XWP: Eve
Two in a row! But I was super productive today with my planning and it's a long weekend and, after this review, I only have one more season five episode left. It's all making me feel very excited to get to the sixth season (or, as I like to call it, the Season Of Extreme Gayness).
But first I have to review Eve and then I have to get through Motherhood. So let's just work to get this over with, yeah?
1) I don't even remember too much about the cold open of Eve but what I do remember is what has stood out since Joxer went through the aging process in Looking Death In The Eye: For some reason, his accent has completely changed. And you know what? It's super fucking annoying.
Because, um, okay, I get that his voice might be rough with age and use but rough with age and use does not suddenly change the accent. And I know you, Ted Raimi. You come from Michigan. You share my accent. And guess what? My accent doesn't sound like an imitation of the Brooklyn accent. And I'm sure it also won't when I'm in my 60s. So knock it off!
2) On more plot related notes, Livia left the arena in Livia and went on to shed some serious blood across the countryside and hanging lots of people on crosses.
Now, what's really interesting about this to me is that she's blaming her actions on Xena, refusing to really take any kind of responsibility for her actions. And it's a theme that will kind of echo throughout the episode, but what makes it interesting in this scene is how much it echoes Callisto's actions in earlier seasons. Callisto refused to take true responsibility for her actions, too. Everything she did and said was attributed to Xena because of this horrible thing Xena had done to her when she was a child.
But if there's one over arching theme of Xena that we should pay attention to it's that our past cannot dictate our present and that we are all ultimately in control of our actions and our destinies. Callisto never quite learned that lesson. If Livia like her father/mother?
3) Ares is still trying to bribe Xena. He still wants her to give him an heir and he's willing to not tell the other gods about Livia's true identity if he gets what he wants.
My first major gripe with season five: Too much baby focus. My second gripe with season five: Too much repetition. How many scenes can we have where Ares asks Xena to carry his child only to be completely and totally rejected? Because the first couple times it was like, "Okay. I can work with this." And then the next couple of times it was like, "This sounds familiar." And the next couple of times it was like, "Give it up already, Ares." And the last couple of times it was like, "I'm going to hit something, this shit is so annoyingly repetitive."
4) And after Xena's fiftieth rejection, Ares goes to woo bad Livia, who is still incredibly upset that he said he would always choose Xena over her. But now he's a man scorned so he means serious business. And, because he's Ares, he's playing both sides. If Livia kills Elijans on his behalf, he will help her become empress, a job that has become much more complicated since Augustus cut her from his life as his successor and future wife.
More than that, however, Ares now wants her to kill Xena, which Livia doesn't quite understand. Well, she doesn't understand one thing: Why is Ares trying to help her if she's the person who is supposed to bring about the twilight?
The answer is pretty simple, actually, and Ares has a good point that I think he actually brought up to Athena way back in Amphipolis Under Seige: The gods really have nothing to fear but their own fear. When Eve was a baby and they were certain she would bring about their doom, their fear caused them to act irrationally which caused Zeus' death and Hera's "disappearance". Since believing Eve dead, nothing has happened at all, meaning she may have no special power beyond freaking them out to the point of total self destruction. So, alerting the other gods to her presence isn't at all in his best interests.
5) I'm already so sick of Virgil. Go away, Virgil. Go away. Don't you have some epic poetry to write, or something?
6) Gabrielle tries to comfort Xena in regards to Livia/Eve, telling her, "This isn't the Eve that you would have raised."
It's a nice sentiment but it ended up really pissing me off. Here's what I don't understand about this arc: Why is Gabrielle's role in Eve's life being completely ignored by everyone, including Gabrielle?
Gabrielle and Xena have an equal partnership and it's ridiculous to ever even insinuate that she was not as much Eve's mother as Xena. I don't care if she didn't give birth to her or supply the DNA. All those times Gabrielle risked her own life to protect Eve? That's what really counts. Not to mention that time she gave Eve her Amazon right of caste? Also counts. She wasn't just the fun aunt or an older sister. She was a mother. And I'm sick of the writers not giving her the credit that she's due and essentially have her lay all the burden of motherhood onto Xena's shoulder. It simply doesn't make any sense.
7) After tracking Livia, she finally catches up, but not before Livia manages to capture Joxer.
My main take away from the scene is that I really don't like Livia, and I'm not sure if it's all because of the character or if it's because of the character and the actress, Adrienne Wilkinson. I just really don't like her deliver. It's very forced but, again, I'm not sure if that's due to the dialog or the bearing of the character herself. All I know is that she's a total brat and not nearly as interesting of a villain as Callisto or Xena herself. And she's such a whiner. God, she's worse than Luke Skywalker whining about power converters.
So over it already.
8) Xena manages to get Livia away from Joxer, but she also won't engage Livia completely in a fight, either. She's really only interested in defense. At some point, though, to save her own life, she has to get a little tough with the girl and Livia ends up running away.
9) And because she's such an annoying brat, she, Livia, once again goes all Lucretia on her stuff, and it's really starting to get to her because she doesn't understand why Xena keeps sparing her life, despite having had the ability to kill her a few times now.
Before she can really think deeply about it, however, Ares shows up, and convinces her that Xena is out to destroy her and can't be trusted and it's a manipulation game and Livia needs to, like, kill Xena. Right now!
10) If Xena looked really good in Livia, Gabrielle looks really good in Eve. At least in most scenes. Her lipstick is a little off for most of it, but if you ignore that, she's very pretty in this episode.
11) Joxer confesses to Virgil that he's never been a great warrior and that all the exploits he told him about (and the randomly forgotten about sister Virgil had only two episode before) were actually Xena's.
12) Gabrielle finally figures out that Eve is essentially her child too, so after Xena rides off to intercept where they believe Livia's army will be heading, Gabrielle goes off in search of Livia's camp so they can have a heart to heart.
Good on you, second mom!
Oh, wait. Except that that's not what happens at all. Because, again, Gabrielle is so not Eve's mother, you know? At all!
She does try to reason with Livia but it doesn't end so well. It's a pretty weak confrontation, though. Like, "Xena loves you. She just wants what's best for you. Don't make her hurt you." And then Livia's like, "Um, who are you, anyway? My fucking aunt? I think I'm going to kill you."
It's such a wasted moment.
13) Really, I think the main intention behind the scene is setting up Joxer's death. Because when Joxer learns from Virgil that Gabrielle's gone to speak to Livia, he follows her in a huff and, when he sees Livia tying Gabrielle up so she can kill her, it spurs him forward.
Though Xena shows up, which gives Joxer more time, Livia's intention to kill her while Xena watches has him charging at her and, just as he reaches her, Livia turns around and runs him through with her sword.
Livia runs away again afterward, and Xena, Gabrielle, and Virgil surround Joxer as he dies.
14) Pretty sad, right? It is kind of a bummer to kill off Joxer, even for as annoying as I found him back in the day. But to be killed off?
It's fitting that he went out trying to protect Gabrielle and that distracting Livia probably saved Gabrielle from severe injury or death. That's something for him to be proud of.
15) But now Virigl's full of angst and I'm annoyed because it's like, "Oh, here's this character we barely know who we suddenly have to care about because Joxer was his father." And I find Xena and Gabrielle reaction to his death so much more interesting because I only know their relationship with Joxer. But, instead, we have to focus on Virgil and we don't get much of anything from either Xena and Gabrielle, though at least Gabrielle cries a bit.
Another wasted moment.
16) But what also struck me as weird is that Virgil is an Elijan. Which makes no sense because, um, the guy has been fighting for two episodes straight.
17) Ares pops back in and helpfully puts all the blame for Joxer's death on Xena's shoulders.
What I do like about this is how Ares' anger is based solely on his own hurt feelings. Earlier in the episode when he was going over the heir routine again, Xena rejected him, telling him that the very idea of having his child made her sick. And it obviously seriously hurt his feelings, because he references it here, letting her know that because she found the idea of him sickening, Joxer was dead.
For gods, the gods aren't much different from humans, are they? Actually, what makes them so scary is that they are exactly like humans but with extreme power. Yikes!
18) But now Xena's on the self recrinimation path, blaming herself for all the people that Livia has killed, including Joxer.
Gabrielle helpfully tells her that she can't take the blame but also takes a new kind of stance on the Livia problem. As far as Gabrielle is concerned at this point, Eve is dead. There's no bringing her back because Livia has no connections to her.
And that makes sense. It really doesn't make sense to compare Livia to Evil!Xena because, before she was Evil!Xena, Xena had a normal childhood where she had a loving mother and a good relationship with her brothers (or at least one of them) and, therefore, had this foundation of what it meant to be good as example she could look towards in contrast to her evil.
Livia doesn't have that. As Gabrielle puts it, she's the daughter of Rome, not of Xena (or Gabrielle, apparently) and because the connection was so severed so early, Eve's been dead for twenty-five years.
19) The awesome Eli music is back from Seeds Of Faith! I love this music!
Xena goes off to pray to Eli and it's the scene from where this entry's icon (and the last entry's icon) comes from. (I love it when Xena is alone in a beautiful landscape.) There's a part of her that knows that Gabrielle is right about Livia and about Eve, but she doesn't want to kill her because, at the end of the day, Livia is still of her flesh and blood. She asks Eli to show her another way, but her prayers go unanswered.
I like this and I'll probably get more into why that it is later in the entry, but I like when the gods don't get involved. Because, for as fantastical a show as Xena is, I like it more when it treads closer to realism. And the truth of the matter? Is that the gods (or god) don't listen and they don't answer prayers.
20) Livia goes to attack a giant temple of Eli's but Xena's already there. She has ways of making super good time anywhere she goes, apparently.
And her plan at this point is to kill Livia so she can avenge Eve.
Oh, and good for her, she also has some of Augustus' army because Augustus obviously doesn't want Livia working for Ares against him.
21) They fight and Xena manages to get half of her chakram to Livia's throat but when the time comes to kill her . . . she just can't do it. Livia manages to push her away and gets a chakram to Xena's throat. She has no such qualms in killing Xena but before she can land the death blow, Xena prays one more time to Eli to save her daughter and tells her that she loves her.
And, because this is a fantasy show, Eli answers, and sends down a beam of light that shows Livia scenes from when she was a baby and how much Xena loved her and how well she took care of her and how hard she tried to protect her.
22) Livia drops the chakram and kind of walks away in a haze, muttering while asking, "What have I done?" Xena tries to stop her and I guess they speak because, after Livia walks out of the temple and kind of disappears, Xena lets Gabrielle know that her prayers were answered because her daughter told her, "My name is Eve."
23) Sigh. I don't like the idea of divine intervention and I don't think it should really count towards an acceptable way for Eve to gain redemption. Or Livia.
It's complication. Because, as we will come to see, Eve and Livia are, in essence, two separate people. But I don't think that Livia really goes away with Eve's reappearance because, ultimately, good upbrining or bad upbrining, Ares influence or not, Livia still didn't have to be . . . Livia. She still had a choice. Just like Callisto had a choice. Just like Xena had a choice. And Angel!Callisto doesn't let Callisto off the hook and Xena doesn't let Evil!Xena off the hook.
And now both Eve and Callisto have been saved by divine intervention and that cheapens the importance of Xena's own transformation because she has to work, every day, for her redemption, but the other two are assisted in their goodness, which takes away their responsibility for determining their own actions and destinies.
A much more compelling story would have disregarded divine intervention and, instead, worked harder to redeem her on a more earthly realm, kind of giving this storyline the weight it should have had in regards to Xena's original turn from evil back on Hercules, which was always too easy, too.
So my dissatisfaction with this group of stories continues. I think I like Eve more than I liked Livia but not by much. The same problems that have haunted this season remain here and are really exacerbated by how horribly I think Gabrielle's being treated and by the unlikeableness of Livia/Eve herself. Oy. So, I'm going to give Eve 2.5 out of 5 airlocks.
But first I have to review Eve and then I have to get through Motherhood. So let's just work to get this over with, yeah?
1) I don't even remember too much about the cold open of Eve but what I do remember is what has stood out since Joxer went through the aging process in Looking Death In The Eye: For some reason, his accent has completely changed. And you know what? It's super fucking annoying.
Because, um, okay, I get that his voice might be rough with age and use but rough with age and use does not suddenly change the accent. And I know you, Ted Raimi. You come from Michigan. You share my accent. And guess what? My accent doesn't sound like an imitation of the Brooklyn accent. And I'm sure it also won't when I'm in my 60s. So knock it off!
2) On more plot related notes, Livia left the arena in Livia and went on to shed some serious blood across the countryside and hanging lots of people on crosses.
Now, what's really interesting about this to me is that she's blaming her actions on Xena, refusing to really take any kind of responsibility for her actions. And it's a theme that will kind of echo throughout the episode, but what makes it interesting in this scene is how much it echoes Callisto's actions in earlier seasons. Callisto refused to take true responsibility for her actions, too. Everything she did and said was attributed to Xena because of this horrible thing Xena had done to her when she was a child.
But if there's one over arching theme of Xena that we should pay attention to it's that our past cannot dictate our present and that we are all ultimately in control of our actions and our destinies. Callisto never quite learned that lesson. If Livia like her father/mother?
3) Ares is still trying to bribe Xena. He still wants her to give him an heir and he's willing to not tell the other gods about Livia's true identity if he gets what he wants.
My first major gripe with season five: Too much baby focus. My second gripe with season five: Too much repetition. How many scenes can we have where Ares asks Xena to carry his child only to be completely and totally rejected? Because the first couple times it was like, "Okay. I can work with this." And then the next couple of times it was like, "This sounds familiar." And the next couple of times it was like, "Give it up already, Ares." And the last couple of times it was like, "I'm going to hit something, this shit is so annoyingly repetitive."
4) And after Xena's fiftieth rejection, Ares goes to woo bad Livia, who is still incredibly upset that he said he would always choose Xena over her. But now he's a man scorned so he means serious business. And, because he's Ares, he's playing both sides. If Livia kills Elijans on his behalf, he will help her become empress, a job that has become much more complicated since Augustus cut her from his life as his successor and future wife.
More than that, however, Ares now wants her to kill Xena, which Livia doesn't quite understand. Well, she doesn't understand one thing: Why is Ares trying to help her if she's the person who is supposed to bring about the twilight?
The answer is pretty simple, actually, and Ares has a good point that I think he actually brought up to Athena way back in Amphipolis Under Seige: The gods really have nothing to fear but their own fear. When Eve was a baby and they were certain she would bring about their doom, their fear caused them to act irrationally which caused Zeus' death and Hera's "disappearance". Since believing Eve dead, nothing has happened at all, meaning she may have no special power beyond freaking them out to the point of total self destruction. So, alerting the other gods to her presence isn't at all in his best interests.
5) I'm already so sick of Virgil. Go away, Virgil. Go away. Don't you have some epic poetry to write, or something?
6) Gabrielle tries to comfort Xena in regards to Livia/Eve, telling her, "This isn't the Eve that you would have raised."
It's a nice sentiment but it ended up really pissing me off. Here's what I don't understand about this arc: Why is Gabrielle's role in Eve's life being completely ignored by everyone, including Gabrielle?
Gabrielle and Xena have an equal partnership and it's ridiculous to ever even insinuate that she was not as much Eve's mother as Xena. I don't care if she didn't give birth to her or supply the DNA. All those times Gabrielle risked her own life to protect Eve? That's what really counts. Not to mention that time she gave Eve her Amazon right of caste? Also counts. She wasn't just the fun aunt or an older sister. She was a mother. And I'm sick of the writers not giving her the credit that she's due and essentially have her lay all the burden of motherhood onto Xena's shoulder. It simply doesn't make any sense.
7) After tracking Livia, she finally catches up, but not before Livia manages to capture Joxer.
My main take away from the scene is that I really don't like Livia, and I'm not sure if it's all because of the character or if it's because of the character and the actress, Adrienne Wilkinson. I just really don't like her deliver. It's very forced but, again, I'm not sure if that's due to the dialog or the bearing of the character herself. All I know is that she's a total brat and not nearly as interesting of a villain as Callisto or Xena herself. And she's such a whiner. God, she's worse than Luke Skywalker whining about power converters.
So over it already.
8) Xena manages to get Livia away from Joxer, but she also won't engage Livia completely in a fight, either. She's really only interested in defense. At some point, though, to save her own life, she has to get a little tough with the girl and Livia ends up running away.
9) And because she's such an annoying brat, she, Livia, once again goes all Lucretia on her stuff, and it's really starting to get to her because she doesn't understand why Xena keeps sparing her life, despite having had the ability to kill her a few times now.
Before she can really think deeply about it, however, Ares shows up, and convinces her that Xena is out to destroy her and can't be trusted and it's a manipulation game and Livia needs to, like, kill Xena. Right now!
10) If Xena looked really good in Livia, Gabrielle looks really good in Eve. At least in most scenes. Her lipstick is a little off for most of it, but if you ignore that, she's very pretty in this episode.
11) Joxer confesses to Virgil that he's never been a great warrior and that all the exploits he told him about (and the randomly forgotten about sister Virgil had only two episode before) were actually Xena's.
12) Gabrielle finally figures out that Eve is essentially her child too, so after Xena rides off to intercept where they believe Livia's army will be heading, Gabrielle goes off in search of Livia's camp so they can have a heart to heart.
Good on you, second mom!
Oh, wait. Except that that's not what happens at all. Because, again, Gabrielle is so not Eve's mother, you know? At all!
She does try to reason with Livia but it doesn't end so well. It's a pretty weak confrontation, though. Like, "Xena loves you. She just wants what's best for you. Don't make her hurt you." And then Livia's like, "Um, who are you, anyway? My fucking aunt? I think I'm going to kill you."
It's such a wasted moment.
13) Really, I think the main intention behind the scene is setting up Joxer's death. Because when Joxer learns from Virgil that Gabrielle's gone to speak to Livia, he follows her in a huff and, when he sees Livia tying Gabrielle up so she can kill her, it spurs him forward.
Though Xena shows up, which gives Joxer more time, Livia's intention to kill her while Xena watches has him charging at her and, just as he reaches her, Livia turns around and runs him through with her sword.
Livia runs away again afterward, and Xena, Gabrielle, and Virgil surround Joxer as he dies.
14) Pretty sad, right? It is kind of a bummer to kill off Joxer, even for as annoying as I found him back in the day. But to be killed off?
It's fitting that he went out trying to protect Gabrielle and that distracting Livia probably saved Gabrielle from severe injury or death. That's something for him to be proud of.
15) But now Virigl's full of angst and I'm annoyed because it's like, "Oh, here's this character we barely know who we suddenly have to care about because Joxer was his father." And I find Xena and Gabrielle reaction to his death so much more interesting because I only know their relationship with Joxer. But, instead, we have to focus on Virgil and we don't get much of anything from either Xena and Gabrielle, though at least Gabrielle cries a bit.
Another wasted moment.
16) But what also struck me as weird is that Virgil is an Elijan. Which makes no sense because, um, the guy has been fighting for two episodes straight.
17) Ares pops back in and helpfully puts all the blame for Joxer's death on Xena's shoulders.
What I do like about this is how Ares' anger is based solely on his own hurt feelings. Earlier in the episode when he was going over the heir routine again, Xena rejected him, telling him that the very idea of having his child made her sick. And it obviously seriously hurt his feelings, because he references it here, letting her know that because she found the idea of him sickening, Joxer was dead.
For gods, the gods aren't much different from humans, are they? Actually, what makes them so scary is that they are exactly like humans but with extreme power. Yikes!
18) But now Xena's on the self recrinimation path, blaming herself for all the people that Livia has killed, including Joxer.
Gabrielle helpfully tells her that she can't take the blame but also takes a new kind of stance on the Livia problem. As far as Gabrielle is concerned at this point, Eve is dead. There's no bringing her back because Livia has no connections to her.
And that makes sense. It really doesn't make sense to compare Livia to Evil!Xena because, before she was Evil!Xena, Xena had a normal childhood where she had a loving mother and a good relationship with her brothers (or at least one of them) and, therefore, had this foundation of what it meant to be good as example she could look towards in contrast to her evil.
Livia doesn't have that. As Gabrielle puts it, she's the daughter of Rome, not of Xena (or Gabrielle, apparently) and because the connection was so severed so early, Eve's been dead for twenty-five years.
19) The awesome Eli music is back from Seeds Of Faith! I love this music!
Xena goes off to pray to Eli and it's the scene from where this entry's icon (and the last entry's icon) comes from. (I love it when Xena is alone in a beautiful landscape.) There's a part of her that knows that Gabrielle is right about Livia and about Eve, but she doesn't want to kill her because, at the end of the day, Livia is still of her flesh and blood. She asks Eli to show her another way, but her prayers go unanswered.
I like this and I'll probably get more into why that it is later in the entry, but I like when the gods don't get involved. Because, for as fantastical a show as Xena is, I like it more when it treads closer to realism. And the truth of the matter? Is that the gods (or god) don't listen and they don't answer prayers.
20) Livia goes to attack a giant temple of Eli's but Xena's already there. She has ways of making super good time anywhere she goes, apparently.
And her plan at this point is to kill Livia so she can avenge Eve.
Oh, and good for her, she also has some of Augustus' army because Augustus obviously doesn't want Livia working for Ares against him.
21) They fight and Xena manages to get half of her chakram to Livia's throat but when the time comes to kill her . . . she just can't do it. Livia manages to push her away and gets a chakram to Xena's throat. She has no such qualms in killing Xena but before she can land the death blow, Xena prays one more time to Eli to save her daughter and tells her that she loves her.
And, because this is a fantasy show, Eli answers, and sends down a beam of light that shows Livia scenes from when she was a baby and how much Xena loved her and how well she took care of her and how hard she tried to protect her.
22) Livia drops the chakram and kind of walks away in a haze, muttering while asking, "What have I done?" Xena tries to stop her and I guess they speak because, after Livia walks out of the temple and kind of disappears, Xena lets Gabrielle know that her prayers were answered because her daughter told her, "My name is Eve."
23) Sigh. I don't like the idea of divine intervention and I don't think it should really count towards an acceptable way for Eve to gain redemption. Or Livia.
It's complication. Because, as we will come to see, Eve and Livia are, in essence, two separate people. But I don't think that Livia really goes away with Eve's reappearance because, ultimately, good upbrining or bad upbrining, Ares influence or not, Livia still didn't have to be . . . Livia. She still had a choice. Just like Callisto had a choice. Just like Xena had a choice. And Angel!Callisto doesn't let Callisto off the hook and Xena doesn't let Evil!Xena off the hook.
And now both Eve and Callisto have been saved by divine intervention and that cheapens the importance of Xena's own transformation because she has to work, every day, for her redemption, but the other two are assisted in their goodness, which takes away their responsibility for determining their own actions and destinies.
A much more compelling story would have disregarded divine intervention and, instead, worked harder to redeem her on a more earthly realm, kind of giving this storyline the weight it should have had in regards to Xena's original turn from evil back on Hercules, which was always too easy, too.
So my dissatisfaction with this group of stories continues. I think I like Eve more than I liked Livia but not by much. The same problems that have haunted this season remain here and are really exacerbated by how horribly I think Gabrielle's being treated and by the unlikeableness of Livia/Eve herself. Oy. So, I'm going to give Eve 2.5 out of 5 airlocks.