Succession

This episode failed to thrill me. It had waaayyyyy too many plot holes and problems to make enough sense to be compelling. But I liked the kernel of an idea it was based on. The show's finally asking the same question a lot of us have been asking for a while now: so is Gabrielle a bard, or a warrior? Even Mavican reminds Gabrielle that she should write scrolls more often, although Gab seems to have forgotten that totally.

And the episode takes the question one step further: IF Gabrielle is a warrior, how good of a warrior would she be? Good enough to, say, garner the personal attention of Ares? Good enough, given one little nudge to the Dark Side of the force, to be the next Destroyer of Nations? I like the question a lot. This episode takes a goofy way of exploring it, but I like the question. This could make future Ares interactions VERY interesting: who's he really trying to trap now, Xena or Gab? (Or would he settle for either, since it gives him more chances to win?)

Figures that Ares is a wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am type. And holy cow, he's the fastest dresser on the face of the earth. In three seconds he's back into his leathers. Firefighters should get suited up so quick.

Chakram blooper! In the first fight, we see legs kick with Xena's old chakram at the belt.

So Xena's a bit reluctant to let Gabrielle return to her butt-kicking ways. An understandable problem, although it was still very weird to hear Gab grousing that she didn't get to pummel more guys. But it gave Ares some very good fodder to try to get persuasive with Gabrielle. I'm so glad they're letting Ares get back to his smooth-talkin' ways this season.

I know we're all supposed to look away and whistle and pretend that we don't notice that Lucy Lawless is pregnant, since the show isn't introducing Xena's pregnancy for another episode or so. But c'mon, how obvious can we get? It's a bit of a stretch to ignore that Xena's wearing a maternity battle dress and is being shown from the shoulders up a lot.

When did Ares say that Xena can't kill Mavican? Everyone seemed to have gotten that message, but when I heard Ares say that Xena would stay where she is if she killed Mav, I assumed he meant as his prime #1 mortal. Judging by everyone's reactions on the show, I guess that meant that he'd keep her stuck in whatever that place was that they went to fight.

Nifty morphing effects between Xena and Gab as they shared the same body. But there was a consistency problem: in the final battle, Xena still had Gabrielle's shoulder wound. But then why didn't Gab have Xena's face scratches in the first night, or Xena have Gabrielle's cuts on her arms after the fight that wound her up in the cage?

I liked it when Gabrielle got tricky as she prepared to go into the camp that she wasn't sure yet was Xena's or Mavican's. Even Xena couldn't figure out what Gabrielle was up to.

Spear blooper! When Mavican throws the first spear at Xena in the cage, the shot from behind shows it embedding above Xena's right shoulder. When the camera changes to the front, the spear is under Xena's arm.

The scene in Ares' throne room between Xena and Ares was spiffy on a lot of levels. I loved the whole conversation about bringing in Gabrielle as Xena's successor, Xena's rather physical reaction to it, and how much Ares enjoyed it. I liked the dark lighting of the scene. I enjoyed how intensely Lucy played Xena's reactions and how slick and sly Kevin Smith played Ares' nastiness. Best scene of the episode.

Ares seems to set himself up for a sure win: If Gabrielle kills Mavican, he gains a new follower. If Xena kills Mavican, he leaves 'em all in wherever-it-was to rot. He doesn't care two whits about what happens to Mavican - she wasn't a serious contender for his favor, anyway. So why did he let Xena and Gabrielle go when Mavican called for help? Maybe Xena was calling Ares' bluff about whether he really would abandon her and Gabrielle to an a-la-Ladyhawke isolated half-life.

Sai blooper! In the final fight, Gabrielle tosses the sai to her right. But then Mavican runs ten feet behind herself to pick it up (I thought she was running away at first). Smart move by Gabrielle, though: drop whatever you don't want to have morphed back into the dark room.

Xena trapping them in the cave made NO sense, not a bit. Mavican was horrified at being trapped, Xena taunted her that they'd never get out... except that Ares had said that he'd release Mavican if she managed to kill Xena. It shouldn't have mattered to Mavican one bit. Given this and the "who says Xena can't kill Mavican" question, I wonder if Ares' rules were rewritten at some point in the script process and never quite made to match the rest of the episode. A lot of the problems seem to revolve around it. The final banter between Xena and Gabrielle is cute: the new strategy plan is that Gabrielle gets to fight the little bad guys. Now I can see the next episode starting with an argument about the height requirements for "little." "Look, if he's under my shoulders, you can have him!" "That guy WAS under your shoulders!" "Only because you hit him in the gut with your foot!"

Return to the Wool-Gatherings.

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