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Oh good, Xena’s lying now. I’d hate for her to be left out of the deception.

Where do I start here?

I mean, so many f*cking things happened!

Xena did end up killing the Green Dragon! Who is Lao Ma’s son.

She was a slave. Then sold to a king to be his bride. But he’s dying so he’s kept in a coma like state while she runs his kingdom in his stead making him beloved.

Because he wished to be cruel.

Instead, he’ll be remembered as a saint.

Xena is angry Lao Ma takes no credit for her good deeds.

Gabrielle slaps Xena.

Xena asks for nose scratches.

Three people try to lay claim to Xena, though she claims she belongs to herself. Personally, I thought she belonged to Gabrielle, but this season is testing the limits of their relationship.

As Xena killed a man. Then propped him up like he wasn’t dead to fool Gabrielle into thinking she let him live.

Which she should have known, by the way. That guy did not shut up the entire episode, and he was suddenly quiet. Should have been a giveaway.

Xena totally fell in love with Lao Ma.

I mean, that entire scene was gay.

But she’s still weirdly and oddly attracted to Borias and the darkness of power that corrupts her. Making her incapable of understanding Lao Ma’s message.

Lao Ma fixes Xena’s legs.

The prison in the Green Dragon’s kingdom is absolutely awful! Do they have to go to the bathroom in there? Do you really need the wooden thing? Why is it steaming? Is it that cold?

Yet the Green Dragon himself claims that he is not a monster.

I disagree, man.

And while I’m a million percent certain his death probably made the world a better place, it is not going to help Xena at all. Nor is lying to Gabrielle about it.

I mean, the conditions of his prisoners is abysmal. He’s a horrible person who won’t just banish Xena. Of course, he’s sort of right that she’d try to kill him regardless of her banishment. Oh, what am I forgetting?

Oh yes, he killed his own mother.

A fact he knew!

Did he know the whole time? Is that why he was so cold to her as a child? And his views of his father are so odd but understandable in this episode. He viewed his father as a weak man, unable to protect him from people like Xena. So he sought to make himself powerful enough to never feel powerless.

Of course, his mother appears soft to him as well. All that power at her fingertips, yet she doesn’t use it to rule the world. To him and his narrow views, she would appear soft.

Yet she may be one of the strongest people in the world on this show. Like Gabrielle she is unwilling to give into complete darkness and let it rule her.

No wonder Xena fell for her.

And it’s interesting to me, because Xena didn’t know until this episode that Lao Ma was dead. She could have come to see her at any time since her change of heart as a warlord. Yet she did not.

Why?

Was she ashamed? I doubt Lao Ma would have held anything against her. She sends a messenger asking Xena for help in her fight against the Green Dragon. While I do not think she wanted her to kill him so much as remove his power, she must have known that Xena had changed.

Yet she never went to her.

Why? Fall in love with someone else?

Also, all of this appears to be a jealous spat between Xena and Gabrielle.

Gabrielle comes off every so often as jealous of Lao Ma as someone Xena cared for so much and respected that she would drop everything and rush off to murder someone. Going against her current beliefs and all the growth she’s had. Even ignoring Gabrielle’s pleas not to.

This must seem so odd and terrible to Gabrielle.

A woman she’s competing with for Xena’s affections.

There’s never been a man between them before. Nothing anyone could do or say that would make Xena ignore Gabrielle or deny her requests. Yet, there’s someone.

Someone in her past, powerful enough to do that. Lao Ma.

Except, here’s the thing. I don’t think that’s quite true. I could see how it might be from Gabrielle’s perspective, especially through the viewpoint of them as a couple. She’s acting from place of jealousy and insecurity given her recent actions.

But I don’t think Xena loves Lao Ma more than Gabrielle.

I think she regrets not loving Lao Ma enough.

That she could have changed. Lao Ma offered it to her on a silver platter, and she threw it in her face. She couldn’t bring herself to do the right thing for Lao Ma back then, but she can try and make it right now.

Unlike her relationship to Gabrielle where Xena manages to listen to Gabrielle most of the time. Not currently since this is the season of turmoil.

Gabrielle has been the person who can break through to Xena when she’s at her lowest points.

Xena wonders who she would be without Gabrielle in her life. Would she have remained on the right path without Gabrielle to help guide to do the right thing?

Would she have lost herself along the way? To Ares? To Ares, again? To the Horde? So many little moments where Gabrielle was the catalyst for Xena to do the right thing. Exactly as Lao Ma attempted in the flashback. Yet she failed.

It’s not because Xena didn’t have feelings for her.

She totally did.

That floating fabric scene and the repairing of her legs definitely had sensual tones and romance to it.

I think she didn’t love Lao Ma enough to give up what she wanted for herself. Power. To get back at Caeser and the other ruler in Chin. She was still cloaked in vengeance and hate and anger.

And here’s the take I don’t know if people would agree with, but I think if it was Gabrielle and not Lao Ma in that past, things would have ended differently. Even with Xena letting the darkest parts of her rule herself. Gabrielle would have persisted in her attempt to change Xena.

She wouldn’t have given into the game of dice.

Her attempts would have been different and far more effective as we have seen in the past with Gabrielle understanding Xena like no one else ever has.

There is also one other thing Lao Ma doesn’t have – their connection.

While there is clearly a connection between Xena and Lao Ma, the intensity of the connection between Gabrielle and Xena blows any other away.

Because here’s the thing, even with all the angst going on – I still think they’ll be fine.

They’ll still be together. Forged into something stronger perhaps.

But Lao Ma and Xena broke beyond repair. One Xena never attempted to fix or make amends for until Lao Ma reached out for help. And even then, she goes out of some guilt. Not affection.

It was a love story that ended in tragedy.

It was always meant to.

However, Gabrielle and Xena are meant to be on the same side. I said it last week, that the world doesn’t feel right when they’re not walking together as a solid unit. Things are rocky and cracks are appearing, making the whole show feel, not right. It’s intended with the storyline which is nice because the writers let us sit with this.

Knowing the truth.

And that’ll it all come to a head sometime.

Lao Ma and Xena were never right for each other. Even with Lao Ma and Gabrielle being similar. She’s not Gabrielle. And that makes all the difference.

In these two episodes they also snuck another kiss past the censors under the guise of giving air.

Um, dude, you don’t find it odd that she dunked her head under the water for no apparent reason?

Just wondering.

Love them for that.

The Green Dragon attributes his cruelty to Xena and he is not the first to do so, nor do I assume he’ll be the last. I do enjoy this reused plot, because it never really gets old.

Xena corrupted people when she could.

However, all the people she corrupted forget one thing. They could decide for themselves who they wanted to be. Xena may have offered or trained or helped you along the way, but you still had a choice.

Just as Gabrielle and Lao Ma have choices. They refuse to allow themselves to be corrupted. Even the wake of awful things, they forge ahead trying to do right and the best they can.

Even with Gabrielle hiding Hope. She believed she was doing the right thing by her child. For her child.

So Mr. Green Dragon, you chose to become a horrible tyrant. You could have chosen to make the world safer from people like Xena and instead you opted to be worse. Congrats!

This episode was a wild ride of flashbacks and current moments.

Again, we find Xena and Gabrielle at odds. Gabrielle firmly believes she can save Xena from her fate in Chin. Although, Green boy over there revealed he was never going to let her live no matter what was said. So that’s nice. At least he can admit to being a jerk.

He offered Gabrielle anything and then refused to give her what she asked for.

Terrible dude. I’m telling you.

Gabrielle fails to negotiate Xena’s release and goes to say goodbye, leading to a touching moment between them.

Xena claims she was never really mad at Gabrielle. She just thought she was doing what was right. Which I got to say, also feels like a lie.

Xena appeared in that moment to me, like she was comforting Gabrielle rather than admit she was mad at her. Because the anger didn’t serve a purpose in what she was attempting. She needed to let that go to possess the power Lao Ma had.

Because she definitely seemed mad for a while.

Neither of them is being completely truthful with each other and I don’t like it.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, this is a fantastic storyline. Well written, acted, and done. Completely. No notes. I cannot commend everyone involved in this story enough for how they’re handling the conflict between Xena and Gabrielle. Because it would need to be something huge to come between them and they’ve believably made these events feel completely in character.

It’s amazing!

However, it is extremely painful to watch because I love them both so much and I don’t want them to fight!

It’s a painful yet well done plotline.

I loved that Xena broken the tension by asking for her nose to be scratched and Renee’s genuine reaction. It almost felt like they had ad-libbed the scene, it was amazing.

I loved the tidbit of Gabrielle holding the wooden thing for Xena for a moment as well to give her break. Such amazing touches.

These actresses bring these characters to life with every choice they make and I love it.

Overall, this is a fantastic episode.

We explore Xena’s backstory and how she felt compelled to repay Lao Ma for not understanding her teachings then. Because even though she credits Lao Ma with helping her, she still wasn’t done causing chaos and murder yet. She still had a long road.

I think this is another case of Xena romanticizing someone in her mind.

As she did with Borias and to an extent Gabrielle.

Xena suspects nothing about Gabrielle lying to her. She did for like two seconds before buying Gabrielle’s story about chucking baby Hope into a canyon.

Xena wasn’t ready and Lao Ma wasn’t the right person to show her the way in that point in time.

It happens.

Other things I liked about this episode. I oddly liked that the Green Dragon despite his utter horribleness, does weird things. Like honor the request of his dead mother to give the brooch to Xena. Or allow Gabrielle to see Xena now that judgement has passed. He makes the rules and sticks to them, which is oddly honorable.

It does not excuse anything he does. I just like when a villain has this one weird noble or honorable thing they do. Even if everything else they do is awful.

Like Damien Darhk on Arrow. Terrible guy. Loved his wife and daughter beyond all reason. Same with Kingpin in Marvel, he’s a terrible dude who will grind you into paste. Loves his wife though and treats her like a treasure.

I get a kick out of this writing choice.

Xena has the book Lao Ma wrote. It’s a lovely full circle moment with Gabrielle promising to keep it safe with her.

Does Xena have this power all the time now? Or is it something she’ll only be able to do once and while because it’s far more difficult for her to get into the right frame of mind than it was for Lao Ma?

It’ll be interesting to see going forward.

The disclaimer! Another blow to their relationship. You people are killing me!

Lao Ma named Xena the Warrior Princess! I loved that. Nice touch!

Wild episode! I loved it though. Despite all the pain and suffering I’m enduring with all the angst and my girlfriend enjoying my pain.

Ah, I love that woman.

Anyway, onto to the next! Thanks for reading!

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