Ulysses

Yeah, we definitely did have our parallels between Ulysses and Perdicus, didn't we? I had a serious problem understanding the attraction to whiny Perdicus in Return of Callisto; I had liked him better (although still didn't see him as All That) in Beware of Greeks. Ulysses does have the spark of some common ground with Xena. Here's a real warrior - "what a man" - and an adventurer who knows the road, with a strong moral compass pointing him toward his people and his land. Sure, that's a good basis for making Xena sit back and appreciate the view.

Sadly, the relationship had problems from there. The actor was generally OK, but didn't make Ulysses stand out as anything out of the ordinary, in spite of some *fabulous* lines. ("What are you doing?" "Tying you up." "All right, I'm game, what did you have in mind?") There was a wealth of potential that could have been mined - as I recall my Homer, Ulysses was a heckuva trickster. That could have provided some fun, but it never made it to the screen.

And - Beth gets peeved, here - the ending betrayed it all. Ulysses was a man on a quest, and a noble one it was; return to his kingdom, his people, and his wife. At the beginning of the episode, it was Ulysses' driving force - all that mattered was what stood between him and Ithaca. Then he hits land, finds out Penelope is alive, and he pitches everything he had been fighting for out the window. It should have been one of those classic romantic dilemmas - the man that Xena could love, the man that's worthy of love, is the one who will stay with his kingdom and his wife, regardless of his feelings for another. If he's willing to pitch all that out the window, betray the woman who's stood by his memory for years and abandon his kingdom of people who are sorely in need of his help, just for the sake of what he's hoping is love, he's also betraying himself and that love. Well, that's the dilemma we SHOULD have seen more of. Ulysses flunks the test, not once but twice trying to ditch and run off with our Warrior Princess, and Ulysses went from Hero to Putz in the blink of an eye, with barely a comment from Xena except to firmly send the man back home.

I did still like the final scene on the ship just for Lucy's performance, telling this man she was so attracted to that he should go home and be happy there. It's the kind of situation Xena has had to face more than once: she tried it on some little starry-eyed farm kids, with much less success on a kid from Poteidaia, and continuously with a certain mighty-warrior wanna-be. Xena's a natural leader and damned magnetic. When you're leading an army of brigands that's not such a bad thing, but when you're a loner on the road and want to prevent uprooting the people around you, that gets a little tougher sometimes. And it's especially tough when you don't really want the person to leave. But Xena passes the test that Ulysses fell flat on and sends him packing.

We got treated to Lucy's voice again briefly, and is anyone surprised that Xena can sing to rival the sirens? Granted, those sirens with the bodacious sound system looked like they were stoned out of their minds (they were even forgetting to open their mouths half the time), but it's still an impressive accomplishment for Xena's resume. I was trying to figure out why the sirens' singing performance looked so strange; do you think that the music for the sirens hadn't been composed yet when they filmed? The sirens weren't singing in synch with the actual music; maybe they were trying to keep the acting-singing as neutral as possible to fit whatever the final tune ended up being.

Gabrielle, dear Gabrielle, wins the scene-stealing award for the week (again!). Renee continues to show off just how great a comedienne she is. The moment she appeared at the cabin stairway, even though her lines were on a completely different topic, she had the sway of a person who's going to be miserable as long as she's on top of waves. I couldn't stop laughing every time she was stumbling (or hanging) across the screen; sure, Xena was cruel, cruel, cruel to the poor bard, but it WAS awfully hard to resist.

One quick question: Is Gab's hair back to serious blonde again, or does the color on my set need adjusting?

Gabrielle also gets to stretch her legs in Xena's footsteps: she's learned how to kick now as well as staff-bonk! And she got disarmed and actually managed to pick the darned staff back up again. Way to go, woman! You're getting the hang of it!

Gab does the dance of the three veils, even to the same music as Xena danced to in Royal Couple of Thieves (Wow, who brought the boom box on board?), AND take out three guys while she does it. Not bad! I hope subtext fans had a great time with Xena's appreciation for Gab's performance, not to mention the line "I want in on the fun, too."

But Xena really needs to rethink her timing when the guys come calling. Can she find a guy to get snuggly with MORE than five feet away from a sleeping Gabrielle? First Marcus, now Ulysses - it's no wonder Gab usually sleeps soundly; she doesn't have much choice in the matter.

Return to the Wool-Gatherings.

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