The Rheingold
In a nutshell: Xena heads up Norse to help out a legendary warrior named Beowulf. Gabrielle follows like a bloodhound and meets a chick named Burnnhilda.
This was a pretty darned excellent episode, even though it
was mostly just setup for the next week or two. I liked the
structure of the ep - the flashbacks and the division
between Gabrielle's story and Xena's. I'm already fired up
for next week's episode!
Time for some English Lit! This episode borrowed heavily from two tales from Nordic/Germanic mythology: Beowulf, an epic poem, and Wagner's Ring cycle, which is based on the legend of Seigfried. Beowulf's story is pretty simple, and stays fairly intact for the episode: he fights Grendel. He just gets some Warrior Princess help that wasn't recorded in the books. Grendel's mom also fights Beowulf, although we haven't seen that here (so far). The Ring cycle is a bit more complex, but what can you expect from nine hours of opera? So far, evil Xena has played the part of Alberech, the man who stole the rhinegold from the Rhinemaidens by forsaking love, and forged a powerful ring from the rhinegold. And we've met Brunnhilda, but she's a bit different than in the Ring (or is she?): there, she's one of the valkyries and the daughter of Odin, but disobeys him to save a hero and becomes mortal.
(And for those fans of Looney Tunes who don't know opera, yes, this IS the Brunnhilda that Bugs Bunny dresses up as when Elmer Fudd sings "Oh, Bwunnhilde, you'we so wovewy..." If this Brunnhilda rides a fat white horse with flowers on it, I'm gonna lose it laughing.)
I liked the opening scene of this episode: it was strange and confusing, just like it was supposed to be. I thought at first we might be dealing with another Xena lookalike, before finally realizing we were looking at more escapades of the evil Xena. It was fun to be totally surprised, even for five minutes, by a show I've become so familiar with. ("NOW what's she doing? Why? Who IS this?")
I laughed myself silly when I realized that "35 years later" means that, minus 25 years of sleep, we're STILL putting all of Xena's nastiness the famous "Ten Years Ago." By last count, Xena has now been betrayed by Caesar, went head to head with Lao Ma in Chin, run off to the Thunderdome Amazons with Borias and decimated them, AND come west to the Nordic people T.Y.A.
Good opening for the monster Grendel, the lightning illuminating it out of the pitch black over Xena's shoulder. Cool! The creature kind of suffers under closer examination - turns out it's just a stick monster - but it sure got an impressive introduction!
The flying horse effect is kind of cheesy, but I still like it, especially when it's used for 3D effects, not just to horizontally ride in the sky, but to also take off and dive. Xena even swoops a time or two in her battle. Not bad.
Even in an inn, Gabrielle sleeps with her boots on... and her bracelets, and her belt, and maybe even her sais. That can NOT be comfortable.
Gabrielle loses her curiosity, and her ability to pester incessantly, at the worst possible time. She just drifts off to sleep while Xena stews and frets over this Beowulf guy's message. Forget "friends can have secrets," Gab - if you had needled this story out of Xena, it would have saved you a heck of a lot of trouble.
The note to Gabrielle teaches us four things about Xena's writing:
- Xena packs a lot of words in a couple dozen letters.
- Xena doesn't write in a very straight line.
- Xena signs her name with an X, with the bottom right part of the X trailing down, just like the show's logo. AND...
- Xena ends her note to Gabrielle with a big ol' kiss print. Except that the lips are so far apart, it may have been a scream. Or an attempt to give the scroll a hickey. Whatever it was, Xena left the inn with ink all over her lips.
Out of nowhere, Gabrielle's duster from Animal Attraction is back. I'm not complaining, it looks really great... but that duster is 25 years old now. It must have a heck of a moth problem.
Gabrielle has never been one to let a little thing like mileage stand between her and a warrior woman she wants to follow. From the very first episode, the little village girl treks all the way from Poteidaia to Amphipolis on Xena's trail. In The Debt, she manages to follow Xena over the sea to a fortress castle in Chin. And this time, she trails her across most of a continent. Gabrielle must be part bloodhound.
Gabrielle says she's farther north than she's ever been, but that may only be true if the XenaVerse plays with geography as much as it plays with history. Gabrielle's been to Brittania, which is mostly well north of Germany, where the Beowulf and Seigfried legends usually come from. But Beowulf was from Denmark, so she may be pretty parallel to her stint in Brittania... but I think Gabrielle may have been indulging in a little bardic hyperbole.
Gab does a very subtle double-take at the tapestry before she asks about it. Her eagle eyes must be really tuned in to dark-haired warrior women.
Brunnhilda is a mystery so far. She tells Gabrielle that studying evilXena's reign of terror has been a passion of her life. She says that meeting Xena will fulfill a lifelong dream... but then what does she want to do? The show never feels any need to follow mythology, but since the legendary Brunnhilda was a valkyrie, might this Brunnhilda be a valkyrie? One who was involved in the fight against Xena? One somehow related to the defeated Grinhilda? The previous thoughts were NOT spoilers, I have somehow managed to avoid the spoilers for this trilogy and honestly don't know. So it's fun to speculate.
The scene where Xena sends five warriors to their slaughter for no reason except to enjoy watching the battle is a pretty cool "look at how nasty she is" moment.
The supporting cast in this episode are all-around excellent. Beowulf is so stoic he's almost boring, but he's still convincing. Grinhilda doesn't convince me that she's much of a warrior, but I give her points for her look when Xena's about to skewer her. Odin and Brunnhilda are awesome. Big thumbs up to the casting team on this episode. My only quibble was with the valkyrie pair that Xena fights on the horses; they were about as intimidating as mice.
Gabrielle still has an incredibly naive streak. She finds a woman who's conveniently filling her in on the whole story about what a demon Xena was, then interrupts her to blab what a good friend of hers she is. And now she's taking this woman right to Xena as if it's a puppy she found and wants to keep, without knowing why on earth this woman would want to meet a curse to her people.
No wonder Xena has never had respect for gods; she's been twisting them around her finger for decades. She suckers Odin with the most transparent ploy since the "gimme five down low" game.
The horse battle was only so-so for the most part, but I loved two moments in it: the land on Xena's horse followed by the elbow off, and Grinhilda's piledrive of Xena into the ground. Way to go, Grinhilda!
EvilXena shows an almost-unheard-of moment of... mercy? compassion? respect? when she refuses to kill Grinhilda. I'll bet my VCR that we haven't heard the last of her.
My first thought when I saw that lovely mountainscape as the Rhinemaidens frolicked: "Oh my God, that looks COLD!!!!!" I missed the next moment or so while I shivered sympathetically.
My second thought during the Rhinemaidens scene: Exactly where did Xena get goosed?
What's the deal with the third Rhinemaiden who apparently doesn't want to get her hair wet? Grumpy day?
The Rhinemaidens make a crappy security service. A little splashing, a come-hither whisper, and they're putty in Xena's hands. Practically begging to show her some Rheingold. Barney Fiffe would have been a better protector.
What was the deal with that house where all the warriors were so gruesomely staked out? Beowulf said it wasn't Grendel's lair - the LESS fortunate get taken there. So what was the attraction to the house? Why did they know Grendel would be there?
I spent most of the battle against Grendel screaming "CUT OFF THE HAND!!!" When a ring makes you invincible, and you see the hand holding the ring...
I know I'm supposed to be worried about Xena. But nobody ever worries about the show's star, let alone after the star has already died a half-dozen times. When Gabrielle finds Xena's armor and gasps "Oh no!", instead of thinking "Grendel dragged off Xena and killed her!" like I was supposed to, I thought "Grendel dragged off Xena naked?"
This episode leaves TONS of questions unanswered. Hopefully, we'll get the answers to at least most of them in the next two episodes:
- EvilXena went through all that to get the ring, then just leaves it when the monster Grendel grabs it? Why not go after it?
- How did Grendel come about? Xena claims to have made it - how?
- What the heck does Brunnhilda want Xena for?
- What happened to Grinhilda?
- And, oh yeah, did Xena survive the battle with Grendel? (Har har har)
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!