Duncan sees Debra Campbell in a flashback after gazing at his father's
sword hanging on the wall at Rachel MacLeod's inn. She was Duncan's
first love.
In the flashback Debra runs toward Duncan and embraces him. Then she
asks if he has spoken to his father about himself and Debra marrying.
Duncan says Debra must marry Duncan's cousin, Robert. "And that's the
end of it." Debra protests that Duncan is the chieftain's son and
their clans would be united by a marriage between Duncan and her, just
as they would be by a marriage between Robert and Debra. Debra gives
Robert a bracelet and tells her to think of him when she looks at it.
He plans to leave Glenfinnan. Debra asks Duncan to take her with
him. Duncan says that would shame her and both their clans. Then she
begs Duncan to stay. "I have to see you even if it's only across the
village." Duncan says it's too hard looking at her when he can't have
her.
Robert angrily tells Debra to return the bracelet to Duncan. "I'll
not have you marked by another man's gift." Robert strikes her so
hard that she falls to the ground. Debra then tells Robert that
she'll be thinking of Duncan when she's in bed with Robert. At that
point Duncan intervenes. Robert says Duncan has turned Debra's heart
against him. He challenges Duncan to a duel which Duncan fights
reluctantly at his father's command. When Duncan kills Robert, Debra
moves toward him, but Mary, Duncan's mother, pulls her away saying
that the men need to deal with this.
Debra later tries to convince Duncan not to be so consumed with guilt
over Robert's death. She says they could name their first born after
Robert. Duncan says he can't wed Debra with Robert's blood on his
hands. Debra doesn't understand. She says she can't live without
Duncan. She flees him weeping through the hills and is standing at
the edge of a cliff when Duncan catches up with her. She tells him
that this was her secret place where she used to dream of Duncan. She
never dreamed this situation. She indicates that she intends to
jump. Duncan tells her she has a life. Debra says she has nothing.
Duncan then concedes that he'll marry Debra. He can live with
Robert's ghost, but not with Debra's. He reaches out his hand and she
reaches toward him, but she slips and falls. The bracelet falls to
the ground beside her.
In the present Duncan tells Joe that it was ruled a suicide and Duncan
had to bury her off holy ground. He buried the bracelet with her.
Questions For Further Study
1)Where was Debra's family? Were they in Glenfinnan or had Debra been
sent to Glenfinnan to be fostered with her future husband? Would that
have been a common arrangement?
2)Debra didn't seem to care that running off with Duncan would create
a scandal. Why didn't her reputation matter to her? Did she
understand how emotionally difficult it would be for her and Duncan to
live as outcasts?
3)Robert knocked Debra to the ground, but she makes him even angrier
by telling him that she'd think of Duncan when she's in bed with him.
Why wasn't Debra afraid of what Robert would do if she deliberately
infuriated him?
4)After Duncan killed Robert, Debra moved toward him. What was
Debra's intention at that point? Would it have changed anything if
Mary, Duncan's mother, hadn't pulled her away?
5)The bracelet that Duncan gave Debra set in motion a train of events
that killed Robert and eventually Debra herself. If Debra had known
the cost of keeping the bracelet, would she have returned it to
Duncan?
This is my last lecture on Homeland. Next week I hope to be posting
my first lecture on Brothers in Arms if I have the time to view and
take notes on it.
Professor Shomeret
|
