Immortal Christoph Kuyler makes his victims laugh so that they drop their guard and he can kill them. MacLeod, having seen Kuyler kill Baron Deschields in 1783, recognizes Kuyler's modus operandi when an old man is killed in a nearby café. MacLeod remembers how Kuyler caught him without his sword in 1980, resulting in MacLeod fleeing on a Bateau Mouche and meeting Tessa for the first time. MacLeod, knowing Kuyler's taste for absinthe, tracks him down, through his distributor.