Seeds of Faith

I liked some of the moments in this episode - some nifty images, some cool ideas being thrown around. But when it was all pieced together, it left me scratching my head. The interesting flavors being tossed into the episode didn't seem to gel together.

Finishing in a close second in the fatherhood race is Gabrielle, who has now been given official parent status by Xena (good thing, since the real dad's not really the dad and is also the baby... my head's starting to hurt). Gabrielle's smirk at Ares at that moment was a thing of golden beauty, and there are a few million people who would echo Ares' "I would have paid to see that" reaction.

For the "WHAT planet did we just land on?" moment of the year, we have Xena throwing attitude - and hankies - at Gabrielle and yelling at her for not waiting to settle an argument before busting heads. They blame the 180-degree attitude shift on Xena's impending motherhood... but then at the end of the episode she's back to talking about settling things "her way" with a god-killing dagger. That's some SERIOUS mood swings the Warrior Princess is going through.

Eli apparently has no blacksmiths among his followers. They're throwing their swords into a bonfire? A nice enough symbolic gesture, I suppose, but the only thing that's going to accomplish is to make a lot of red-hot pokers. Or make all those weapons sterile enough for surgery.

When Ares shows up for round one of the Eli-taunting, that's a spiffy effect when his eyes roll back with a growl... but what the heck did it mean?

Once again, "purified" seems to equal "washed of any personality." Callisto's so busy being serene that she ends up without any real emotion or interest.

Eli faces his Garden of Gethsemane "let this cup pass from me" moment in his prayers with Callisto. Which screams of what will happen to him later, just in case any of us missed the massive spoiler in the episode's preview.

I liked the juxtaposition of Xena's stand at the bridge with the argument about whether warriors can make a difference. I *loved* the shot of fierce little Gab jumping to push big imposing Ares' sword back. But after warning and protecting Eli against Ares' murderous attempts, why did Gabrielle seem surprised when Eli fell? It could have just been shock, but that was an awful lot of shock for something that she knew was coming a mile away.

Another problem: at the commercial break, the leader and the old woman have their hands on Gabrielle, comforting her, but when the show and Xena return, a lynch mob seems ready to form against Gab. Apparently these villagers a) change their minds at the drop of a guru, and b) were all easily distracted by a bright shiny object while Gab tried to defend Eli and Eli told her not to.

After the first time Eli tells Gabrielle not to defend him, we cut back to Xena knocking soldiers off the bridge. Watch as she pitches one off; on the near side of the bridge, another is clinging to the boards, trying to climb back up. Cute touch!

I know any Xena-Gabrielle spat is cause for severe angst for some folks, but I liked the construction of this one very well. High emotions and severe reactions spark an explosion. They spend some time being cheesed and cooling off, although not once do we get any "it's all over!" melodrama. And it's sealed up at the end with a round of sorrys, some clearer thought, and a couple nice hugs. I got no problems with the micro-rift.

But on the other side of the scale, the Gabrielle's Temptation plotline made NO sense. It seemed as if huge chunks of it were missing. Ares comes to Gabrielle in the desert and argues her to a standstill... not surprising, given everything that happens. Then Gabrielle tells Eli's ashes that she's standing with Ares. She IS? Ares said he thought Gabrielle had given up on Xena. She DID? Gabrielle seemed to have the cockiness of someone who had just tricked Ares into believing she was his buddy. She WAS? Did I miss an entire section between commercials?

And now, to get a little more shallow, allow me to mention: Gabrielle's new outfit swaddled in scarfs. Holy fashion statement, batman.

The dagger of Helios is the one that Autolycus stole to open up the ambrosia in The Quest. Guess it got a major promotion since the last time we saw it.

Line of the episode, possibly line of the year, goes to Gabrielle:

Ares: You'll always be a goody-two-shoes.
Gab: Yeah, but with a really big sword.

I wondered at first why Gabrielle didn't freak at skewering the bystander behind Ares; it took me a minute to realize that the bystander was that weaselly Ares priest. I guess weasel-skewering doesn't count for much.

When Eli appeared and then turned at the appearance of Callisto, it reminded me almost exactly of the scene in Return of the Jedi when Luke sees ghost-Kenobi, who turns to usher in the appearance of ghost-Yoda. "Reincarnated father- baby am I, hmmm?"

So Callisto is the father... kind of... and also the baby. XWP's mulligan stew of religion continues: since when do angels get reincarnated? And if Callisto's the baby, which has been growing very hearty and healthy the past eight months, what's she doing running around outside? (Not to mention HOW did Alti steal its soul, if it's soul is Callisto's?) The general idea of Callisto as the replacement for lost Solan ain't a bad one. But geez, could that "touch of Tinkerbell" scene have been any sappier?

Continuity blooper: During said sappy touchy scene, Xena has tears on her cheek. Until after the Tinkerbell moment, when her cheeks are perfectly dry.

Return to the Wool-Gatherings.

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