PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, psychological*
Season Three begins the series of generally serious stories that fans term "The Rift." Had the entire season followed this theme, I would probably judge it as possessing good mythicity. However, the various comedic interludes keep the overall level merely at "fair." There's an increased emphasis on "subtext" in this season.
THE FURIES (G)-- The writers' reworking of the Orestes myth is considerably more successful than the second season's meretricious takes on the narratives of Ulysses and of the Athena-Poseidon quarrel. Ares persuades the Furies-- the judges of Greeks who commit sins against their families-- that Xena has failed to avenge the slaying of her father. The Furies strike Xena with madness, and though some of her distracted actions are humorous in nature, on the whole the warrior princess is tormented by her irrational urges. The master stroke in Ares' plan is that the slayer of Xena's estranged father, whom she barely remembers, was her mother. Thus, like Orestes, if Xena kills the slayer, she will still be consumed by the Furies' vengeance. But whereas Orestes's sin is purged by the gods in mythology, Xena must use what remains of her wits to out-think Ares, by accusing him, her former mentor, of being her real father. A commentary states that the writers thought of presenting Xena's hoax as the truth, but changed their minds because the "shared universe" already had a demigod hero. Ares makes a speech about how the only true victory is of those strong enough to "twist" reality to serve them, and his use of the phrase "beyond good and evil" suggests the usual bad reading of Nietzsche.
BEEN THERE, DONE THAT (F)-- Lucy Lawless gets to exercise her comic chops big-time in this reprise of "Groundhog Day." I find the XENA episode funnier than the movie, thanks in part to lots and lots of Joxer. There's a rather singular use of the phrase "seize the day."
THE DIRTY HALF-DOZEN (F)-- Gabrielle, whose good effects upon Xena's character are constantly touted, gets to see how "Bad Xena" changed six formerly ordinary individuals into career criminals. Xena recruits these half-dozen former followers for a vital mission. The heroines and their unruly allies must foil Ares' current plan to hurl the world into war by gifting a petty warlord, Agathon, with near-impenetrable metal armor for Agathon's soldiers. Comedy and drama intermingle as Xena and Gabrielle must ride herd on their aides, some of whom are perfectly willing to turn on their former benefactor. There's a minor theme thrown in, wherein Gabrielle wonders if her identity is innate or was forged by the influence of Xena, like the Half-Dozen. Katrina Hobbs, also on HERCULES, has a nice role as a man-hating hot babe.
THE DELIVERER (G)-- Were the allusions to the monotheism of Israel in the previous two seasons turn out to have been a setup by the writers and producers for this turn of events? The episode takes place at the time Julius Caesar has invaded an area of Gaul termed "Brittania." After Xena and Gabrielle rescue a mild-mannered slave named Krafstar, he gives every impression that the "One God" he worships is related to the Judeo-Christian faith. Xena, motivated by her grudge against Caesar, drags Gabrielle to Brittania with the goal of rendering aid to Caesar's enemy Boudicea (who ruled a tribe in eastern Britain, not Gaul). Ares tries to persuade Xena not to help the acolytes of the One God, trying to evoke her loyalty to Greek culture, but his arguments fall on deaf ears. Sure enough, Krafstar's true allegiance is to a demon-god, Dahak, and Dahak has selected Gabrielle as the innocent pawn he will impregnate, in order to have a half-mortal scion on Earth. Gabrielle's violation is in some sense made possible when she knowingly kills an acolyte in self-defense, giving up her "blood innocence"-- somewhat homologous with virginity, even though Gabrielle is not a virgin in the sexual sense. Xena can't prevent her friend being subverted by Dahak but she does destroy a demon-bodied Krafstar. The episode ends with the two women not yet aware of Gabrielle's supernatural violation.
GABRIELLE'S HOPE (G) -- It doesn't take long for the heroines to figure out that Gabrielle is now "in the family way." While trying to arrange passage back to Greece, the companions are harried by "banshees," who apparently have some investment in the fortunes of Dahak (even though in the previous episode Krafstar states that Dahak would wipe out all the "old gods"). Brittanian villagers condemn Gabrielle as a witch, but a strange contingent of knights renders some aid. These warriors are portrayed as symbolic anticipations of King Arthur's knights-- they even have a Round Table and a stone with a sword in it, which is presumably going to remain in place until Arthur is born a few centuries later. The demon-child comes to term quickly and is born, with yet more crypto-Christian symbolism, in a manger. Gabrielle names the girl-child Hope, but Hope is pure evil and kills a knight while she's still in swaddling clothes. Xena becomes convinced that the child must be slain, but Gabrielle hoaxes her friend by faking Hope's death. This gambit allowed the writers to suspend the demon-child plotline and give viewers a breather from the heavy drama that would dominate the arc's conclusion.
THE DEBT, PTS 1-2 (G)-- Xena must discharge a blood debt in the distant realm of Chin, and the more Gabrielle learns about the reasons, the more she dislikes hearing about the foul deeds of "Old Xena." Those deeds occur some time after the heroine's betrayal by Caesar, when she and her warlord-lover Borias led raiders into Chin. When Borias sought to forge a pact with either of the local petty rulers, Ming Tzu or Lao, Old Xena, despising the idea of peace, is rude to both Ming Tzu and his ten-year-old son Ming Tien, and then to Lao's emissay, his wife Lao Ma. Old Xena kidnaps Ming Tien for ransom, but Borias betrays her.
Lao Ma, not unlike M'Lila in DESTINY, intuits some greatness in Old Xena and rescues her from Ming Tzu. DEBT PART 1 features a scene one might call "lesbian-adjacent," since Lao Ma saves Old Xena from drowning with a little "mouth-to-mouth" oxygen. Current Xena doesn't precisely tell Gabrielle who she wants to avenge-- though it's not surprising that it's Lao Ma, slain by the new ruler Ming Tien-- but Gabrielle actually warns Ming Tien before Current Xena can kill him. This is also potentially a major move in the "subtext canon," since it can be deduced that on some level Gabrielle is jealous of the intensity of Current Xena's loyalty to a dead woman (lover?) PART II fills in some of the narrative blanks, showing that Old Xena converted young Mien Tien to evil by twisting his nature, just as Ares purportedly did with Xena. Significantly, Lao Ma's death is given Christian iconography, as the Chinese woman is sacrificed on a cross-altar, garbed in white and refusing to use her power to escape. In the end, Xena escapes Ming Tien's power, but lets Gabrielle think she spares the corrupt ruler, when in fact she covertly takes Ming Tien's life-- an act that will have repercussions in THE BITTER SUITE.
THE KING OF ASSASSINS (P)-- And boom, just like that, after four very heavily dramatic episodes, we're back to wacky comedy. Xena puts in a quick appearance at the opening and then doesn't come back until the last quarter of the episode. Gabrielle, Joxer, and "king of thieves" Autolycus must endeavor to stop Jett, Joxer's evil brother, from assassinating Queen Cleopatra. I can't say two Joxers were better than one.
WARRIOR... PRIESTESS... TRAMP (P)-- Yeah, four Xenas IS too many, even if Princess Diana sits this one out. This time Lucy Lawless plays warrior Xena, tramp Meg, and Hestian priestess Leah, a prissy-pants who judges any woman who's not a virgin. This time an evil schemer wants to use Meg to masquerade as Leah to bring about the slaughter of the Hestian priestesshood for some reason. Lawless created a lot of distinct toss-off characters on the show but Leah's not one of them. Good action scenes but no baby-juggling.
THE QUILL IS MIGHTIER... (P)-- Again Xena is absent for over half of the episode. Ares is pissed off about Gabrielle for some reason, so he manipulates Aphrodite into enchanting Gabrielle's scroll, so that everything written there becomes literal truth. There's quite a bit of building on the idea, established in COMEDY OF EROS, that Joxer secretly loves Gabrielle while she's utterly unaware of his feelings. Otherwise, lots of silly-pants goings-on.
MATERNAL INSTINCTS (G)-- "I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me."-- EXODUS 20.5.
It's not a jealous god, but mortal passions which end up costing the lives of children for the sin of the parents. In a curious inversion, though, Gabrielle's child perishes because of Xena (who brought about Gabrielle's impregnation by taking her to Britain for vengeance on Caesar) and Xena's dies because of Gabrielle (who allowed her demon-child to live, and so was responsible when Hope slew Solan).
Hope also frees Callisto from her prison, largely to keep Xena busy, though Callisto is also a "child sinned against," loosely created by the evil of Old Xena. Hope and her demon-father are not as dramatically vivid as Callisto, who finally gains the vengeance she desired against Xena, only to realize that her triumph is hollow. In addition, the episode still delivers lots of kick-ass action. Though this could have been a good finish for Callisto's first arc, she appears again at the season's conclusion.
THE BITTER SUITE (S)-- The density of the imagery here, mostly derived from the Tarot, makes this the only episode of a serial TV show whose mythicity I rate as not just good, but "superior." Because SUITE is so complex, I won't attempt to shove all that complexity into a paragraph or two here, but will just recommend some of the online studies of SUITE, as on the Xena-site WHOOSH. Just summarizing the plot-action then: the rage Xena and Gabrielle harbor for one another propels them into a world of musical fantasy, wherein they must work through their issues before they can return to the living world. The episode isn't perfect, but its most problematic aspect is that once the show hit this level of dramatic and mythopoeic intensity, almost everything else seems like weak tea by comparison.
ONE AGAINST AN ARMY (F)-- Xena not only has to stop an army of invading Persians, she has to worry about finding a cure for her poisoned partner Gabrielle. Excellent fight-scenes, though even the best choreography can't make probable the Warrior Princess defeating a full detachment of soldiers.
THE FORGIVEN (P)-- When the heroines seek to recover a priceless religious urn, their biggest headache is dealing with Tara, an obnoxious girl who wants to replace Gabrielle as Xena's sidekick. It has lots of catfights and "no such thing as a bad kid" dialogue, not much else.
KING CON (P)-- Joxer is severely beaten by the thugs of a casino owner, Titus. Xena and Gabrielle enlist the aid of two swindlers, seeking to fleece Titus of his riches with a "long con." Ted Raimi does one jokey routine at the beginning but spends the rest of the episode recovering from his injuries.
WHEN IN ROME (F)-- Xena takes a stand against Caesar again. However, instead of seeking pure vengeance on the Roman, she seeks to liberate Caesar's captive, the rebel hero Vercinix of Gaul, scheduled to be executed in Rome at the Circus Maximus. Xena and Gabrielle kidnap Crassus, one of the three lords with whom Caesar shares the rule of Rome, hoping that Caesar will prize his need of an ally over that of a rebel execution. Yet Xena knows how crafty Caesar is, and lays contingency plans. These plans don't keep her from having to fight armed horsemen in the arena (a throwback to countless gladiator movies). As a side-dish, Gabrielle, not having learned anything from her adventure in Chin, believes Crassus when he claims to be innocent of fomenting slaughter. Naturally, her childlike innocence is betrayed-- though this time, Gabrielle takes an action to make sure Crassus is punished.
FORGET ME NOT (F)-- In a story that would've been more apt coming right after BITTER SUITE, Gabrielle feels so tormented by her bad experiences that she seeks out the temple of the Goddess of Memory, to exorcise all of her poisonous recollections. Yet for some reason the sidekick's spirit goes on a quest to explore the evil memories, while Joxer takes charge of Gabrielle's body, fully functional except for lacking any sense of past events. While Joxer fantasizes about "re-programming" his crush to love him back, Gabrielle's spirit is hassled by a mental construct that looks like Ares. The comedy-section with Joxer is adequate, while the Big Reveal of Gabby's torment is predictable. She realizes she really wanted to punish Xena during THE DEBT because the young sidekick was jealous of Xena's regard for Lao Ma. Xena herself only has a few new scenes at the end, not counting a handful of clips from Gabrielle's "memories."
FINS, FEMMES, AND GEMS (P)-- Even for a wacky comedy episode, this one's all over the place. Aphrodite sends some goons to steal a mystic diamond, so the heroines, plus Joxer, give pursuit. The love-goddess zaps all three do-gooders with an "obsession-perfume," causing them to become obsessed with whatever was in their minds at the time. Gabrielle turns incredibly vain, Xena becomes a nut about fishing (particularly with the New Zealand variation called "kite-fishing"), and Joxer fluctuates between acting like a monkey or like Tarzan. The goals at stake are confusing and most of the slapstick is un-amusing. O'Connor's egomaniac act is nice though.
TSUNAMI (F)-- Xena and Gabby relive THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, sort of. When the heroines see their bud Autolycus on a ship taking convicts to an island prison, they intervene and get stuck on the ship. A tsunami strikes, turning the ship over and obliging the survivors to figure out some logical way to escape the slowly sinking vessel and to reach land. The dramatic arcs of the guest stars, including that of Autolycus, are forgettable.
VANISHING ACT (F)-- Now this is what the Autolycus character was meant for: heist stories. There's a golden statue, Pax, whose existence is crucial to the peace of several neighboring villages, and one night the statue goes missing. Xena and Gabrielle want to find the statue to preserve the peace, but so does Autolycus, because he fears that his fame as "King of Thieves" will be endangered by such a stellar rip-off. But to add a sop of altruism, the rival thief is also a villain who killed Autolycus' brother. Xena and Gabrielle both masquerade as buyers for the missing artifact, with Lawless delivering a fun over-the-top perf.
THE SACRIFICE PTS. 1-2 (G)-- Though the trope of "ultimate innocence births ultimate evil" is still strong enough to endow this two-parter with high mythicity, the script is extremely rushed and inconsistent with respect to character continuity.
X and G stumble across a sacrificial cult, whose main sacrifice is an old friend of Gabrielle's, Seraphina. The heroines witness the rebirth of Callisto, and at first think she's become the object of the cult's worship. But a reborn Hope (how? who knows?) is the true cynosure, and when enough sacrifices are heaped up to her, she will be able to admit her demon-father Dahak into the Earth-plane. All of this activity MAY stem from Ares making common cause with Dahak. He's apparently overcome his repugnance for the demon-lord's plan to obliterate the old gods, as long as he Ares survives, and he increases his worth to Dahak by coupling with Hope, who has now assumed the adult form of her mother Gabrielle. Supposedly Hope will then bring forth a demon army able to conquer Earth. The big question, though, is whether this time Gabrielle will make the right choice regarding her demon-daughter's survival-- which she does, though it leads to a cliffhanger conclusion for the season. In order to reduce the odds somewhat, Callisto has now become so beset by divine ennui that she desires oblivion more than anything, and when Hope doesn't deliver on her promise quickly enough, she switches to Xena's side. But, appearances to the contrary, all three vile villains survive to menace the world again in future seasons.
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