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James Horton was a mortal and a former Watcher. He became the leader of the Hunters, a faction of renegade Watchers who sought to wipe out all Immortals, whom they considered abominations who had to be destroyed.
Biography[]
From 1981 to 1985, Horton had been the Watcher of the Kurgan, one of the most brutal Immortals ever recorded, which may have influenced Horton's belief that Immortals had to be eliminated. His assignment following the Kurgan was Blake Wilmington, who according to Watcher records, perpetrated a brutal massacre at an amusement park in 1988. Horton was evaluated by the Watchers Psychology and Counseling department, but was at the time judged to have no lingering trauma over witnessing such events.
Forming the Hunters from other disaffected Watchers, Horton began a reign of terror meant to ensure that no Immortal ever took the Prize meant for the last one of their kind, since it was believed that this Immortal would gain power over the entire world.
The Hunt Begins[]
Horton corners the Galatis
Many of the Immortals killed by Horton and the Hunters remain unknown; however, during one of his earlier hunts, an Immortal couple were too close to each other when the wife was killed. The indirect Quickening charged up her grieving husband and enabled his escape.
Learning from this, when Horton moved to kill Damian Thackery and two other Immortals, he made certain no other Immortals were present.
Facing MacLeod[]
Horton was first officially introduced in the episode, "The Hunters" as the leader of the men who enter Darius's chapel and beheaded him. Those men, called the Hunters, then kidnapped MacLeod's friend, fellow Immortal Hugh Fitzcairn. Horton later accosted Tessa Noël and checked a wound she had on her hand to see if she was Immortal. Tessa was frightened by this encounter and reported it to MacLeod. In the meantime, Fitzcairn had been taken to the Hunters' headquarters. Horton and his accomplices "study Fitzcairn as one would a large, interesting insect," then shot him with a crossbow to see if he would revive, and confirm that he was an Immortal. When Fitzcairn awoke, Horton remarked, "I've often wondered how much pain an Immortal could bear before he went mad."
Horton attacked by MacLeod.
MacLeod searched for the Hunters' hiding place while Horton addressed his men: "We have won a great victory. We have destroyed a malignant evil that has walked this earth in the form of a man for the last two thousand years. People do not cheer us, people don't even know we exist, but we know the battle we fight. We know the evil we must destroy. I would like to send you back to your homes... to your lives... but our work here is not finished." Horton tells Fitzcairn, "You are an abomination before nature and in the eyes of man. There is no glory but ours. No destiny that is not of our making." Horton was about to guillotine Fitzcairn when MacLeod arrived to rescue him. In the ensuing fight, Horton told MacLeod, "When you kill me, others will come; to continue what we have begun. We've always understood. We will never be dominated. We know about the Gathering. It's about power. There is nothing greater that the power of man. Nothing. You must die. All of you."
Exposed[]
In "The Watchers" after MacLeod met Joe Dawson, Horton remarked to Dawson, "You spoke with one of them. That's never happened before." When Robert Tucker, one of his Hunters recruits, who was also his daughter's fiancé, expressed doubts about the Hunters mission, Horton answered, "It doesn't matter if they're good or evil, Robert. They're here to dominate us. They fight for their right to rule us. And one day, that is what they will do." When Robert said he wanted to leave the Hunters because MacLeod spared his life, Horton killed him. Horton then mounted a trap to behead MacLeod, but Dawson confronted him, saying, "What you are doing is totally wrong. It betrays everything we stand for. They aren't all evil." Horton answered, "I felt like a doctor watching a cancer grow."
Horton is nearly killed by MacLeod.
MacLeod then arrived and Horton admitted to having killed Robert, saying, "Sometimes in war innocents get harmed. I believe that the generals call it collateral damage." MacLeod was about to kill Horton but stopped because Lynn begged him not to. Horton was infuriated and shot MacLeod in the back. MacLeod was able to stab him with his sword before collapsing. When he revived, the others had disappeared.
Return[]
In "Unholy Alliance: Part One" Horton concluded an agreement with Immortal Xavier St. Cloud, in which Horton provided mercenaries who shot Immortals so that the one armed Xavier could safely behead them. Horton also used Xavier's Watcher, Barton, to manipulate Dawson so that Dawson told MacLeod where Xavier was, who was then waiting for him with his mercenaries. MacLeod came as planned, but his friend Charlie DeSalvo had followed him and witnessed the fight between MacLeod and Xavier, and MacLeod being mortally shot by Horton, before being shot himself.
MacLeod revived and broke open Horton's grave in the Dawson family crypt but it was empty, and MacLeod was then approached by Horton. MacLeod moved to attack him, but Horton warns him, "Holy Ground, MacLeod! Shame on you... You're forgetting the rules. I tried to get Xavier to come but even he wouldn't kill here." When MacLeod asked if Horton does this to feel powerful, Horton replied, "This is not about me, MacLeod. This is about you, you and your kind. You're an abomination." Then Horton boasted, "I'm the man you can't kill. Frustrated? I know I would be in your position. How would you like to kill me? ...with your sword? No, I think you'd prefer to do it with your bare hands, feel the life drain away from me." Eventually Horton hinted that Dawson knew everything and escaped. Later, MacLeod watched Dawson join Horton on a boat, and then cornered Dawson to hear the truth from him. Dawson explained, "After you fought with Horton, I had to take him to the hospital. He was dying. I made sure he was through with the Watchers, MacLeod. No one was to contact him, and not even his own people. He was an outcast. I've known the man for twenty-five years, he's my sister's husband. I couldn't just let him die. He said he just wanted to leave the country, live quiet." Dawson said he did not tell this to MacLeod "because I knew you'd kill him." MacLeod was hurt that Dawson lied to him and walked away.
In "Unholy Alliance: Part Two" Horton and Xavier were still plotting MacLeod's death together. During their conversation Xavier put a hand on Horton's shoulder and Horton shows disgust at this physical contact with an Immortal. He remarks, "It would give you great pleasure to kill Duncan MacLeod, would it not?" When MacLeod enters, Horton got a helicopter to allow Xavier to flee the ensuing fight. Later in Paris, when MacLeod found their hiding place, Horton tried to flee again on a boat, but Dawson stopped him. Despite Horton's claim that "we're family," Dawson shot him and Horton fell in the river. Horton was next seen in the episode tag, watching MacLeod from a distance and apparently unharmed.
Death[]
In "Counterfeit: Part One" Horton set up an elaborated trap to kill MacLeod. He uses Pete Wilder to befriend Richie and make MacLeod suspicious, which spread discord between the two. At the same time, he has murderer, Lisa Halle kidnapped and her appearance altered by plastic surgery so that she looked like Tessa.
In "Counterfeit: Part Two" Dawson mentioned that he and Horton designed the Watcher's computer security system together "to be bullet-proof" and that it used a thumb print to get in. MacLeod reasoned that Horton might have survived Dawson's shot by wearing a ballistic vest. Horton tried to kill Dawson but Richie took the bullet instead. Horton waited for Lisa to kill MacLeod on Tessa's grave. Horton entered after hearing a gunshot, and tried to behead MacLeod but MacLeod stopped him. Horton killed Lisa and after running out of bullets in a gun fight with Dawson, ran for his life, but MacLeod chased him. The Highlander taunted the Hunter for his cowardly action reminding him he said that he was the man he couldn’t kill. Horton turned and drew a switch blade, but Duncan quickly grabbed his arm and killed him with his own knife.
Personality[]
Horton was possessed of fanatical conviction, and was intelligent, perceptive, methodical and patient. But while he believed he was on a mission to eliminate what he saw as "evil", his actions consistently demonstrated a lack of bravery and honor, particularly in how he avoided direct conflict and used deceit.
Because he was a mortal, Horton never engaged in one-on-one, honorable combat, relying on traps, manipulation, and the element of surprise. He often sacrificed his own men, the "Hunters," and used innocent people, including his brother-in-law Joe Dawson and future-son-in-law Robert Tucker, as bait or leverage. Horton murdered the peace-loving Father Darius on Holy Ground, where Immortals are honor-bound not to fight, which further highlighted his disregard for rules and fairness.
Horton also allowed his fanaticism to go above his love for his family. The executive producer, Bill Panzer, commented that Horton "used Joe whenever it suited him, and there was never any sign of his having any real affection for Joe at all, not any more that he had any real affection for his own daughter".
While Horton cared about his daughter, Lynn, to some extent, his fanaticism ultimately overshadowed his paternal feelings. While it is not explicitly confirmed in the show, some interpretations suggest that Horton may have also recruited Tucker to exert some form of familial control over Lynn's life. The primary motivations for the recruitment were related to Horton's fanatical mission to eliminate Immortals. However, the fact that Tucker was Lynn's fiancé means Horton was able to merge his two worlds: his personal life and his secret mission. By recruiting his daughter's fiancé, Horton brought someone already close to him and within his family circle into his secret society, ensuring a level of loyalty and secrecy.
However, this attempt at control backfired dramatically when in "The Watchers" episode, when Duncan confronted Horton, Horton held Joe at gunpoint and even confessed Tucker meant nothing to him. Prior to that, Horton murdered Tucker, Lynn's fiancé at the time, simply because Robert expressed doubts about the Hunters' mission after MacLeod spared his life. When Lynn appeared, Horton simply told her to go away, not hesitating to put her uncle in mortal danger right in front of her.
His act of violence against both her partner and uncle showed a profound disregard for her happiness and well-being. Lynn disowned her father after he killed Tucker, but Horton, rather than regretting his actions and trying to make amends with his daughter, blamed MacLeod for "turning" her against him. This shows that his pride and twisted sense of justice were more important than his relationship with his only child. This proves that Horton's extreme ideology meant he would sacrifice anyone, including Lynn's own loved ones, for his cause. His actions led to the breakdown of their relationship, demonstrating that his fanaticism far outweighed any genuine parental love.
In the end, Horton's greatest weakness was his desperation and ego. After running out of ammunition, he was taunted by Duncan for not living up to his boast, effectively attacking Horton's pride. Horton could not handle the humiliation, so he stopped running and drew a switchblade in a final, pathetic attempt at a fight, which just got him killed. This final act of defiance, using a small switchblade against a centuries-old swordsman in a last, hopeless lunge, cemented Horton in despite his cowardice, was ultimately driven to his death by a fanatical ego and belief in his mission to destroy Immortals.
Trivia[]
- Peter Hudson's age is not truly known and is all over the place.
- Elcinema.com claims he was born on October 17, 1965, making him 28 at the time of his debut as Horton, while the grave lets the audience know Horton was killed at 49, making him 48 in his first appearance.
- Valerian and Laureline Wiki however, claims he was born on February 19, 1946, which makes him a year younger than Horton.