Amac Productions

“You owe someone so much, you’d throw away the last three years.”

“Yes.”

Lucy and Renee never fail to deliver some intense lines and moments. I – for sure – cannot thank them enough for that. On the other hand, ouch, ow, ow, ow, ow!

What are you people doing to me?!

My girlfriend is cackling and reveling in the angst. I would like to get off the angst train, but the exits are blocked. Oh dear.

Between the writers, my girlfriend, and the actresses – I do not think I’m going to survive this storyline.

Alright, let’s dive into this episode, shall we?

It’s gay! Okay, good? Got it? And it starts off gay as hell with Xena sleeping in her bedroll only to roll over and swing her arm where Gabrielle ought to be but isn’t. Which wakes her up.

I mean, I know I’m always sleeping like that next to my best friends and if they’re not there, that totally messes up my sleeping. NOT!

Jeez.

That was not subtle at all.

Gabrielle isn’t in bed with Xena.

I’m going to say that again, because I can! Gabrielle isn’t in bed with Xena.

Waking Xena up, who goes looking for Gabrielle who is praying that her daughter, who is alive and out there somewhere is being good. Which – you know – I pray for as well, because otherwise this is not going to be good when Xena finds out.

Because – of course – she’s going to find out!

Come on, that’s a perfect set up to something and it would be terrible not to use. See Arrow and the set up for his fathering a child and having no idea the child was alive and well in the world somewhere, which they did nothing with for multiple seasons losing the effect they built.

How could you not drop that bombshell somewhere?

I would!

I love causing angst. Generally, because I know the ending and that all will be well, unless I’m writing a tragedy. Though I will give you warnings. I’m not a monster.

Which begs the question: Are we watching a tragedy unfold here?

It certainly feels like a perfect Greek tragedy unfolding with the demon child on the loose somewhere, while Gabrielle quietly mourns the loss of her child. Because it’s still a loss, even though she’s not dead. She’s not raising her. She doesn’t know if she’s safe. If she’s being a good child, like Gabrielle hopes her to be.

There’s my girlfriend’s joke again.

Hope.

We’ve got Hope for a while.

Though I have very little of the emotion.

Because we get an excellent conversation between Xena and Gabrielle, that feels like so much foreshadowing it’s crazy. It’s such a heavy-handed one too. Which I – normally despise. However, here it works!

Xena is oblivious to the betrayal of Hope still being alive.

Gabrielle isn’t.

Thus, her moment when she tells Xena she never wants to disappoint her, is her bracing for the future. She knows one day, somewhere, somehow, Xena will know what she’s done. She won’t be able to hide it forever. And she fully believes Xena will be disappointed in her or angry.

Or some negative emotion.

So, she seeks reassurance now with Xena while they’re in a better place. Xena promises her that it isn’t possible.

And while I would have agreed with her before this storyline, I’m not sure I do now. I’m also not even sure I’m mad at Gabrielle for her choice to save Hope.

She was put into a horrible position. Forced to choose between the love of life and her child.

How do you choose?

I have no idea.

I don’t think I could. I don’t think I could have sat by and let Xena murder my child in Gabrielle’s position. If I’m being honest with myself, even knowing that Hope is most likely evil, I don’t think I could have brought myself to let her be killed.

It’s her child.

I wonder if Gabrielle is hoping there’s a part of Xena that will understand that. Understand that a mother would do anything for her child. Become anything. Be capable of anything. Even lying to the person, she loves so much for.

Xena did something similar.

She put Solan’s needs ahead of her own. She wanted him. To be his mother, however, she knew it was a worse choice for him. Instead, she sent him away with someone she could trust to do right by him. Protect him. Allow him to grow into an honorable man, instead of a monster like she had been.

Or worse, die because of her.

Because someone wanted to get back at her.

Maybe Gabrielle is hoping Xena will understand that. Or that Xena’s affection will outweigh the choice she made.

Or worst of all – maybe she believes she will be unforgiveable in Xena’s eyes and she’s enjoying the time she has left at her side.

Somehow, I think there’s a combination of all of those going on.

Mostly, I believe the last one is at the forefront. As Gabrielle is clearly worried about Xena discovering the truth and what will happen. Nor does she believe that telling her is the right thing to do.

Instead, she keeps it to herself and carries on as normally as she can.

All of that, is just the opening scene!

It’s not even done, and we’re put through a ringer of emotions as Xena and Gabrielle discuss that nothing could tear them apart, while cracks are already starting to show.

They’ve never kept secrets like this before.

It’s never felt so dire and awful before. Even at their worst moments. Even when they’ve been at odds in the past. None of them ever felt like this. It feels serious and somber and awkward.

It’s painful to watch.

To know something will shift. The world will crumble down as the truth is revealed.

The episode with Hope being born and Xena shifting to try and kill the baby revealed something we’ve never seen before.

Gabrielle has stood toe to toe with Xena before.

Arguing over ideals, about right and wrong, and generally Gabrielle isn’t ever wrong in those situations. Maybe she doesn’t have the full scope of the problem. Maybe she’s completely right and is trying to knock some sense into Xena. Generally, we agree with Gabrielle.

For the first time, I don’t.

For the first time since Xena failed to save Gabrielle, Gabrielle truly turned on Xena in a way we’ve never seen before.

Sure, they’ve argued and been on opposing sides of things. But it’s never truly been one against the other. They’re always trying to do their best for each other.

Dealing with the Horde, Xena was trying to keep them alive and felt it was worth slipping back into her darker habits to keep Gabrielle alive.

Gabrielle stood against Xena, but not really.

She was still on Xena’s side. She wanted her to choose a different path, a better path so Xena could remain in the light she fought so hard to get back to. She wanted what was best for Xena.

Xena wants the best for Gabrielle.

Gabrielle wants the best for Xena.

And typically, those needs have never been superseded by anyone else. Not in a long term. Not even in short term. They always come first, even when they’re fighting about the right path for something, they’re never enemies.

However, for the first time when it came to Hope.

They did feel like enemies.

Xena wanted to protect the world and Gabrielle. But Gabrielle couldn’t really be saved. Her choice would hurt her friend. She would just have to help pick up the pieces in the aftermath, but she knew her actions would hurt Gabrielle. She did it anyway, putting the world first.

Gabrielle put Hope first. She sent the Banshees after Xena. Used every piece of knowledge she had about Xena and what she had learned to get away from her. To put space and distance and even knew how to convince her that she killed her daughter. What to say, even a diversion. Lying to Xena would hurt her. Tricking her would hurt her. Possibly the world. But she put her daughter first.

Never have we seen them choose someone else over each other.

I didn’t think I’d ever see that happen.

Yet it did.

And it feels wrong. Like the world is somehow out of order. They don’t feel right. All the vibes are just… off.

Even as Xena reassures Gabrielle that she could never disappoint her, it rings hollow. While it appears true for Xena in this moment, we know the truth about Gabrielle’s actions.

Just as Gabrielle does.

The audience and Gabrielle are on the same page – if only she knew.

Would she still say that? Would she still be here? Will she still love me?

Isn’t that the crux of everything for everyone at some point in our lives? If we show the darkest parts of ourselves to someone, will they still love and accept us?

Xena has put Gabrielle on such a pedestal, what would happen if she fell from grace? The very picture of goodness Xena sought all this time to protect. An innocence she has failed to protect. Everything that happened since. Would she blame herself? Gabrielle? Will she see her the same way?

Will she still love her and want her around?

How many of those questions circle through Gabrielle’s head in that moment? All of them, I’d bet.

Then, the plot of the episode kicks in.

By the way, my favorite moment in the entire episode might be when Gabrielle gets all cheeky and smiley and says there’s someone in the bushes with them. I love how much she has learned and how far she has come. How much Xena has taught her since they’ve been traveling and uses it to her advantage.

She doesn’t need Xena’s protection like she once did.

There’s a lot she can do for herself.

Xena didn’t even appear to mind that Gabrielle was wandering around in the middle of the night, she could handle herself for the most part. She was more worried about her emotionally.

So, interrupting a beautiful moment is a dying messenger and a bunch of assassins trying to kill the messenger. They succeed but not before he delivers his message.

A green dragon is too powerful, and you’ve got to come kill him.

I’m paraphrasing of course, because the message Xena interprets doesn’t really match the woman we meet in flashbacks.

Lao Ma appears as an incredibly intelligent and compassionate woman, even for those who don’t deserve her kindness. Such as Xena in the flashbacks.

Xena decides to head to Chin to kill the Green Dragon and we’re treated to a connection between Xena and another woman, while we also meet Borias for the first time.

Remember him? We’ve heard about him before, he’s Solan’s father. And also, not at all what I was expecting of Solan’s father.

Like I knew he was evil as well, not as evil as Xena – which we get, mind you. But he is still horribly cruel and awful and seemingly nothing like the honorable Borias we heard about before.

Also, Xena appeared to describe him as someone she appeared to care for once and respected when he’s discussed in Solan’s intro episode. However, none of those things appear to be true.

And while this could be the writers not remembering what they wrote before, but I choose to interpret it as Xena romanticizing her past with Borias simply because he was the father of her child. Someone she never really got to make amends with because he died while he was supposed to be hauled off to jail on her orders. In her mind, she’s remembering the good parts of him.

His merciful side.

His honor.

Not the horrors he helped her commit or how they treated each other.

Because I’m fairly certain there was nothing more between them than a surface level physical attraction which created Solan and little else.

I also loved that Xena called it a love story, but not with Borias and for the first time in description of him in present day, she seems disgusted by the thought. Which further goes to my point. She let the centaurs see the honor in the man they met and her son as well. She puts up the good parts for him to idolize and leave the bad out for her son’s sake.

Just as she lets him believe that her mother was a kind soul who died.

I loved that.

I also loved Lao Ma who is very clearly running the show and circles around everyone in Chin. Though no one appears to have any idea about it.

Lao Ma had me the very minute she opts to save Xena. And not because she saved the main character, because honestly, I might have left that Xena to the dogs. She is not a nice person then. Not at all.

She kidnapped a child.

She terrorized him!

Like damn. Calm down.

Lao Ma reveals she can see the good in souls and sees something in Xena. Therefore, she knows she must save her for all the future good she will go on to do. Even though the person in front of her is a complete pain and horrible.

Her begrudging tone and attitude is perfect.

I send my everlasting kudos to the actress for pulling off that moment so wonderfully.

She’s like, I don’t like you. Not at all. But I have this freaking power that lets me see the good in people and that they will do something with it and now I cannot just let you die. You’re important to the world at some point and I have to save you because I’m a good person, damn it.

I really love that.

I loved her character before because clearly there was something between the two women and she’s a powerful woman, Lao Ma.

I loved her uninterest in ‘meat.’ Which my girlfriend pointed out was not about meat and I loved that little tidbit.

Very nicely done.

Borias is not what I expected and yet it works. Oddly enough.

Xena is not the mastermind she is now yet. It’s fun watching her lose and win and lose again as she learns to become the warrior we meet in the pilot.

Also, I was not expecting her to still be injured by the leg break by Caesar, so that’s interesting. I wonder how they explain it away.

I loved the whole flashback as we learn about Xena’s past. It’s incredibly well done and does wonders for why Xena is so feared by people. She was a lot unhinged at one point. Combine that with her getting smarter and smarter as she learns new tricks and strategies. No wonder she was a feared warlord.

Damn.

In the present though, tensions are rising between Xena and Gabrielle.

Xena explains the story to Gabrielle and why she must do this, while Gabrielle tries and fails to convince her not to go to Chin and commit murder.

Gabrielle fails.

Yet another first.

We end the episode with Xena intending to have killed someone, not swayed by Gabrielle even in her final moments of approach to the bed to kill the person. She’s hit with flashbacks of Gabrielle, yet it does not deter her.

I’m not liking these firsts whatsoever.

Gabrielle wanted to go with Xena, but Xena thought it best for her to stay behind since she won’t be able to stomach what Xena plans to do.

Gabrielle is left behind.

Yet! Somehow!

She not only beats Xena to Chin, but she also warns the Green Dragon that Xena is coming to kill him and helps set up a trap to capture Xena.

Xena is shocked by this revelation.

I don’t blame her! I was shocked! I think I yelled when I saw it. I don’t remember. I do remember freaking out though. How did she get there?

Why did she tell the Green Dragon? I feel like this is going to cause more problems.

What is your endgame here Gabrielle? What in the world were you thinking?

Holy crap.

That final scene I just cannot with.

Gabrielle doesn’t want Xena to be disappointed in her, yet she’s pushing that boundary really hard this season. Are you trying to break it? Find the limit? Please stop.

I don’t like this. It hurts wayyyyy too much!

The final scene finds these two at odds again, when they were on somewhat stable ground before. I’m not sure how this will shake out and I’m really scared about it as well.

Last notes, I don’t think the other dude from Chin. He’s awful in his own way. Especially wanting to hunt Xena down while she’s crippled.

I mean, dude. Just cut her head off.

No need for the theatrics. Theatrics are how people survive in movies and shows. See what happened!

What in the world did Lao Ma do to launch Xena the way she did? What was that? We got magic up in here now?

Kidnapping the kid was cold. Turning on Xena was cold by Borias. The scene on the horse was disgusting.

I’m terrified of part two. Anyone else?

AAHHHHHH!!!!

Please, send me your thoughts on the episode!

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