XWP: The Ides Of March
Well, I come with some good news: I made it through the initial interview to teach in a large city down south. So far, this is the only good lead I have (though I know if I have a shot at NYC come Friday) and, get a job or not, it is a slight boost for my confidence. Hooray me!
So how am I going to celebrate this sliver of good news? By reviewing Xena of course! Duh! I mean, don't you know me by now?
And to be warned: I love so much about what this episode chooses to be.
1) The Ides Of March begins in awesome fashion: Callisto is back!
When's the last time we saw her, anyway? Way back in the season three finale Sacrifice II, her dead body sliding down Xena after being stabbed with the hindsblood dagger.
And man, has she seen better days, though I am kind of digging her hair. I mean, I always loved the long hair, particularly because it was always wild and a bit of a hot mess, but I like this, too. Though I wonder if she's accidentally mimicking Gabrielle. Long hair when Gabrielle has it and short when Gabrielle has it. Get your own identity, Callisto!
2) But, as you probably already surmised, she is not in oblivion like she had wanted. Instead, she's in some kind of an afterlife that's not yet named. We just know it's not Tartarus. It's run by some super evil guy who is having some issues that Callisto might be able to help out with. You see, the guy who runs this horrible place had counted on Xena going there after her death. (It turns out that Xena's past deeds may have actually been so bad that they disqualified her from Tartarus.) With Xena in his control, this ruler guy could have done some damage. But, lately, he's unsure about his ability to get her, what with her on the path of The Warrior.
All that slicing and dicing that Xena's doing for good is actually helping her destiny.
So, Callisto gets tasked with distracting Xena away from her new found path (though I don't understand why everyone is talking like she's doing something different, since India, than what she's been doing since the first episode of the show). On top of that, Callisto has to help Caesar.
3) Yeah, you see, the guy who rules that dank piece of hell has a thing for Caesar. Sees a lot of potential in him. And it's perfect: Distract Xena from her path and virtually guarantee Caesar's total ascension into power, corrupting him to the point where he'd be a shoe in candidate for this realm.
4) We find Xena and Gabrielle alongside the new tag-along Amarice. The three are on their way to find Eli because they've heard he's preaching around Greece. And Greece is such a small place that, sure, I'm sure they're find him walking around some random, nearby field.
On their way to get a ship to Athens, however, they're attacked by some common criminal thugs who Xena and Amarice quickly dismantle. Xena manages to extract some information from one of them: Caesar has a new reward out for Xena's capture: A whopping six million dinars, basically Caesar's entire fortune. This piques Xena's interest. Why on earth would Caesar be offering such a huge reward?
Xena decides she's going to go find out and she's going to do so alone. First of all, she's not looking to make nice with Caesar. She's looking to kill him and that's not really something Gabrielle would be okay with taking part in. Second of all, she doesn't want to risk taking Gabrielle into Rome itself since her vision indicates that the Romans are the ones behind their crucifixions. Taking Gabrielle into Rome is tempting fate. So she leaves Amarice to stay with Gabrielle (as her friend, not as a bodyguard) so that she can go take down, once and for all, her arch nemesis.
5) It turns out that Caesar's reward was suggested by Callisto. Callisto likely knows Xena way better than Caesar does. After all, she spends years and years kind of molding herself into Evil!Xena. She knows her stuff. If there were a Xena biography show, Callisto could appear as an expert. She knows, good and well, that no one seeking that reward would have the skills to best Xena enough to actually get her, dead or alive, to Rome. The intent behind the reward is to entice Xena herself to come to Rome. It's such an outrageous number that Callisto's betting that Xena just won't be able to hold her curiosity.
Gotta love a smart villain. Who is, in this case, right on the mark.
6) Remember up in point four when I was mocking the idea of Gabrielle, Xena, and Amarice running into Eli in a random nearby field?
Well, I wasn't quite right. Xena's off in Rome. So Gabrielle and Amarice randomly run into Eli in, yep, a random nearby field. Because Greece isn't very big at all, you know? And it doesn't take much to find someone on foot with no help.
But Eli's in this field and he's doing the healer thing and he's still wearing his dreads and his hippie caftan and moccasins. He seems a lot more secure with his place in the world. Actually, he seems more than okay.
Amarice has already been briefed on Eli's story, so she immediately starts to question him at their introduction. If his mom was attacked, would he step in to save her? Yeah, Eli? What now?! I really like that Amarice has the balls to just kind of say what she's thinking, without censor.
7) What don't I like? I don't like how buddy buddy Gabrielle and Eli are. Like Eli's unwashed hair could compete with Xena's sleek mane. For real?
And what's with the smelling of the apples? The two are sprawled out on the grass with a bunch of Eli's followers, and they're smelling the apples like they're on something. And they might be. The entire scene suggests some kind of strange hippie/druggie commune. (Not that I'm anti-hippie. Not at all. Had I been alive in the 1960s, I likely would have been one.) It's like, "Nature is so great! Let's smell these apples! We're so in tune with . . . you know. Nature. And stuff."
Gabrielle wants Eli to teach her how to heal but he can only teach her how to love.
Raise of hands: Who just groaned?
This is where I begin to have a problem with Eli: He says that one can only heal when they are love itself. And guess what? Eli can heal, so he's saying that he is love itself. Now, that's not a surprise, because in The Way, it's inferred that he's the reincarnation of good in opposition to Indrajeet's reincarnation of evil. But . . . this is where he gets a little to ridiculous for me: He says that pure love is perfection.
He's calling himself perfect. I'm so not down with that. Gabrielle, stop smelling those apples and run!
8) Oops, too late. They were too busy sitting around doing nothing but smelling fruit to escape Brutus and the Roman soldiers, despite Amarice's good job as at least sensing they were being surrounded.
Caesar told Brutus that Gabrielle and the Elijans (yeah, that's what they're called) would be hurt and since the only one of them willing to fight is a tiny Amazon, they have no real choice but to get in line so Brutus can jail them.
9) Xena infiltrates Rome. Because, you know, Rome was just up the street. (Seriously, the time lapses on this show are ridiculous.)
It's actually kind of cool. I love Xena in a uniform. Rarr.
She throws her chakram at Caesar and almost kills him except . . . Damn. Callisto catches it at the last moment. A fight ensues, but Xena manages to fight her way out.
Only to be stopped short by Callisto who has something to talk to Xena about.
10) Before I get to the content, I'd like to compliment Xena's hair in this episode. It's awesome. I like that that bangs are too harsh, that it's kind of messy, and that it has the two long braids. Sleek, indeed. Totally beats Eli's hair.
11) So here's why Callisto is still "alive": She didn't get rewarded with oblivion when Xena stabbed her at the end of the last season. There's this being who does all the judging and that being determined that Callisto didn't deserve to get that kind of fast and easy solution to her pain. So it wouldn't let her off the hook and sent her down to hell, a kind of even lower place than Tartarus.
12) Xena's already determined that Caesar is going to declare himself emperor. The gold laurel leaves on his head in his office kind of gave it away.
Callisto isn't expecting Xena's insightfulness, but she goes with it. Xena is, after all, incredibly clever. She's worried about Xena and tells her that Gabrielle is currently in prison. Callisto, thanks to her "lord", knows all about what happened with Xena and Gabrielle in India and she knows about Xena's vision. It's the hook: Gabrielle's in jail. She's in Roman custody. What are you going to do about it, Xena?
But Xena isn't interested in hearing any offers from Callisto. Instead, she takes this new bit of information and runs off to find Brutus.
13) As Gabrielle and the others are lead to the compound, they're surrounded by a construction zone of crosses. Brutus asks why so many crosses are being built and one of the work men tells him that they're expecting a boatload of pirates.
Yeah, right. And I have an oracle in Delphi to sell you. (Not that I'm involved in human trafficking.)
Amarice tries to fight her way out but she's immediately subdued. She's about to be killed before Gabrielle steps in, throwing herself over her (as Gabrielle is known to do) and appealing to Brutus' honor: He was once shown mercy so he should show it back.
Unbelievably, it's actually a bit of a winning moment for the way of love. Gabrielle didn't act violently. She asked for mercy and she got it.
In punishment, though, Amarice gets chained to Eli, her worst nightmare.
14) Xena manages to find Brutus after some hardcore riding (at least she wasn't just wandering around on foot) and gets a peep show for free.
She offers him a deal: He tells her where Gabrielle is and she'll tell him some insider information she has about something big that Caesar's planning.
Brutus goes for it. She tells him that Caesar is setting to declare himself emperor, mostly likely when the Senate is to reconvene on the Ides of March. On top of that, he's going to send Brutus to Gaul where Brutus needs to watch himself. She thinks that Caesar's sending him to Gaul in order to assassinate him away from Brutus' Roman supporters.
Brutus tells Xena where Gabrielle is being held but he's in serious denial about Caesar's intentions.
Buy a clue, Brutus!
Before she leaves, Xena asks him if it was snowing on Mount Amarro, where Brutus took Gabrielle. Brutus confirms the weather, so Xena, at this point, knows she's moving towards her vision.
15) Xena speeds to the compound. Interestingly, she's not on Argo. It's not explained where Argo is.
16) In prison, Gabrielle and Eli are taking time to meditate and they're super excited when Gabrielle manages to reach the level of . . . doing nothing.
Raise your hand if you just groaned again.
I really miss my old Gabrielle. Who would have been busy thinking of different ways to escape, like using her incredible persuasive abilities to talk her way out of trouble. Where is that Gabrielle? Who is this Gabrielle that's just sitting there, trying to become an empty vessel for love?
Stop flirting with Eli!
17) Callisto is now desperate to lure Xena away from her path and she intercepts Xena before she can make it into the compound.
Here's the deal: Callisto will make it so that Xena and Gabrielle are safe, that Xena's vision is totally avoided. All Xena has to do is forever put down her sword and join Gabrielle in the way of love. On top of that, Callisto will give Xena the gift of serenity. All that pesky guilt? Gone, if only Xena would invite Callisto into her soul. Total peace is in her grasp.
The problem with the offer, though, is that it's coming from Callisto, sincere or not. And if it's good for Callisto, it's probably not good for Xena (or anyone else). She calls Callisto on it, telling her that she's only trying to tempt her away from her way. "In a nutshell," Callisto replies, not even trying to lie. I love Callisto.
But here's the thing about where Xena is, emotionally and mentally, at this point: Yes, she feels guilt over her past misdeeds, but she's no longer stewing in it. She knows that what she did in the past has made her who she is in the present, and she knows that she's on the path she needs to be on. Peace is not what she wants or needs. And she recognizes that Callisto, in trying to tempt her off the path, knows that that path is actually serving to redeem Xena.
I like that Xena has this kind of new found maturity in dealing with her past. It was in this very season that Xena allowed herself to be put in jail for a crime she didn't actually commit (and, in relation to other crimes she had committed, was fairly tame). Half a season later, Xena's done with the guilt. It doesn't mean it's disappeared or that she's full of peace and serenity, but it does mean that had enough of it negatively dictating her life.
18) It's happened! Brutus has finally got a clue! (This reminds me of Battlestar Galactica, where it took Helo entirely too long to figure out the cylon situation down on Caprica.)
Caesar accidentally confirms all of Xena's warnings from earlier. He's making some kind of cryptic announcement on the Ides and he's sending Brutus to Gaul for a mission he can't talk about just yet.
On top of that, Caesar is going to mess with Brutus' girl (Brutus wishes and he needs to get in line) because he definitely plans to kill Gabrielle and the Elijans. He wanted to capture Gabrielle to distract Xena and what better distraction than killing her?
19) Xena makes it to the prison and manages to get inside. This, of course, pisses Callisto off, so she alerts the Roman guards that Xena's on the property by imitating her war cry.
She manages to successfully open the prison so they can all escape and she and Amarice go to town against the Roman guards, getting an opening for the others to get out and scatter to the wind, safe. Amarice accompanies them in the woods and Gabrielle stays behind to watch Xena dispatch the last of the guards.
But all of this fighting is leading to success and, for a moment, it looks like Xena and Gabrielle are going to make it out of there fully in tact. But Callisto . . . Well, Callisto's so sick of seeing Xena succeed. So she takes Xena's chakram (which she's had since Xena threw it at Caesar) and she hurls it at Xena, catching her in the spine.
Xena's sword falls to the ground and her knees buckle as she no longer has the ability to stand on her legs. She falls to the dirt, paralyzed.
It's at that moment, when a Roman charges her with a dagger to kill her that Gabrielle . . . Gabrielle transforms in a blazing display of awesome.
She looks over and finds a spear, immediately grabs it, and hurls it right at the Roman, killing him almost instantly. There's a nice poetry about this scene, at least in terms of a literary arc. Remember back in A Good Day when Gabrielle could have killed that Roman who ended up killing Phlanagus? She took up a spear and threw it and totally missed (though we aren't sure if it was intentional or not). Here, she lands her target.
And then goes wild. She picks up Xena's sword and goes on a spree. And when one Roman knocks her down, she gets up and just wrestles him to the ground. She takes up his own dagger and plunges it repeatedly into his chest. She's in a complete trance. It's like . . . Those weeks where she was a peacenik were completely holding in all of her violent impulses but not getting rid of them and that they just exploded in this one moment of trying to protect her friend.
It isn't until she gets a glimpse of the bloody dagger that she comes back to reality, stopping her rampage, and allowing the Romans to contain her and Xena.
20) Xena comes to in Gabrielle's lap in the prison. They've both been stripped of their regular clothes and are in rags. (Lucky for Gabrielle, hers still shows off her magnificent abs.)
There's something so strange about seeing a helpless Xena being held by Gabrielle. It's not like Xena's always comforting Gabrielle, so it's not like it's a strange role reversal. It's just . . . Xena's so mighty, she's so vital. To see her barely able to move is just so . . . sad.
21) Back in Rome, Brutus is in talks with the senators, basically letting them know that Caesar's getting a little too uppity, that he thinks he's a god.
22) In prison, Xena apologizes to Gabrielle for taking her away from her way and her path, but Gabrielle dismisses it.
"Xena," she says, "you brought out the best in me. Before I met you, no one saw me for who I was. I felt invisible. But you saw all the things that I could be. You saved me, Xena."
It's a beautiful expression. Xena is always telling Gabrielle and us how much Gabrielle means to her life and to her path, but it's rare to hear from Gabrielle exactly what Xena means to her. It truly is a relationship of equality, of mutual give and take. It's a friendship of the highest order, where the love is completely unconditional.
And Gabrielle was willing to walk away from what she thought was right if it meant helping her friend. And this is the moment where all of my anger at peacenik!Gabrielle melts away, because without all of that, we would have never gotten this. And this was worth it.
I mean, that complete explosion of violent rage . . . That was something. A physical expression of her feelings about Xena. And to have it followed up with such a beautiful verbal declaration, that Xena saved Gabrielle as much as Xena says Gabrielle saved her . . . Well, it works for me.
23) The two are taken to the crosses as Callisto looks on.
The only thing I find strange about the crucifixion is that Caesar isn't there to witness it. You'd think he'd want front row seats.
24) After they're prepped and just before the Romans set to nail the nails into their hands (and Gabrielle's feet), there's one last declarative exchange:
"Gabrielle," Xena says. "You were the best thing in my life."
Gabrielle replies with, "I love you, Xena."
Oh yeah. These girls are totally straight. They're only taking their last moments to declare how much the others means to them. Right before their plan to spend eternity together.
25) Back in Rome, it's not looking good for Caesar. Just as he's about to declare himself emperor, the other senators start taking out their concealed daggers.
Those togas are pretty great. I bet you could hide a lot of stuff down there.
26) In some really cool editing, we're shown Gabrielle and Xena getting crucified with Caesar getting continually stabbed. I remember watching something with the editor in this episode (I assume it was on the DVD special features), where he inter cut it so that Caesar looked as though he were reacting to the nails going into Xena's hands and that Xena was made to look like she was reacting to Caesar getting stabbed.
Good editing.
Brutus gets in the last stab after Caesar's, "And you, Brutus?"
And, in the end, all three die.
27) I've heard that, originally, that was just going to be the end. That the last image of the season was going to be Gabrielle and Xena's dead bodies on the cross. But it was determined that it was way too maudlin to go out on that bleak of a cliff hanger, so they added in a more happy ending.
After being dead for a bit, Xena's spirit emerges from her body, dressed in white robes and glowing. She coaxes Gabrielle's spirit from her body, and the two just kind of fly there, gazing at each other, glowing their after life and, I believe, in their love for each other.
The good news? Xena and Gabrielle will get to the after life together. I guess we'll see more of what that's like in the fifth season.
And we are now finished with the fourth season. This is pretty great because there were a lot of episodes from this season. And I'm so glad to go out of this season with an episode like The Ides Of March which is so . . . fucking great. Even though I complain about Eli and his flirting with Gabrielle, it's really only token, at best. I really do love everything this episode chooses to be. I'm going to give The Ides Of March a very enthusiastic 5 out of 5 airlocks.
So how am I going to celebrate this sliver of good news? By reviewing Xena of course! Duh! I mean, don't you know me by now?
And to be warned: I love so much about what this episode chooses to be.
1) The Ides Of March begins in awesome fashion: Callisto is back!
When's the last time we saw her, anyway? Way back in the season three finale Sacrifice II, her dead body sliding down Xena after being stabbed with the hindsblood dagger.
And man, has she seen better days, though I am kind of digging her hair. I mean, I always loved the long hair, particularly because it was always wild and a bit of a hot mess, but I like this, too. Though I wonder if she's accidentally mimicking Gabrielle. Long hair when Gabrielle has it and short when Gabrielle has it. Get your own identity, Callisto!
2) But, as you probably already surmised, she is not in oblivion like she had wanted. Instead, she's in some kind of an afterlife that's not yet named. We just know it's not Tartarus. It's run by some super evil guy who is having some issues that Callisto might be able to help out with. You see, the guy who runs this horrible place had counted on Xena going there after her death. (It turns out that Xena's past deeds may have actually been so bad that they disqualified her from Tartarus.) With Xena in his control, this ruler guy could have done some damage. But, lately, he's unsure about his ability to get her, what with her on the path of The Warrior.
All that slicing and dicing that Xena's doing for good is actually helping her destiny.
So, Callisto gets tasked with distracting Xena away from her new found path (though I don't understand why everyone is talking like she's doing something different, since India, than what she's been doing since the first episode of the show). On top of that, Callisto has to help Caesar.
3) Yeah, you see, the guy who rules that dank piece of hell has a thing for Caesar. Sees a lot of potential in him. And it's perfect: Distract Xena from her path and virtually guarantee Caesar's total ascension into power, corrupting him to the point where he'd be a shoe in candidate for this realm.
4) We find Xena and Gabrielle alongside the new tag-along Amarice. The three are on their way to find Eli because they've heard he's preaching around Greece. And Greece is such a small place that, sure, I'm sure they're find him walking around some random, nearby field.
On their way to get a ship to Athens, however, they're attacked by some common criminal thugs who Xena and Amarice quickly dismantle. Xena manages to extract some information from one of them: Caesar has a new reward out for Xena's capture: A whopping six million dinars, basically Caesar's entire fortune. This piques Xena's interest. Why on earth would Caesar be offering such a huge reward?
Xena decides she's going to go find out and she's going to do so alone. First of all, she's not looking to make nice with Caesar. She's looking to kill him and that's not really something Gabrielle would be okay with taking part in. Second of all, she doesn't want to risk taking Gabrielle into Rome itself since her vision indicates that the Romans are the ones behind their crucifixions. Taking Gabrielle into Rome is tempting fate. So she leaves Amarice to stay with Gabrielle (as her friend, not as a bodyguard) so that she can go take down, once and for all, her arch nemesis.
5) It turns out that Caesar's reward was suggested by Callisto. Callisto likely knows Xena way better than Caesar does. After all, she spends years and years kind of molding herself into Evil!Xena. She knows her stuff. If there were a Xena biography show, Callisto could appear as an expert. She knows, good and well, that no one seeking that reward would have the skills to best Xena enough to actually get her, dead or alive, to Rome. The intent behind the reward is to entice Xena herself to come to Rome. It's such an outrageous number that Callisto's betting that Xena just won't be able to hold her curiosity.
Gotta love a smart villain. Who is, in this case, right on the mark.
6) Remember up in point four when I was mocking the idea of Gabrielle, Xena, and Amarice running into Eli in a random nearby field?
Well, I wasn't quite right. Xena's off in Rome. So Gabrielle and Amarice randomly run into Eli in, yep, a random nearby field. Because Greece isn't very big at all, you know? And it doesn't take much to find someone on foot with no help.
But Eli's in this field and he's doing the healer thing and he's still wearing his dreads and his hippie caftan and moccasins. He seems a lot more secure with his place in the world. Actually, he seems more than okay.
Amarice has already been briefed on Eli's story, so she immediately starts to question him at their introduction. If his mom was attacked, would he step in to save her? Yeah, Eli? What now?! I really like that Amarice has the balls to just kind of say what she's thinking, without censor.
7) What don't I like? I don't like how buddy buddy Gabrielle and Eli are. Like Eli's unwashed hair could compete with Xena's sleek mane. For real?
And what's with the smelling of the apples? The two are sprawled out on the grass with a bunch of Eli's followers, and they're smelling the apples like they're on something. And they might be. The entire scene suggests some kind of strange hippie/druggie commune. (Not that I'm anti-hippie. Not at all. Had I been alive in the 1960s, I likely would have been one.) It's like, "Nature is so great! Let's smell these apples! We're so in tune with . . . you know. Nature. And stuff."
Gabrielle wants Eli to teach her how to heal but he can only teach her how to love.
Raise of hands: Who just groaned?
This is where I begin to have a problem with Eli: He says that one can only heal when they are love itself. And guess what? Eli can heal, so he's saying that he is love itself. Now, that's not a surprise, because in The Way, it's inferred that he's the reincarnation of good in opposition to Indrajeet's reincarnation of evil. But . . . this is where he gets a little to ridiculous for me: He says that pure love is perfection.
He's calling himself perfect. I'm so not down with that. Gabrielle, stop smelling those apples and run!
8) Oops, too late. They were too busy sitting around doing nothing but smelling fruit to escape Brutus and the Roman soldiers, despite Amarice's good job as at least sensing they were being surrounded.
Caesar told Brutus that Gabrielle and the Elijans (yeah, that's what they're called) would be hurt and since the only one of them willing to fight is a tiny Amazon, they have no real choice but to get in line so Brutus can jail them.
9) Xena infiltrates Rome. Because, you know, Rome was just up the street. (Seriously, the time lapses on this show are ridiculous.)
It's actually kind of cool. I love Xena in a uniform. Rarr.
She throws her chakram at Caesar and almost kills him except . . . Damn. Callisto catches it at the last moment. A fight ensues, but Xena manages to fight her way out.
Only to be stopped short by Callisto who has something to talk to Xena about.
10) Before I get to the content, I'd like to compliment Xena's hair in this episode. It's awesome. I like that that bangs are too harsh, that it's kind of messy, and that it has the two long braids. Sleek, indeed. Totally beats Eli's hair.
11) So here's why Callisto is still "alive": She didn't get rewarded with oblivion when Xena stabbed her at the end of the last season. There's this being who does all the judging and that being determined that Callisto didn't deserve to get that kind of fast and easy solution to her pain. So it wouldn't let her off the hook and sent her down to hell, a kind of even lower place than Tartarus.
12) Xena's already determined that Caesar is going to declare himself emperor. The gold laurel leaves on his head in his office kind of gave it away.
Callisto isn't expecting Xena's insightfulness, but she goes with it. Xena is, after all, incredibly clever. She's worried about Xena and tells her that Gabrielle is currently in prison. Callisto, thanks to her "lord", knows all about what happened with Xena and Gabrielle in India and she knows about Xena's vision. It's the hook: Gabrielle's in jail. She's in Roman custody. What are you going to do about it, Xena?
But Xena isn't interested in hearing any offers from Callisto. Instead, she takes this new bit of information and runs off to find Brutus.
13) As Gabrielle and the others are lead to the compound, they're surrounded by a construction zone of crosses. Brutus asks why so many crosses are being built and one of the work men tells him that they're expecting a boatload of pirates.
Yeah, right. And I have an oracle in Delphi to sell you. (Not that I'm involved in human trafficking.)
Amarice tries to fight her way out but she's immediately subdued. She's about to be killed before Gabrielle steps in, throwing herself over her (as Gabrielle is known to do) and appealing to Brutus' honor: He was once shown mercy so he should show it back.
Unbelievably, it's actually a bit of a winning moment for the way of love. Gabrielle didn't act violently. She asked for mercy and she got it.
In punishment, though, Amarice gets chained to Eli, her worst nightmare.
14) Xena manages to find Brutus after some hardcore riding (at least she wasn't just wandering around on foot) and gets a peep show for free.
She offers him a deal: He tells her where Gabrielle is and she'll tell him some insider information she has about something big that Caesar's planning.
Brutus goes for it. She tells him that Caesar is setting to declare himself emperor, mostly likely when the Senate is to reconvene on the Ides of March. On top of that, he's going to send Brutus to Gaul where Brutus needs to watch himself. She thinks that Caesar's sending him to Gaul in order to assassinate him away from Brutus' Roman supporters.
Brutus tells Xena where Gabrielle is being held but he's in serious denial about Caesar's intentions.
Buy a clue, Brutus!
Before she leaves, Xena asks him if it was snowing on Mount Amarro, where Brutus took Gabrielle. Brutus confirms the weather, so Xena, at this point, knows she's moving towards her vision.
15) Xena speeds to the compound. Interestingly, she's not on Argo. It's not explained where Argo is.
16) In prison, Gabrielle and Eli are taking time to meditate and they're super excited when Gabrielle manages to reach the level of . . . doing nothing.
Raise your hand if you just groaned again.
I really miss my old Gabrielle. Who would have been busy thinking of different ways to escape, like using her incredible persuasive abilities to talk her way out of trouble. Where is that Gabrielle? Who is this Gabrielle that's just sitting there, trying to become an empty vessel for love?
Stop flirting with Eli!
17) Callisto is now desperate to lure Xena away from her path and she intercepts Xena before she can make it into the compound.
Here's the deal: Callisto will make it so that Xena and Gabrielle are safe, that Xena's vision is totally avoided. All Xena has to do is forever put down her sword and join Gabrielle in the way of love. On top of that, Callisto will give Xena the gift of serenity. All that pesky guilt? Gone, if only Xena would invite Callisto into her soul. Total peace is in her grasp.
The problem with the offer, though, is that it's coming from Callisto, sincere or not. And if it's good for Callisto, it's probably not good for Xena (or anyone else). She calls Callisto on it, telling her that she's only trying to tempt her away from her way. "In a nutshell," Callisto replies, not even trying to lie. I love Callisto.
But here's the thing about where Xena is, emotionally and mentally, at this point: Yes, she feels guilt over her past misdeeds, but she's no longer stewing in it. She knows that what she did in the past has made her who she is in the present, and she knows that she's on the path she needs to be on. Peace is not what she wants or needs. And she recognizes that Callisto, in trying to tempt her off the path, knows that that path is actually serving to redeem Xena.
I like that Xena has this kind of new found maturity in dealing with her past. It was in this very season that Xena allowed herself to be put in jail for a crime she didn't actually commit (and, in relation to other crimes she had committed, was fairly tame). Half a season later, Xena's done with the guilt. It doesn't mean it's disappeared or that she's full of peace and serenity, but it does mean that had enough of it negatively dictating her life.
18) It's happened! Brutus has finally got a clue! (This reminds me of Battlestar Galactica, where it took Helo entirely too long to figure out the cylon situation down on Caprica.)
Caesar accidentally confirms all of Xena's warnings from earlier. He's making some kind of cryptic announcement on the Ides and he's sending Brutus to Gaul for a mission he can't talk about just yet.
On top of that, Caesar is going to mess with Brutus' girl (Brutus wishes and he needs to get in line) because he definitely plans to kill Gabrielle and the Elijans. He wanted to capture Gabrielle to distract Xena and what better distraction than killing her?
19) Xena makes it to the prison and manages to get inside. This, of course, pisses Callisto off, so she alerts the Roman guards that Xena's on the property by imitating her war cry.
She manages to successfully open the prison so they can all escape and she and Amarice go to town against the Roman guards, getting an opening for the others to get out and scatter to the wind, safe. Amarice accompanies them in the woods and Gabrielle stays behind to watch Xena dispatch the last of the guards.
But all of this fighting is leading to success and, for a moment, it looks like Xena and Gabrielle are going to make it out of there fully in tact. But Callisto . . . Well, Callisto's so sick of seeing Xena succeed. So she takes Xena's chakram (which she's had since Xena threw it at Caesar) and she hurls it at Xena, catching her in the spine.
Xena's sword falls to the ground and her knees buckle as she no longer has the ability to stand on her legs. She falls to the dirt, paralyzed.
It's at that moment, when a Roman charges her with a dagger to kill her that Gabrielle . . . Gabrielle transforms in a blazing display of awesome.
She looks over and finds a spear, immediately grabs it, and hurls it right at the Roman, killing him almost instantly. There's a nice poetry about this scene, at least in terms of a literary arc. Remember back in A Good Day when Gabrielle could have killed that Roman who ended up killing Phlanagus? She took up a spear and threw it and totally missed (though we aren't sure if it was intentional or not). Here, she lands her target.
And then goes wild. She picks up Xena's sword and goes on a spree. And when one Roman knocks her down, she gets up and just wrestles him to the ground. She takes up his own dagger and plunges it repeatedly into his chest. She's in a complete trance. It's like . . . Those weeks where she was a peacenik were completely holding in all of her violent impulses but not getting rid of them and that they just exploded in this one moment of trying to protect her friend.
It isn't until she gets a glimpse of the bloody dagger that she comes back to reality, stopping her rampage, and allowing the Romans to contain her and Xena.
20) Xena comes to in Gabrielle's lap in the prison. They've both been stripped of their regular clothes and are in rags. (Lucky for Gabrielle, hers still shows off her magnificent abs.)
There's something so strange about seeing a helpless Xena being held by Gabrielle. It's not like Xena's always comforting Gabrielle, so it's not like it's a strange role reversal. It's just . . . Xena's so mighty, she's so vital. To see her barely able to move is just so . . . sad.
21) Back in Rome, Brutus is in talks with the senators, basically letting them know that Caesar's getting a little too uppity, that he thinks he's a god.
22) In prison, Xena apologizes to Gabrielle for taking her away from her way and her path, but Gabrielle dismisses it.
"Xena," she says, "you brought out the best in me. Before I met you, no one saw me for who I was. I felt invisible. But you saw all the things that I could be. You saved me, Xena."
It's a beautiful expression. Xena is always telling Gabrielle and us how much Gabrielle means to her life and to her path, but it's rare to hear from Gabrielle exactly what Xena means to her. It truly is a relationship of equality, of mutual give and take. It's a friendship of the highest order, where the love is completely unconditional.
And Gabrielle was willing to walk away from what she thought was right if it meant helping her friend. And this is the moment where all of my anger at peacenik!Gabrielle melts away, because without all of that, we would have never gotten this. And this was worth it.
I mean, that complete explosion of violent rage . . . That was something. A physical expression of her feelings about Xena. And to have it followed up with such a beautiful verbal declaration, that Xena saved Gabrielle as much as Xena says Gabrielle saved her . . . Well, it works for me.
23) The two are taken to the crosses as Callisto looks on.
The only thing I find strange about the crucifixion is that Caesar isn't there to witness it. You'd think he'd want front row seats.
24) After they're prepped and just before the Romans set to nail the nails into their hands (and Gabrielle's feet), there's one last declarative exchange:
"Gabrielle," Xena says. "You were the best thing in my life."
Gabrielle replies with, "I love you, Xena."
Oh yeah. These girls are totally straight. They're only taking their last moments to declare how much the others means to them. Right before their plan to spend eternity together.
25) Back in Rome, it's not looking good for Caesar. Just as he's about to declare himself emperor, the other senators start taking out their concealed daggers.
Those togas are pretty great. I bet you could hide a lot of stuff down there.
26) In some really cool editing, we're shown Gabrielle and Xena getting crucified with Caesar getting continually stabbed. I remember watching something with the editor in this episode (I assume it was on the DVD special features), where he inter cut it so that Caesar looked as though he were reacting to the nails going into Xena's hands and that Xena was made to look like she was reacting to Caesar getting stabbed.
Good editing.
Brutus gets in the last stab after Caesar's, "And you, Brutus?"
And, in the end, all three die.
27) I've heard that, originally, that was just going to be the end. That the last image of the season was going to be Gabrielle and Xena's dead bodies on the cross. But it was determined that it was way too maudlin to go out on that bleak of a cliff hanger, so they added in a more happy ending.
After being dead for a bit, Xena's spirit emerges from her body, dressed in white robes and glowing. She coaxes Gabrielle's spirit from her body, and the two just kind of fly there, gazing at each other, glowing their after life and, I believe, in their love for each other.
The good news? Xena and Gabrielle will get to the after life together. I guess we'll see more of what that's like in the fifth season.
And we are now finished with the fourth season. This is pretty great because there were a lot of episodes from this season. And I'm so glad to go out of this season with an episode like The Ides Of March which is so . . . fucking great. Even though I complain about Eli and his flirting with Gabrielle, it's really only token, at best. I really do love everything this episode chooses to be. I'm going to give The Ides Of March a very enthusiastic 5 out of 5 airlocks.