We'll try to keep our snickering to ourselves over the downing of Mr. Wonderful as the all-perfect hero, especially in the midst of an episode purporting to name him the imminent savior of the world from the forces of evil. Until we see the resolution of this storyline, we really shouldn't comment. So let us comment on the death of Richie.

It sucks. (Please read just a few of our reasons why.)

The main reason why it sucks is that, dramatically, there was no reason why Richie had to die. The only reason was that it was in the script. The scene was totally contrived. For one thing, it would have been logical on Duncan's part to have shouted "Joe's here with me" instead of "that's impossible" when Richie called him on the phone and told him he had seen Horton with Joe. This sort of verbal miscue happens only in Televisionland, that mythical place where wild schemes and ridiculous plans seem logical to the characters involved.

For another, Richie would not have approached Duncan so unwarily in that abandoned racetrack if he had seen Duncan waving his sword about wildly, apparently at invisible foes. Basically, the writers and creators of the show knew that Richie had to be written out of it, so they contrived a situation to allow Richie to die.

It's unbearably sad that Duncan was the one to take Richie's head. We were very torn up about it. The nostalgic montage of Richie-scenes was gooey but effective. Richie and Duncan had a son-father relationship that was very sweet to witness. But think about it. We're all going to be treated to unmitigated Duncan Angst over this next season, and with good reason. Part of us wishes that Methos had surprised the hell out of everyone by taking Duncan's sword, saying "Okay, fine, motherf**ker!" and whacking Duncan's head off. In one sense, it's what Duncan deserves ... but as countless past episodes have shown us, many immortals prefer to let each other suffer guilt and remorse for decades rather than giving them the easy out.

We're going to miss Richie. We loved his smile. One of us liked his hair long and one of us preferred it short. He had the prettiest blue eyes on television. And damn, he looked great in jeans. We wish Stan Kirsch well in his future career. He is a great actor and had become part of a really enjoyable ensemble cast on Highlander that we are going to miss. Where do we go from here?

Richie, we hardly knew ye. Rest in peace.