The best episodes of Highlander
Ranked by viewer rating, highs first. Lit marks on the season rail place this list across the run. Vote on a placement to back it or contest it.
- 01
One by one, Kronos is putting the Four Horsemen back together. Once they struck fear in the hearts of men with sword and axe. Today, their weapons of destruction are different, but their goal is the same: to bring mankind what it fears most, the Apocalypse. Only Duncan MacLeod stands between them and the end of the world.
- 02
A day at the circus reunites MacLeod with a former lover, the Immortal femme fatale, Amanda Darieux, who has always meant big trouble for him. Amanda, meanwhile, is in trouble of her own as her former partner, Zachary Blaine, has escaped from prison and wants her head. She plays the two Immortal men against each other, drawing MacLeod into a daring, high-stakes burglary she and Blaine are plotting.
- 03
- 04
MacLeod knew him as Melvin Koren, a desperado who left a trail of death and fire across the Old West, but Cassandra remembers him as an evil far older. He is Kronos, leader of the Four Horsemen, mounted Bronze Age raiders who murdered, raped, and pillaged their way across two continents. Never was a band of Immortals more cruel or more feared. He destroyed Cassandra's people and she's been hunting him across the millenia. But Kronos has a different target now -- Methos.
- 05
Richie falls for a con man's ploy when he tries to learn more about his parents, whom he has never known. The con uses Richie for a place to crash and anything else he can get out of him by pretending to be his father. MacLeod also relives his past in the memories of first becoming immortal and being cast out of his clan by his father.
- 06
Duncan McLeod is roused from his peaceful existence with the love of this life, Tessa Noel, when he is challenged to Immortal combat by Slan Quince, an Evil Immortal. An old friend and Clansman, Connor MacLeod, comes to try and convince Duncan to once more join the fray in the battle of Good versus Evil. This episode also introduces Richie Ryan, a kid from the streets whom Duncan befriends after catching him breaking into his antique store.
- 07
Seeking revenge for the apparent death of her lover, Walter Reinhardt, Rebecca Lord toys with MacLeod before she attempts to kill him with Reinhardt's sword. Rebecca knows nothing of Immortals or their combat, and she believes MacLeod murdered Reinhardt. Unbeknownst to her, Reinhardt is still alive and using Rebecca in a cat-and-mouse game to draw out MacLeod for their final confrontation.
- 08
A serial killer dubbed The Scalper' is attacking blonde women, including a friend of Tessa's. MacLeod recognizes the pattern of an Immortal who, betrayed by the woman he loved, became a killer. To end the carnage, MacLeod was forced to confront and kill him back in 1925. Now the killings have started again, the modern-day killer mimicking the 70-year-old M.O., killing in the same locations as the previous murders. It falls to MacLeod and Tessa to stop this madman.
- 09
Tessa witnesses the murder of a painter, Anne Wheeler, but the absence of a body leads everyone but MacLeod to doubt her story. MacLeod supports Tessa in her quest to obtain justice for Anne. It develops that Anne was killed by her Immortal ex-lover, to keep her from revealing his secret. After Tessa is taken to a police safe house, MacLeod realizes that the killer is in fact the Chief of Detectives, and he must rescue Tessa and bring justice to Anne's killer.
- 10
Warning comes from MacLeod's old friend Darius, a monk over 2000 years old, that Grayson, Darius's one-time protege, is now stalking Darius's other students -- among them, possibly, MacLeod. Grayson, disillusioned that his former comrade-in-arms has become a man of peace, is killing Darius' mortal students to draw the monk off holy ground and into combat. MacLeod must protect peace activist Victor Paulus, another of Darius's students, from Grayson's plot to assassinate him. Later, he joins Richie and Tessa in France, where they will live while Tessa takes up her new job as curator of a traveling collection.
- 11
An Evil Immortal, Kuyler, has hired himself out down through time as an assassin -- the most successful killer in all of history. He strikes again in modern-day Paris using his signature disguise as a mime. A French Police Detective, LeBrun, suspects that Duncan MacLeod is connected to Kuyler. But of course, he cannot imagine that Kuyler once killed an eighteenth-century baron under MacLeod's protection. When LeBrun is wounded protecting Tessa from Kuyler's men, MacLeod confronts the Immortal assassin and puts an end to his centuries-old reign of terror.
- 12
MacLeod stumbles across the trail of an Immortal, Xavier St. Cloud, who has lived in hedonistic splendor down through the ages by remorseless robbing and killing innocent men and women. He uses poison gas to give himself an edge in the battle against other Immortals. MacLeod had nearly fallen victim to this remorseless killer behind the front lines during World War I, when Xavier used poison gas to loot a payroll truck. He uses even deadlier gas in modern-day Paris, and MacLeod must track him down before he kills again. He succeeds in defeating Xavier, but the Evil Immortal escapes with his head. In a humorous yet touching subplot, Richie falls for a glamorous older woman, unaware that she is married, and Tessa must help him disentangle himself from the woman's clutches.
- 13
A mysterious death at the Paris Opera re-acquaints Duncan MacLeod with one of the strangest Immortals he has met in his many travels over the centuries. Ursa is a hulking giant -- more beast than man -- who Duncan rescued from persecution centuries ago, delivering him to sanctuary in an abbey. The abbey has long since been destroyed and Ursa now lives under Paris. He has become enamored of a past-her-prime opera singer who tries to use Ursa's innocent soul to murder her rival.
- 14
Grace Chandel has been a Good Immortal, working for the betterment of mankind as a midwife, doctor, and scientist over the centuries. Her one weakness is another Immortal, Carlo Sendaro, a former lover who is obsessed with her and refuses to let her go. He slays Grace's current (mortal) lover and, when she refuses to run off with him, frames her for the killing. She turns to her old friend Duncan MacLeod for help.
- 15
Richie meets a beautiful young model, Maya, who leads him into the world of haute couture and danger. His youthful jealousy causes him to run afoul of Gabriel Piton, a world-class fashion designer and a deadly Immortal.
- 16
When a fatal stabbing fails to kill him, Alfred Cahill becomes convinced that a higher power chose him to wage a crusade against 'perversion'. He cuts a bloody path through Paris, murdering prostitutes and pimps, and endangering an old friend of Tessa's, Elaine Trent, who has become a call girl. MacLeod tries to explain Immortality to Cahill, but he can't get through to him, and finally is forced to take his head.
- 17
When the stepdaughter of an Immortal is raped, the Immortal comes after the young man. MacLeod, a guest in the home of the accused boy's father, feels he must protect the family from this unstoppable menace. He urges the Immortal to see due process done, but the man has no interest in listening to reason, and he lays siege to the house.
- 18
MacLeod's old compatriot, Hugh Fitzcairn, comes to town bearing a mystery -- some of their other Immortal friends have disappeared suspiciously. MacLeod realizes that someone may be following Fitz, and realizes too late that Fitz has put Darius in danger by visiting him. Finding Darius dead in his chapel and Fitzcairn kidnapped, MacLeod won't rest until he finds the men responsible. Tracking the killers of his old friend, MacLeod discovers the Hunters, a band of mortals who hunt Immortals, knowing who and what they are; even holy ground is no protection. MacLeod finds the renegades in time to save Fitzcairn and confront James Horton, leader of the Hunters, but Horton eludes his grasp.
- 19
Determined to investigate the death of his old friend Darius, MacLeod follows a lead back to his old stomping grounds in the Pacific Northwest. He meets Joe Dawson, a bookstore owner with a secret; he soon learns that Dawson is a high-ranking member of an ancient secret organization known as The Watchers, who observe and record the lives of the Immortals, passing their archives down from generation to generation. Unbeknownst to Dawson, his brother-in-law, James Horton (the man who killed Darius), has been recruiting Watchers to kill Immortals. Other renegade Watchers may be waiting to take MacLeod's head.
- 20
Duncan, Tessa, and Richie attend a photographic exhibit featuring Immortal Gregor Powers. MacLeod becomes deeply disturbed by the violent images of his old friend's work. Also, Duncan discovers that the other exhibitor is someone he loved 50 years ago, Linda Plager, who had sent him away to focus on her work. The 73-year-old Linda recognizes him, but he doesn't know how to tell her that he is the same man she loved. Meanwhile, Gregor seems to have changed since Duncan knew him, becoming disillusioned, cynical, and incapable of feeling emotion due to the insulation from death his immortality provides.
- 21
A mortal named Pallin Wolf is a Hunter, one of the renegade Watchers who believe the Immortals must be eliminated. He uses mortals as bait to kill Immortals. He lures the Immortal James Vincent to his house using James' girlfriend and kills him, getting the advantage by tricking him into a sealed room that is completely dark, then stalking him with night vision goggles. Meanwhile, Greta, a Gypsy fortuneteller whom Duncan and Tessa meet in a restaurant, warns Tessa to leave the city because she is in danger. When Wolf kidnaps Tessa, MacLeod returns to Greta, asking for her help. But she's mostly a hustler and not accustomed to getting actual visions, so the clues she can provide are meager. Finally, Mac finds Wolf's house, where Wolf is waiting for him. He meets Wolf in the dark room, and all seems hopeless until he remembers a matchbook Greta gave him with her phone number in it. Lighting the matches, he regains the advantage and kills Wolf. MacLeod frees Tessa with Richie and tells them to leave while he searches Wolf's house. However, as Tessa and Richie head for the car, a young junkie accosts them for money and shoots them both, in an act of senseless violence.
- 22
- 23
MacLeod feels the Buzz coming from an ancient sarcophagus and opens it to find Nefertiri, Cleopatra's handmaid, buried 2000 years ago with her mistress. Now revived, she pursues a vendetta against the Immortal Marcus Constantine, who was her lover and her enemy. Mac believes Constantine, who claims that he no longer wishes to fight Nefertiri -- this former Roman General has turned his back on battle and is now a curator, working to preserve history and its lessons. But Nefertiri can't let go of the old grudge, and for the first time, MacLeod is forced to face a woman he loves in Immortal combat.
- 24
When her mentor Rebecca is killed, Amanda is determined to avenge the death, even though it means going up against the formidable Immortal Luther, and very possibly losing her head. She comes to Mac for a final fling before her likely death, and when he discovers that she's after Luther, he tries to take the battle on himself, feeling he has a better chance of survival. Together, they discover that Luther is hunting the pieces of an ancient crystal that Rebecca divided among her students, believing that the whole crystal will make him invulnerable and ensure that he is the Last Immortal. In the final confrontation, both Amanda and MacLeod take their turns battling the ascetic Luther.
- 25
Richie returns, on the run, turning to MacLeod for help. An Immortal has been following him, refusing to confront him, but committing grisly murders wherever Richie goes. Richie is arrested for the murders. Mac learns that Immortal hunter Martin Hyde is behind the murders: considering the Quickening of a green Immortal like Richie not worth the taking, Hyde has been hounding him in order to drive him to his teacher. MacLeod must clear Richie of the murders and defeat the evil Immortal.
Shows like Highlander
The closest matches on shared genres, ranked by match strength and popularity.
- 01Drama·Action·FantasyThe best episodes of The Witcher2019–present
Based on the best-selling fantasy series, The Witcher is an epic tale of fate and family. - 02Drama·Action·FantasyThe best episodes of House of the Dragon2022–present
Set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon tells the history of House Targaryen as they fight through a civil war. - 03Drama·Action·FantasyThe best episodes of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms2026–presentA century before the events of Game of Thrones, two unlikely heroes wandered Westeros: a young, naive but courageous knight, Ser Duncan the Tall, and his diminutive squire, Egg.
- 04Drama·Action·FantasyThe best episodes of Believe2014–2014·NBC
Levitation, telekinesis, the ability to control nature and even predict the future... - 05Drama·Action·FantasyThe best episodes of American Gods2017–2021·STARZAmerican Gods follows Shadow Moon, a man serving three years in prison who is given an early release.
- 06Drama·Action·Fantasy·AnimeThe best episodes of Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu2016–present·AT-X
Suddenly, high school student Subaru Natsuki has been summoned to another world on the way back from the convenience store.
