Last of the Centaurs
In a nutshell: A warlord is hunting down the centaurs, including one who has family ties to an old friend of Xena and Gabrielle.
Last of the Centaurs was an interesting episode for tying up the stories of
Ephiny and Borias. Their families are now merged, the centaurs live on, and
Borias has a namesake. But the story didn't really pull me in;
I wasn't convinced that Xenan and Nicha just HAD to be together. Took some
of the emotional punch of the episode away.
I always figured that centaurs would be really good at two things in battle; kicks and setting land speed records. It was cool to see both of those get used in the first fight scene.
It was good to see Ephiny again, even if she didn't serve much purpose except to state the blazingly obvious. ("It's completely devastated.") She mostly just followed everybody around; it must be really boring to be a ghost. I did like her departing stare at Belach, though. Didn't serve any purpose at all, but it was still a nice touch.
Kudos to Xena for believing Gabrielle right away when she said a 27-year-dead woman was standing in front of her. Now that's trust! By the second time Xena answered Gabrielle's questions for Ephiny, though, I expected Ephiny to start shouting "HEY, WHAT DID I BOTHER APPEARING HERE FOR?!"
A small nit problem, here: how was Gabrielle supposed to sing along with Ephiny if the words were changed?
Xena the human sonagram! Just by touching Nicha's stomach, she knows that the baby is a boy and a centaur! (OK, the centaur part I could have believed, but the gender?)
Nifty reaction from Xenan when Xena tells him that "the blood of Borias is in your son." Borias is one serious legend!
The best part of this episode is Marton Csokas's work. He plays both Borias and Belach with fire and guts, and manages to make both characters believably similar and yet very different. Awesome work!
When Borias, in his heavy accent, mentioned Natasha, I snickered through the next ten minutes of the show. If either of them had mentioned "moose und sqvirrel" I would have died laughing on the spot.
When the group finds the pit of slaughtered centaurs, Ephiny says that "this was prophecy" and "I haven't changed anything." What the heck was that about? Methinks we got a piece of the storyline cut from the episode.
I'm now officially suffering from clip overload. We've now seen clips in You Are There, Send in the Clones, When Fates Collide (I watched these out of order), and even a bit in The Abyss. Maybe the retrospective mood is because of the series coming to an end, but I'm about clipped out!
In the same vein as the clip overload, why did we need to see the same flashback twice? To show that Xena mis-quoted herself from "Tip for you" to "Word of advice"? In case we had forgotten in the last ten minutes what happened when Belach was a kid?
Ouch, Belach's landing from the window onto the horse looked painful. Especially since that horse's back looked more like a wagon from the view at the top.
Did Natasha really give Borias a raspberry? I guess she didn't want to cuss the guy out in front of impressionable young ears.
Xena really has a way with horses! She calls with a whistle the one she just stole from Belach's castle five minutes ago.
Nicha is in labor, in serious pain, needs to get to shelter... and continues to walk right beside a centaur. Hello, folks, he's half horse! You can hop a ride; we even saw it done in one of the clips to prove it's possible.
It really bothered me that Gabrielle spent most of the episode urging Xena to slaughter Belach. When she finally says at the end that she's happy Belach wasn't killed, I practically said right along with Xena "Oh, NOW you're glad." I understand the opposing views of protecting Xenan, Nicha, and the baby versus protecting the son of Borias, but geez, Gab came across as darned bloodthirsty.
Ummm, Xena? You never took the pinch off of Nicha.
Watch the amazing ornamental shields in the big battle outside of the farmhouse. Several of Belach's men have shields when they charge, but not a single soldier in combat is holding one until Xena snags one to stop arrows. What did the soldiers think, they were just around for decoration and should be dropped the moment you approach battle?
Are Xenan and Borias really the last of the centaurs? It's the title of the episode, but we never find that out for sure in the episode. If they are, though, there's still hope: centaur genes must be dominant, since centaurs keep popping out every time a centaur dude hooks up with a human chick.
Return to the Wool-Gatherings.
Rate-A-Xena is brought to you by the letter omega, the number IV, and Beth Griese. Feel free to send any comments or questions my way!