Xena Warrior Princess and Once Upon a Time (7)
Once Upon a Time “Child of the Moon”
This episode wasn’t bad, but let’s be honest, it wasn’t exactly good either. Though I loved the visuals (seriously, girls in flowing cloaks and wolves running under the full moon go a LONG way with me) there were very few surprises here, and couple of clunky bits. Plus, all the werewolf clichés were in full effect. These types of stories always seem to centre on the theme of control and most of them end in the main character reconciling their humanity with the beast within.
Ruby/Red is one of my favourite characters, so as happy as I was to see her in a Ruby-centric episode, I’m sad that it didn’t really bring much to the overall story or even to her character. Her entire arc was fairly predictable, a little contrived, and far too quickly resolved.
Regarding the timeline in the flashbacks, I’m guessing all this took place directly after she and Snow first met and Red first realized that she was in fact a werewolf. Sometimes the chronology is hard to keep track of, but that was reasonably easy to deduce. The only thing was that as a flashback, it was only marginally relevant to what was happening in present-day Storybrooke. Okay sure, both involved Red’s control issues regarding the wolf, but other than that, it’s hard to really care that Red found her long-lost mother, since I wasn’t even aware that her mother was an issue in the first place. And now she’s dead, so I guess I never have to worry about it again.
I suppose I’d be interested in seeing the backstory behind why exactly Granny took Red from her mother and how the two of them became estranged - though again, it’s not hard to guess considering their opposite viewpoints on how to handle the wolf. That Red found and lost her mother in the space of a single day was pretty devastating (especially since she was partially responsible for it) but I appreciated her insistence on personal choice: not only to be both herself and the wolf, but in defining Snow as her family - the very person who introduced the idea of Red being allowed to have two sides to her in the first place.
And is it safe to infer that Snow and Red are also Snow White and Rose Red? Can we have an episode in which they meet with an irate dwarf and a big black bear? Please, please, PLEASE?!
Meghan Ory reminds me of Angel Coulby in one very distinct way: she has a beautifully expressive face, and there’s so much clarity and purity in the emotions she conveys that it’s impossible not to be invested in whatever she’s going through. Every time she looked unhappy or distraught I just wanted to leap into the TV and give her a hug. Lucky Snow.
And hat’s off once again to the casting department. Not only did they find a little girl who was uncannily similar to Gennifer Goodwin to play Snow White, but I totally bought Anita as Red’s mother - the same colouring, the same facial bone structure - incredible.
And two more hot guys bite the dust. I can’t say I’m that cut up over Quinn, as he came across as incredibly creepy and untrustworthy (especially when he threatened to burn Red’s cloak) but Gus! GUS! I can’t believe they’ve actually killed off this Disney character:
It’s a crime! Seriously upset over this. (Though generally I actually love the fact that this show fridges so many male characters).
So King George’s great plan was to frame the werewolf girl for murder in order to get revenge on Charming by convincing the townsfolk that he couldn’t protect them? That’s a stupid plan; I would have preferred it if he’d simply caused havoc with Ruby so that he could get his hands on the magic hat. That would have been simple, effective and easy to pull off without involving a gruesome murder and one of those bizarre ready-made angry mobs that always come complete with pitchforks and flaming torches. Seriously, who ARE these people?
And the fact of the matter is that when up against Regina and Rumplestiltskin as villains, George is about as boring as they come. It’s like comparing the complexity of Uther and the finesse of Morgause with Morgana’s one-note shtisk. Katie McGrath deserved better, and surely Alan Dale does too.
In regards to the subplot wending its way through the proceedings, the dream between Henry and Aurora (now confirmed to be a shared dream) promises a lot of interesting development in the future. Now that Henry has found a way to communicate with Aurora, hopefully they can start getting some messages across from one world to the other. Also, I think (and hope) that Gold was sincere in giving Henry that healing necklace without any strings attached. I can’t recall - though correct me if I’m wrong - that Rumplestiltskin ever harmed a child, and I like to think that that’s where he draws the line. Not that it excuses any of his crimes, but in regards to Baelfire, it makes psychological sense that he would waive any debts regarding deals made with children.
I love the emphasis that this show puts on the importance of platonic friendships: not only Snow and Red in the fairytale world, but also Ruby/Belle and Ruby/David in Storybrooke. Ruby/David especially; I love platonic male/female relationships and these two have a lovely big brother/little sister, sheriff/deputy vibe going on. More of this please. Oh, and Granny too. I’ll never get enough of her and that crossbow.
So this episode veered very much on the side of filler. On the heels of Tallahassee, I don’t think this felt like a vitally important story to be told at this particular time, and could have used some tighter writing and editing to boot. But still - Red. Red is always good.
Xena Warrior Princess
Altered States
This is the one that although being based on a Biblical story, it's ironically also the episode that opens up with the most blatant example of subtext we've had so far. It’s so obvious and so sudden that it's like the writers realized overnight that there was a demand for femmeslash.
It’s also the one where Karl Urban turns up as a one-shot villain despite already playing Cupid on Hercules and Julius Caesar later on Xena. Someone on the crew must have really liked the guy, though seeing him here is a bit disconcerting.
And 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. But since we're on the subject of the Isaac and Abraham story, here are two things that you probably didn't know about it:
First of all, regardless of most depictions of Isaac, he was NOT a young boy. He was a grown man, in his early 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 previously told Abraham that Isaac would father a dynasty that would 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 impossible. 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 shits-and-giggles. It's probably the most widely misinterpreted and misunderstood Biblical story in the Old Testament.
The Xena/Gabrielle banter was pretty cute throughout (what I saw of it) especially at the well and the "getting high on nut-bread" sequence. It was hard to really empathise with the father/mother/Ikus characters as they were all 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).
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?
Great music when Xena was running around in slow-motion over the countryside; though the onimous 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!
Somewhat forgettable episode; on to the next one!
Ties that Bind
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 bit sorry for the warlord who 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 Altered States may have had more of an impact on me than I realized).
I knew from the blurb on the DVD case that Xena's father would show up, and I guessed pretty early on that he would be working with Ares in some capacity. I have to admit though, that the long con had me going for a while. I had mixed feelings about Xena's initial reaction to Atrius - 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 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).
That said, I also wasn't entirely convinced that Ares would play the Dad Card when it's becoming increasingly clear that it is Gabrielle that is Xena's real weakness. I suppose you could say that 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 had been masquerading as Atrius the whole time. 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 he's a master manipulator. Also, I give Ares credit for just how deeply he'd planned his subterfuge. He must have gone to the village long before Xena came onto the scene just to have the girls captured and thus anger the villagers enough to have him arrested/punished when he returned. Wow, that's 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. Thus the reaction at the village 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 Ares returned to his true form, he'd already lost, because the mere fact that it was him 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 too: impersonating her own father and rekindling that bond with her through the story of the horse in the field.
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 own 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.
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.
The Greater Good
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. Despite being entertaining, there weren't too many surprises in this one, though I liked the bit of subversion what with 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 was 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 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 in lieu of any decent set-up. It was cute 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 was 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 innuendoes ("the man who gets her, gets her!") and the nice 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 1 thing.
Cute sequence when Gabrielle put on Xena's armour in the same manner of the opening credits, and nice continuity on her pony - 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) especially 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 organise the people. Was it to get an audience for his desecration of Xena's body? If it was, then that wasn't really made very 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 suddenly 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?
A reaction shot from a random parakeet - just what every TV show needs.
Seriously, what the heck are these things?