Amac Productions

I don’t like this episode.

Nope.

No.

Yuck.

My girlfriend was right. Lots of angst around the corner and unlike her, I don’t want anything to do with it. She claims otherwise given the fictional stories I’ve had her read that I love angst. Which – she’s not wrong. Except for one thing, I have complete control over those stories.

I know the ending. I know the suffering will lead to something or not, maybe I’m writing a tragedy. Regardless, going in I typically have a rough idea of what’s going to happen. Mostly. Sometimes the characters run away from me but that is its own kind of fun.

Here – however – not so fun.

I don’t know what’s going to happen.

All I’ve seen right now is something beyond terrible occur to Gabrielle by a horrible group of people.

She’s horribly distraught and helped create Stonehenge.

Because they’re involved in all manner of historical events. Gotta love that little tidbit just tossed in at the end after you’ve been put through the wringer.

Jeez.

Compared to this episode the last one was a walk in the park.

Which since my girlfriend is still cackling like a witch over a cauldron, I’m not feeling too confident about the next episodes.

You know what?

I had some very clear thoughts last week on that episode, was so happy to dive in, and start analyzing. This episode makes me want to run away and hide until it’s over.

Where do I begin?

Do I begin with the metaphor for r*pe? Which I detest, mind you. Well executed which why is bothers me so.

Do I start with the evil god Dahak?

How about that Ares is somehow the good guy warning Xena of the terrible god? Like how did we get there from last week?

This week, he’s actually attempting to be helpful, but because he’s been so unhelpful for so long Xena pays him no mind. Although, I do like that she stabbed him. Very nice.

On the other hand, he has a point, and I cannot believe I just said that.

Last week I told Ares to just stop trying to take on Xena and please go away. This week, I’m like come back here and explain yourself about this god you don’t like and why. Also, stop making sense that the devil you know is sometimes better than the one you don’t.

Which if given the altar of flames and horror is anything to go by, dealing with Ares’ annoying attempts to best Xena might actually be preferred.

What is happening?!

I’m starting to long for Ares to be the big bad after 20 minutes of this new guy Dahak and his followers.

What about Xena?

I’d like to kick her in the head this episode.

Somehow, she seemed to assume this was the same one God the Israelites were following when she fought Goliath. You know what they say about assuming Xena.

Which came to fruition.

Because she left Gabrielle in their care believing they were as good as the people she fought beside once before only to discover it is nothing of the same. It’s something far darker and more sinister.

Which she might have noticed if she was not so busy attempting to outsmart Caesar who returns this episode with his army in tow. As usual in his attempts to conquer and rule the world.

Xena wishes to stop him.

It’s a nice thought. Except her actions aren’t based on saving the world from his wrath so much as revenge for him pulling one over on her a long time ago. She hasn’t forgotten, nor is she letting it go. And she’ll do whatever she has to, to stop him. She’s so focused on this goal in this episode, she loses sight of everything else.

No matter what it is.

Even Gabrielle.

She trusts her safety to people she’s barely given two thoughts to. An act so unlike her. She doesn’t even threaten them should anything happen to her. Instead, Xena forges ahead thinking only of how to outsmart Caesar’s every move.

Which I cannot fault – she does. At the expense of everything else.

Including Gabrielle.

This is the first time I’ve seen Xena so lost in something she didn’t even stop to think of Gabrielle’s safety. Even when dealing with the Horde or being aboard a cursed ship or in the middle of a war, Xena never stopped keeping an eye on Gabrielle. She always tried to keep her safe.

Even though in some cases Gabrielle snuck away without Xena’s knowledge putting herself in danger, Xena wasn’t far behind to stop the horror from occurring.

Not this time.

This time, Xena doesn’t show up in time to save her.

She’s far away, helping to lead an army against a dreadful man but at the cost of Gabrielle.

Xena successfully saves her from Caesar to lose her to something far worse. Bones can heal. Will a spirit?

Gabrielle has been so careful not to kill anyone. It goes against her very nature, her very being. As I discussed last week, Gabrielle is an immutable good. Even here, which I don’t think is an act of cold blood or murder because she genuinely thought lives were in danger.

She was only coerced into doing this dark deed because someone was trying to kill a supposed friend and then her. My girlfriend pointed out that the man was in no real danger since it was the plan all along.

I pointed out that the woman went after Gabrielle with a weapon as well. Gabrielle had no way of knowing she wouldn’t really use it to hurt her. She did not have her staff, she had a knife and defended herself.

To me and probably most people, it was a simple self-defense.

I don’t think it’s the blood spillage they would need to unleash someone like Dahak, but it fits Gabrielle’s narrative as a dark act because it was something she never wanted to do. So for plot sake, I’ll let it.

However, regardless of the intent, I think it will weigh on Gabrielle as though it were murder.

She even says she killed someone.

And Xena attempts to justify it for her. She couldn’t. It must have been an accident. It makes no sense.

Except it does. Her life and someone else’s were threatened. She reacted with what she had, and the force required to save herself. It’s not that bad.

However, because every life is sacred to Gabrielle as mentioned in season one. This is going to eat her alive.

She’s a good person, forced into doing something awful because she believed in that moment she would die otherwise.

Then there’s the follow-up problem of the metaphor here for r*pe.

Gabrielle’s sickened reaction by seeing the priest all but confirms him as an attacker against her. Even her reaction triggers Xena’s protective streak, yelling at him, demanding to know what he had done.

The action on the altar. Gabrielle’s sickened reaction to seeing him. All of it plays into the metaphor and it’s disgustingly well done.

Because Gabrielle is left with all the wounds of the assault.

Not the monster. No, they’re thrilled about the turn of events. They got what they wanted and discarded Gabrielle as though she meant nothing.

Except she means everything to Xena.

And Xena left her with these people.

In conjunction with that, Xena will probably be feeling her own guilt about letting Gabrielle go off with these people.

I hate it. And I hate because it’s so well done. So kudos to the show for making me respect this storyline even though it disgusts my very being.

Moving on because I cannot talk about that anymore.

For things I did enjoy about the episode, I loved that the minute Xena realized something was wrong she raced to Gabrielle’s side. While she did lose herself in the heat of battle for a while and the thrill of chasing down and defeating an old foe, all of that paled in comparison to Gabrielle.

The very moment things were not alright with her, she raced off to find her ‘friend.’

Although, for the first time in the series, Xena is too late. And while Gabrielle was more than capable of saving herself, it came a cost.

This is an interesting tipping point for the series I didn’t anticipate when I started watching it.

Xena has always been pretty adamant that she doesn’t mind protecting Gabrielle. Even if it adds more risk to herself. She doesn’t mind. And up to this point, she’s done a fairly good job of getting there in the nick of time to save Gabrielle. Like when she was blind and rescued Gabrielle from being burned alive.

She’s always managed to show up just. in. time.

Or…

Gabrielle has been able to defend herself and others or fend them off until Xena arrived.

Of course, it is another form of Xena rescuing Gabrielle since she taught her to fight and defend herself against enemies.

So far, this has worked well for them.

But luck had to run out some time I suppose. I mean, it is a TV show, so we could have kept letting Xena save the day and Gabrielle walk away unscathed. But I suppose the juiciest part of stories is in the hard parts.

Angst is a joy to write because it allows characters to grow and discover new things about themselves. Whether it’s a bad growth or good growth, it doesn’t really matter. How the character reacts to the changes is the important and interesting part.

So while I hate being unable to control the angst, I can also appreciate well done angst, because if I was writing this, I probably would have gone here too.

Xena can’t save her all the time.

What does it look like when she doesn’t? When she’s too late?

And this story fits their narratives perfectly.

Because Caesar is one of the few villains who is on par with Xena mentally and can play her type of chess match. In fact, arguably, he’s the only one she’s ever lost to. Which means she has a mega chip on her shoulder, and it is fairly clear she wants payback making her blind fury believable here.

Meanwhile, they dismissed the one God as something they had seen before, not looking too closely at it.

Another mistake.

Believing that Gabrielle would be safe with them because they’ve always skated by before.

Another mistake.

It all fits into their narratives, even how Gabrielle kills someone fits her. She thought she was protecting herself and her new friend. She couldn’t have known it was a trap. Usually that’s Xena’s job to sniff that out.

Except she was too busy out-plotting Caesar.

It works. I hate it, but it works.

A few final tidbits!

I loved that Gabrielle recognized she should absolutely not tell Caeser that she is a close friend of Xena’s. She did not notice quickly enough or hide it well enough, but I applaud her attempt and realization that this dude is not good news.

It is once again reenforced how much I do not like Caesar here. His smug, swarmy attitude, and his annoying saying about women make me want to hit him. I’d really like Xena to do it for me, but ultimately, I also know his fate. I do enjoy Greek and Roman history.

I mean, unless Xena gets to be involved in his murder as well. I wouldn’t object.

Which is also annoying because I think Karl Urban is a fantastic actor. Proof positive in how much I want to punch his smug face. Jerk.

I did not like the callback of breaking Gabrielle’s legs like he did Xena’s because he picked up on something between them. Nope. Did not like. What an ass. I hate him. I hate that he enjoys stringing people up to die and further punishing them just because he can.

I did not like. Nope.

Didn’t like that he felt the urge to put his banner there to so everyone knew it was him. However, it does give us a lovely moment of Xena destroying the banner soooo… It was almost bearable.

I enjoyed that Xena made amends with an old enemy. Although, considering she left her high and dry at the end of the episode to rescue Gabrielle, they still might not be friends.

Mark her off the Christmas card list Xena!

Finally, I give kudos to the callback to episode three – I believe – of season one when Xena tells Gabrielle that once you kill someone, ‘everything changes.’

Gabrielle repeats these words to Xena as she tries to comfort her in the wake of the temple collapsing. Something that Xena has no real response to.

Which I cannot blame her.

What could she say to make this better?

I don’t think there is anything. Nor do I think she could dispute what she said in season one, given how much she herself knows it to be true.

It will be interesting to see where these two go from here, because things have changed. The world is completely different to Gabrielle now than it was before.

She’s taken a life. Something she vowed to never do.

How does she cope with that?

It’s also interesting given what I said last week about Gabrielle being a force for good and that even if she’d met Xena before she’d still be good. I still stand by that given how much this is going to affect Gabrielle. It’s not something she’ll shake off in an afternoon.

How does a good person cope with doing something bad?

And how does Xena cope with failing to protect Gabrielle for the first time? I’ve always said that Gabrielle represents all the innocence Xena no longer has and that she wants to protect in the world.

What happens what that innocence is affected?

I can’t wait to find out.

Also, someone please explain to me why my girlfriend keeps saying that we will have hope for a long time after this. Like she’s saying it super weird. When I ask if the next episode will be hopeful, she just says there’s will be hope.

What does that mean? Why is she giggling?

She keeps saying she’s made a great joke. Someone save me, please. I don’t know what’s happening.

Onto the next, though I am terrified of what it might bring.

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