Kanis appears after his dogs have pursued and surrounded an unknown
Immortal. He bows to the other and takes his head without having
fought at all.
The next time we see Kanis is in a Duncan flashback. Duncan is on a
hunt in England in 1785 when he sees dogs pursuing a boy while their
Immortal master waits. Duncan shoots a dog and tells Kanis that they
would have killed the boy. Kanis says that killing the boy was what
he intended. Duncan tells him that it's wrong to hunt a boy. Kanis
says that the boy threw a rock at his dogs, and that he feels that
Immortals can hunt what they like. Then he says to Duncan accusingly
that "You killed the finest hunting dog in the land." When the
Duchess, who is Duncan's lover, hears about what Kanis has done, she
orders that the dogs be destroyed. Kanis threatens her. She then
imprisons him for treason. Kanis laughs as he is taken away.
In the present Duncan finds Kanis in a near by cemetery. Kanis is
wearing a metal studded collar. "Nice flea collar," Duncan quips.
Kanis, who has discovered that Duncan is teaching a college course,
asks if Duncan is teaching ethics and "loyalty to your own kind".
Duncan denies that Kanis is his kind, and says that he's a murderer
who got what he deserved. Kanis claims that he hasn't gotten what he
deserves yet, but he will. The dogs approach them. "Still keeping
the same company," Duncan comments. "Must make conversation a little
dull." Kanis says the dogs are his family. They would gladly die for
him. Duncan points out that they kill for him. Duncan wants to
step off holy ground and fight. Kanis says that this would be no
fun. There's no anticipation. "You can't sense them coming," he says
with relish. "The first thing you'll know will be their teeth as they
tear you down and next they go for the throat, and I'll be right
behind them, MacLeod."
Duncan has another flashback. After the dogs kill a guard while
trying to free Kanis, the Duchess orders Kanis executed without
trial. He is mounted on a horse with his head in a noose which is
tied to a tree branch. "Ah fools!" says Kanis "You are digging your
own graves!" Then he looks at Duncan. "MacLeod, is it? I'll
remember you." After being hanged. Kanis digs himself out of his
grave.
Duncan is savaged by Kanis' dogs while running in a park. Then Kanis
calls Duncan at home and asks if Duncan enjoyed his run. "Enough
Kanis," says Duncan. Kanis says Duncan has killed another of his
dogs. "Sleep well, but not too well."
Kanis holds a funeral for his dead dog on a beach. He builds a pyre
for the dog and says "Death comes to the mightiest warrior." Then he
tells the dead dog's spirit "You shall be mourned and you shall be
avenged. MacLeod, shall die."
Kanis goes to see a dog breeder. He refuses to accept a puppy. He
breeds his dogs himself. They have to respond only to his voice and
take food only from his hand. He wants to purchase, Lucille, a female
dog who is about to come into heat. The breeder refuses to let him
have Lucille. Kanis tries to intimidate her, but Duncan arrives on
the scene. Kanis leaves. Duncan asks if she's all right, then goes
after Kanis. Duncan wants to fight, but one of his dogs is being
petted by the dog breeder's son. Kanis says that all he has to do is
think about it, and his dog will rip the boy's throat out. So Duncan
has to back down.
Kanis approaches Duncan at his fixer upper house and says that it's
time for their fight. His dogs smash through a window into the
house. "Don't worry, when they get your throat, you go into shock,"
he says ostensibly trying to reassure Duncan. Duncan then opens the
door to the room where he's keeping Lucille and says "Hey Lucille,
your dates are here." Kanis' dogs run into the room and Kanis has no
alternative but to actually fight Duncan. They fight on the porch.
Then Kanis leaves the porch for more favorable ground, but he doesn't
get far because Duncan does a somersault over him and beheads him on
the way down.
Questions For Further Study
1)Kanis calls the dogs his family. Do you think he was ever adopted
by a mortal family? Dog breeders perhaps? Or do you think he grew up
on the street with stray dogs as companions?
2) At what point would Kanis have decided to use dogs to hunt and
temporarily kill Immortals so he could behead them without effort?
Are his sword skills so week that he needs such assistance?
3)Kanis says to Duncan and the Duchess that they're "digging their own
graves" as he's about to hang. Did Kanis seek vengeance on the
Duchess afterward?
4)We see Kanis speak to his dead dog at the funeral on the beach.
Does he truly love his dogs, or does he just consider them tools?
5) Kanis says to Duncan that he only has to think about it, and his
dog will rip out a boy's throat. Is Kanis' connection to his dogs of
a paranormal nature, or is there a more mundane explanation?
I saw in the Watcher CD that Kanis' first death was at the hands of
Duncan's student, Devon Marek. He hunted and killed Kanis. I wonder
how that experience formed the Immortal that Kanis became.
Next time I'll be posting about Duncan in this episode.
|
