AUTHOR! AUTHOR!
“I’ll say this, MacLeod. You sure know how to treat a girl” - Amanda
The arrival of Amanda always presages trouble for Duncan MacLeod and her arrival in Seacouver in the weeks after Tessa’s death is no different. However, she is finally attempting to go straight, albeit by the slightly unusual strategy of forging the money she needs rather than stealing it. However, she’s not the only crook in town as they run into an FBI man who has ideas of his own and won’t stop at a little murder to get his hands on the counterfeit plates she has. All opinions expressed here are my own, as is the retelling of the storyline.
This episode featured two established Canadian actors, both of whom have also appeared in Stargate SG-1 and The X Files. The late Don S. Davis, a friend of Highlander regular Jim Byrnes, appeared as Scully’s father before taking over the command of the SGC as Major General Hammond, whilst Robert Wisden, later to return as Immortal William Everett Culbraith in Season 5’s “The Messenger”, appeared as the Pusher on The X Files and the unctuous Major Samuels in SG-1.
Written by David Tynan, based on a story by Guy Mullaly
Cast
| Duncan MacLeod | Adrian Paul |
| Richie Ryan | Stan Kirsch |
| Amanda | Elizabeth Gracen |
| Special Agent Palance | Don S. Davis |
| Werner | Robert Wisden |
A training session at the dojo between Duncan and Richie is interrupted by the arrival of a masked Immortal. The two friends had been fencing and the stranger is similarly attired. Without a word, the stranger singles out Duncan and the two start to fight, although the newcomer soon ends up the worse for wear. After disarming his opponent, Duncan steps forward and drives them to the ground. When unmasked, the stranger turns out to be 
Amanda, who smiles sweetly at the Highlander. Leaving Richie to his own devices, Duncan takes Amanda up to the loft. After giving it her seal of approval, she starts making herself very comfortable, prompting Duncan to ask her what she wants. She tries to make nice, but runs aground when she mentions Tessa’s death, which elicits a response from MacLeod not to push her luck. Trying again, she asks him what he’s thinking and he says he’s wondering where she’s going to sleep tonight.
Duncan escorts Amanda back to her hotel, ignoring her complaining at both his lack of hospitality and his suspicions about her true motives. However, he’s perhaps being a little over cautious, as she is truly hurt that he doesn’t seem to want her around much and they don’t part on good terms. 
Their separation lasts only seconds, as Duncan hears her scream and rushes to find her being accosted by a man. Duncan fights off the man, only for a second man to come running and shoot him. The two Immortals flee, pursued by the men, and elude them only by hiding in air vents on the hotel roof. Amanda’s protestations fall on deaf ears, as Duncan is now firmly convinced that she’s up to something.
Back at the loft, Duncan is half ready to believe her and wonders if the two men are Watchers. He tells Amanda about the mortals who record their history and she finds the idea worrying, but is intrigued when he tells her about their tattoos. Attempting to discover where these tattoos might be, she finally breaks through the Highlander’s reserve and gets him into bed. 
Later, she comments that she could get used to life with him, causing him to smile. She is both flattered and insulted in turn, having the nerve to accuse him of never doing anything without reason. The following morning, it is Richie’s turn to be suspicious, stopping Duncan in the dojo and warning him that Amanda is bound to be up to no good. The two friends go up to the loft, but Amanda is gone, having slipped out the back way.
Duncan manages to trace Amanda to a jeweller’s and engraver’s shop, but their conversation about just how he did this is cut short when they see the two men from the hotel getting out of a car across the street. They escape out of the back door, but one of the men follows them. Duncan manages to get the drop on him and knock him out, but it turns out that the man doesn’t have a Watcher tattoo at all. What he does have is an FBI warrant card, leading Duncan to have some new questions for Amanda. She denies knowing why the FBI would be 
after her all the way back to the dojo and up to the loft, where an explanation is waiting. The other FBI man, Agent Palance, is waiting. He has the video tape from the security camera in the engraver’s, showing the two Immortals there just ahead of his partner being killed. The FBI know that Amanda is trying to have the dates altered on some counterfeit $100 plates, but Palance wants them for himself. When he mentions that they have been around since before the Second World War, the penny drops with Duncan.
Prior to their meeting in Paris the year before, (in “The Lady & The Tiger”), Duncan hadn’t seen Amanda since a chance encounter in Berlin in 1936. He had been there to help a defecting German physicist escape, she had seemingly been working as a torch singer in a night-club, but in reality she had been after the counterfeit plates. They had barely been delivered to her when the man who gave them to her was shot by the police. The following night, Duncan walked into the club with his contact, a man called Werner, who was obtaining travel papers for the professor. Amanda managed to get his hotel address out of him before he left, but turned up a little later, on the run from the police. 
Duncan had fared no better, as the Gestapo had arrived just before Amanda and their agents were laid out on his hotel room floor. Duncan and the professor fled, only to find that the roadblocks would make it impossible to get out of Germany. Werner seemingly arranged a small plane, but it was a trap. As they were being arrested, Amanda appeared from nowhere and helped them overcome the odds. She flew the professor to England in the plane, leaving Duncan to make his own way to safety.
These plates are the ones Palance is after and a trade is arranged, at the State Street Bridge. The exchange goes well, but then Palance double-crosses them and shoots them, dumping the bodies in the river. He leaves and Duncan pulls Amanda from the water once they both revive. As they gather their strength and their thoughts on the beach, 
Richie emerges from hiding, having videoed the whole thing. That night, the Immortals watch with satisfaction as the TV news shows Palance being led away to be arrested, after the plates were found and an anonymous video showed him seemingly murdering two people. Richie says his goodbyes to Amanda. but Duncan isn’t in such a hurry and persuades her that her bus out of town will still be there in the morning.