Did anyone else wish Xena didn’t bother to save him?
Is that just me?
I bet it’s not.
Either way. As my girlfriend puts it, we have one super gay episode and then a super straight episode to satisfy the sensors. Or whoever needs to believe that this show isn’t the gayest thing to ever appear on our screens.
I still think it’s gayer than things we get today.
The level of dedication Gabrielle and Xena is unparalleled.
Even in this episode, Gabrielle insists that Xena make her choice without worrying about Gabrielle.
It’s not exactly common to worry terribly about your friends when making a choice involving your love life. Yes, they factor in, of course. Don’t get me wrong, but they’re not the primary focus.
Not to mention, your friends usually encourage you to follow your heart.
Which to a degree Gabrielle is doing here by telling Xena to not worry about her, but I doubt I’ve watched another show where the friendship takes priority over the romance. We put so much emphasis on romance and how important those relationships are over everything else.
If Xena or Gabrielle were a guy, this would look like a classic love triangle.
And despite Ulysses presence, it does play that way at times.
Like when Xena and Ulysses are talking and the camera pans down to a depressed Gabrielle eavesdropping on them.
She’s completely wrecked by the thought of losing Xena to someone else.
Of course, we could write this off as seasickness that she’s been fighting the entire journey. But is it?
She was doing alright during this time. Not great, but well enough.
And her seasickness has nothing to do with the conversation going on at that moment. Instead, it reflects Gabrielle’s emotions about Xena’s conversation that she just heard.
It had nothing to do with the seasickness.
In fact, writing in her stomach issues give Gabrielle a great reason to appear sick throughout the episode. A perfectly plausible reason for her to be unhappy. A reasonable reason for people to point to and claim they’re just friends.
But they really aren’t.
The writers gave their overlords what they wanted. A male love interest.
But the entire time, Gabrielle is fraught with illness and depressed.
She could appear sick. Or jealous.
Depends on what you’re looking for. They writers give us what we want, all while claiming there’s a perfectly logical reason for Gabrielle to be upset this episode. She just doesn’t feel good.
Here’s the thing, all things in the world of fiction are up for interpretation.
We can take Gabrielle’s sickness for whatever we want. A perfectly logical manifestation that she’s upset that Xena is taking an interest in someone else.
She’s upset when Xena suggests it could be love.
Her head nearly pops off when Ulysses comments about Xena being ‘what a woman.’
She nearly gets sick around several of the advances and flirting from Ulysses and Xena.
She’s depressed when she hears them talking together.
And how else would you explain the endless devotion to Xena when she agrees to go with them regardless of her stomach. She simply says that she goes where Xena goes.
Something Xena knew without even having to ask.
They’re so connected. Even in disconnected moments.
There was no chance that Ulysses truly posed a threat to their relationship. So much so, I predicted he would die before the episode ended. I mean, that’s pretty much how it goes for their love interests at times.
Get too close and you die.
Or you’re a god, like Ares. But he disgusts Xena too much for her to ever truly be interested in him, so we’re good there.
Everyone else has died or been left behind after one episode.
It was no surprise to me that even though he made it to the end of the episode, he was left behind with his still living wife.
Which, also, how are we supposed to like a guy who found out his long-lost wife was still alive, and he was willing to drop her after knowing Xena for two seconds?
Harsh man. At least get to know her again.
See if you’re still in love before you start filling for paperwork.
Of course, in fairness to him, it has been a long time. And when you believe someone to be gone forever, you begin to mourn and try to move on. It’s not too terribly surprising that he might feel differently about his wife.
Just hard to swallow you wouldn’t be some form of excited or happy that she’s still alive and you have another chance with her.
Eh, people are complicated.
Something this show does really well, because Ulysses isn’t really a bad guy. He’s trying his best. Sometimes, there are no good choices. Just lesser degrees of evil. And we have to do our best to navigate through them.
Which I enjoyed about Xena stepping aside to give him a chance to see for himself if he still loved his wife.
Not to mention, he had an entire kingdom to help.
Ultimately, she made the right decision for him and for herself to move on.
I think maybe telling him that like she did at the end would have been better than trying to break his heart, but hey, that’s just me.
Meanwhile, I love that Gabrielle knew immediately that Xena was lying through her teeth.
No one knows her like she does.
This is what I mean by still being connected even when they’re not completely connected in the moment. Overall, their bond, and link is too strong for anyone to break.
Even the TV executives who want us to believe they’re ‘just friends.’
Yeah right, if I treated my friends like they treat each other, I think my girlfriend would have questions.
Welp, hopefully the next episode is gayer! Onto the next! Thanks for reading! Hit that subscribe button so you never miss a Xena review again!
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