Xena Warrior Princess: Mortal Beloved, Royal Couple of Thieves, The Prodigal

Three more episodes, and some pretty strong ones too, especially in regards to their guest stars. An old boyfriend, the king of thieves and a washed-up old warrior: they might be stock characters, but the Xena writers use them to their best effect and their collective chemistry with our two leading ladies is spot-on.

Plus Gabrielle is finally starting to step out of Xena's shadow. 

Mortal Beloved

Plot: Marcus appears to Xena to tell her that the underworld has been taken over by a psychotic serial killer, who is forcing good souls into Tartarus and allowing evil-doers to invade the Elysian Fields. 

I really liked this one, a few quibbles notwithstanding.

First of all – Marcus! I enjoyed Marcus the first time around, so it was nice to see him again (though I get the feeling this is sadly the last time he'll turn up. Bobby Hosea and Lucy Lawless had some great chemistry for the few scenes they were in, and I really felt it when Xena not only realized that the ghost was Marcus, but that if she completed her mission, he would be doomed to return to Tartarus.

I loved her final bargain with Hades: to let Marcus enter the Elysian Fields or else he'd never get his helmet back (hidden cunningly on Marcus's own head!) I'm just not entirely sure why Xena actually had to stab Marcus – I guess it was for dramatic effect, but I was under the assumption that when his time was up, he'd simply dissipate back into a spirit.

For the most part the plot worked, though there were a few iffy bits. First of all, if Hades's helmet of invisibility allows the walls between Tartarus, the Elysian Fields and the mortal world to collapse and for the souls within to run riot... shouldn't he be taking better care of it? How did the Bride-Killer even manage to steal it in the first place?

Other shortcuts were taken what with the helmet magically making Bride-Killer mortal again once he reached the land of the living (why would it have that random power? Oh right – plot). There were also quite a few info-dumps and getting from place to place at the speed of light.

But the setup itself was pretty good: finding a killer who targets virgin brides and brutally murders them (a bit like a Greek Jack the Ripper, though with a slightly different choice of victim) and is entirely invisible was a good challenge for Xena to face (even though the actor swung from legitimately creepy to ridiculously hammy) and the way in which they outwitted him was fairly clever – counting on him overhearing the first plan and then not have Xena switch places with the bride after all.

The depiction of Hades (the place, not the god) was fairly accurate, though I didn't really like their take on Charon as a chatty, comedic figure. On my first watch I had no idea that he was played by Michael Hurst, and I prefer the concept of a grim, silent spectre. There's just something about a boatman (that is, endlessly rowing people back and forth across water) that always felt very sinister to me for some reason. Though I suppose the portrayal does fit if you look upon Hades as a bureaucratic figure.

I suppose I should be grateful that Cerberus didn't make an appearance in nineties' CGI, as the harpies were bad enough – even if they did obligingly remove Marcus's shirt. 

My eyes! It burns!

Though it was a cute bit of continuity to have Toxius return, if only for him to get his head lopped off.

There were some good lines throughout: Xena's observation that the thugs of the earth were unhappy even in Paradise, and Marcus's comment that: "a lifetime of evil with a single good deed at the end," doesn't count for much. It was a nice twist on the Redemption Equals Death trope, as in this case – it didn't, for neither death nor redemption came particularly easy for Marcus (or Xena for that matter).

I really liked the sequence in which the Bride-Killer stalks the wedding preparations, disturbing all the celebrating people, though I think it would have been much more effective if they'd dropped the bit with the juggler and the food, and just had the swing collapse with the bride and bride-groom on it. That was genuinely chilling, and was a great tip-off for when Xena/Marcus/Gabrielle arrived on the scene. (So chilling in fact, that I remembered it from watching this episode the first time, when I was about fourteen or fifteen years old).

Royal Couple of Thieves

Plot: Bruce Campbell guest stars as Autolycus, the prince of thieves, disguising himself as a wealthy warlord alongside Xena to join in a bidding war among various villains to secure a dangerous weapon.

This was an episode I was quite familiar with, as somehow or other it managed to get taped on VCR back when it first aired in the nineties. I well remember Autolycus from Hercules as a Robin Hood figure, so it was natural he'd eventually end up on Xena. In fact, I bet the showrunners couldn't wait to throw smart-ass Bruce Campbell and deadpan snarker Lucy Lawless together. The two bounced off each other perfectly, and definitely made a great team.

Also helping was the fact that this was a very tight script. There were no glaring plot-holes, instead everything flowed nicely and logically, and also tied in well with the banter between Autolycus/Xena as they firstly tried to out-con each other, and then the rest of the assorted criminals.

Unraveling the identity of the thief was nicely done (he foolishly quoted the inscription on the box) and the weapon itself was a total McGuffin, but was at least an interesting McGuffin with a bit of mystery. (As soon as it started shining I thought: "surely this isn't the Arc of the Covenant – nah!" but then of course it was). Still, Xena figuring out the "face the truth" riddle was better handled than the clumsy "the teacher's student" clue in that other Indiana Jones-inspired episode.  

Also, the actor playing Sentaries managed to be the best one-off Generic Bad Guy they've had so far: made memorable by his mastery of pressure-points, he was also genuinely scary and fun to watch without overdoing it. When he turned up and started one-upping Autolycus and Xena, he felt like a real threat.

In terms of the other guest-stars, I'm sure that guy who played That Guy still enjoys telling people at parties how he once buried his face in Lucy Lawless's cleavage.

But the best part was the Xena/Autolycus interaction. First of all, I liked that it was their mutual friendship with Hercules that brought them both together, and I loved the sizing up that went on between them. Autolycus was casual and trying not to be impressed, and Xena was bemused but also faintly charmed.

The back-and-forthing between them made some great sequences...let's see: Xena tricking Autolycus with the fake diamond and then tying his feet together, Autolycus making the most of Xena being "Cherish" and presenting her with "a new dress" (though making her dance as a distraction was a bit much – I'm glad she squished melon in his face), rigging the toothpick so it looked like a lethal weapon, the "she's gonna kill me"/"you left something on the line" exchange, followed by Xena shoving a grape down Autolycus's throat, letting the guard catch them in a compromising position in the bedroom, and the line: "our plan depended on his ego - now he's dead, so's his ego, so's our plan."

And of course Autolycus trying to get a fix on Xena/Hercules's history and ending up thinking himself in the wrong type of story by expecting a kiss at the end.

There were lots of little cool bits here and there: I loved Xena's casual slow jog as she went after Autolycus, and on the boat when Ugly Dude #193 attacked there was a split-second moment when you can see Autolycus push Xena out of the way, before Xena lunges after Autolycus to prevent him from going over the side – and of course there was similar teamwork when it came to saving Gabrielle at the end.

Oh, also that little moment when the dead body is revealed and Xena pretends to be shocked, so Autolycus pats her hand gently to console her. Hah! It was just great stuff all through, and definitely the best script/character dynamic since Hooves and Harlots.

The Prodigal

Plot: Gabrielle heads home to Potadeia for a rest from the adventuring life only to find that her village is under attack and defended only by a mercenary-for-hire, a drunk called Meleager.

I...don't really have a lot to say about this one.

This was a Gabrielle-centric episode, with Xena only appearing at the very beginning and very end, and I suppose it was okay. It was highly reminiscent of The Moment of Truth on Merlin which in turn was inspired by The Magnificent Seven Samurai trope in which the villagers have to rally together with a hired hero in order to save their home. With Gabrielle as the Prodigal Son Daughter.

This was an entertaining enough episode, even though Gabrielle deciding to head back to Potadeia was a bit contrived (she makes a single, simple mistake, and suddenly she's decided to go back home indefinitely in the space of five seconds?) But it was nice to see Potadeia and Lila again, even though it was a lot bigger than I remember it – the village that is, not Gabrielle's sister.

Much like Gabrielle's decision to abandon Xena, Lila's sudden jealousy and resentfulness at Gabrielle leaving came out of nowhere (honestly writers, you don't have to introduce conflict just for conflict's sake), but I liked seeing the sisters re-bonding. Though where on earth were Gabrielle's parents?  

The Gabrielle/Meleager interaction was quite cute though entirely predictable (oh no, he's abandoned them on the eve of battle – of course he hasn't, he's just gone to get weapons), and it was nice to see Gabrielle taking charge, organizing the village, and putting all her skills that she's learnt with Xena to good use. Though the gag in which Gabrielle/Meleager/Lila are checking the forest for soldiers only for about six or so men to come out of their hiding places once they'd sounded the all-clear was pretty funny.

I thought it was a bit odd though that Meleager just sort of disappeared after the battle. Unless I blinked and missed something, he just sort of dropped out of the story. I don't think we even saw Gabrielle saying goodbye to him.