Highlander: The Series is the story of Duncan MacLeod and the times and people that shaped him. We have been his Watchers for many years now - witnessing his pain, his joy - and his despair. We have watched people move in and out of his life and watched him struggle to come to terms with their living, loving and leaving.
Duncan MacLeod reveals his true self to few. Over the centuries he has erected bulwarcks and barriers that are designed to protect him from the emotional pain that always accompanies losing those he loves. But one young man slipped under his guard and stole his heart. One young man became the long yearned for son he had always desired. One young man loved him unconditionally and reawakened in Duncan every protective, paternal and fraternal feeling he had ever suppressed. That young man was Richie Ryan.
How did a young street punk slip so effectively under the secure guard of one of the world's most powerful immortals. How did he manage to have such an impact that Duncan MacLeod would willingly take from the great love of his life - Tessa Noel - so many of her precious mortal minutes and hours with Duncan?
When we first met Richie he was a young, fragile smart-mouthed street punk -a thief. But he had attitude and guts. He didn't let the Highlander stare him down in that police station. He held his own. Duncan saw, immediately, what we had no idea of. That this young punk was a pre-immortal and had the makings of a very fine warrior. Something in Richie Ryan's demeanour reached out to Duncan and he took him into his home and heart. Within weeks Duncan, Tessa and Richie were a family. Dominant images of this time in their lives sees Duncan playing the alpha male to the hilt - feeding his *pack*; defining limits; setting parameters. protecting, arguing, laughing. Richie showed himself to be a hard and reliable worker and a very pleasant companion. He could also be, in the way of all youths, incredibly frustrating, annoying and under foot. And Duncan seemed to revel in it.
Richie pushed every Clan button that Duncan had. Subliminally he connected with the Highlander and established a connection that would never be broken. He became, without ever asking, a treasured and over-protected member of Duncan's clan. When Richie was hurt or attacked Duncan was the first to leap to his protection - as when Alexi Voshin or Gregor threatened to cut short his mortal life. Duncan was determined that Richie would delay attaining immortality for as long as possible.
When Duncan and Tessa decided to marry, it was Richie who Duncan wanted to be his best man. There could have been no more public statement of commitment, love and loyalty.
And what was remarkable about this young man was watching him grow before our eyes - watching him mature from that sassy kid into the thoughtful and caring young man who could stand alongside Duncan after Tessa's tragic death and suppport him - unstated, no fuss, grieving as he himself was at having lost another Mother in a long line of Mothers. But he put his grief aside to suppport Duncan, difficult as this was given Duncan's state and anger over Tessa's meaningless death. And Richie carried the guilt of belieing that Duncan blamed him, but didn't take the easy way out and simply run away.
He stayed and took Duncan's moods and bad grace and anger - forcing him to connect to the world and, simply by being there, to acknowledge his responsibilities. His love and loyalty were tested to extremes but he never gave up and he never let Duncan down. Without doubt, it was Richie who brought Duncan through this very dark time.
And as Duncan accepted the necessity of training him to cope with immortality Richie showed himself a quick and industrious student, having to learn in a few short years what the Duncans and Connors and Methos' could learn over centuries. Made immortal at the time of the Gathering, Richie couldn't afford the luxury of the extended childhood of the older immortals.
What Duncan had seen in Richie was honesty and a genuine care and concern for others alongside a mischievousness and love of life that was truly infectious. What many woman also saw was a stunningly handsome and extremely attractive male in his prime. As we saw from a number of sexual interludes, he was a skilled and caring lover. He filled out to become a truly beautiful young man - indeed, physically he echoed the best of what the Ancient Greeks regarded as perfection. He was beautifully proportioned, well-muscled and defined and stunningly handsome. His golden hair was thrown into wonderful relief by the bluest of blue eyes that could at once draw you into his pain and grieving, his anger, his railing at the universe - or his tenderness and love. His eyes were truly the windows to his soul.
As Duncan's world continued to crumble around him, as more and more immortals sought him out and old friends died or betrayed him Richie, along with Joe Dawson, was always there. Despite Duncan's over-protectiveness Richie was always ready to disregard the good advice if he believed that he could help protect Duncan.
Duncan's increasing instability saw him almost kill Richie when a supposed old friend, Garrick, created illusions and chaos in Duncan's mind. But despite Duncan's insistence that Richie protect himself at all costs - even if it meant killing Duncan - Richie absolutely refused.
The total breakdown of Richie's and Duncan's relationship was a tragic event in Duncan's 404th year. The interaction between the two had gone from one of almost father/son to one of brothers in the four years that we had observed them.
Richie was always able to speak to Duncan in a way many others feared to. Whilst he was in many ways awed by him, he loved him enough to always be honest with him. Richie was and remains one of the few people who did not fear to tell Duncan his honest views and opinions. Richie was even capable of having Duncan change his mind about important issues - even when Duncan had, characteristically, stubbornly adopted a particular stance. We saw graphic evidence of this in the episode with David Markham and Paul Kinman when Richie succeeded in having Duncan see that he was putting his selfish desire for revenge against Kinman ahead of Markham's need to see justice done publicly. (See Reluctant Heroes). Richie also succeeded in having Duncan change his mind in the affair over the statue of the Kali, when he made Duncan realise that Kamir's motives were perfectly understandable in light of his culture. (See The Wrath of Kali).
When Duncan succumbed to the Dark Quickening and tried to take Richie's head, Richie's world crumbled. The one person whom he trusted as a father had turned on him. Clearly, it broke Richie's heart and soul. He was only saved by Joe Dawson shooting Duncan and Dawson's words must have reverberated throughout Richie's entire being over the many long and lonely months without Duncan that followed - that "this man is not the man you knew!" What is even more difficult to account for, given Duncan's normal love and care for Richie, is that even when he successfully re-balanced his life forces and re-established his own dominant personality, he did not go back to Seacouver to find Richie.
The over-whelming impression left on the observer was that Duncan had no idea how to re-establish the relationship and seemed to believe that Richie would be better off without him. This was a tactic that he had tried often in the past when he just did not know how to handle a difficult relationship problem- he decided on Richie's behalf, without consulting him. It was symptomatic of the over-all withdrawal that we witnessed in his 404th year -his becoming more and more closed and lonely as he sought to disassociate himself from the possibilities of any loving, committed relationships, in which he would be expected to give and receive.
And Richie became what Duncan most abhorred - a mindless Hunter. Having seen his trust and love so betrayed he struck out in the only way he could think of that would at once protect himself and defy all of his mentor's teachings. And hard as it was to watch, in The End of Innocence, and Haunted, we witnessed the painful re-establishment of their bond. Again, it would have been so easy for Richie to have simply left Duncan and Seacouver. But he chose to stay and work through with Duncan his increasing despair about the life he was now forced to live.
In The Messenger, sitting on the church steps, he reveals to Duncan that he respects him more than any other person in the world - but that he has now grown up and must make his own decisions and that Duncan must allow him to do this. And Duncan does.
In the last few weeks of his life he is with Duncan, both at home on the Barge. They still play the game of Duncan attempting to inculcate some culture into the young street kid - now well educated, if not well schooled. As they walk home from the Opera, Richie plays his part, complaining about this cultural torture that Duncan puts him through.
And as the last tragic hours of his mortal life come to an end he alone proves himself worthy of every characteristic that Duncan always saw. He refuses to be sent away, to safety, when Duncan realises that whatever he is fighting is extremely powerful and deadly. He firmly and resolutely tells Duncan, as a friend, as an equal, that he will not be *protected* or dismissed but will stand alongside Duncan MacLeod and help him face whatever enemy he is fighting. It is all done on faith and out of total and unconditional love. It is done because he is who he is, and Duncan is left speechless in the face of such faith and love.
As the tragedy unfolds and Duncan kneels by Richie's fallen body, he keens an old Sioux song for a Fallen Warrior - once again being back with the last son he failed to protect, Kahani. But Richie Ryans' legacy to the Highlander was not simply that of vulnerable child. He died a fiercely loyal friend and protector, a young man who had no hesitation whatsoever in putting Duncan's (and Joe's) welfare ahead of his own.
He had truly become the magnificent warrior Duncan saw he could and would be.
For a young man of such inconsequential background Richie Ryan managed to have an amazing impact on those around him. In a few short years he left an indelible imprint on not only people thousands of years old, in the guise of Amanda and Methos but also in people such as Joe. His laughter and wit and love of life and people ring down through the years and will continue to do so - catching us up in his mischievousness and energy.
Who amongst us can even think about junk food without hearing a Duncan lecture and see the goading laugh of Richie as Duncan throws his arm around him and hugs him to himself. -
"Leave the place clean Richie!"
"I don't know how you can eat that stuff!"
And in a final act of homage, Duncan reveals to Joe that he has learned what Richie taught him - that killing himself, running away, would have been the easy thing to do, and that if Richie's death was to have any meaning then Duncan needed to bear whatever he needed to bear to survive and win.
Thus, the mentor became the mentored.
So what did we have in Richie Ryan? A man whose laughter would fill a room; whose looks set hormones everywhere into overdrive and whose love and loyalty were truly inspirational. He will remain forever young, untouched by the tragedy and despair that invariably becomes the lot of all immortals. He will bury no loved ones and will never know the ache and loneliness of a life lived on the edge. In four years he lived a wonderfully loving, wild and fulfilling life knowing he was loved passionately.
Carmel Macpherson tunnack@ozemail.com.au
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~tunnack/CarmelHL.html
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~tunnack/DFW/index.htm