Antony and Cleopatra

This episode has some SERIOUS meat to it. It has history and literature wrapped up in moral dilemmas and sexual politics. I like that. I don't like everything that happened in this episode, but I like that we get to contemplate motivations and morals. I'd rather have some grist for the discussion mill in an episode than spood-fed simplistic straw men.

First, a note for the history buffs: once again, Xena has tons of fun with turning history on its head. According to this episode, Antony, Octavius, and Brutus are fighting for Rome. Cleo is assassinated by an asp biting her on the breast. Disguised as Cleopatra, Xena led on Antony, then led him and Brutus into a battle and defeated them both, setting up Octavius, the idealistic young man who wanted to take Rome to a "pax romana", as the leader of Rome.

Real history says that it was Antony, Octavius, and a third general who scrabbled for Rome after Caesar's death. Antony and Cleopatra did link up romantically and sailed against Octavius, who defeated them both. Antony and Cleopatra fled and later both committed suicide. According to Shakespeare (I don't know if this part's based on any "real" history), Cleo chose to die by putting an asp to her breast. (And may I be allowed to say - ouch!) Octavius really did go on to rule Rome and set up a period of Pax Romana.

Since Shakespeare's the most famous chronicler of Antony and Cleopatra, just like we've seen in the other Rome episodes, quite a few of the lines in this episode were borrowed from the Bard.

"It's not that I love Caesar less; It's that I love Rome more."
   - Brutus gave this line in Julius Caesar. (He wasn't in Antony and Cleopatra.)

Antony's shipboard speech to Xena was borrowed from the description of Cleopatra's arrival to meet Brutus:

The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne,
Burn'd on the water: the poop was beaten gold;
Purple the sails, and so perfumed that
The winds were love-sick with them;
the oars were silver,
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
The water which they beat to follow faster,
As amorous of their strokes.

Not all of the lines were from Shakespeare's plays about Rome. Antony's "I have supped full of pleasures this night" was a twist on MacBeth's "I have supped full with horrors."

And while it's not quite Shakespearean, Brutus's line "When I killed Caesar, I crossed the rubicon of blood" was a reference to the river Caesar crossed with his army to make war against the Senate to rule Rome.

"Is it just me, or do crises only happen when I'm naked?" GREAT line, Cleopatra, but it's not you, it's the show. You shouldn't have agreed to that guest spot - nudity and death tend to happen a lot 'round these parts.

All of the actors in this episode were great, right down to the extras. Cleopatra was cool, and Antony was fantastic.

Xena can read Greek, Chinese, AND Egyptian hieroglyphics? What'd this girl do, go to school until she was 29?

This episode offers the first excuse for an absent Eve - Grandma babysitting. But why are they in Alexandria? And as long as they're bothering with excuses, has anyone seen Xena and Gab's horses lately?

I loved Antony's overeager errand boy when Cleo's carpet gets delivered, especially when Antony and his second exchange their "Oh brother" looks. Great slip of humor in a dramatic episode.

This episode packs a lot of "GOOD morning!" lines in 45 minutes:

"Will Rome enter Egypt"
"Then I'll have him on his knees... figuratively speaking, of course."
"Until he begs for my navel." "Your navy?"

Message from XenaStaff to all channel-surfers: Please come back, all is forgiven. Our star is no longer pregnant. To make up for lost time, we're going to show her wearing nothing but chains and dresses with no sides in them whatsoever.

The costumes and set work in this episode were cool, period. Loved the slinky Egyptian look for Xena and Gabrielle. The shot of Xena in Egypt's throne with Gabrielle perched on its arm was a thing of beauty.

The moment Gabrielle lays eyes on Antony, you can almost hear her say "Ohhh, Lord, here we go again." She spends the rest of the episode with great "can you believe this crap?" reaction shots while Xena and Antony get cozy. I love the way the servants keep cautiously watching Gabrielle as if they're not sure of the precise moment the bard is going to explode.

So why DID Xena decide to come on to Antony like a locomotive? From the best I can make out, the plan was probably to annihilate both Antony and Brutus from the beginning. But they test the waters on both of them, and on Octavius, to make sure they're doing the right thing. And for a change, Gabrielle is the efficient one, sounding out both Brutus and Octavius while Xena is still playing her seduction games on Antony. I dunno WHY Xena had to make it so complicated. But then again, Gabrielle has the easier job, with the two clear choices. Antony is a tougher call - principled, but ruthless and dangerous.

I like "Carnival" by Natalie Merchant. But since when is XWP using pop music as its soundtrack? And what on earth does it have to do with ancient Egypt?? The food seduction scene was pretty steamy, and I loved Gabrielle's breakup of it and prompt claiming of Antony's space, but that music was ridiculously distracting.

Cute touch in the pyramids scene: the sphinx still has its nose.

Xena's game ends under the pyramids. Until then, she was having a ball playing her seduction scheme and toying with Antony. But when Antony declares his love, she believes him. This episode had a lot of flashbacks to Destiny (Octavius even mirrors Caesar when he says his destiny is to rule Rome). This was almost Xena's chance to get the events from Destiny right. This time, a potential ruler of Rome was seriously offering himself and his love. And Xena seems tempted to take him up on it, until she sees his bloodthirst in action and decides that he's no good. This time, Xena is the betrayer on the boat.

According to that sheath dress of Xena's, Egyptian nights are a little chilly.

Antony and Brutus both get final chances to save themselves: Antony gets his test in the map room, Brutus before Egypt's throne. Both of them fail miserably with all the wrong answers, and Xena and Gabrielle set them up for the fall. (The first 20 minutes of the episode was just an excuse for lots of smoochy scenes, I guess.)

That was quite a shot of the two ships ramming each other. XenaStaff put their boat sets to the test this episode. For the record, Antony's ship had its sails furled, Brutus's sails were blood-red, and the sails on Octavius/Egypt's ship were blue and white.

Gabrielle's killing of Brutus may be the most self-motivated death she's caused. Others have been to defend Xena or friends, or whole villages. Killing Brutus definitely qualified as the Greater Good, but there's also a lot of self-defense involved... and a heaping dose of revenge for leaving her and Xena on crosses. It's a bloody fight, and a death that Gabrielle takes some serious satisfaction in.

What a shot of Antony rolling down the steps!

This is a HIGHLY morally ambiguous episode. Xena and Gabrielle (mostly Xena) accomplish their means through seduction, trickery, and betrayal. Their killings of Antony and Brutus are less than pure. And in the end of the battle, both are bloody and dirty.

And after all that, what the HELL was up with the democracy platitude at the very end? "(Cleopatra) died in the hope that the Egyptian people might, for the first time, choose their next great leader" - HUH? Where did that come from?

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