Forget Me Not

Welcome to the psychologist's office. Sit down on the couch, get comfortable for 45 minutes. We're going to explore regression therapy, repressed memories, and guilt projection.

XenaStaff loves to prove that clip episodes don't have to be boring. Usually, nothing puts me to sleep faster than recycled footage (and in this case, getting two complete songs from Bitter Suite made me heavy-eyed). The Xena Scrolls provided a wonderful exception to that rule last year, by making the story surrounding the clips so much fun. This year, they took some loose threads and darned them together around the clips; who woulda thunk you could actually advance a story in a clip show? I liked the new touches this episode put on the Rift. It ain't a pretty moment for my favorite bard, but it makes sense.

It's a bad sign for poor Joxer that I was surprised that he could successfully climb a tree.

Mnemosyne, goddess of memory... and really bad actors. I thought that guard was bad, until I saw the priestess. Ouch.

Line of the episode goes to Joxer: "The gates are open, but nobody's storming the castle." Honorable mention goes to Gabrielle just for getting the quip "You could open a pottery shop" into a nervous moment.

The great mystery is solved: how *did* Gabrielle get to the Kingdom of Chin so fast? With a little help from Ares, who was eager to see Gabrielle's influence removed from Xena's life any way possible. It took the god of war two and a half seasons to clue in to the fact that Gab holds the key to Xena's commitment to good, but when he finally figures it out, he levels both barrels at the bard. A direct attack at Gabrielle would do nothing but dangerously peeve the blue-eyed warrior, but getting Gabrielle to do her own damage... clever war god.

This solved another mystery that was bothering me even more than Gabrielle's ocean-faring speed. In the Rift aftermath, Chin always seemed to be foremost in Gabrielle's conscience, even though the mess with Hope had so much more disastrous consequences. Now we know why: Gabrielle may have goofed with Hope, but her reasons were always for the best. Her motives for turning Xena over to Ming T'ien were a few miles off the pure and narrow. Jealous much, Gab? Those green eyes must not just be for show.

Joxer's character is bouncing this season between buffoon humor and sympathetic (but ineffectual) buddy, and it's making him nearly schizophrenic. He's sweetly earnest when he tells Gabrielle that he doesn't understand the problem she's having but wants to help, but then spends three minutes bouncing off temple guards like a ping pong ball. Loved the " That's long enough" line (good boy, Jox!), and his attempts to create a Joxer and Gabrielle romance for the memory-less Gab were pretty good desperate grabs. My vote: more of those kinds of moments for Joxer, less of the ones where his IQ dips below the double digits.

Small quibble: One of the clips that zips past is Xena and Lao Ma's floating scene from Debt II. Not only is this not a memory of Gabrielle's, Xena didn't even tell it to Gabrielle: she told that story to the guy in the dungeon. The Xena Reality Editor on my shoulder says that Xena must have filled Gab in later, but still...

Gabrielle gets to show off her backbone a bit in this episode (literally - I think Gab's about caught up to Xena on nekkid moments now). I liked it when she finally took control of the memory-scape to pound away the fire, regain her strength, and call up her staff to administer a little butt-whipping for "Ares."

The Xena writers can never resist a chance to poke a little fun at themselves and tweak some favorite fan jokes: "In every story you tell me, this thing I'm wearing gets smaller." Even without her memories, Gab's a smart cookie - noticed that, did ya, bard? So did all the rest of us.

This episode had a LOT of parallels to Dreamworker, the first season episode when Xena does a little exploring of her psyche. This was Gabrielle's turn. Gab asks before she starts the memory trip if this would be like a dreamscape. The priestess denies it, but just like Xena in her dream passage, Gabrielle faced her alternate (and worst) self, fought it, and won by gaining some control over the realm and herself.

Gabrielle crosses three rivers: The River of Wailing, which assails her with the deaths she's responsible for: Meridian and Crassus. Interesting that Hope isn't shown. (Weird "Carrie at the prom" image at the other side, when she's covered in blood.) The River of Woe (whoah!) has a thin layer of control over the memories of the Debts and Gabrielle's betrayal of Xena. She's willing to remember her betrayal, but not to delve into why. That doesn't come until the third river, the river of fire, which never gets named, but looks to be a River of Truth.

Continuity flub: Joxer was barely literate when he tried to read Gabrielle's scrolls in The Quill is Mightier, but he has no problems reading them this time.

When Joxer reads Gabrielle's scrolls, his hand is moving from right to left instead of left to right. Unless Gabrielle writes in Hebrew instead of Greek, this may account for the reading problems Joxer had during The Quill is Mightier.

"Ares" sends Gabrielle back through the River of Woe with the same line that the real Ares used to send Gab to Chin: "That is, if you don't mind owing a favor to the God of War." Will Ares be collecting on that favor? Look for that loose thread to get tugged on sometime in the future.

Did anybody else want to grab a thick blanket as Gabrielle nearly shivered herself to pieces beside the River of Woe? I sure did. Brrrrr.

The line from Debt I, "You owe someone so much that you would just throw away these last few years," is shown twice. When I saw it in the Debt, and the first time they played it here, I heard when I expect I was supposed to hear: Gabrielle asking whether Xena was willing to murder and ruin all the good work she had been doing. The final time we hear it, though, the line gets turned on its ear. Gabrielle isn't thinking about Xena: she's thinking about herself, and their relationship. Gab was worrying whether Xena was willing to abandon her. The twist on the line matched the twist in Gabrielle's motivations.

"Is this that centurion-gladiator game we used to play?" Hey, Joxer's been telling Gabrielle X-rated stories! And Xena, listening from the woods, refrained from turning Joxer into a chakram target? Admirable restraint from the Warrior Princess.

Xena only gets three minutes of screen time at the very end of the episode, but Lucy does a fantastic job of showing that Xena has been through the emotional wringer with worry. Her drained delivery of the crack "Not even Mnemosyne could help her with that" was great.

Return to the Wool-Gatherings.

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