The Dirty Half Dozen

The Dirty Half Dozen was... well, kinda predictable. I love to be surprised by a show, and X:WP usually does a good job of keeping my guesses JUST a bit off. But five minutes into this episode, I knew exactly who was going to die, who was going to ride into the sunset with whom, and who was going to turn out to be OK in the end. Eh.

We were introduced to some intriguing looks at the former Xena, and were shown another of her legacies: a legion of brigands and murderers she mentored that are still inflicting their damage on the countryside.

Xena trained incredible warriors, assassins, AND thieves - many skills, indeed!

I liked the parallel between Glaphyra and Gabrielle. Both started out as eager girls who wanted to see the world and fell into the "I'll do anything for the Warrior Princess" haze. Xena was in her warlord days when Glaphyra came around, who ended up as a bitter slaver. Xena had reformed when she met Gabrielle, and Gab has grown into the bard and Amazon princess we know and love. Had their positions been switched, would Glaphyra have turned out noble and Gabrielle angry and violent? Xena doesn't think so, but it's an interesting question, and one the fans have been batting around in one form or t'other for a while now. Gabrielle is strong enough to exert an influence on Xena, but they never seemed to hint that Glaphyra had any kind of effect on the warlord. Maybe Gab really would have been strong enough to escape the effects of the Destroyer of Nations. More likely, in my opinion, is that Gabrielle never would have wanted to follow the old Xena; it was Xena's heroism that attracted Gabrielle in the first place, while Glaphyra apparently had no qualms about joining up with a warlord.

Given all that, Xena is definitely rubbing off on Gabrielle; that was a pretty nice across-the-cage arm slam she did on Glaphyra when Perdicus was brought up. (And check out the burst of fire in Gab's eyes when she does it. Nice job, Renee!) We saw Xena's sore spot about Lyceus in The Furies; this time, we got to see Gabrielle's. These ladies should think about putting up "Beware of berserk rages" signs around certain conversation areas.

Everyone, chant with me: More cloaks! More cloaks! More cloaks! My goodness, those were cool.

The Gabgarb has shrunk AGAIN. That top now really is a sports bra. The pattern on it has changed, too, and the skirt is a thinner material. No wonder Renee is reaching new levels of paranoia about falling out of her outfit - she hardly has any of it left. If this show does go on to the year 2000, the poor lady's gonna be wearing strings by then. Granted, I don't know of too many people, other than herself, who would complain about it, but I just report the trends.

A GenX warlord? Agathon seemed more suited to Aphrodite's surfer talk than Ares' generalship.

Least favorite member of the A-team: Glaphyra, the woman slaver. She was thinly drawn and not portrayed very convincingly. OK, OK, we got the idea after the first tirade that she hates men. We didn't need to get it driven home five times over, especially when it was so obvious all along that she was going to end up with Darnelle. A string of identical outbursts does not an interesting character make. I could have done with more fire in the belly and fewer one-note insults.

Favorite member of the A-team: Darnelle, the gladiator/javelin-thrower. His smug confidence was fun. That actor did a fine job with stoic, soldierly Mercer and now turns in a good performance as the flippant and brash Darnelle. Keep that guy on the batting roster. He also gets the line of the episode award for "That's gotta be uncomfortable."

Apparently, the genie from Disney's Aladdin made a brief cameo disguised as Ares ("Oooh! Score one for the warrior princess!"). What on EARTH was up with that?

I loved Xena's battle in the armory, with two Hephaestus-metal swords in her hands, wild-eyed, and ready to slaughter. THERE'S a glimpse of the dark Xena we've been promised for the episodes to come. Wow; I loved it. That surfer warlord really was an idiot for thinking he could take her on; he was completely out of her league. (Kudos to Lucy's steely acting and a hellacious fire-blowing act.)

I liked the chakram showdown; Agathon did an impressive job of making his own version of a chakram (loved that idea!), and the shootout in the armory was a cute, if strangely-placed, tip of the hat to spaghetti westerns (watch Xena's fingers twitch).

This episode offered up the definite suggestion that the chakram is of the same Hephaestus-metal as those other weapons were, and was quite likely given to Xena by Ares. But then again, it managed to break - and reverse - Agathon's version of a chakram. Maybe that's just what Hephaestus metal can do in the hands of someone more experienced, but, yowza! Why wasn't Xena using the chakram against the tin-can baddies in their first battle against them?

In the battles against the tin cans, Gabrielle, of all people, turns out to be the most effective! While everyone else is contending with losing their weapons to these guys, Gab's staff is still mowing through the baddies. Let's hear it for blunt instruments! The Amazon Princess is definitely kicking tail these days!

Did everyone notice the return of the 20 questions game? Don't blink or you'll miss the Day in the Life in-joke!

Gabrielle's explanation to Darnelle of her fighting skills was interesting: "I'm a princess." Funny, I would have expected "Are you kidding? I travel with Xena!" Gab has a highly-developed sense of duty toward her amazon title. Small question, though: Amazon PRINCESS? Last I knew, she had been promoted. Maybe she's just keeping the princess title while Ephiny's doing the regent gig as queen.

I noticed some new music during Xena's ever-so-cool entrance into the castle via Glaphyra's daggers, Darnelle's javelin, and Walsim's shooting. Very nice! But did anyone else see the piece of crusting that had fallen off the grate she enters? The grate is covered in rough stone except for one nice, shiny bar of steel down in the lower left.

Xena's lost her sword! Oh, it hurt to see that beautiful sword break. Maybe this will be like when her sword went flying over the chasm in A Necessary Evil and/or her whip went by way of Minya in A Day in the Life, and we'll see it pop back up again next episode. Those weapons have more lives than cats.

Alert: we have BIG TIME setup for the rift! Many things were discussed that have never been openly discussed before: Xena's influence on Gabrielle, Gabrielle's on Xena, and Gabrielle's independence - or lack thereof. We might as well have painted in big red letters across the set "Pay attention: here's how strong this relationship is and the questions it has. Stay tuned for it to piledrive right over a cliff into Tartarus."

Return to the Wool-Gatherings.

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