Twlight of the Gods
Season five was a pivotal year for
Xena: Warrior Princess. And in light of the recent announcement that the sixth year is to be the show's last, this year's events in the
Xenaverse are the more peritnent.
JIM SMITH takes a look back at what the last year has brought us, as we ponder the future of Xena, Gabrielle and co...
It's been an extraordinary year for fans of
Xena: Warrior Princess. Xena's parent show,
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, ended; a new comic book featuring characters from the series came and went; and the series' attraction at Universal Studios Florida closed down after several years of loyal service.
Xena's fifth season has changed the programme almost beyond recognition. The show's status quo has been shaken up and none of the pieces are where they were 12 months ago — the result of Pacific Renaissance's determination to keep the franchise fresh and involving, and us, the viewers, on our collective toes.
Three significant threads run throughout the whole of this season of
Xena. Firstly, we have the clear intent to conclude every major loose end, finish off every storyline and provide resolution to every major character left over from both
Xena and
Hercules. Secondly there is Xena's pregnancy and the repercussions of that. And thirdly and finally, we have the fall of Olympus. At least one of these themes underpins almost every episode of the show's fifth year.
A result of this is that the season has felt at times like '
Xena's Greatest Hits'. An inevitable
feeling of familiarity grows as we re-encounter nearly every surviving major character, revisit every major location, and reacquaint ourselves with every kind of episode
Xena has previously done. From farce to drama, the whole gamut of the show's stylistic diversity is run through over and over again. Fortunately, this all adds up to an impressive collection of episodes which, as a result, contain something for everyone. More importantly, it builds upon, concludes and then dismisses that which has gone before.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Fallen Angel is an impressive start to the fifth season. Visually radically different from anything that has gone before in the series, it takes the show into the realms of Christian mythology and sets up many ideas for the season. Xena's redemption of Callisto, the aerial battles and the demon Xena cackling are just three of the dozen or so images from the episode that stay with us long after the closing credits. The sheer amount of magic and mysticism inherent in this episode's plot also means that its undoing of the ending of
Ides of March seems neither forced nor unreasonable. In the world of angels, demons and visits to hell, death and resurrection are fairly simple matters, and mortality is as flexible as the plot demands.
The following episode,
Chakram, serves as an effective reintroduction to the series for the unversed. We follow an amnesiac Xena who has to be reminded of life as both a warrior and a reformed killer. Hardly startling (although the fusing of the two chakrams of light and dark is undeniably a great moment),
Chakram is a neat character piece, and one which sets the scene for the early part of the season.
Succession is an enjoyable, traditional episode that could have featured in any preceding season — in many ways an old-fashioned Xena vs Ares story with the same stakes as always. The next instalment,
Animal Attraction, is a decent stab at producing a Western without moving from Greece (well, New Zealand disguised as Greece) that also makes a single great contribution to the Xena mythos — the discovery of our heroine's pregnancy The food cravings that result from it (raspberry jam and raw fish?) are stomach-churningly funny, and there are also some great Joxer scenes.
It's
Them Bones, Them Bones that really makes clear this season's intent to wipe the slate clean. Alti, villainess of the fourth season, and a relatively recent addition to the
Xenaverse, is revived in order that her story arc can be resolved. In keeping with this, as we progress through the season, Eli (also a season four addition) will return and die, and the long- running Brutus/Roman subplot will be concluded. In
Them Bones, Them Bones, Alti plans to possess the body of Xenas unborn child, and the thought of what Alti could achieve should she succeed is truly horrific but strangely pales in comparison to what that child will achieve on her own.
Unfinished business also rears its thematic head over the next couple of episodes,
Purity and
Back in the Bottle, which together form a neat duet of episodes concludes the Chin plot threads raised in the third season's
The Debt two-parter.
There's nothing particularly new about the body swap antics of
Little Problems, but its a good, solid, entertaining episode, which, in keeping with the 'Greatest Hits' theme, echoes
Intimate Stranger and
Ten Little Warlords.
Seeds of Faith is the first of three vital episodes on which this season pivots. Ares' murder of Eli, Gabrielle's disillusionment and the seeming placing of Callisto's soul into the body of Xena's unborn baby will all have repercussions throughout the remainder of the year. Combine this with the episodes final confirmation of the justice of the cause of the 'One God' and its clear illustration of the populace's willingness to risk the idea of a life without the Olympian Gods, and it becomes clear how
Seeds of Faith brings season five's three main narrative strands together. Eli's martyrdom lays the foundations for the cult in his name that we'll see at the very end of this season.
However, before we delve wholeheartedly into the darkness of the ongoing storyline, there's time for another noteworthy episode. Following the unequivocal success of season threes
The Bitter Suite, there had been much talk about the obvious lack of a musical follow-up in season four.
Lyre, Lyre, Hearts on Fire finally silenced those of us bemoaning the lack of sing-a-longs in the 1998/1999 run of
Xena. The episode centres around a music competition, held to decide who should gain possession of a mystical lyre.
The pre-credits sequence is shot as a parody of the series it's a part of: a blood red sky lights a brooding scene: Draco's men and a group of Amazons prepare to fight over the lyre, recently recovered from the ground. Xena, Gabrielle and Joxer appear and launch straight into a rendition of Edwin Starr's seminal 'War'. The real highlight of the instalment is Ted Raimi's performance of the Latino standard 'Dancing in the Moonlight', sung in character as Joxer's brother Jace. Lyre, Lyre is a great episode. The songs (all cover versions) are well chosen, and the performances are pitched at exactly the right level.
Following
Lyre, Lyre, we get another lighter episode, this year's clip show,
Punchlines, which has not one but two framing sequences. In the first, Gabrielle is trying to return to her writing but finds she can no longer express herself through her scrolls. Aphrodite pops in for a chat, and Gabrielle relates the events of her day to the Goddess of Love — including an encounter with Lachrymose, the God of Despair. It is Gabrielle's conversation with Lachrymose that provides the framing sequence within the framing sequence, as she attempts to make the god laugh. Like most Xena clip shows, this is a laugh a minute. It even has a custard pie fight. The episode gains extra marks for a wealth of nice details, such as Gabrielle's pajamas, the bamboo trolleys in the supermarket scene, and Aphrodite's little spectacles.
The second of the season's three pivotal instalments, Alex Kurtzmann and Roberto Orci's
God Fearing Child, is next. With one eye on the future and another on the past, it allows another, final adventure with Hercules, and features the death of Zeus, King of the Olympian Gods, an occurence which sets into motion a series of events that will come to dominate the series. Apocalyptic prediction and hopeful optimism clash perfectly — Xena's daughter is born as Hercules murders his own father for her sake. Birth and death converge and suddenly the audience knows, or should know, that nothing can ever be the same again.
Hardcore
Xena fans may not have fully appreciated what this episode meant to those who have been following Renaissance's productions since the cably linked with its parent show. Herc's appearance is in line with this season's returns for Eli, Alti and Amarice.
The following episode,
Eternal Bonds, begins with Xena, Gabrielle and Eve being chased by a tornado, and then proceeds to move up a gear. This is an impressive episode, with everything an audience could want. As Xena points out, following the death of Zeus, the Gods are throwing everything they've got at the happy trio. Artemis, Apollo and Poseidon send first assassins and then armies after them.
In conjunction with the following episode, the equally dramatic
Amphipolis Under Siege,
Eternal Bonds conveys very well the desperate situation in which Xena and Gabrielle find themselves. How do you fight immortal, omnipotent gods? And who will join with you if you try? Joxer appears to help, and gets poisoned during a fight with a priest of Apollo. His slow deterioration into delirium gives Ted Rami far more dramatic material than normal, and he rises to the challenge skilfully.
Amphipolis Under Siege contains many great moments, including Xena's apparent willingness to give herself to Ares for Eve's sake. The episode's real highlight, however, is the revelation that it is Ares, of all people, who is the voice of sanity amongst the gods. The God of War believes that the prophecy of Eve's power to destroy the gods may be self-fulfilling, and that by attempting to stop it from occurring they may all be hastening their own demise. He also proves pragmatic in the face of Armageddon,unlike his dogmatic siblings. These scenes, along with many later on in the season, show how much Ares has grown and deepened as a character since his earliest appearances
on Hercules.
The ludicrous
Married With Fishsticks has been widely criticised, perhaps a little unfairly A flippant, silly pastiche of 1960s-style sitcoms, an episode of this kind was clearly needed at this point in the series to ameliorate the darkness of the surrounding instalments.
Married With Fishsticks certainly appeals more than the ensuing episode,
Lifeblood. A last gasp attempt at exploring Amazon culture, in it we follow Xena and Gabrielle as they meet up with the tribe of Amazons they've encountered so often before so that Gabrielle can bestow her right of caste upon Eve, effectively making her an Amazon Princess. It's an odd episode — a mix of hugely impressive dance sequences and clips from Renaissance's would-be series
Amazon High. It's also rather pa- faced and slightly incoherent.
Kindred Spirits is also an Amazon fest, and one with a great deal
more going for it. Joxer pops up to add a bit of light relief in a hugely enjoyable conclusion to Xena's adventures with the Amazon nation.
You have to be very brave indeed to name an episode after one of the best plays ever written, but that's what Renaissance did with
Antony and Cleopatra. It then takes another act of almost astonishing bravery to kill off one of the titular characters in the pre-credits sequence and replace her with one of your own. Events don't remotely square with either Shakespeare or history but since when did history matter a jot in this show? The aforementioned pre-credits sequence is shockingly effective, and consequently one of the most impressive in the series' long history In concluding the Brutus plotline, Antony and Cleopatra finally clears up the last of the series' unfinished business, and by introducing Octavius, it sets the scene for the season's final quartet of episodes.
In fact, given what follows,
Antony and Cleopatra could almost be considered the last episode of proper Xena's certainly it's the last gasp for the old-style, old-format series that the remainder of the season will wilfully abandon in the quest for something brave, new and exciting.
And
Looking Death in the Eye embraces this new quest wholeheartedly The episode begins in a low-key yet shocking manner. An auction is held in a country tavern; someone is selling a scroll which he claims tells the story of what happened to Xena, the Warrior Princess, missing for 25 years. A man at the bar, shocked by this news, turns around, and we see that he is an aged Joxer. Stunned to discover that it's genuine, he snatches the scroll and leaves, determined to find out what happened to his friends.
Looking Death in the Eye is the last of the three pivotal episodes and the first part of what is effectively a four-part story — a single 180-minute narrative that showcases
Xena at its absolute best. It's also arguably the best individual instalment of the series since
Sacrifice, containing too many great sequences to name. The quarrelling between the gods; Xena's rage at Death; all the scenes featuring Ted Raimi's astonishingly dignified 'old Joxer'; the exploding chariot and Ares' desperate attempt to stop Xena from killing herself... These are just some of the memorable moments which spring to mind.
The plot continues directly into
Livia, an amazing episode in its own right. From the brutal, unsettling pre-credits sequence onwards, it rewrites the book on
Xena. Again, the episode is packed with amazing moments: the smashing of Xena and Gabrielle's ice tombs; Xena renewing her acquaintance with Ares; her confrontation with Augustus; Eve and Xena's battle in the amphitheatre; Xena and Gabrielle's reunion with Joxer.
The episode again flows straight into the next,
Eve, an emotionally fraught and powerful episode, which provides Ted Raimi with yet more opportunities to prove his mettle as a dramatic actor. There's a wonderful moment where he confesses to his son Virgil that he was never the great warrior he wanted to be, whilst his acting during Joxer's death scene is deeply moving. Equally impressive is the literally miraculous redemption of LivialEve. This is presented not as a quick fix solution, but as the beginning of a long and painful process. Eve is not simply forgiven. She sees her error thanks to divine intervention, but is haunted by guilt and tormented by what she's done, as the next episode goes on to prove.
Motherhood is as grandiose and extraordinary a piece of television as you're ever likely to see. The remaining Olympians rally for a final assault on Xena's family, desperate to preserve their place in the universe. Over Aphrodite's objections, Athena sets the Furies on Gabrielle, using images of both Joxer and Hope to torment her. Through Eve, the Archangel Michael (see the
Hercules episode
Revelations) gives Xena the power to kill Olympians. The stage is set for the final confrontation...
Olympus has been threatened many times throughout both this series and its predecessor but here it shakes and then falls. Xena's battle with the surviving gt)ds in the burning remains of Joxers barn is hugely impressive, but even that is topped by Xena and Athena's duel in the hall of Olympus
itself. Aphrodite and Ares' actions are somehow both shocking and completely in character The
conclusion of the episode means that whatever follows it will have to be different from all thats gone
before. The final scene as Eve, Gabrielle and Xena sit by the sea literally at the dawn of a new age is a very different season ending to any we ye had before. Yet like so much of the innovation this sea
son, it works.
The fifth season of
Xena has perhaps been stronger than any except its third — somehow both diverse and coherent, well conceived and stylishly executed. At the time of writing, Xena's sixth season is yet to air, and only the scantest details are known. By the time you read this, it will have begun in the US and be imminent in the UK, and we now know that this year will be the show's last. What's next is, in a very real sense, the endgame.
Related Pictures
Twilight of the Gods Official Xena Magazine February 2001, Jim Smith, 52-57.
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