History Series / HIGHLANDER

* OutOfCharacterAlert: In "Revenge is Sweet", when Richie calls Duncan "Mr. MacLeod" over the phone, Duncan at once knows something is wrong. Although in a twist, Richie isn't being ordered to say everything's fine--the person holding him hostage does want him to say he's a hostage, but is forcing him to lie about who's doing it for complicated BatmanGambit reasons. The sudden formality alerts Duncan to the deception.

* GoodThingYouCanHeal: As the story features Immortals, most episodes feature at least one scene of them quickly healing from physical trauma or resurrecting from a fatal injury. Damage to the neck doesn't seem to fully heal, such as when Duncan tried to behead Kalas but only succeeded in destroying his vocal chords. Whether lost limbs regrow is still open to debate.[[note]]Duncan cut off Xavier St. Cloud's hand, and Xavier later reappeared with an articulated hook replacing the lost hand. The battle took place on the bank of the Seine, and Xavier's hand wound up in the river (as did Xavier himself to escape Duncan). If Xavier had managed to reclaim the hand, it might have reattached itself, or the hand itself may have regenerated after an extended period, but Xavier's next appearance his last, so we still don't know for sure.[[/note]]

** Kanwulf is after Duncan to get back the Axe of Odin Duncan took from him centuries ago. Duncan retrieves it, and gives it to Kanwulf, but bring the Clan [=MacLeod=] Claymore with to do battle. The final blow of the fight has the Claymore shatter the Axe's haft, and is also evidently the blow that severed Kanwulf's head from his shoulders.

* SwordCane: Nicholas Ward carried one in “The Vampire”.

* GoodThingYouCanHeal: As the story features Immortals, most episodes feature at least one scene of them quickly healing from physical trauma or resurrecting from a fatal injury. Damage to the neck doesn't seem to fully heal, such as when Duncan tried to behead Kalas but only succeeded in destroying his vocal chords. Whether lost limbs regrow is still open to debate.

** Methos does it in another episode, cutting open his palm to demonstrate his immortality to a Watcher he knew

* ThePerilsOfBeingTheBest: An Immortal famous for either their fighting skills or age winds up drawing the attention of Immortals who are serious about winning the game and purposefully seek out old or powerful Immortals in order to defeat them and take their power. This causes most older Immortals, (aside from AxCrazy psychos in the mold of The Kurgan) to learn how to keep a low profile.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: James Horton. He considers the Immortals to be monsters and threats to humanity. So he wants to eliminate them all, end the Game, and protect humans. How far he is willing to go for this increasingly makes him a monster.

** Season 6 has an episode with that title. An immortal con man who’s made a con of getting hit by cars so the rich drivers will give his wife big checks targets an ambassador’s son. The son kills the guy’s mortal girlfriend. Mac tries to get him to turn himself in, but the kid is too cocky to do it. Not that he could actually voluntarily wave the immunity anyway, but in most cases an actual murder with a voluntary confession and surrender would probably result in the countries in question voiding the immunity by mutual consent.

Half of Season Six was an extended screen-test to find [[DistaffCounterpart a female immortal to cast in a spinoff]]; it was ultimately decided to use [[AscendedExtra the already-established character]] of Amanda the [[ClassyCatBurglar cat burglar]] (Elizabeth Gracen) instead. ''The Raven'' [[FollowUpFailure only lasted a season]] due to [[HostilityOnTheSet inter-personal]] and {{creative|differences}} issues backstage.

* HilariousOuttakes: A whole commercially released VHS of them and some in the DVD sets too. One example is the the Cassandra/Duncan love scene in "Prophecy". During an elongated take, the blooper reel shows Tracy Scoggins warning the director, "If this goes on much longer, I'm going to need birth control!"

* HookHand: Xavier St. Cloud uses one of these after losing a hand in fight against Duncan. A year passes from the time he loses the hand until he reappears with the hook leading to many questions about whether Immortals regrow lost limbs.

** In Methos' introductory episode, he selflessly offers his head to Duncan, to prevent the evil immortal [[BigBad Kalas]] from taking it. It's hard to imagine the more ruthless, morally ambiguous Methos of later episodes doing such a thing. He'd be more likely to just plain ''run'' from a superior opponent.

** The first season tries to pattern itself after the movie and states that "The Gathering", the encounter of the last surviving Immortals to fight for the Gift, is taking place. However, as the show moved forward and more and more Immortals are mentioned or introduced, all mentions of the Gathering were dropped. {{Fanon}} says that too many Immortals dying without a Quickening sent all their power out to create new Immortals, delaying the Gathering indefinitely.

* DiplomaticImmunity: Season 6 has an episode with that title. An immortal con man who’s made a con of getting hit by cars so the rich drivers will give his wife big checks targets an ambassador’s son. The son kills the guy’s mortal girlfriend. Mac tries to get him to turn himself in, but the kid is too cocky to do it. Not that he could actually voluntarily wave the immunity anyway, but in most cases an actual murder with a voluntary confession and surrender would probably result in the countries in question voiding the immunity by mutual consent.

* ChangelingTale: Duncan's father tells Duncan he was brought to them by a mysterious woman just after his true son was stillborn, and the midwife recoiled when she saw him, declaring him a channeling.

** Thw only way to defeat Ahriman in the much-maligned season 5-6 arc was to not fight him

** The Watcher's Chronicles CD-ROM was released by the producers of the series to add background information on the major and minor characters of the series. It also introduced a few characters not actually depicted in the series, as mentors or associates of existing characters. An ancient immortal is named "Obelix the Gaul", after the superhuman character from ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}''. Obelix is mentioned as the mentor of the immortal character Paul Karros, from the series. Karros has mentioned how he fought against the Romans in in the 1st century BC and how he hated them. The Romans happen to be the main villains in Asterix and the comic book series takes place in the 1st century BC.

* StrangersOnATrainPlot: A guy catches Duncan sword fighting on tape and tries blackmailing him to kill his wife. Duncan retrieves the tape but doesn’t kill. After seeing Duncan setting up
a fight with the immortal friend of the immortal he killed, the filmmaker tries getting Duncan to do a plot like this with him. Duncan refuses and kicks him out

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Methos is rarely seen without his can of beer.

* WakeupMakeup: particularly obvious when Duncan unwraps the mummy of Nefertiri after being unconscious for 2,000 years, and she still has perfect hair and makeup. Note that she also [[AliensSpeakingEnglish knows English]].

* LifeDrinker: Variant. Immortals don't suck the life out of people to stay alive, but if they behead another immortal they will absorb their knowledge and skill. If an Immortal is decapitated by a mortal, or by a machine, the Quickening is absorbed by the Immortal closest to the death. It's never been shown what happens when there is no Immortal nearby at all. When Hugh Fitzcairn was put in that situation, he implies the Quickening (and hence his entire life) would be totally wasted.

* LivingADoubleLife: Methos, for a while. He got to experience life as both Methos and Adam Pierson, respectively an elusive Immortal and a well-connected Watcher. Eventually the Watchers discovered than an Immortal has infiltrated their ranks.

* MacGuffin: Many episodes revolve around the seeking of a sacred or mythical object. One of the most elusive ones was the Methuselah Stone, which was sought in several episodes. Legends depicted the Stone as able to grant full immortality to immortals (removing the weakness to decapitation) or even turn a mortal to an immortal. This never went anywhere and seems to have been an AbortedArc.
* MadDoctor: 'Deadly Medicine.' Dr. Paul Wilder (a mortal) is an emergency room physician who secretly abducts patients. He is using them as test subjects in illegal medical experiments. When Duncan is briefly hospitalized following an accident, Wilder discovers his Healing Factor. He kidnaps Duncan in order to experiment on him.

** Joan Jett's character in the season one episode "Freefall." The character, called Felice Martén/Felicia Martins, is depicted killing another Immortal's mortal wife and child, to break him psychologically. She later ambushes and kills this immortal. She briefly becomes Duncan's student, in order to get close to him and take his head. He does not want to kill her, so after beating her in their sword fight, he leaves her unconscious on a beach.

** Minor character, but the junkie who killed Tessa counts. Both Duncan and Richie refuse to punish him. He was last seen as a struggling father, but he got away with murder.

* KilledOffForReal: A recurrent theme of the series. Heroes and villains, Immortals and mortals, even major characters like [[spoiler:Charlie and Tessa and Richie.]] are killed off. Nobody really returns, though a few continue to appear in flashbacks and hallucinations. It's made explicit in one episode where a rival immortal devoted her life to avenging a killed loved one. Duncan could empathize, but pointed out that "Nothing you do brings anyone back. Once they're dead... nothing."

* TheFogOfAges: Duncan heard that Methos is five thousand years old but Methos tells him that he's actually older, possibly '' much'' older, but "before that, it all starts to blur". A few episodes have Methos trying to preserve his old diaries from various centuries with the implication that he needs written records to keep track of all the details of his life. However, this is subverted in the "Methos Chronicles" which shows that he actually remembers his full life and only claims to have forgotten it.

** Also, in “Under Color of Authority”,after taking his first head, Richie asks Duncan if they’ll ever have to fight. Unfortunately they *do* fight when Duncan is tormented by Ahriman in season 5,and it doesn’t end well...

* GoingForTheBigScoop: Randi, the relentless reporter in season one's first half was determined to learn Duncan's secret.

** “The Stone of Scone”, with Duncan and Fitz and Amanda stealing the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abby.

* HolyGround: One of the few rules of the Game is that Immortals can not fight on holy ground which makes it one of the few places they can go to get away from the Game. It's left vague what happens if this rule is violated, but one episode mentions a Watcher rumor that the only known beheading on Holy Ground happened at the Temple of Apollo in Pompeii in August, 79 AD.

* IgnoreTheFanservice: In the Season 3 finale, the villain Kalas holds the beautiful Amanda hostage. She attempts to seduce him and makes sure to show some skin. Kalas casually informs her that he had spend most of his life in a monastery, with the implication that he has been trained to resist temptation. This stops her efforts. This may fit his StoryArc as Kalas has been depicted in several time periods, and he is always depicted as celibate and uninterested in romance.
* ImmortalityHurts: Though Immortals recover from injuries and death, they are not immune to the pain of the injury or the subsequent healing (like when their broken bones reset themselves). Many episodes show how this is taken advantage of during Immortal sword-fights where one Immortal has been dealt so many injuries that even though they are still alive and painfully healing, they can no longer focus on defense allowing their opponent to deliver the killing stroke.

* ItNeverGetsAnyEasier: A variation. Duncan tells Richie that losing loved ones never gets easier for immortals.

* DoppelgangerReplacementLoveInterest: Lisa Milon.

** The first season tries to pattern itself after the movie and states that "The Gathering", the encounter of the last surviving Immortals to fight for the Gift, is taking place. However, as the show moved forward and more and more Immortals are mentioned or introduced, all mentions of the Gathering were dropped.

** Duncan frequently went shirtless, and was naked in a bathtub at least once.