Between the Lines

This was deep. And strange. And gorgeous. And broke land speed plot records that left me spending most of my first viewing muttering "Hang on, wait, does that mean... why did... hold everything, how does that..." After watching it again, I got a better handle on what was going on, although I think we clocked past a few important plot explanations in favor of getting this story told under the 45-minute-mark. But wow, look at what territory we DID cover!

For the first time since the Xena Scrolls episode, we have another mention of scrolls about Xena - a "Blue Scroll." I can't think of anything about an ancient scroll that would be blue, so maybe it's so called for Xena's blue robes.

Xena and Gabrielle, after last week's tourist trip, decide to go native... and go shopping. I liked Xena's final test of her new outfit. But where's their old clothing? In the final scene, Xena's toting a bag that probably contains her leather dress, but if she just changed into the blue at the market, what did she wear INTO the market? "Xena, stop complaining about this new look... it's better than the Lady Godiva act you were just doing."

When Gab staff-whacks a guy in the first fight, the guy's hat changes from bright blue to dusky blue depending on whether we're seeing him from the front or the back.

Xena and Gabrielle's trips through the Stargate are kind of interesting. Xena's trip showed us:

• Somebody looking kind of Horde-ish and attacking
• A bunch of crosses (but no mountain like the vision)
• A cross, from its foot (still no mountain or snow)
• A flash of light, a new baby
• Somebody getting found and skewered in a box
• Another flash of light, another baby
• Armies and Artimnestra

Does this mean we've gone two lifetimes in the future? That would gel with the fact that we don't seem to be TOO many years forward - everybody's still using swords and catapults, and the spear from Xena's fight isn't dust yet.

And do we now know that Xena will die on a cross? It didn't look like the cross of Alti's vision, but that sure seemed to be the implication here.

Gabrielle's Stargate visions were very different. Gab saw:

• Gab at a horse, with the short hair, still in India garb but in what looked like Greece, calling an alarm to Xena
• Gab donning the mask of the amazon queen. (This was a shot from The Quest, but since these were supposed to be flash forwards, was this supposed to be in the future? If so, her hair grows back!)
• A snowy cross, like Alti's vision
• A flash of light
• Herald horns blowing and Gabrielle's face (looking kind of like it did on the wheel in Illusia)
• Shakti

My intelligence is officially insulted: Naima tells us she's sending Xena into the future. We see Xena go through the Stargate through lives. And then when she arrives, we get a big fat label that says "A future life"? Please. I think I got the hint.

Neat overlay effect of the old and new faces that's used on Xena and when Alti and Gabrielle are revealed.

Gabrielle's reaction as she goes to find Xena and watches Naima pick dust motes out of the air is priceless: This woman's totally flipped. Part of the fun of the episode is watching a lot of people have that reaction to this whole reincarnation gig. My favorite was Alti's henchman: while Alti rants about getting Xena's soul at last, he does a great side-to-side "is anyone buying this?" look.

I **love** the faith of the bard:

This karma that you're talking about: can you see mine? Can you see how much Xena is a part of it?

You both walk a path together. Think of yourselves as lines in the mehndi. Separated, but forever connected.

Just to add to the proof that Xena and Gabrielle are karmically bound, from the moment he arrives, Xena can't be pulled away from Shakti. Of all the people in the fight, she wants to know who he is and refuses to leave the scene until he does, too. His primary goal is protecting Artimnestra. They're the two heroes of their time. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? There's some serious role reversal in these lives, but the roles are very much like they have been before.

Gabrielle's an INCREDIBLY fast learner - and teacher. An hour, maybe two, of spirograph tracing, and Gab's ready to make her own magic lines and use them in action poses. I have NO idea what Gabrielle learned and how it was supposed to work. Is the mehndi a power of its own? Were the action poses a way to activate the mehndi? I wish we had been given some more clues about exactly how the mehndi's power worked.

Kudos to the guy who played Shakti for that hysterical quick covering of his chest. And double-kudos to him for his body language and line delivery as he puts on the shirt and asks about Kindin (tall, black hair, war cry?); that was done EXACTLY like I would have pictured Renee O'Connor giving the same line.

Lucy's finest moment of the episode: her bemused amazement as she explains to Gabrielle her role in this lifetime. It spoke WORLDS - who would think the Destroyer of Nations is now the Mother of Peace? Certainly not Xena.

Also in the "nice touch!" department, watch Lucy's body language, especially her hands, when she's in the body of Artimnestra. She's weak, shaky, and hunched over. I especially like the way she holds her walking stick when they're about to attack the village that Kindin has taken - her hands are gnarled around the stick.

Interesting note about Alti's crowing that the people in India have more lifelines for her to chow down on: We've already seen that Greeks end up in Tartarus or the Elysian fields - no reincarnation there. But in India, apparently everyone is reincarnated. Different rules depending on where you live? And if so, why are Xena, Gabrielle, and Alti reincarnated?

Xena doesn't get any sword work in this episode, but Alti and Gabrielle do - there's a switch! Both do a nice job, and Renee swings that sword as if she's been waiting four seasons to give this a try. I hope it was fun! I noticed, though, that Shakti's killer fighting style changes to mostly smash-and-bash instead of edged attacks when Gab's at the wheel.

Alti has tripped a few lifelines, but still has raccoon eyes. I guess over-mascara-ing was REAL permanent back then.

And speaking of black makeup, Gabrielle goes nuts with the fat magic marker on herself and Xena! She gets the hands, the arms, the stomach and chest, and has a grand ol' time making Xena's back into her own Sistine Chapel ceiling. How much of that stuck? Mehndi usually is applied thick like we see, then when the paste is removed, the henna tattoos left behind stay around for a couple of weeks. Will the tattoos we see at the end of this episode - Xena's chakram on her foot, Gab's hand and throat lines - only last for a little while? Or are they permanent? Since Gab's hands had the mehndi lines on them in Alti's vision, this is a REALLY important question.

I still love Alti's funky hand gestures and growls. Guess she's going to be giving new meaning to the term "recurring villain."

The mehndi "Wonder Twin powers, activate!" action poses of Xena and Gabrielle may be one of the coolest things I've seen on TV. That looked SO neat! They were in perfect synch, even when they weren't facing each other - tough to do. And have mercy, Renee was flexing those buff arm muscles big time. I'm going to wear out my rewind button on those five seconds of footage.

Note to Xena and Gabrielle: the next time Naima proposes a plan to you, kick her in the butt and make your own plan. She had Xena and Gab bring Alti back to the current life, where Alti was even more incredibly powerful, and when she's defeated, her soul is still free to wreak as much havoc as she wants and Xena and Gab will have to keep fighting her. With friends making schemes like that, who needs enemies? Why not just have Gab/Shakti skewer Alti/Kindin and deal with a lot less pain?

Gabrielle has picked up some hellacious staff-repairing skills. Alti split the staff in two and beat the stuffing out of Gab with it, but at the end of the episode the staff is looking good as new.

Gabrielle sees the cross vision at last... and sees that Xena is getting crucified, too. Had Xena told Gab that part? Is that why the warrior princess gets SO cheesed off? Or is it because Alti lays the blame for the scene on Xena, which is Xena's worst fear about it, too? I'm voting for a combo of the two, and it merits a long, slow, screamed "You bitch!" for it. Such language, Xena!

One small (but very significant) addition to the vision: when Xena saw it, her hands were spiked, but we never saw Gabrielle get hit with spikes. This time we got treated to Gab's hands and feet getting run through. THERE'S something I don't care to see again.

Xena got hit by her own chakram! Talk about adding insult to (horrendous, gut-wrenching) injury. Both of our heroes got their clocks cleaned most nastily by Alti... yeeeee-owch!

But Naima changes the balance. Alti tries to take care of her, too, but she doesn't have a bit of power over the darsham, and instead ends up dealing with feedback.

The division of power when they take out Alti makes wonderful sense: Naima and Gabrielle use mehndi action poses to hold Alti down, then Xena creates mehndi chakrams (with spirographs on them!) to take her out. Xena looked a bit surprised - and terrifically pleased - to see her mehndi action pose form a chakram.

The long-anticipated short locks for Gabrielle have arrived. Wow, what a change. I liked Xena's quick ruffle of Gab's new feathers as she asks how it feels. It's going to take me a while to get used to the new look. It's cute, but I can't decide yet if it's too cute. I'll let it settle for an episode or two before deciding that one.

Side note: In Santa Monica, Lucy Lawless joked with the crowd that she's the one who cut Renee's hair with her chakram - or at least at the time, it seemed like she was joking. Holy cow, she was SERIOUS!

I love Xena's foot tattoo of the chakram. Was that one of the ones that Gab originally drew, or was it added when the mehndi action took off the paste and left them with the tattoos? And check out Xena's addition to the chakram - a cross, making the symbol for woman. There's a few layers of meaning to that. "This way, no matter how we look, we'll always remember the women we were." Does this mean that all future Xenas will have that symbol on their feet? And how will future Xenas know future Gabrielles? It was a neat gesture, but I dunno how it actually solved the problem.

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