Sacrifice II

Let me state, right here and now, that I hate waiting. I think it's an Empire Strikes Back-induced neurosis, when I watched that film and realized I was going to have to wait two years to find out how the story finished. It's left me permanently scarred. I despise cliff-hanging. Sacrifice II is a great episode, lots of meat, but I am going to hate waiting four months to get a few little questions answered, like:

• What happened to the armies? We had an army of Dahak-worshipping villagers who were gathering against Ares' army of warlords in Sacrifice I. We haven't seen them since. Was the battle called on account of God-of-War fence-hopping?

• Can lava kill Hope? Apparently hind's blood will do her damage - she shied away from it - and the chakram stung, but will being dumped into a lava pit do any permanent harm?

• How badly has this set Dahak back? Can the great evil nasty god be seriously foiled by putting a cover over his burner? It seemed to stun Hope and Seraphin.

• It looked like Seraphin might have regained some of her senses when Hope-n-Dahak were laid low. What's her condition going to be?

• What's Ares' next move? Seems to me that he's the only one who got something he wanted out of this whole escapade: he was angling for Gabrielle to die for Xena from moment one, and he got it. Now what?

• And of course, most importantly, HOW WILL WE GET BACK GABRIELLE? XenaStaff has promised for ages now that Xena and Gabrielle are both still the central focus of the show, there's no sign of Renee O'Connor going anywhere... it's not a question of whether Gabrielle survives the well-traveled Tartarus shuttle, just how. And how vicious of a wringer will Xena travel through before the amazon bard returns?

By now, EVERYbody is keyed into Xena and Gabrielle's importance to each other. Ares threatened Gabrielle with Xena's death to get her to protect Hope, and Callisto did the same to Xena to try to ensure her own death. They might as well wear neon signs that say "in case of emergency, hold me over her head."

Whatever happened to Seraphin's lifeblood sacrifice? She sure spent the episode hale and hearty (and annoyingly more and more shrewish) for someone sans blood. The dire sacrificial death of the Priestess of the Blood became a "prick our fingers and we're blood sisters" kind of pact, instead.

Battle report card for Gabrielle: another first - the bard took a beating but came back to clean up. You go, Gab.

Callisto still gets the killer lines: "Yeah yeah yeah, glory hallelujah." "Yes, Gabrielle, it seems your daughter is in heat." Great four-year-old "I want it NOW!" foot-stomping tantrum. Ares takes the Line of the Episode crown, though, with "You are SO not like your mother!" I laughed myself off the couch on that one.

Speaking of that scene, Ares now has the distinction of having done the wild thing with both Xena's and Gabrielle's bodies, and yet neither time with the actual women. I'm not sure WHO to congratulate about that. But way to go, Renee, for getting some serious smooch time ("Geez, we've been rough on you this season, Ren. Here, wanna get cozy with Kevin for a scene?"), and Kevin Smith, m'man, a few million people are envying you. And he's getting paid for all that.

We had a couple of themes this episode, things that were apparently so nice, we had to see them twice. And, sometimes, three or four times. These were all great the first time, but we didn't need the recurring motifs. Variety is the spice of life.

Theme 1: --- this!
"Experience that!" and "Welcome this!" within ten minutes of each other. It was a neat line once, Xena, but tell your writers to get a bit more creative with the snappy comebacks.

Theme 2: Kryptonite landslides
OK, it's gotta be said: Callisto under a rock pile AGAIN?

Theme 3: Death from above
Callisto's fireball brought down rocks from the ceiling, Xena chakramed the shield from the ceiling, then Xena used the chakram again to put the ceiling dome on the Dahak barbecue. Note to the bad guys: consider sun roofs.

Hope is a strange beast. OK, she's a strange beast anyway, but I'm talking about her half-human, half-god powers. Let's sum them up. Hope CAN: throw people through the air, control their bodies, fly weapons around like snowballs, and smash rocks with a glance. She CAN'T: change her appearance, teleport, or kill gods. She has Callisto and Ares do that for her. Summed up, she has major telekinetic control, and that's about it. And even that didn't do so well against a really determined Warrior Princess. Why didn't her powers work against Xena in the end? Xena's sheer will? Hind's blood interference? The fire extinguisher on the Dahak altar?

The main, number one (real deal) reason I was looking forward to this episode was to see Renee do the evil thang. We've seen her do fury, we've seen her do campy tough, but can she do straight, pure nasty? The verdict: nice job, ROC! She shined the best when Hope was quiet, with contained power right behind the eyes. Very sharp. She also put impressive gusto into the "slit their throats!" line. I loved the Gabrielle-Hope scene in the forest; when Gabrielle turned Hope down flat, the barest hint of emotion we saw in Hope's face was slammed behind walls. The come-and-go raspy voice was weird and not necessary, though. Hope ditched that scratch in order to pretend to be Gabrielle, but even given that, it slipped in and out at strange times. You'd think that when Callisto put Gab's outfit on Hope, she could have taken care of that little phlegm problem, too.

Xena lit into Gabrielle pretty good for protecting Hope again, but Xena made up for it when she found out Gab was trying to protect her. Nice line about the one she loves and the one she hates looking the same. (Everybody all together now: awwwwww. Watch Gab's head bounce up when she says it, too.) Her farewell speech was unusually eloquent for the Warrior Princess, even if it ended up being Gab's farewell instead of hers.

One mystery Sacrifice I is solved: the fire that showed up behind Ares was indeed Dahak. "I consider it a partnership," he said, but who's he fooling? I don't think he kidded even himself about that one. He told Hope that "They gotta come through me to get to you," but this smacked of bravado. As soon as the hind's blood dagger came out, Ares bowed out for Xena and went back to goading Gabrielle. The man's always looking out for number one. He was probably just as glad to see Xena win out. He didn't seem too perturbed when he amscrayed at the end of the episode.

Callisto gets the best battle score in this episode than she has since she turned immortal. She has a delightful time warming up, then really letting loose on the village fight. Good guys, bad guys, who cares? She'll level 'em all. (Check out Hope's reaction during that - she enjoys the heck out of it, too.) Callisto does some serious whupping on Xena, and even scores major damage on Ares. Must be consolation prizes before she mouths off once too often and Xena claims blood paybacks for the deaths of Solan and Gabrielle.

Xena's crowning glory: tossing Seraphin like a football up that cliff. Callisto easily gets Xena's blood boiling enough to do that kind of thing. I also loved her battle in the temple at the beginning: I admire the sheer determination of that lady to keep fighting no matter how much she's getting her butt kicked. (And she DID get kicked in that first fight. Ouch!)

It was pretty easy to guess that Gabrielle's death was coming, both because of Ares's suggestions and thanks to some reprehensible TV teasers for this episode. And all logic says it's a safe bet that she'll be back. In spite of those things to steal dramatic tension, Gabrielle's sacrifice was well done. Her final look at Xena as she fell and Xena's, Callisto's, and Joxer's shocked responses were powerful. I loved Xena's stunned reaction and horror when Gab tackled Hope. It's fitting that Gabrielle killed Hope with an embrace, not with attacks or blades. More power to you, Bard, I hope THIS time you managed to make Hope's death stick. Rest easy in the Elysian Fields ("Dead naked heroes!") for the next four months, Gabrielle, and we BETTER be seeing you in the last week of September.

Callisto suddenly has strobe punches. That was a nifty effect for showing the power of a god letting loose, although I'm not sure why we got that now and have never seen it before.

A couple of the outdoor scenes had a steady rain going on during them. Must have been a wet week on the Xena set.

I laughed out loud at Callisto's disgusted look after the cheesy pan of the dancers' bodies. That's called playing to two audiences at once, folks. Ta-dum.

Hope showed one glimmer of humanity: she wanted to figure out and reconcile with her mother. Was Hope's offer to Gabrielle genuine? I think it was; it hit her deep when Gabrielle rejected it in no uncertain terms. This episode refers back to Hope's poisoning a few times, but it begs an earlier question: WOULD Hope have had a chance for goodness if Gabrielle hadn't been forced to abandon her when she was a baby? Probably not, but mom's rejection of Hope seems to be the only thing that made her hurt.

Gabrielle got a little serious horse-riding done, even at a gallop. Seems the bard's been paying attention to Argo lessons all this time, after all.

The past few times we've seen it, I've been able to recognize Xena's "Ares willies" the moment they hit. Great consistency, Lucy! This time, Gabrielle gets it, too, when she goes to find Hope. In fact, the willies are used to pull both women to their Garden of Gethsemane final temptations, last chances to pull out and join up with their darkest reminders of themselves. Both barely gave the idea a second's thought.

XenaStaff EXCELS at double effects. (They should, they've had enough practice by now.) Gabrielle stroking Hope's face, in particular, was an impressive shot.

Hey, Hope, if you do make it through this somehow (I doubt it, but just in case), here's a tip: duck. When someone's inching toward you with a weapon of destruction, may I suggest faking left and beating feet to the right?

Callisto was given a cosmic-ly, karmic-ly proper death: at Xena's hand. Her sudden eleventh-inning desire to live again was less than convincing, but it was a much better dramatic option than allowing herself to be killed. When Xena and Callisto's eyes met and Callisto stroked Xena's face, they were both saying goodbye, Callisto to her reason for living, Xena to her greatest enemy and reminder of her guilt. As opposed to Gabrielle's death, Callisto's may actually be permanent. Her story was done, it couldn't go much further without getting repetitive and contrived. How many times can a god fail to kill someone? I'd much rather see Callisto die well than see her character become a joke long after her usefulness and believability had run out. That said, I'm gonna miss Psycho Barbie. Rest in oblivion, Callisto, and thank you, Xena writers and especially Hudson Leick, for giving us such a delicious villain. You won't be forgotten, and your boots will never be completely filled.

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