Highlander: at the end of the series, is there really only one left?

“I am Duncan MacLeod, born 400 years ago in the Highlands of Scotland. I am immortal, just like a handful of chosen ones. For centuries, we have waited for the hour of the final battle, at the end whose head-severing sword unleashes the “Quickening”, the power of lightning. In the end, only one of us will survive.”

But exactly how does the series end? MacLeod, played by Adrian Paul, is he the last living immortal?

The finale is a double episode entitled Being (S06E12, “To be” in VO) and Or not to be (S06E13, “Or not to be”). In this plot, Duncan McLeod must face Liam O’Rourke, an immortal whom he sent to prison in 1946. The latter is back to take his revenge and to do so, kidnaps Amanda, the friend (and more if affinities ) from McLeod. The latter begins his investigation with the help of Methos, the oldest of the immortals.

Meanwhile, O’Rourke also kidnaps Dawson, the “Lookout” (organization that monitors immortals) and leaves McLeod with an address to go to.

Duncan decides to go to the rendezvous point alone, ready to let O’Rourke cut off his head to free his two friends. Methos intervenes just before the beheading, but McLeod, wounded by bullet, passes out. He wakes up with his friend Fitz, who has become an angel.

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The latter tells him that he is in an alternative world in which he does not exist. Together, they visit McLeod’s friends, who notes that without him, his traveling companions do not have a bright destiny:

• Amanda has become a black widow who murders her husbands one by one to get the big money and she gets killed.
• Dawson has been homeless since the Watchers started killing. He is assassinated by James Horton, seen in a dozen episodes of the series.
• Tessa abandoned sculpture for an orderly life with a husband she no longer loves, and with whom she has two children. She is now unhappy.
• Methos was betrayed by his partner Jillian who reported him to Horton. She lost her life in the operation. Methos escaped but he is consumed by hatred and only thinks about killing.
• Finally, Ritchie has fallen into crime and works for Methos, who ends up decapitating him.

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In this alternate universe, McLeod saves Dawson who has been taken prisoner by Methos and decapitates the immortal. Once this is done, Fitz sends McLeod back to his reality.

In his world, McLeod obviously survived the bullets that wounded him and finds himself in a duel with O’Rourke (Methos was knocked out of action). The face-to-face turns in favor of McLeod, who decapitates his opponent, to the sound of the song amazing Grace.

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McLeod once again promises himself not to kill a single human being, immortal or not. What follows is a moving montage of images from the character’s past against the backdrop of the song Bonny Portmore.

McLeod hugs Dawson, thanks Methos for proving to him that everyone can change and declares his love to Amanda.

The hero disappears into the mists. End of the series.

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This finale was not very well received by some fans, because the starting promise of the series, that “there is only one left” was not kept. MacLeod resumes his life while other immortals are alive around him, and not all of them are his friends. Fans will have to settle for this slightly frustrating version.

Although the series ended at his request in 1998, Adrian Paul will return in the shoes of Duncan McLeod for the needs of Highlander: Endgame (2000) then years later Highlander – The Guardian of Immortality (2007).