newspaper and reveal all about the Immortals and the Watchers to the world. And Joe, knowing that this can't be allowed to happen, is going to step in front of her and shoot her and commit murder to prevent her from revealing this fact to the world. MacLeod dives in front of Joe's bullet, takes the bullet, and Christine makes it into the offices of the newspaper. That's the sort of thing MacLeod would do. He couldn't allow a murder to take place, even if it would save his life in some way or keep his cover from being blown.

Adrian Paul (Actor):

I think there was a real sense for MacLeod that he didn't want Joe to have that guilt in him, something he would have to live with for the rest of his life -- that he'd killed a woman and one that was the wife of a friend of his, because she was doing something that she believed was right.

Donna Lettow:

I think it's very in keeping with Duncan that he's willing to risk, I guess, the hypothetical 'all the Immortals might be outed' to, in effect, save Joe's soul.

Adrian Paul:

The choice of actually letting Joe divulge the secret of Immortals or save his own skin was an obstacle that MacLeod had to overcome, but, you know, what's the greatest thing a hero can do is save his friend and give his own life up, and in a way he's doing that, because he's giving up his own identity, or the other Immortals AND his identity to the general public, which puts them up for many different scrutinies that he doesn't necessarily want or need in his life, because he's lived for four hundred years with the secret of being Immortal and having to sort of hide that fact from everybody. And now, having it exposed to the world, he would then be subject to people wanting to kill him, to dissect him, to find out who they are, to interfere in something which is none of their business.

Clip from "Finalé, Part One":
Joe - MacLeod, why did you save her?!

Donna Lettow:

Joe was perfectly willing to kill Christine and whoever else he needed to, to keep everything a secret, but Duncan could not allow that to happen to Joe. And I think it's interesting, from Joe's point of view, that he really didn't understand that. He just thought that Duncan was saving Christine. But it's Joe who was so important to him that he couldn't let him, you know, dirty his soul with murder.

Clip from "Finalé, Part One":
Methos - He didn't save her. He saved you.

[These lines are all from the 2003 U.S./Canada DVD set "Finalé, Part 1" interview.]

David Tynan:

I think it occurred to one of us in the writing room, like, wouldn't it be great if we could have them go up on the Eiffel Tower and view the city, you know, see Paris spread out before them and really have some breath-taking views of the city. Someone said, "Well, why don't they dance?"

Clip from "Finalé, Part Two":
DM - Let's dance.
Amanda - Hmm?
[DM pulls off his sunglasses. She copies him.]

We thought, dancing on the Eiffel Tower -- on the railing -- could we possibly do that? And the word came back, "Yeah, you can do it."

Elizabeth Gracen ("Amanda"):

Adrian and I worked very hard, without a chor-- Well, Adrian pretty much choreographed it. We had a great tape of two international tango dancers. We watched that and sort of picked the moves we liked and worked and worked and worked on that, after hours, you know, on the weekends, just trying to make it work. And, um... Probably my favorite scene in my whole career as Amanda, was doing the tango on the Eiffel Tower. I mean, who in the world can say they've done that? And, uh, I have it on tape! I can see it.

David Tynan:

I think it was one of those magical moments you could only get away with on Highlander.

Clip from "Finalé, Part Two":
[DM dips Amanda out over the edge.]
DM - How'd you do it? How'd you get me up here?
Amanda - Because you love it. [laughs as he dips her again]

[Lines in SIENNA are from the 2003 U.S./Canada DVD set "Finalé, Part 2" interview.]

David Tynan:

Once we knew we had Amanda -- that is, Elizabeth Gracen -- in the show, we knew we had to do something fun with her.

Elizabeth Gracen:

Belly dancing. Ooof. Belly dancing 101. They found a belly dancer from the Pigalle area who came to my hotel, and I think I maybe had three lessons, and of course I'm very tall -- I think she came up to, you know, there on me [holds hand at chest height] -- and I just sort of learned the basics, and it was fun, a lot of fun, pushing the furniture back in the hotel room and attempting all of it. I liked my costume, I remember. Very broad comedy in all of that.

Clip from "Finalé, Part Two":
[Amanda attempts to match the other girls' moves but gets tangled in her dancing scarf. She moves forward, throws her scarf up in the air, 'accidentally' lets it fall onto her head, and 'stumbles' into DM's lap.]
Amanda - MacLeod, get me out of here.

There's like, six of us come in, I think, six belly dancers in the harem, and I'm at least four feet taller than everyone standing there. And I'm in red, and I'm, you know, look like -- it's just very funny to me. I'm sort of 'hmmm hmm hmm' [imitates arm movements], like I know what I'm doing.

David Tynan:

She often has good intentions, but they usually go off the tracks and something bad happens.

Clip from "Finalé, Part Two":
DM - [groans, grits his teeth] I can't tell you how much I love this.
Amanda - [pulling at arrow lodged in DM's backside] Oh, would you hold still? [pulls arrow shaft free]

Elizabeth Gracen:

Pulling the arrow out of his bum -- very good stuff.

Clip from "Finalé, Part Two":
Amanda - You're angry.
DM - How perceptive!
Amanda - Oh. What if I kiss it and make it better?
DM - How much better?

It's all very silly.

David Tynan:

We actually created a kind of strange device, and that was to have Amanda once more try and rescue MacLeod by taking on Kalas.

Elizabeth Gracen:

She's very loyal to her friends. If it had been Joe or Richie or anyone, I'm sure she would have done the same. Maybe not Richie. [laughs] No, I think she would have.

Clip from "Finalé, Part Two":
Amanda - [into phone] He's not here right now, but, um, I can take a message.
Kalas - [into phone] Listen carefully...

Amanda, as a character, is so impulsive. She doesn't really think things through that much when her temper rises, and, uh -- which we might have in common.

David Tynan:

I think it was a measure of her relationship with MacLeod and what was, up until that point, an unspoken part of the relationship, and that was that she loved MacLeod. And that MacLeod, at some level, deeply loved her. In spite of their fighting, their bickering, their humor, their on and off again relationship. And that Amanda felt this to the degree that she was willing to go and give her life up to try and defeat MacLeod's enemy. But of course, Amanda being Amanda, it didn't quite come off.

Clip from "Finalé, Part Two":
[Kalas comes around edge of structure & raises his sword to block Amanda's attack.]
Kalas - Not very sporting. You should have learned your lesson.
Amanda - And you should have been more careful shaving.

Elizabeth Gracen:

Yeah, she went after Kalas. Not one of my favorite fight sequences because I sort of looked like a little black fairy. She had to get by on her wit and try to outmaneuver someone, and so that's why we tried to do the cape and all of that.

[These lines are all from the 2003 U.S./Canada DVD set "Finalé, Part 2" interview.]

F. Braun McAsh (Sword Master):

Apparently we were the first, and probably the only, production company that's ever actually been allowed to film that kind of an action sequence there. The thing that I really remember about it is it was cold as hell! We're up three hundred and fifty, four hundred feet in the air, it is raining, the wind is blowing, and of course we're filming in the winter -- this is December. The fighters are being buffeted around by the wind, which of course is not good because you're on a metal grid surface -- with rubber-soled shoes, albeit, but it's still a wet metal grid. People are slipping and sliding around. And it was very spectacular, but, uh, just another one of these places where the physical environment is creating an awful lot of hazards you can't control.

Clip from "Finalé, Part Two":
Amanda - [clears her throat] You know, um, we've said some things that we've never said before. And--
DM - You want me to take 'em back?
Amanda - No, not tonight.

Elizabeth Gracen:

Well, I think if Amanda had her way, they would be together. I think she would go off for periods -- you know, they would have great separate vacations, but I think, you know, she's always propositioning him to, you know, go to a desert island. And I just think that she probably drives him a little crazy, and that's probably the problem.

[These lines are all from the 2003 U.S./Canada DVD set "Finalé, Part 2" interview.]