The essential episodes of Highlander

Watch these 10 in order and you've got Highlander — each pick states its reason.

1. 01

   S01E01 · Pilot · October 3, 1992 · 1h

   The Gathering8.0

   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.

2. 02

   S01E02 · Top rated · October 10, 1992 · 1h

   Family Tree8.2

   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.

3. 03

   S01E18 · Season 1 peak · April 24, 1993 · 1h

   The Lady and the Tiger8.3

   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.

4. 04

   S02E01 · Season 2 peak · October 2, 1993 · 1h

   The Watchers8.0

   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.

5. 05

   S03E01 · Season 3 peak · October 1, 1994 · 1h

   The Samurai8.0

   After Midori Koto sees her husband, rich industrialist Michael Kent, murder her lover, Akira Yoshida, she kills Kent and runs to MacLeod for protection. She reminds MacLeod of a vow of protection his "ancestor" (actually MacLeod himself) made to her family over 200 years before. Flashbacks tell the story of MacLeod coming to the aid of the samurai Hideo Koto after being shipwrecked in Japan. Hideo befriends MacLeod - even though the penalty for helping a "barbarian" in isolationist Japan is death. When Hideo's feudal overlord forces him to commit ritual hara-kiri for that crime, MacLeod serves as his second. He vows to Hideo that he will always protect the Koto family and is bequeathed the dragon-head katana sword he uses to this day. Back in the present, MacLeod discovers that Kent is an Immortal and he's still alive. In order not to further dishonor her family's name, Midori returns to Kent. Kent challenges MacLeod, who takes Kent's head, fulfilling MacLeod's vow to the Koto family and freeing Midori from her loveless marriage.

6. 06

   S04E01 · Season 4 peak · October 1, 1995 · 1h

   Homeland8.3

7. 07

   S05E11 · Top rated · February 8, 1997 · 1h

   Comes a Horseman8.3

   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.

8. 08

   S05E12 · Season 5 peak · February 15, 1997 · 1h

   Revelation 6:88.7

   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.

9. 09

   S06E01 · Season 6 peak · October 4, 1997 · 1h

   Avatar (2)8.0

   Once every thousand years, the Zoroastrian demon Ahriman returns to wreak havoc on the earth. He has already brought destruction to Duncan MacLeod's world, having caused Richie's death at Duncan's hand. But now MacLeod returns to Paris to take up his mantle as Champion and vows to destroy Ahriman. Sophie Baines knows how to defeat the demon, but is she MacLeod's ally, or another pawn in Ahriman's game?

10. 10

    S06E13 · Series finale · May 16, 1998 · 1h

    Not To Be (2)8.0

    MacLeod continues his dream journey with Fitzcairn, revisiting friends to see how their lives might have been without him: Fitz died three hundred years ago; Horton has taken over the Watchers; Joe Dawson has been reduced to a bitter, penniless vagrant; Amanda is a black widow; and Methos has rejoined the Horsemen to avenge his fiancée's death. If you think that's bad, wait till you find out what's happened to Richie and Tessa. The episode concludes with Mac thanking his friends, Amanda, Methos, and Joe, for being in his life.