Amac Productions

I am angry on behalf of Argo!

And Xena!

And myself a little.

I find this episode a little icky.

For several reasons!

Let’s start with the obvious!

Ewwww! Ares had sex with Callisto while in Xena’s body and that’s gross! Just wrong and gross and I did not need that. At all.

So after that, I’m moving the fu*k on!

Over to Argo! Poor Argo who was so confused the entire episode and trying to tell everyone that something was wrong with Xena. Except she’s a horse and no one is listening. Which is annoying.

Because Argo is only one with some sense.

Since Argo has noticed that Xena is not quite Xena.

But Gabrielle didn’t listen or notice. At all.

Because reasons.

I love that we never really over explain things in this series. But it is also annoying. Because magic and weird things happen. Like two duplicates of your best friend just roaming around Greece.

You’d think after the last time Xena acted weird, this would set off some alarm bells.

Nope.

Not even when she insists that Gabrielle kill Calisto after just convincing her not to, like two episodes ago.

Um, Gabrielle? Is this thing on?

She would never want you to kill. Never. Ever. If we get to a point where Xena wants Gabrielle to kill someone or something, the world has ended. Something has gone horribly wrong here.

Because literally, Xena has done everything in her power to keep Gabrielle as she is. The sweet, naive, and innocent girl she rescued who followed after her.

Sure, she’s had adventures and can defend herself now. But there are certain things Xena wants to keep far away from her best friend and probably crush.

Like, I don’t know, straight up murder!

No.

Just no.

Gabrielle. No.

Overall, this episode is amazingly well done.

I cannot compliment Hudson Leick or Lucy Lawless enough for their stellar performances playing the others’ character.

Lucy Lawless looks like she’s having the time of her life, playing the unhinged Callisto for a change. And Hudson Leick manages to nail so many of Lucy’s small details to make them seem believably like another character.

It’s amazing!

I even love that Leick deepens her voice while speaking as Xena. Using a deeper and calmer tone. While Lucy utilizes a lighter tone from time to time almost as though Callisto is forgetting to keep up the charade.

Or more like, is wishing and hoping she’ll be caught for a bit of fun there too.

Because nothing is ever really out of Callisto’s plans.

Even if Gabrielle knew that Xena and Callisto switched bodies, what was she going to do? Run to find Xena.

She is in theory in the Underworld. How could she help?

You’d be stuck with a Callisto in Xena’s more finely attuned body as Xena herself mentions that Callisto is a bit different from hers and is still working out the kinks. That’s still deadly and terrifying.

I love that somehow Ares also thought he would be able to ‘control’ Callisto.

No one controls Callisto. Not even Callisto.

Ares is a fool for thinking that anyone could replace Xena as a prime candidate to his tribute. Because she’s no fool. Smart. Strategic. Cunning. A warrior of the highest skill. And isn’t impulsively or obsessively powered.

Everything is calculated. Everything.

It’s going to be a near impossible feat to find someone like her that you could control.

Anyone you can control Ares, isn’t going to be able to do half the things Xena can.

It’s a problem, dude.

Good luck.

Then we have the final moment when Callisto plans to burn Xena’s mother and her village but Xena has already figured out her next move. Callisto likes to say that Xena is predictable, but Callisto can be as well.

Her very obsession with Xena leads her to certain ends.

Regardless of how she gets there, she still ends up with wanting Xena to suffer as she has.

Ultimately, that makes her predictable.

What isn’t predictable is the ending when Callisto’s body is still being worn by Xena as we end the episode.

Normally the episodes of Xena are fairly well contained, and I do know that this was due to an unforeseen injury Lucy Lawless suffered.

Narratively, it doesn’t quite make sense because why couldn’t Hades just swap bodies back?

I mean, if Ares was able to do it. Shouldn’t you be able to reverse it? Especially when Xena used the premise of the spell or magic against Callisto in the end by making her feel guilty as well?

Shouldn’t it?

Thankfully, for this show we need not look so closely at things. Otherwise we might poke holes and honestly, this show is too good to do that to.

Because with Xena in Callisto’s body it presents an interesting issue to the best friends.

Can Gabrielle cope with her late husband’s murder’s face on her best friend in the entire world? Or will it prove to be too much for her to handle?

Honestly, I’m over Perdicas death and wish the show would be too, but well, no. It’s not. I fear, it’s going to stick around as a beard.

Much like Joxer who we cannot seem to get rid of.

Was anyone else hoping that Callisto would off him?

Though, I will be honest. I think I said it to my girlfriend when we were watching it, he gets points for trying to save Argo.

I’m a sucker for an animal lover. I’ll give him that one. Okay?

I love that Xena’s mother knew within a second that it wasn’t Xena but took Gabrielle an actual memory to figure it out. Very weird.

There wasn’t a whole lot of moments between these two in this episode because of the body swap. Honestly, I spent most of the time praying that she didn’t just get sick of pretending to be Xena and just try to kill Gabrielle.

Although, I understood that Callisto was biding her time to trick Gabrielle into killing her best friend. Honestly, that would have been painful for both of them and a good evil plan on Callisto’s part so I can forgive her for not snapping.

Because I am always annoyed when a villain has a chance to just kill someone and doesn’t take it. Honestly, if she succeeded in getting Gabrielle to murder Xena, it would have been life altering for both of them.

Literally and figuratively.

Overall, a nice episode!

Onto the next! Thanks for reading!

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