XWP: The Debt II
I need to write this sucker now or I fear I'll leave it waiting until the weekend and that would be egregious! So I'm going to write it while I watch American Idol (go Haley!) so if it seems like I'm making less sense than usual, blame it on the inept AI judges.
1) When we last saw our intrepid duo, Gabrielle was busy betraying Xena to a hated enemy and things are not going to get more pleasant for our girls because Xena's thrown into a basement water pit with a gigantic square put around her neck while Gabrielle's forced to listen to Ming Tien gloat in his strange Chinese/Kiwi accent.
Ouch.
Understandably, Gabrielle is quite scared about what Xena's thinking of her, what with such a huge betrayal. Ming Tien won't let Gabrielle see her before there's a trial, so she's basically left to fester with her thoughts. The sad part is that Gabrielle thought that Xena killing Ming Tien was going to be a betrayal to all the hard work she had been doing the past two and a half years, that going through with it would take her back to a life of murder.
The thing that kind of bugs me about Gabrielle's thinking is that is shows how little faith in Xena she's cultivated over the years. I mean, she sure trusts Xena to save her life, but not to restrain her emotions and violence. And, on one level, that's understandable. One thing I love about Xena is that she's almost always on the brink of falling over. But . . . To not even trust that Xena would have an actual reason for doing what she's doing . . . It's like Gabrielle's trust in her has been totally breached.
Could this breach in trust be related back to Xena's insistence on killing Hope?
2) While Xena's suffering in the water pit, we get more delightful flashbacks to her time in Chin. We see her with little Ming Tien (and god is the actor who plays the boy so incredibly adorable) and she tells him, "I am the scourge your gods sent to punish your people. Scary, huh?"
And then sees that she's scared him and she gets this wonderful look on her face like, "I'm so fucking cool. Triumph!" I addressed this in my review for The Debt I, but, again, Evil!Xena is so incredibly immature. She just wants people to take her seriously and she wants people to be afraid of her. She's kind of like a little sister getting one over on her big brother. She's so adolescently cheerful when she intimidates this eight year old kid.
She's so self impressed but for all the wrong reasons. That look just tells us so much about who she is as a person.
3) Back in the present, the other prisoners in the water pit are paying her homage, trying to her their clothes because they know she was thrown in prison because she tried to take the life of Ming Tien. Turns out that little adorable boy turned into one mean motherfrakker.
There's an older gentlemen there who tells Xena what the others are doing. He came from the Kingdom of Lao and has bad news for Xena: Lao Ma is dead.
4) This brings us back to the Lao Ma flashbacks. Uh, it just gets so good.
Lao Ma is intent on getting Xena to control her will. Part of Xena being so immature is that she's nearly incapable of showing any kind of restraint.
She starts by having Xena destroy some pitchers. Xena's got her crippled leg and she's in that horrible ill-fitting Chinese robe and she's pretty adorable. I can't lie. Limping!Xena makes me want to hug her. But, she destroys the pitcher with her good leg, breaking it into a million pieces. (Okay, more like five or six.)
And Lao Ma's like, "Dude, Xena, calm down. You don't need to kill a mosquito with an ax." And precedes to show Xena an awesome trick with a hair clip: She impales it easily into the wood, impressing Xena.
After that, Lao Ma kicks some ass with her qi, breaking another pitcher (mostly because Xena tells Lao Ma she enjoys "a good kill") and Xena's completely amazed and tries it herself, prompting Lao Ma to laugh after a minute or so of Xena staring at the pitcher like she'd like to wrestle it to the ground.
She tells Xena, "Lady. Listen. You're trying to attack the pitcher with your will. That's not going to get your anywhere. If you want success in your life, you need to stop willing. You need to stop wanting. You need to stop hating. Yeah, that's right. That hate thing? It's getting you nowhere fast." She tells Xena that Xena needs to start living and serving others.
Xena quickly says that she could do that for Lao Ma, and Lao Ma points out that it doesn't really count if you love the person. Of course you want to serve and live for someone you love. That's what it means to love, kind of.
What's interesting is how quickly Lao Ma deduces that Xena loves her and how Xena does not deny it. (I'll address the nature of what that love is later . . .)
Lao Ma tells Xena that she is going to serve Ming Tzu when he comes for dinner.
5) At first Xena is like, "Girl, you be trippin' if you think I'm going to serve that fool", but she gives in to Lao Ma and does as she asks. She almost snaps and kills him, but manages to restrain herself.
That was her first test and she passed. Even though her anger almost overtook her, the important thing is that, for a few hours, she was able to control her will. She didn't give in to its every whim. Huzzah!
As Lao Ma tells her, "To conquer others is to have power. To conquer yourself it to know the way."
6) We find out that Lao Ma is keeping her husband in a coma. He's not the greatest guy and super sickly. Knowing that if dies the kingdom will go to his numbskull cousin, she figures she can keep him alive and work in his stead, so she can basically undo some of the awful stuff he's done and bring peace to the land.
We also learn? Ming Tien is her son. Oh snap!
7) Back in the present, Gabrielle smacks Xena and tries to get her to promise Ming Tien that she won't kill him if he lets her go.
It's an interesting dynamic. In an upcoming episode (two reviews from now), Xena's going to do something to Gabrielle that raised complete and total ire in the fandom. I totally understand why, no doubt about that. But isn't it interesting that, aside from what she does coming up and one moment in season one, Gabrielle's always the one hitting her?
I mean, not that it happens all that often, but really. Gabrielle's more physical towards Xena than Xena is to her.
8) Back in flashback land, Lao Ma is fixing Xena's crippled leg. She uses her qi to undo whatever damage was there.
What follows? Erotic flying of course!
The subtext in this episode is seriously out of this world. This is even more overt than the kiss between Lao Ma and Xena in The Debt I.
Seriously, Xena is running around with joy because her body is finally whole and Lao Ma uses her qi to wrap Xena in expensive silks and they wrap up and hug and literally fly together.
9) In the present, Xena is sentenced to death. After the "trial" Ming Tien allows Gabrielle to go visit her.
She trudges down to the water pit and confronts Xena. She pours out her heart. It's really an amazing scene between the two and Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor are really wonderful.
Gabrielle wants Xena to forgive her, but doesn't really expect it. The betrayal is too great and now that she's had a chance to actually speak with Ming Tien, she understands that he's not a great guy and that she was rash in not trusting Xena's motives. As much as she expects that Xena is hating her, it's no more, she says, than she hates herself.
And in one of my all time favorite moments of the series Xena looks at her, having listening to her speech, and says, "Scratch my nose, will you?"
And Gabrielle bursts into tears of sadness and relief.
Because in that simple line so much is expressed. It's like, "I was angry at you but you thought you were doing the right thing and I love you and I know you love me and all I need you to do is scratch my nose and everything will be straight."
It's so great. Wonderful writing and beautiful execution.
10) Xena shares the rest of her story with Gabrielle, telling her that Lao Ma saved her soul, spirit, and entire being. (Not unlike Gabrielle has been doing in their time together.)
And maybe this is the right to ask the question: What the hell is the relationship between Lao Ma and Xena, anyway?
The time line is sketchy. I don't know how long they were together. And that can make a serious difference in what I think, but I'll just go with the fanon I've developed.
Were Lao Ma and Xena lovers? No, I don't think so. I do believe that Xena was in love with Lao Ma, at least as much as Xena could be in love with anyone at that time in her life. It's very different from her relationship with Borias, which is very sexually charged but contains very little real love.
I think that Lao Ma also finds herself in love with Xena, but I don't look at it as a "pure" kind of love, as much as Lao Ma is in love with the person she knows Xena can be. And I don't think Lao Ma is really the kind of person to fall in love with someone in a passionate way because that doesn't really seem to jive with having no will and no desire. She loves Xena, I think, with the love of someone who knows what kind of wonderful things she can contribute to the world if she gives herself the chance.
11) While Xena and Lao Ma are having their erotic flying, Borias interrupts.
Dammit, Borias!
But Xena immediately loses her cool and goes off, plummeting to the ground and running after him, intent on killing him for his betrayal. Lao Ma manages to stop her after she she gets a few good blows in and tells Xena her plans for Chin: She and Borias are aligning with the intent of making peace with Ming Tzu. This will mean peace for Chin. She wants Xena to be her warrior princess (well, hello, Xena's title!), keeping the peace.
To do so, though, Xena must ask Ming Tzu for forgiveness. Again, Xena's like, "Seriously, La Ma, stop trippin'" but after she and Borias rut on the floor like animals (Xena expressing her passion for Lao Ma with someone willing to take it?), she goes for it.
But things aren't going to go so well, I think.
12) Because when Ming Tzu comes by, he doesn't want to take an apology from Xena. He wants to see her suffer for what she did to his son and declares that Xena is his property and he doesn't really have to do anything with her because he owns her.
In a subversive move, Xena suggests they play a game to see who gets Xena. After all, Ming Tzu says she's his property, Borias claims her because he "discovered" her, Lao Ma saved her life, and Xena says, "I daresay I belong to myself." So they place a dice game where the winner gets Xena and the losers have to give up a body part.
I love it. Lao Ma tells them, "I don't want anyone's body part." Xena replies, "Then let's everybody hope you win." They play the game and Xena "wins" her freedom, demanding body parts. Borias charmingly says, "I give you my heart" and Xena wonderfully replies, in a sarcastically sweet way, "Aw, I accept."
So that leaves Ming Tzu. Who won't give it up. Which doesn't matter because Xena had no intention of sincerely asking for Ming's forgiveness and she had no intention of letting him live. And she runs him through with her sword while Ming Tien watches.
She turns her sword on Ming Tien, telling Lao Ma that if she kills him the Ming line will be gone and the Kingdom of Lao will be free to run Chin on its own with interference. This is Lao Ma's son she's talking about, even though he loathes her, and she uses her qi to knock Xena and Borias out.
13) I don't know how Xena reacted when she woke up but ten years of perspective seem to have thanked Lao Ma in some way for going what she did. Because what would have happened if Xena had killing Ming Tien? Taking the life of a child is pretty hardcore. So Lao Ma saved her initially by protecting her from Ming Tzu, but probably preserved what little was left of Xena's soul by preventing her from killing Ming Tien at that point and going over the brink into a place she would be unable to emerge from.
And that's the debt.
14) So, in the present, Xena is taken to an altar and they're going to execute her and something happens: Xena manages to silence her will and embraces her qi and kicks some ass, breaking free, killing some people, and bringing down the palace.
I'm a little confused about this, because isn't it Xena's will to escape and continue to live? And her will is to go after the guards and Ming Tien? Then how is she successful using her qi?
But, anyway.
15) Ming Tien lives and while Gabrielle gets the others out of the palace before it collapses, he and Xena have a confrontation.
He maligns her and goads her and Lao Ma and Xena lets him know that Lao Ma was his mother. Ming Tien was aware of that, though, and said that was why he executed her himself. He knew she wouldn't use her powers to kill her son.
He took a perverse pleasure in killing Lao Ma and that really pissed Xena off. He gives her the hair pin Lao Ma had given her so many years before, telling him it was Lao Ma's last wish for Xena to have it, "the sentimental fool."
16) Next thing we know, Gabrielle's coming back in and Xena leaves Ming Tien and the two leave. Xena tells Gabrielle that she finally understood Lao Ma's lessons and that she made Ming Tien "small again". Gabrielle agrees that Lao Ma would be so proud of Xena for letting Ming Tien live, that death wasn't necessary to take away his power.
Gabrielle says, "I love you, Xena" and Xena responds in kind, "I love you, too, Gabrielle."
It's a nice ending between them, especially in light of what's coming next.
17) You see, Xena didn't let Ming Tien live. She kills him with Lao Ma's hair pin, utilizing Lao Ma's lesson but maybe not in the way that Lao Ma had intended. Or maybe not. It's left very vague.
Xena lets Gabrielle think that Ming Tien remained alive and it brings up some questions, I think.
First, was Xena responsible for Ming Tien becoming a tyrant? He, himself, says as much when he's speaking to Gabrielle earlier in the episode. He says that Xena taught him valuable lessons when he was her prisoner, that she taught him how to lead and how to control and manipulate others to your will. But ten years had passed. Doesn't Ming Tien have free will? Wasn't he capable of knowing right from wrong?
The second question is, did Lao Ma intend for Xena to kill Ming Tien? I think the answer to this is a yes. In the flashback with the hair pin she tells Xena that it would make a good weapon if aimed at the right body part, so the connection between giving Xena the pin back and wanting Xena to make Ming Tien "small again" is pretty tight. I wonder if Lao Ma came more over to Xena's way of thinking in the intervening years, realizing that the only way a man like her son could be brought down would be to forever silence him.
The third question is, what does Xena's killing of Ming Tien mean for her and her relationship with Gabrielle, especially since she kept it from Gabrielle? This one is harder to answer. The two are already at a crossroads in their relationship. First, there was Gabrielle's pregnancy and Xena's attempt to kill the baby. Now there's this betrayal, and even though Xena has forgiven Gabrielle for it, it doesn't really make it go away. Now Xena's done exactly what Gabrielle wished her not to do and she's covering it up.
What lessons did Xena really learn from Lao Ma? She was on her way, for sure, but when Ming Tien invoked Lao Ma's death, the old Xena resurfaced, unable to control her will. Her first instinct seems to always be towards anger and violence and Ming Tien preyed on that. Had she really learned from Lao Ma, and I mean learn as in truly internalized the lesson, Ming Tien would have been allowed to live.
And I think this is what is so great about Xena. If this were any other show, the hero would have let the bad guy live, having learned the lesson the mentor taught. Not here. Xena knows what's expected of her and she knows she probably should let Ming Tien live, but she just can't help herself. Even reformed, she's still an incredibly dangerous and violent person to be around. I think that this sets us up very well for future episodes when Xena's reformation is more closely examined.
So what did I think of The Debt II? I fucking loved it. Can't really say much more than that. It's an awesome ending to a great two-parter and really propels us towards what's coming up as it relates to Xena and Gabrielle's relationship, which is about to suffer even more bumps and bruises. I can't even imagine giving The Debt II anything other than 5 out of 5 airlocks.
Edit to add: I found this video of the Sapphic seasons between Lao Ma and Xena on YouTube while trying to find video of the erotic flying. It won't embed, dammit! But here's the link: Lao Ma- Lesbian Scenes (No, really, that's what the video is called.)
It's so wonderfully awesome. It's a fan video set to Sarah McLachlan's Angel which is ridiculous, I love it.
1) When we last saw our intrepid duo, Gabrielle was busy betraying Xena to a hated enemy and things are not going to get more pleasant for our girls because Xena's thrown into a basement water pit with a gigantic square put around her neck while Gabrielle's forced to listen to Ming Tien gloat in his strange Chinese/Kiwi accent.
Ouch.
Understandably, Gabrielle is quite scared about what Xena's thinking of her, what with such a huge betrayal. Ming Tien won't let Gabrielle see her before there's a trial, so she's basically left to fester with her thoughts. The sad part is that Gabrielle thought that Xena killing Ming Tien was going to be a betrayal to all the hard work she had been doing the past two and a half years, that going through with it would take her back to a life of murder.
The thing that kind of bugs me about Gabrielle's thinking is that is shows how little faith in Xena she's cultivated over the years. I mean, she sure trusts Xena to save her life, but not to restrain her emotions and violence. And, on one level, that's understandable. One thing I love about Xena is that she's almost always on the brink of falling over. But . . . To not even trust that Xena would have an actual reason for doing what she's doing . . . It's like Gabrielle's trust in her has been totally breached.
Could this breach in trust be related back to Xena's insistence on killing Hope?
2) While Xena's suffering in the water pit, we get more delightful flashbacks to her time in Chin. We see her with little Ming Tien (and god is the actor who plays the boy so incredibly adorable) and she tells him, "I am the scourge your gods sent to punish your people. Scary, huh?"
And then sees that she's scared him and she gets this wonderful look on her face like, "I'm so fucking cool. Triumph!" I addressed this in my review for The Debt I, but, again, Evil!Xena is so incredibly immature. She just wants people to take her seriously and she wants people to be afraid of her. She's kind of like a little sister getting one over on her big brother. She's so adolescently cheerful when she intimidates this eight year old kid.
She's so self impressed but for all the wrong reasons. That look just tells us so much about who she is as a person.
3) Back in the present, the other prisoners in the water pit are paying her homage, trying to her their clothes because they know she was thrown in prison because she tried to take the life of Ming Tien. Turns out that little adorable boy turned into one mean motherfrakker.
There's an older gentlemen there who tells Xena what the others are doing. He came from the Kingdom of Lao and has bad news for Xena: Lao Ma is dead.
4) This brings us back to the Lao Ma flashbacks. Uh, it just gets so good.
Lao Ma is intent on getting Xena to control her will. Part of Xena being so immature is that she's nearly incapable of showing any kind of restraint.
She starts by having Xena destroy some pitchers. Xena's got her crippled leg and she's in that horrible ill-fitting Chinese robe and she's pretty adorable. I can't lie. Limping!Xena makes me want to hug her. But, she destroys the pitcher with her good leg, breaking it into a million pieces. (Okay, more like five or six.)
And Lao Ma's like, "Dude, Xena, calm down. You don't need to kill a mosquito with an ax." And precedes to show Xena an awesome trick with a hair clip: She impales it easily into the wood, impressing Xena.
After that, Lao Ma kicks some ass with her qi, breaking another pitcher (mostly because Xena tells Lao Ma she enjoys "a good kill") and Xena's completely amazed and tries it herself, prompting Lao Ma to laugh after a minute or so of Xena staring at the pitcher like she'd like to wrestle it to the ground.
She tells Xena, "Lady. Listen. You're trying to attack the pitcher with your will. That's not going to get your anywhere. If you want success in your life, you need to stop willing. You need to stop wanting. You need to stop hating. Yeah, that's right. That hate thing? It's getting you nowhere fast." She tells Xena that Xena needs to start living and serving others.
Xena quickly says that she could do that for Lao Ma, and Lao Ma points out that it doesn't really count if you love the person. Of course you want to serve and live for someone you love. That's what it means to love, kind of.
What's interesting is how quickly Lao Ma deduces that Xena loves her and how Xena does not deny it. (I'll address the nature of what that love is later . . .)
Lao Ma tells Xena that she is going to serve Ming Tzu when he comes for dinner.
5) At first Xena is like, "Girl, you be trippin' if you think I'm going to serve that fool", but she gives in to Lao Ma and does as she asks. She almost snaps and kills him, but manages to restrain herself.
That was her first test and she passed. Even though her anger almost overtook her, the important thing is that, for a few hours, she was able to control her will. She didn't give in to its every whim. Huzzah!
As Lao Ma tells her, "To conquer others is to have power. To conquer yourself it to know the way."
6) We find out that Lao Ma is keeping her husband in a coma. He's not the greatest guy and super sickly. Knowing that if dies the kingdom will go to his numbskull cousin, she figures she can keep him alive and work in his stead, so she can basically undo some of the awful stuff he's done and bring peace to the land.
We also learn? Ming Tien is her son. Oh snap!
7) Back in the present, Gabrielle smacks Xena and tries to get her to promise Ming Tien that she won't kill him if he lets her go.
It's an interesting dynamic. In an upcoming episode (two reviews from now), Xena's going to do something to Gabrielle that raised complete and total ire in the fandom. I totally understand why, no doubt about that. But isn't it interesting that, aside from what she does coming up and one moment in season one, Gabrielle's always the one hitting her?
I mean, not that it happens all that often, but really. Gabrielle's more physical towards Xena than Xena is to her.
8) Back in flashback land, Lao Ma is fixing Xena's crippled leg. She uses her qi to undo whatever damage was there.
What follows? Erotic flying of course!
The subtext in this episode is seriously out of this world. This is even more overt than the kiss between Lao Ma and Xena in The Debt I.
Seriously, Xena is running around with joy because her body is finally whole and Lao Ma uses her qi to wrap Xena in expensive silks and they wrap up and hug and literally fly together.
9) In the present, Xena is sentenced to death. After the "trial" Ming Tien allows Gabrielle to go visit her.
She trudges down to the water pit and confronts Xena. She pours out her heart. It's really an amazing scene between the two and Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor are really wonderful.
Gabrielle wants Xena to forgive her, but doesn't really expect it. The betrayal is too great and now that she's had a chance to actually speak with Ming Tien, she understands that he's not a great guy and that she was rash in not trusting Xena's motives. As much as she expects that Xena is hating her, it's no more, she says, than she hates herself.
And in one of my all time favorite moments of the series Xena looks at her, having listening to her speech, and says, "Scratch my nose, will you?"
And Gabrielle bursts into tears of sadness and relief.
Because in that simple line so much is expressed. It's like, "I was angry at you but you thought you were doing the right thing and I love you and I know you love me and all I need you to do is scratch my nose and everything will be straight."
It's so great. Wonderful writing and beautiful execution.
10) Xena shares the rest of her story with Gabrielle, telling her that Lao Ma saved her soul, spirit, and entire being. (Not unlike Gabrielle has been doing in their time together.)
And maybe this is the right to ask the question: What the hell is the relationship between Lao Ma and Xena, anyway?
The time line is sketchy. I don't know how long they were together. And that can make a serious difference in what I think, but I'll just go with the fanon I've developed.
Were Lao Ma and Xena lovers? No, I don't think so. I do believe that Xena was in love with Lao Ma, at least as much as Xena could be in love with anyone at that time in her life. It's very different from her relationship with Borias, which is very sexually charged but contains very little real love.
I think that Lao Ma also finds herself in love with Xena, but I don't look at it as a "pure" kind of love, as much as Lao Ma is in love with the person she knows Xena can be. And I don't think Lao Ma is really the kind of person to fall in love with someone in a passionate way because that doesn't really seem to jive with having no will and no desire. She loves Xena, I think, with the love of someone who knows what kind of wonderful things she can contribute to the world if she gives herself the chance.
11) While Xena and Lao Ma are having their erotic flying, Borias interrupts.
Dammit, Borias!
But Xena immediately loses her cool and goes off, plummeting to the ground and running after him, intent on killing him for his betrayal. Lao Ma manages to stop her after she she gets a few good blows in and tells Xena her plans for Chin: She and Borias are aligning with the intent of making peace with Ming Tzu. This will mean peace for Chin. She wants Xena to be her warrior princess (well, hello, Xena's title!), keeping the peace.
To do so, though, Xena must ask Ming Tzu for forgiveness. Again, Xena's like, "Seriously, La Ma, stop trippin'" but after she and Borias rut on the floor like animals (Xena expressing her passion for Lao Ma with someone willing to take it?), she goes for it.
But things aren't going to go so well, I think.
12) Because when Ming Tzu comes by, he doesn't want to take an apology from Xena. He wants to see her suffer for what she did to his son and declares that Xena is his property and he doesn't really have to do anything with her because he owns her.
In a subversive move, Xena suggests they play a game to see who gets Xena. After all, Ming Tzu says she's his property, Borias claims her because he "discovered" her, Lao Ma saved her life, and Xena says, "I daresay I belong to myself." So they place a dice game where the winner gets Xena and the losers have to give up a body part.
I love it. Lao Ma tells them, "I don't want anyone's body part." Xena replies, "Then let's everybody hope you win." They play the game and Xena "wins" her freedom, demanding body parts. Borias charmingly says, "I give you my heart" and Xena wonderfully replies, in a sarcastically sweet way, "Aw, I accept."
So that leaves Ming Tzu. Who won't give it up. Which doesn't matter because Xena had no intention of sincerely asking for Ming's forgiveness and she had no intention of letting him live. And she runs him through with her sword while Ming Tien watches.
She turns her sword on Ming Tien, telling Lao Ma that if she kills him the Ming line will be gone and the Kingdom of Lao will be free to run Chin on its own with interference. This is Lao Ma's son she's talking about, even though he loathes her, and she uses her qi to knock Xena and Borias out.
13) I don't know how Xena reacted when she woke up but ten years of perspective seem to have thanked Lao Ma in some way for going what she did. Because what would have happened if Xena had killing Ming Tien? Taking the life of a child is pretty hardcore. So Lao Ma saved her initially by protecting her from Ming Tzu, but probably preserved what little was left of Xena's soul by preventing her from killing Ming Tien at that point and going over the brink into a place she would be unable to emerge from.
And that's the debt.
14) So, in the present, Xena is taken to an altar and they're going to execute her and something happens: Xena manages to silence her will and embraces her qi and kicks some ass, breaking free, killing some people, and bringing down the palace.
I'm a little confused about this, because isn't it Xena's will to escape and continue to live? And her will is to go after the guards and Ming Tien? Then how is she successful using her qi?
But, anyway.
15) Ming Tien lives and while Gabrielle gets the others out of the palace before it collapses, he and Xena have a confrontation.
He maligns her and goads her and Lao Ma and Xena lets him know that Lao Ma was his mother. Ming Tien was aware of that, though, and said that was why he executed her himself. He knew she wouldn't use her powers to kill her son.
He took a perverse pleasure in killing Lao Ma and that really pissed Xena off. He gives her the hair pin Lao Ma had given her so many years before, telling him it was Lao Ma's last wish for Xena to have it, "the sentimental fool."
16) Next thing we know, Gabrielle's coming back in and Xena leaves Ming Tien and the two leave. Xena tells Gabrielle that she finally understood Lao Ma's lessons and that she made Ming Tien "small again". Gabrielle agrees that Lao Ma would be so proud of Xena for letting Ming Tien live, that death wasn't necessary to take away his power.
Gabrielle says, "I love you, Xena" and Xena responds in kind, "I love you, too, Gabrielle."
It's a nice ending between them, especially in light of what's coming next.
17) You see, Xena didn't let Ming Tien live. She kills him with Lao Ma's hair pin, utilizing Lao Ma's lesson but maybe not in the way that Lao Ma had intended. Or maybe not. It's left very vague.
Xena lets Gabrielle think that Ming Tien remained alive and it brings up some questions, I think.
First, was Xena responsible for Ming Tien becoming a tyrant? He, himself, says as much when he's speaking to Gabrielle earlier in the episode. He says that Xena taught him valuable lessons when he was her prisoner, that she taught him how to lead and how to control and manipulate others to your will. But ten years had passed. Doesn't Ming Tien have free will? Wasn't he capable of knowing right from wrong?
The second question is, did Lao Ma intend for Xena to kill Ming Tien? I think the answer to this is a yes. In the flashback with the hair pin she tells Xena that it would make a good weapon if aimed at the right body part, so the connection between giving Xena the pin back and wanting Xena to make Ming Tien "small again" is pretty tight. I wonder if Lao Ma came more over to Xena's way of thinking in the intervening years, realizing that the only way a man like her son could be brought down would be to forever silence him.
The third question is, what does Xena's killing of Ming Tien mean for her and her relationship with Gabrielle, especially since she kept it from Gabrielle? This one is harder to answer. The two are already at a crossroads in their relationship. First, there was Gabrielle's pregnancy and Xena's attempt to kill the baby. Now there's this betrayal, and even though Xena has forgiven Gabrielle for it, it doesn't really make it go away. Now Xena's done exactly what Gabrielle wished her not to do and she's covering it up.
What lessons did Xena really learn from Lao Ma? She was on her way, for sure, but when Ming Tien invoked Lao Ma's death, the old Xena resurfaced, unable to control her will. Her first instinct seems to always be towards anger and violence and Ming Tien preyed on that. Had she really learned from Lao Ma, and I mean learn as in truly internalized the lesson, Ming Tien would have been allowed to live.
And I think this is what is so great about Xena. If this were any other show, the hero would have let the bad guy live, having learned the lesson the mentor taught. Not here. Xena knows what's expected of her and she knows she probably should let Ming Tien live, but she just can't help herself. Even reformed, she's still an incredibly dangerous and violent person to be around. I think that this sets us up very well for future episodes when Xena's reformation is more closely examined.
So what did I think of The Debt II? I fucking loved it. Can't really say much more than that. It's an awesome ending to a great two-parter and really propels us towards what's coming up as it relates to Xena and Gabrielle's relationship, which is about to suffer even more bumps and bruises. I can't even imagine giving The Debt II anything other than 5 out of 5 airlocks.
Edit to add: I found this video of the Sapphic seasons between Lao Ma and Xena on YouTube while trying to find video of the erotic flying. It won't embed, dammit! But here's the link: Lao Ma- Lesbian Scenes (No, really, that's what the video is called.)
It's so wonderfully awesome. It's a fan video set to Sarah McLachlan's Angel which is ridiculous, I love it.