Punch Lines

The XenaStaff continue to be some of the most creative folks of all time when it comes to clip episodes. I love the way they refuse to make clip episodes (read: "Breaks for the actors") into plain ol' "remember when" retrospectives. And this time, they even broke the "revisit the most dramatic moments of the show" rut by making this one spotlight the comedies. Overall, I think this episode was hit-and- miss, but I still give 'em lots of credit for keeping clip episodes fresh and interesting.

I think this whole episode idea came about because somebody found a pony that looked like Argo. "Hey, that gives me a GREAT idea..."

I'm glad the Aphrodite-substory took a long-overdue look at Gabrielle's forgotten bard-dom. Does this mean she's going to start telling stories again? Will we start seeing her scrolls around? Will Xena finally read them?

I guess now that Gabrielle has her own horse (he's back! hi, horsie!), there's more saddlebag room. Nice silk PJ's, Gab!

This whole episode goes down as further proof for my "Aphrodite is Gabrielle's god" theory. While all the other gods obsess over Xena, Aphrodite still takes special interest in the sometime-bardly-one.

Actually, Aphrodite doesn't make a bad therapist. When she stops with the goofy scrolls and slumber party tricks, that is.

Xena "hasn't been cranky in years"?!?! She spent the whole first two seasons cranky!

Cooking, cleaning, AND backrubs? When you're living on the road, what else is there? This is an all-or-nothing bet Xena and Gab lay out.

I liked the whole bet-making scene. Xena's getting very good at relaxing and having fun needling Gabrielle. It would have been nigh unto unbelievable a few seasons ago, but I liked the way it worked here.

This is Gabrielle's "What?" episode. She has the same line twice - once when Aphrodite shows off her impressive vocabulary skills, once when Xena lays the pie blame neatly at Gabrielle's feet with her "It was her" exit stage left - and I cracked up at it both times.

Favorite lines of the episode:

"I scared it mute!"
"Nah, just got lucky." (After asking if anyone's seen a guy in a pointy hat in some weird pointy-hatted priest convention.)
"She hit Bob!" (After the first pie throws.)

Aphrodite wins the award for being the subject of the flimsiest excuse yet to stick someone in a hot tub. And around here, THAT'S an accomplishment.

We've given up on the crazy Xenaverse variations on anachronisms and just gone straight to raging inconsistency for humor. We have a Grecian supermarket, complete with grocery carts, musak, "Slippery when wet" signs, and "cleanup" announcements over loudspeakers.

Cute helium voice on Gabrielle. The miniature effect wasn't too bad, in general. And teeny Gab hanging by her teeth from Joxer's finger was the best sight gag of the episode.

OK, I'm easily amused: I liked Aphrodite's water-squirting.

I liked Xena being flip enough to make bets and get saucy with Gabrielle. I don't like Xena being coarse (munching and spitting on... a raw onion?) and a slob (sleeping in the middle of a store and stumbling out to find Joxer and Gabrielle). That's devolution, not evolution.

Joxer actually DID do a good job at getting Gabrielle big again. (And c'mon, Gabrielle, give the guy credit. I can think of at least two times he has come through.)

NICE sai throw from Gabrielle at Lachrymose's arms! In a nearly fight-free episode, that was mondo cool.

I don't get pie fights. I have never found them funny, I don't see why they're considered such classics of humor. Whatever. This one was totally in the old movie farce style, complete with every character from the studio lot getting tossed into the mix: a fat lady singing, a monkish/robed guy, and an Old West cowboy. And also in classic style, the hero in the middle of it all remains untouched (until Lachrymose's final revenge).

Y'know, for a non-violent pie fight, that priest looked like he broke his back across that table. Twice.

So did Xena win the bet? Xena sure thinks so. And she's sure sleeping like a woman who's been well-fed and had her back well-rubbed. I think Gabrielle let her off easy, since she probably lost her temper a few different times when she wacked that revenge-seeking guy and found Argo. But Xena DOES get credit for venting her anger with the pies instead of getting really nasty, so maybe Gabrielle figured she deserved the credit. Heck, the woman's eight months pregnant, she's probably not doing much cooking or cleaning, anyway.

And now, for the truly... ahem... detail-oriented, the list of clips and their episodes. They used ALL five seasons in these clips, from the first episode to the beginning of this season. AND, while this episode took less time with clips than most of the others, they packed more of 'em into a shorter time span. This is getting tricky. OK, here we go:

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