XENA WARRIOR PRINCESS: SEASON FOUR (1998-99)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, psychological, sociological*

Though Season 3 had some moments of mythic genius, there was always a limit on much brilliance could be worked into a weekly, hour-long television series. Season 4 places that limitation on greater display, and there's conspicuously less employment of Greek myth than in previous seasons.

ADVENTURES IN THE SIN TRADE, PTS 1-2 (P)-- Xena, having seen Gabrielle and Hope plunge into a fiery abyss, believes her cherished friend dead. But the god Hades claims that Gabrielle has not appeared in Tartarus. Since Gabrielle became an Amazon Princess, Xena theorizes that her spirit may be in a different underworld, to which all Amazons go. This idea leads the heroine to return to Siberia, where she and her warlord-lover Borias plied their raiding-trade following their adventure in Chin, and where they engaged in battles with Northern Amazons. In addition to experiencing flashbacks to Old Xena's misdeeds, Current Xena must liberate the spirits of slain Amazons from limbo and face a new/old enemy, the shamaness Alti (Clair Stansfield). Despite a lot of mystical blather, SIN feels artificial, like the writers culled a lot of info from monographs on Siberian shamanistic practices. Though Alti would make more appearances, she never registered as anything but a routine world-conqueror.

A FAMILY AFFAIR (F)-- A vision causes Xena and Joxer to seek out Gabrielle's home town. They apparently find their late companion hale and hearty, but there's also some sort of big monster in the area. Xena's suspicions are duly aroused, and sure enough, "Gabrielle" is really her lookalike daughter Hope, and the monster is the creature Hope conceived by Ares. (I guess falling through a fiery abyss doesn't interfere with a smooth delivery.) Yet somehow Gabrielle also appears on the scene, none the worse for wear, even though she's not the spawn of a demon-god. The happy reunion is sidelined in favor of the destruction of Hope and her child, and this concludes the Dahak storyline for the series in a very underwhelming manner.

IN SICKNESS AND IN HELL (P)-- Despite Gabrielle's returning from death, the first thing on the writers' alleged minds was to afflict her with foot fungus and give Xena a case of lice-- all while repelling an invasion of Scythians. Oh, and Argo deserts Xena for a very stupid reason. The level of humor is such that the scriveners don't even come up with any good lines or slapstick routines for Joxer.

A GOOD DAY (F)-- Julius Caesar and Pompey pit their forces against one another, and once again Xena shows forbearance, trying not to kill her old enemy but to keep the forces of the two Roman enemies from devastating Greece. Gabrielle has an atypical scene donning armor to fight with the Greek soldiers, and Xena engages in a three-way sword-battle with Caesar and Pompey, both of whom survive to menace the Xenaverse again later.

A TALE OF TWO MUSES (P)-- A more honest title might have been "Bootloose," since it really is just a Xenaverse reworking of FOOTLOOSE. The heroines meet again (for the last time) with punk girl Tara, who reveals that the magistrate of her home town has banned all dancing. Xena and Gabrielle enlist Autolycus to trick the townspeople into kicking out the mean magistrate and embracing their inner dance fever.

LOCKED UP AND TIED DOWN (F)-- And back we go to "Guilt-Obsessed Xena." The lawmen of an unnamed town arrest Xena for having slain a native, Thalassa, during the bad old days. Xena confesses her guilt and allows herself to be sentenced to a women's prison on the dismal Shark Island. While Gabrielle seeks to find some way to effect her friend's release, Xena makes a vital discovery: Thalassa is not only alive, she's the commandant of Shark Island. That makes Xena technically innocent of the crime, and that allows her to start busting heads. It's not a great story but Guilty Xena is generally preferable to Wack-a-Doodle Xena.

CRUSADER (G)-- FINALLY, an episode that clicks on all cylinders. As a result of her shamanistic experiences, Xena had a vision that Gabrielle would die. Then the two heroines run across another female crusader, Najara (Kathryn Morris), who leads a small coterie of warriors against evildoers and who appears to be as skillful a fighter as Xena. In many ways, Najara seems to be "Xena without all the negative baggage," in that she's totally devoted to a vision of goodness she calls "The Light," and she shows a certain attentiveness to Gabrielle that just falls short of being in "subtext territory." Yet, to prevent Gabrielle's death, Xena persuades her BFF to join Najara's crusade instead. Then Xena learns that Najara's devotion to Good may not be all that great, and it's sword-slingin' time again.

PAST IMPERFECT (P)-- Xena tells Gabrielle about the vision of the latter's death; Gabrielle agrees to be on guard. They attempt to protect an embattled city against an advancing army, and Xena realizes that the enemies are using tactics that Xena herself used as a raider and warlord. The narrative becomes somewhat confused by flashbacks to the days of Old Xena and her lover Borias, but they're necessary to the revelation that the enemy forces are being led by someone Old Xena knew in the Bad Days. 

THE KEY TO THE KINGDOM (F)-- This time there's no Gabrielle at all, and Xena barely appears, though there's plenty of Lucy Lawless as Xena's conniving lookalike Meg. Meg, Joxer and Autolycus team up to swipe a key to a great treasure-- but the key is an enchanted infant. Call this one THREE DORKS AND A BABY, but it does rate a little higher on the mythicity scale for expounding on Meg's complicated past. And at least Autolycus is once more involved in thievery. But Joxer's participation in a Big Heist doesn't ring quite so true.

DAUGHTER OF POMIRA (G)-- Once again the warrior women fall afoul of The Horde, whose proper name is "Pomira." This episode is somewhat indebted to the classic film THE SEARCHERS, but the writers manage to give the conflict its own identity. After encountering a small Pomiran hunting party, X and G behold a female with atypical blonde hair, and they later realize that the girl was abducted from the nearby Greek town. X and G rescue the girl from the Horde tribe, only to learn that the female, who calls herself P'Lee, has no memory of being a Greek and considers herself Pomiran. In fact, P'Lee, who still speaks her birth-language, justifies her people's warlike ways, upgrading them from senseless marauding Mongol-types to something more like Native Americans, defending themselves from incursions. Ironically, the Greek most hostile to P'Lee and her people ends up providing a means for Xena to stave off a Horde attack.

IF THE SHOE FITS (F)-- Despite the title, this parody of "Cinderella" never gets to the part about the glass slipper. Little princess Alesia runs away from her widowed father when he remarries, because Alesia's jealous of sharing her daddy with another female. Alesia initially takes refuge with Aphrodite, and then gets taken in by Xena, Gabrielle, and Joxer, even though they're in the middle of trying to rein some local warlords. On the way back to the kingdom of Alesia's dad, everyone takes turns telling Alesia fractured fragments of the Cinderella story, some of which are moderately funny. Aphrodite is deeply offended that Alesia chooses a bunch of mortals over her company, but only makes a minimum of trouble this time.

PARADISE FOUND (G)-- The title is possibly a play on the title of a Milton poem, "Paradise Regained." The heroines journey toward India in the unexplained belief that they can find insight into Xena's earlier vision in that land. (Were all of the Greek oracles busy, or did Xena piss off Apollo in some undisclosed adventure?) They pass into a barren mountain range, and when they make camp, Gabrielle brings up a common philosophical brain-teaser: is Xena good simply by doing good, or is it possible her good deeds are a means for exercising her penchant for violence?

They pass into a lush paradise with a beautiful palace, and in the latter they encounter a spiritual yoga-master, Aiden, and his one servant, Gar. It's not clear how Gabrielle heard about yoga before this, but she's eager to accept Aiden's tutelage, while Xena expressly says that yoga is not for her. Aiden shows that he's mastered his mental powers so greatly that he conjure objects out of nothingness, which foregrounds the later discovery that the entire paradide is his creation. While Gabrielle becomes more calm and focused in "paradise," Xena finds herself distracted and irritable. Xena then learns from Gar that the man was once a bandit-leader, and that Aiden slew all of the other bandits by siphoning the goodness out of them, though he couldn't quite do so with Gar. While Gabrielle's spirit in in thrall, Xena comes to blows with Aiden, her belief in her own evil nature proving a benefit, so that she can fend off many of his illusions. When she kills the yoga master, the paradise disappears and Gar goes home while the heroines resume their journey. "Paradise," though maybe a little reminiscent of "Crusader," suggest that even being good can be too much of a good thing.

DEVI (F)-- The dazzling duo finally make it to India, though they don't seem to have any particular person or temple on their agenda. They encounter a street magician, Eli, who will later become a regular character in their exploits. Eli's stage-assistant goes berserk, manifesting powers that suggest she's demon-possessed. The demonic powers vanish from the assistant when Gabrielle touches her, but in very little time Gabrielle manifests powers herself, and the Indian people begin to call her "devi," meaning "goddess." It takes far too much time for Xena to figure out that a malignant presence has taken up residence in her friend. But at least when Xena goes to to toe with her possessed buddy, the episode culminates in one of Season Four's best fights, rife with lots of references to stereotypical Indian entertainments like "the bed of nails" and "snake charming." Eli's name suggests a connection more with "The Middle East" than with "The Far East," and later he takes on a somewhat soteriological role.

BETWEEN THE LINES (F)-- The two heroines don't seem in any great hurry to suss out the meaning of the death-vision as they soak up local Indian color. Then they rescue a woman named Naiyima from a suttee-pyre-- but the near-sacrifice seems a bit like a set-up, for Naiyima suddenly shows herself aware of Xena's special destiny. She sends Xena's spirit to inhabit another body in a future era of medieval India, and when Gabrielle asks, Naiyima does the same for her. They end up reincarnated in other bodies, but nothing that happens in the future is that important, except that they both meet a future incarnation of the witch-woman Alti, whom they jointly defeat. Nice FX make the confusing plot go down more easily. The  "lines" in the title may refer to the Hindu custom of "mehndi," of lined patterns drawn on the skin (specifically Gabrielle's), which play a role in defeating Alti.

THE WAY (F)-- In this episode it's clarified that the whole "getting info on dream-visions" was just a dodge, and that the only purpose of the Indian journey was to place Gabrielle on a new path of peaceful non-violence, while Xena embodies the "way of the warrior." However much time has passed since the heroines met itinerant performer Eli, he's somehow become a quasi-Christ, complete with a "turn the other cheek" philosophy that deeply impresses Gabrielle. But the demon-lord Indrajit-- son of the famed demon-lord Ravana, slain by the hero Rama in the epic RAMAYANA-- desires to destroy Eli and his religion. The monkey-god Hanuman, also a veteran of the RAMAYANA, volunteers to help Eli and the heroines, suggests that they consult the supreme lord Krishna. Indrajit captures both Eli and Gabrielle, so Xena must appeal to Krishna on her own. Krishna's advice is much like his counsel to Arjuna in the other major Hindu epic, the MAHABHARATA, telling the warrior princess to kill dispassionately. Somehow this pearl of wisdom allows Xena to become turn into the goddess Kali and to defeat Indrajit. The mythic mishmash is not much of a finish for the Indian sojourn, but Gabrielle's new path, that of renouncing violence, will yield loads more stories.

THE PLAY'S THE THING (P)-- Suddenly, the duo is back in Greece again, though Xena departs Gabrielle on an errand and doesn't return until the last fifteen minutes. Gabrielle meets Joxer in Pireaus, a major city for stage-drama, and two fraudsters offer to become "THE PRODUCERS" of a play based on Gabrielle's scroll-stories. Gabrielle thinks she can use the theater to spread the good news of non-violence, but everything goes less than right. It's another silly romp, but funnier than most of them.

THE CONVERT (F)-- X and G interfere with a band of slavers, and find that Xena's old nemesis Najara is among the slavers' victims. In the confusion the incompetent Joxer accidentally kills the slaver-captain, leading to an unusually serious character-arc when he later tries to confess his deed to the man's son. Najara once again seem attuned to Gabrielle's spiritual progress, for Najara has at some point encountered the teachings of Eli and has become a pacifist as well. Will she manage to seduce Gabrielle with fair words? Of course not, and when Najara's commitment to non-violence is shown to be false, we get one of the best female-on-female battles in the XENA series-- though it proves the last roundup for Najara.

TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE (P)-- A better title would have been "No Clue Like an Old Clue," because the plot is nothing but a send-up of the board-game CLUE. At the home of Xena's mother, Xena and several other support-characters gather to celebrate Gabrielle's birthday. However, a passerby boarding at the house is killed, and almost everyone present takes turns being either potential suspect and amateur detective. To provide a ticking-clock, the goddess Discord functions as a bush-league Fury. She confines everyone to magical "house arrest" and demands that Xena find and turn over the culprit to Olympian justice for some damn reason. After much silly sleuthing, Xena proves that "Argo did it in the window with his hooves," or something like that.

ENDGAME (F)-- Those warring Roman factions spill over into Greece again, this time infringing upon Amazon territory. Queen Ephiny is slain by Caesar's right-hand man Brutus, so the Amazon tribe reaches out to the next in line for leadership: the now-pacifist Gabrielle. Yet this time the main enemy for both Xena and the Amazons is really Pompey, who's taking slaves, particularly Amazons, to fund his rebellion against Caesar. Perhaps because of Gabrielle's deep love of Ephiny, she accepts temporary queendom of the Amazon tribe and makes no speeches about non-violence, though she doesn't fight in the field, allowing Xena to take command. Xena kills Pompey in battle and Brutus, who proves himself an honorable warrior, is appointed to carry a message of peace to Caesar. Caesar's main response is to issue a huge bounty on Xena's head.

THE IDES OF MARCH (G)-- While traveling with the impulsive young Amazon Amarice, X and G find out about the bounty on Xena's head the hard way, so Xena lays plans to go to Rome and kill Julius Caesar. 

Meanwhile, Callisto, since getting slain by Xena at the end of "The Sacrifice," has been tormented for some time in some non-Greek netherworld. Then the unnamed lord of that domain-- later revealed as one "Mephistopheles"-- charges Callisto to play tempter with Xena, to encourage the warrior princess to give up the "way of the warrior." Meanwhile, Caesar's soldiers, led by Brutus, successfully capture Gabrielle and Amarice while in the company of Eli, who is taken prisoner as well. 

Xena seeks to liberate her three friends, but Callisto haunts the heroine like Banquo's ghost, trying to get Xena to give up the way of the warrior for peace with Gabrielle, all of which will presumably benefit Mephistopheles. Xena finds out the location of her friends by revealing to Brutus Caesar's deadly plans for his good friend, and the heroine's revelation will in turn bring about a fatal day in March for the Roman Emperor. Xena shows up to free her allies, but is wounded due to Callisto's interference. Though Eli, Amarice and others escape, Gabrielle goes berserk at seeing Xena hurt, and she slays several soldiers before she and Xena are re-captured. The long tease about the mutual deaths of Xena and Gabrielle is finally borne out, as they're raised on crosses to die. At the same time, Caesar meets his end, which presumably frustrates the plans of Mephistopheles. (This tale wouldn't be the first or last time Imperial Rome got equated with Things Satanic.) From the apparently dead bodies of the heroines rise their spirits, and that's the season cliffhanger-- though not the final episode of the season.

DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN (P)-- Yeah, it's another modern-day take on the supposedly ancient adventures of Xena and Gabrielle. Alice (Lawless), a big fan of the XENA TV show, tells boyfriend Harry (Raimi) that she's been experiencing memory-flashes of a previous life, which she thinks prove her identity as the warrior princess. The two seek out a past-lives regression specialist (O'Connor), and it turns out that all three of them are reincarnations of their ancient selves, but not the expected analogues. Not very funny, but it gets half a point for one outdated joke: "Zoomer" viewers will all wonder about the puzzling reference to an impending disaster called "Y2K."