Takes One to Know One

This was a genre episode through and through: a small band of people, all with reason to murder (thin though they may be) and something to hide, an impossible crime, and a ridiculously convoluted solution. I love Agatha Christie-type stories, so I got a little extra kick out of the episode.

Smart move (and impressive scheduling & budget work), collecting five recurring guests to be the other inn patrons. This episode wouldn't have worked - and would have been incredibly boring - if we had tried to introduce a bunch of new characters and give them possible murder motives. Instead, the episode got an immediate cool point just for putting all these people from various episodes together in one room.

Cyrene's inn has gotten yet another redecoration job. Amphipolis must be incredibly prosperous; that place gets bigger every time we see it. And Cyrene's room is humongous! It's good to be the innkeeper.

Xena in the storm-filled doorway was a cheap and easy camera shot. But dang it, I liked it.

We finally got a birthday! I've been wondering why we haven't seen one in four seasons. I take it Xena cooked up this gathering of family and friends for Gabrielle's surprise party? Awwww.

When I first saw Ravennica, I thought it was Callisto, or at least a lookalike. They certainly go to the same hairdresser.

I couldn't for the life of me figure out Cyrene's business of moving Xena's room (cute mother-daughter banter in that scene), until I realized that Cyrene had already figured out who Ravennica was. This episode still makes sense with a second viewing, after you know what's going on, which isn't always easy to do with such a tangled web of clues. Kudos to the writers.

But with that said, I still don't know why Autolycus was giving the high sign to Ravennica in the opening scene. Or why she had a rash on her neck (allergic to ink? why?).

Why in the world did Xena bust into Ravennica's room? Maybe she figured out that's where the noise had come from. But it took me half the episode to realize that Ravennica's body was in her bedroom, not in one of the common rooms.

Discord doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Is she planning on popping into every murder in Greece? And if so, why's she sprawling on the bed and getting some quality time with the studmuffin? That's a kinky chick.

"OK, I'm a thief. Hey, there's news!" Auto's one of my favorite recurring characters. And Autolycus always gives Joxer great "ya moron" looks. Watch him after he tells Joxer that Ravennica's heart condition must have produced the knife in her chest.

Muzzles, leather bonds, manacles: the basic tools of the trade for... a bounty hunter. Sure, that was the first thing that came to my mind, too. One of the more subtle jokes of the episode, and it made me chuckle a lot.

Maybe I've read too many murder mysteries. It's always the last one you suspect (which put both Gab and Lila high on my list), so as soon as Minya said that Ravennica hamstrings horses, I knew who our murderer was. Argo was the pre-Mycenean version of "the butler did it."

Why didn't Xena run to check on Argo as soon as she heard that Ravennica targets horses? I was worried sick for a second, there. Not Argo!

"Minya in the bedroom with the knife." OK, Clue immediately came to my mind, too, when I heard about this episode, so I laughed when Joxer said this. (And Minya's "get a clue" response was a stitch.) By the time he said this for the seventh time (I counted, plus one other time from Minya), I was ready to throttle him and the writers. The joke was funny once. It's not funny as a theme.

Lila's crush on Joxer continues from A Family Affair. Joxer should forget this Gab thing he has and take up with Lila - she's more his speed. And how come we never saw Lila's reaction after Joxer publicly aired her love letter and his rejection?

In the kitchen, watch Cyrene slap Xena's hand as she reaches for some fruit. Mom can still treat the Destroyer of Nations like a ten-year-old.

The person who rifled through Ravennica's things was sloppy and dumb. We didn't need the offended look on Joxer's face to guess who that was.

"Maybe she liked her pears bruised." ?? That wasn't funny. "She's your mother." OK, that was hilarious.

Gab: "Look at this stick! Do you know what this stick means?"
Me: "It's a sign from the gods that you should take up the staff again?"
Gab: "No, there's no place for kindling here!"
Me: "Rats."

That key may get the award for the largest item we've seen stuffed down Xena's bodice yet. I'm surprised the woman wasn't walking like a tin soldier. But other than for the sake of a good joke, why did Xena pick up the key?

I got the feeling that Gabrielle's lecture about knife grooves was pure baloney to draw out a confession. We never find out, but I like the scene better that way.

Great horrified reaction from everyone to the concept of slow poisoning by Joxer's gravy. It was dumb to think that Ravennica would have drunk water and not noticed gravy, but I like that non-violence apparently does not equal non-cruelty.

Comeback of the episode:
"I'm tired of being jerked around." "You gave me 'till sunrise to jerk you around." Ha!

Nearly every episode this season, I've been happy to see Joxer not used for a bunch of slapstick pratfall humor. Never mind. They were saving it for a marathon session in this episode. Three stooges humor in the same episode with bestiality and bondage jokes? Whatever.

"Correctamundo"???

Gabrielle's path of non-violence comes thiiiiis close to being forgotten when Joxer mentions the stolen scroll. For once in my life, I'm rooting for Joxer to stay stupid.

Ravennica's actress mostly played a corpse, but I was impressed with the two ways she read the line "You saying you didn't steal my diamonds last night?" It was very subtle, but the first made me think Autolycus romanced them away, the second that he cut some purse strings. Acting kudos to the dead woman.

This is probably a dumb thing to say, since it's her show, but Xena really takes center stage in this episode. It struck me more than usual that in this episode there was barely a scene that she wasn't the ringleader for. Hats off to Lucy for a marathon job with a whole spectrum of reactions.

Another consistency note from Family Affair: Lila seems to have concluded that Xena's all right. Good enough to risk an assassin's wrath for, even.

Listen to Minya's distraction dialogue about the storm: small animals getting blown away? Some guy building an ark and selling rooms? Ha!

When Lila tries to cut Ravennica's horse free, the window behind Argo is closed. It should be open - that's the one to Ravennica's room, and we see through it when Minya tries to distract her. Speaking of which, why didn't Ravennica just walk to the open window to see into her room?

My best laugh of the episode: Xena's hilarious hand-on-face "I don't believe this" look when Gabrielle is going through a weak list of reasons to suspect people.

OK, it made for a good barroom brawl. But tell me again why Discord didn't just zap everybody instead of sending in her "good in bed, hopeless in a fight" playmates after everyone?

Speaking of those playmates, this episode is a Xena: Warrior Princess first for showing off more male flesh than female. Write it down.

Why was Gabrielle trying to keep Cyrene from helping in the fight? Maybe she was trying to protect her, but Gab, Cyrene's Way seems to be "don' mess with my daughter." Let her go follow it.

Gabrielle leaves a big ol' lipstick mark on Joxer's cheek. Guess she's been hitting the berry juice hard.

Gabrielle has a point in the end that everybody did what they did out of best intentions for Xena. And while I hate "For She's a Jolly Good Fellow," they had some clever lyric changes to make it into a birthday song. (Apparently "Happy Birthday" is not eternal, but "For She's a Jolly Good Fellow" is.) It was a corny ending, but I liked it.

Return to the Wool-Gatherings.

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