Xena Warrior Princess: Altered States, Ties That Bind, The Greater Good

We're getting towards the end of season one – they certainly go fast when you're watching/reviewing in groups of three! – and the show on the whole has found a sense of its own rhythm without quite reaching the heights of its potential (though Callisto is just around the corner...)

Contained here are three pretty solid episodes: one which really kicks the subtext into high gear, one which delves into a familial relationship of Xena's past, and one which goes with a tried-and-true formula of genre television – the hero is injured and the sidekick steps up to the plate.

Altared States

Plot: A take on Isaac and Abraham, in which Xena intervenes in the sacrifice of Isaac by his father and reveals it to be part of a plot concocted by his eldest son.

So this episode opened with the most blatant example of subtext we've had so far – so obvious and so sudden that it's like the writers realized overnight that there was a demand for femmeslash.

Hey, it's Karl Urban! I know he played Cupid on Hercules and will turn up later as Julius Caesar, so seeing him here was a bit disconcerting.

Why did Xena and Gabrielle looked so shocked over the thought of Ikus being a human sacrifice? I mean, they're allowed to be outraged, but surely they've come across it in the past, especially since it's been mentioned on the show before.  They do know how Agamemnon ensured his fleet got fair winds for the voyage to the Trojan War, right?

The Xena/Gabrielle banter was pretty cute throughout, especially the well and the "getting high on nut-bread" sequence, though because of my jumpy DVD I thought Gabrielle's "a rock told me to find you" comment was randomly funnier without seeing the scene in which she actually talks to it.

It was hard to really bond with the father/mother/Ikus characters as they were rather flat, but I liked that Ikus went straight to his mother to get help for a doped up Gabrielle (and how nice for him that he got to see both women naked).

That bent tree on the hilltop eventually turns up on The Legend of the Seeker. I guess the show-runners think that it's too cinematic to waste.

Great music when Xena was running around in slow-motion over the countryside; though the ominous Latin chanting was perhaps a bit wasted on such a silly episode.

Dumbest line goes to Gabrielle asking Ikus: "What's wrong? I can't help you if you don't tell me." Er – hadn't we already established that his father was trying to kill him? That's why the kid is upset, Gabby!

If this was the story of Isaac and Abraham, then what was the Arc of the Covenant doing showing up two episodes ago? I suppose this was meant to be the "true story" behind the Biblical tale, and I realize that at this point I'm only going to end up with a brain haemorrhage if I try and make sense of this time-line, but...still.

And since we're on the subject of the Isaac and Abraham story, here are two things you probably didn't know about it, as told to me by a Bible-studying friend: 

First of all, regardless of most depictions, Isaac was NOT a young boy. He was a grown man, in his late twenties at least, who could have overpowered his ancient father at any time. Second of all, God did not tell Abraham to kill Isaac as a test of his devotion (ie, "prove to me that you love God more than you love your son") as God had already told Abraham that Isaac would father a dynasty to carry on Abraham's bloodline.

By then asking Abraham to kill Isaac, God was testing him to see if he had enough faith in the truth of God's word that he would do something that would seemingly make this promise impossible to keep. So when Abraham prepared Isaac for sacrifice, he was under the impression that God would simply resurrect Isaac afterwards. The test of faith was Abraham banking on a miracle, not God just messing with Abraham for kicks-and-giggles.

It's probably the most widely misinterpreted and misunderstood Biblical story in the Old Testament. And now you know!

Ties That Bind

Plot: While Xena is attempting to rescue a bevy of young slave girls, an old warrior appears who claims to be Xena's father Atrius. She starts to bond with him, only for the whole thing to be another subterfuge from Ares designed to lead her down a dark path. 

Oh look! Ares is back. First of all, I like that he's a) no chauvinist, and b) very fickle to his devotees. I actually felt a little bit sorry for the warlord who had devoted his entire life to the worship of Ares, only for the god himself to turn up and say: "hey thanks man, but I'm giving your army to Xena."

It actually made me stop and think for a second about the god/mortal relationship in this world. Should the warlord show his faith by doing what Ares wants him to do? Or should he try to win back favour by taking decisive action against Xena? (Clearly Altared States may have had more of an effect on me than I realized!)

I knew from the blurb on the DVD case that Xena's father would show up at some point, and I guessed pretty early on that he would be working with Ares in some capacity. I have to admit though, the ruse had me going for a while.

I had mixed feelings about Xena's reaction to her father: on the one hand, it made sense that part of her atonement would involve mending the broken bridge with her father, and giving him a chance to make it up to her (as her mother did for her). Yet on the other, the idea of Xena Warrior Princess having Daddy Issues is a bit laughable, and it was a bit of a stretch to believe that Xena would go that bonkers at the sight of her father strung up like that (not impossible, but just a wee bit iffy).

Plus I wasn't entirely convinced that Ares would choose to play the Dad Card when it's becoming increasingly clear that Gabrielle is Xena's real weakness. I suppose you could assume Ares hasn't figured that out yet, but...well, isn't he a god? And shouldn't it be obvious?

In saying that though, I didn't realize until late in the episode (just a few seconds before the reveal, in fact) that Ares was masquerading as Atrius. With the power of hindsight, I'm annoyed that I didn't pick up on it sooner, as it was quite obvious – his convenient appearance to rescue the girls, the fact that Ares never appeared in the same scene with him, the way the dagger materialized after the assassin's death, the fact that the God of War is a master manipulator.

Also, I give Ares credit for just how deeply he planned his subterfuge. He must have gone to the village long before Xena came onto the scene just to have the girls captured and thereby anger the villagers enough to have him arrested/punished when he returned. Wow, that's some forward planning.

And it worked extremely well in keeping Ares's real identity under wraps, as Atrius had already confessed to Xena that he had done a lot of bad things. This felt like natural pay-off to that comment, which in turn managed to hide what was really happening.

But he tipped his hand too soon. As soon as Gabrielle talks Xena down (hmm, perhaps this is the moment when Ares realizes where his true competition lies) he gets up as Atrius and begins goading Xena – and of course, she realizes what's up. By the time he returned to his true form, he'd lost, because the mere fact that it was Ares means that her anger is re-directed at him for playing her (and because he symbolizes everything she doesn't want to be any more).

And that was a pretty cruel manipulation: impersonating her own father and rekindling that bond with her through the story of the horse in the field.

I'm not sure how successful the climactic scene was: Xena's sudden rush of fury that her father had been strung up came a little out of left field (I suppose we could chalk it up to her temper, and the fact that she was already fired up by having an army at her beck and call) and the way Gabrielle snapped her out of it (with the cheesy slow motion) didn't play very well, and I think Ares stuffed up pretty badly at the end there (at least for a god).

He completely misjudged Xena, and the fact that she was playing into his hands up until this point didn't really ring true. As I mentioned above; I couldn't quite buy that she'd become that attached to her deadbeat father that quickly – even though I can rationalize it if I squint.

As minor subplots go, I felt that the Gabrielle/Rhea rapport was a bit pointless, and I didn't really understand it either. Rhea offered herself up to spare her sister and then didn't want to return to her village because she felt her sister/brother-in-law wouldn't want her back? Unless she had a staggering lack of faith in her family's basic human decency and capacity for common sense, how on earth did she come to this conclusion?

Unless she was implying that she was ashamed of herself because she'd been raped, but I wasn't really picking up on that vibe either.  

I noticed a funny gaff: at one stage Xena jumps off her horse and her chakram falls from her belt and goes rolling away behind her; in the next shot, it's back on her belt. I'll just pretend it has magical boomerang powers.

All in all, this was definitely on the high end of the good scale, despite a couple of iffy concepts. Xena's reaction to her father was simultaneously portrayed as too serious and not serious enough (though I could understand her immediate reaction to him and her tentative desire to get to know him better; she was way too willing to commit a massacre for him and then seemed completely fine after the reveal that he was never even her dad to begin with) and Gabrielle was not quite as prominent as she should have been.

But I quite like "long con" type plots, and Ares's was definitely a doozy of one. Given the length of his review, it was obviously enjoyable!

The Greater Good

Plot: When Xena is poisoned by the tip of a blow-dart, Gabrielle has to step up and impersonate her in order to protect a village (and guest star Salmoneus) from a warlord and his men.

This was another good one, even with a tried-and-true plot: the hero becomes incapacitated and the side-kick has to step up to the plate. It was entertaining despite not having too many surprises, though I liked the bit of subversion concerning the warlord gloating over being the man who killed Xena, even though the audience knows that it was actually a woman who takes that honour (however temporarily).

Speaking of whom, I was rather excited over the fact that the episode after this one is called Callisto (I remember her well!) so it was great to get a sneak preview of her. However, when it comes to aiming skills, I have to marvel at Callisto's dart and Xena's chakram – not only are they capable of hitting their targets from miles away, but they can do so with a high stone wall in the way!

The Gabrielle/Argo interaction was cute, though I have to say that there's been no indication of any animosity between them before. They looked like they were getting along just fine, and so any truce that they reached at the end of this episode didn't really mean much.

It was nice seeing Argo come to Gabrielle's rescue and his abject refusal to desecrate Xena's body – but the horse-conversation when Argo seemingly commands the other horse to remain still and the sight of Argo kicking Gabrielle's staff out of her hands were a bit daft (how is that even possible without kicking her in the face?)

I'm getting really tired of these interchangeable ugly warlords. I suppose this one was a cut above the average, what with several nasty innuendos ("the man who gets her, gets her!") and the clever scene when he distracted Gabrielle with his "you can't even hold a sword" comment, only to disarm her easily when her eyes flicked away from him to her own sword-hand, but please tell me that these interchangeable evil dudes are a season one thing.

Cute sequence when Gabrielle put on Xena's armour in the same manner of the opening credits – though her line: "sometimes they just leave you" was a bit rich coming from someone who has left Xena three times this season!

It was fun seeing Salmonius again, even though his presence usually brings with it a sense of comedy that doesn't feel quite right on Xena (as opposed to the lighter Hercules) what with the fizzy drinks, the use of the word "factory" (I should be cool with anachronisms by now, but this was a bit much!) and then the Home Alone antics of the fight.

Still, it was a lovely moment when he came across Xena's body and his words to her, as well as his willingness to give himself up to the warlord to spare the villagers (even though that scene didn't make much sense – as I understood it, the warlord was only there to kill Salmonius, yet once he's in his grasp he orders him back to the village to organize the people. Was it to get an audience for his desecration of Xena's body? If it was, then that wasn't made clear).

Towards the end it took a sudden dark swerve. Gabrielle's reaction over Xena's body was poignant, especially the way she held her emotion in and gently rearranged her hair, followed by her hysterical beating of the tree with her staff.

The plan to have Xena's body torn apart was pretty gruesome, and so it was a bit odd to have the episode to veer back into light-hearted territory with Xena/Gabrielle's very cheerful, perky reunion. That said, the sight of the extras celebrating by leaping around and hugging each other felt like genuine happiness rather than the usual "stand-still-and-fist-pump" thing that usually goes on.

A nice ominous ending what with Xena playing with the dart, though there were some rather inexplicable bits. What was with the parakeet? And what were those giant white dolls hanging over the warlord's camp?