XWP: Motherhood
I probably should not be taking the time to write this review but I'm so sick of lesson planning that I kind of want to as a general "fuck you" to work.
On a happier note, I'm so excited for Samantha Stosur's win against Serena Williams at the US Open! I mean, I certainly would not have been upset had Serena won (she's ridiculously amazing to be where she is so soon after having such a scary health year that included a legitimate near-death illness) but I admit there's something about Samantha Stosur that makes my heart skip a beat. Maybe it's because she's so damn mysterious to me (even though she has her own website) or maybe it's the Oakley shades. But she's damn cute and has an amazing game. She's also 27 and playing the best tennis of her life. I love, love, love when the journeywomen of the game get rewarded for their hard efforts.
Because I don't want to have another Hope Solo like obsession on my hands, I think I need to write this review simply as a way of preventing myself from Googling and Tumblr-ing pictures of Stosur all night long.
1) When we last saw our lovely ladies, they were chasing Eve out of the temple of Eli as she acknowledged her evil ways and ran from them.
I guess they follow her all the way to the desert (wtf?) because that's where we find them: Eve all gross and sand blown, dehydrated and blowing in the wind, apparently somewhat oblivious to Xena and Gabrielle behind her, looking really lovely in the dim light with scarves about their bodies.
Xena's kind of like, "I don't really know what to do with this" but Gabrielle steps up and is like, "Let's save your daughter." Yeah, your daughter, Xena. Not at all Gabrielle's.
2) Ares is back at Olympus with a huge stick up his ass because Xena's denied him (again) and Livia has been lost to Eli and Eve. He feels justified, then, in telling his family about Livia's true identify, which really gets the crazy gods going.
Athena has a pretty good idea, though, which almost makes up for some of her immense stupidity of earlier episodes that seriously derailed her immense swag: She sends the Furies after Gabrielle and Xena, figuring that the best way to deal with them is to simply drive them mad, giving the gods the perfect opportunity to swoop in and kill Eve.
Aphrodite isn't really down with the plan, though, particularly as it relates to Gabrielle. She wants Athena to live the Gabster alone.
3) Back in the desert, some random nomads come out of nowhere and try to kill Eve, apparently recognizing her as Livia.
How is that even possible? How did these random dudes find them, first of all, and how did they identify this crusty woman as Livia?
But, whatever. What's most important is that they manage to capture her a bit and they manage to drag her behind a horse, resulting in yet another horse drag. Not quite as epic as the Gab!Drag of season three, but a drag nevertheless.
4) Xena doesn't let them get far, of course, and she kicks their asses pretty righteously. Once they're vanquished, they find yet another random woman in the desert, but she's rather friendly. She's a shepherd who recognizes Xena, apparently, as the "defender of their faith". Or at least that's how Xena's identified in their sacred scrolls.
These Elijans sure do take liberties, don't they?
Gabrielle, the bard that she is, tells all of the Elijans all about Eli but Eve's not really buying this theory of love. She doesn't believe that she's redeemable through love. Like mother, like daughter, right? Though Xena seems ridiculously pro-Eli because she tells Eve she should listen to their message.
I really don't care for this idea that Gabrielle and Xena are followers of Eli. I really, really don't. Not only because it seems incredibly hypocritical for two warriors to follow a religion that calls for complete passivity in the face of violence. But I just don't buy it, regardless. I think the only way I can accept it is as a response to their hate of the Greek gods and their attempt to see them into oblivion.
5) Meanwhile, the Furies are busy fucking with Gabrielle's mind (maybe that would explain still claiming to be an Elijan), telling her in her head that Eve really hasn't changed, that she's still Livia.
Interesting that the Furies aren't messing with Xena. Maybe they suspect that Xena would quickly identify that she was being messed with, especially after her episode with them in the third season. But, for me, it kind of ends of reading as yet another slap against Gabrielle and her relationship with Eve, because it insinuates that her ties to Eve are much less than those of Xena and that her feelings towards Eve are vulnerable enough to be toyed with.
6) So Eve decides to get baptized.
Oh, baptism. Aren't you grand? What an easy solution: Bath and hear a blessing and you're soul becomes clean!
Bonus points for Xena, who gets visited by Eli (or Eli's god . . . I'm not sure . . . Or is Eli the god? Is that what they were implying in The Way?) while Eve is under the spirituality spell.
7) On the beach, things go to shit, though. Poisideon shows up in all his horrible CGI glory as do a few others: Athena, Ares, Artemis, Discord, Hephasteus, and Deimos. It's about to get heavy.
They all fight and the gods throw their fire, but Xena manages to ricochet one of the god's fire bolts into Poisideon which . . . kills him.
Because Xena? She can totally kill gods now. When Eli spoke to her, he gave her that power so she could protect Eve.
So not only does she kill Poisideon, she also ends up beheading Discord and axes Hephasteus. It's a god blood bath. It's ridiculous. So Athena, Artemis, Ares, and Deimos get the hell out of dodge.
8) But here's one of the main reasons I hate this Elijan storyline: What the fuck is the god of love doing giving Xena the power to kill? How is that not the most hypocritical thing of all time?
It'd be cool if the show was using this as commentary against, like, radical and crazy fundamentalist religious zealots but they don't. Like, it's just always kind of acceptable that Eli's god is huge, murdering asshole in charge of a completely peaceful religion. Defended by a super hardcore warrior, spoken about by her pint sized warrior companion. No one even questions this. Not Xena, not Gabrielle, not even the show. It's fucking ridiculous.
9) After the terror, they all go to find Virgil, because Xena can kill gods now and Eve has to apologize for killing his dad and all. So they go back to the farm and Eve gets to face Virgil and his ugly leather vest.
To be fair, Livia technically killed Joxer in self defense because he was charging her in an attempt to rescue Gabrielle. I mean, semantics, but still.
Virgil, despite being an Elijan (who also fights), can't bring himself to forgive her and he storms off.
10) The three women stay at the farm. Eve is a huge annoying near-child who is way too old to be so. But she's super excited to read Gabrielle's scrolls so she can read about the wonder that is her mother. A storm starts raging outside and Xena is distracted from this domestic bliss by a tingle up her spine.
She goes outside to investigate and finds Ares.
Um, hello, Xena! Trap! I mean, duh! Admiral Ackbar would have have smelled it from a parsec away!
11) The Furies have been wreaking havoc in Gabrielle's mind the whole time and leaving her alone with Eve is exactly what the gods and the Furies want.
A younger, dead Joxer appears to her, demanding that she kill Eve to avenge his death. And if that weren't enough, Hope comes back and demands the same! (It's so obviously a wig that she's wearing, but it's nice seeing a long haired Renee.) Hope compares Xena's situation with Eve to Gabrielle's with herself. I mean, Xena demanded that Hope had to die because she was evil. Wasn't Eve evil? Why didn't she have to die?
It's a really interesting point to make because it does scream hypocrisy that Xena was so adamant about Hope needing to die but lets her evil daughter off scott free. But hasn't Xena, in many ways, gotten off scott free? Considering her past misdeeds, she's only been imprisoned for any of it . . . once? And that lasted all of a few days. So it is ridiculous that Xena isn't ever called for what she did in the Hope situation versus what she did in the Eve situation, but it does kind of follow from the past.
12) Outside, Ares admits that he loves Xena. But it's a little too late.
13) Because Xena knows that this is a trap (which makes me wonder why the hell she went out there in the first place) and runs back inside, just in time to see Gabrielle stab Eve in the back with one of her sais.
So Xena does what any reasonable person would do when the love of her life is acting completely out of character and stabbing the child she used to think of as her daughter: She fucking chakrams Gabrielle in the head.
Are you fucking kidding me? Xena, with her ridiculous aim, who can knock over a dime from a mile away, can't think of any other way to disarm Gabrielle than to chakram her in the head?
I can't even with this episode.
14) And then the shit really hits the fan and the gods show up. So there's this super big fight.
Aphrodite comes in and manages to convince Xena that she wants to help Gabrielle, that Gabrielle is her friend and she doesn't want any more harm to come to her.
Aphrodite gets out in the knick of time. Because after she takes Gabrielle away (and Eve somehow gets out, too, but I can't remember how), more gods get slayed. Hades gets set on fire by his own fireball, Deimos gets crushed by a wagon or something. And Athena and Artemis, once again, get the hell out of dodge.
Ares almost gets the chance to kill Eve, but Xena catches him just before he can.
15) Xena gets Eve and Gabrielle out of that farm. She carries Eve, who is still conscious, and drags a stiff Gabrielle behind her.
How is Gabrielle even still alive? That chakram had fucking brain on it when it returned to Xena's hand. And she's still alive?
And I could not be more sick of Eve at this point or more sick of her annoying relationship with Xena. I'm so incredibly over it. Like, for real.
16) Aphrodite shows up again. She wants to help but can't heal either of them because gods can only heal with Athena's blessing and, of course, there's no real expectation of that ever happening. Xena manages to convince her to take them to Olympus so she can strike a deal.
Aphrodite, against what I have to imagine is her better judgement, agrees, mostly because she wants to see Gabrielle safe and healed. I really like her affection of Gabrielle. It's a really nice character touch, particularly for someone who has a tendency to come off rather vapid.
17) Once they get to Olympus, Xena manages to get Ares wrapped up in Hephasteus' chains, which neutralizes him for the time being.
18) She tries to negotiate with Athena. She asks her to heal Eve and Gabrielle in exchange for not killing her.
Sounds fair, right?
But Artemis has to get all uppity and tries to kill Xena with her arrows. Xena dodges them and sends them back, easily killing her.
So lame. And such a missed opportunity. Artemis was the goddess of the Amazons but this is her first appearance (and last) on the show. What's that about?
19) Losing her sister obviously pisses Athena off even more and she and Xena engage in a fight. Athena has figured out that Xena's ability to kill gods is somehow tied to Eve and her life, so she figures that if she can just get Xena on the ropes enough until Eve dies, she'll be fine.
And it's a great plan and it actually works. Because just as Xena gets the advantages and plunges her sword into Athena, Eve dies, and Athena is fine.
20) What Athena didn't anticipate was Ares, who had been struggling to free himself from the chains well enough to get to both Eve and Gabrielle, dead (or I think Gabrielle's dead) on the ground. Once he reaches them, he uses his powers to heal them back to life. And does so without Athena's blessing.
But it's no matter. Because just as Athena is to bring down the sword on Xena, Xena tries one more time, stabbing Athena. And, with Ares' healing of Eve, this time the sword makes the connection, and she mortally wounds the goddess.
21) Ares, because he healed without the blessing, loses his immortality and godhood. Athena asks him why he would do such a thing and he tells her, just before she dies, "I"m sorry. But I got a thing for her."
It's actually rather cold hearted and it's not a line I like from Ares, who is evil-ish but not evil. And he seems to have no remorse for enabling the death of his sister for a woman who has already killed so many of his family. (Hey, is Ares the new Callisto?)
22) Still, it leads to the nicest moment I think Ares and Xena have in the entire history of the show. Once she figures out that both Gabrielle and Eve are alive and alright, she walks over to him. He looks at her, afraid at what she might do, but she has this glossy look in her eye and she just quietly tells him, "Thank you."
These two have such an interesting relationship. I'll honestly never understand Ares/Xena shippers, who actually want them in a relationship based on what they see on the show. Because, um, that would include having Xena in a relationship with someone she clearly hates. But . . . maybe hate isn't the right word. Because Ares represents everything she used to be, which is a temptation, and certainly Xena hates everything she used to be. But . . . I think she's also coming to understand that she needed to be who she was in order to be the person she is, that those evil years were necessary as part of her journey, which makes hating those years . . . a wrong kind of emotion.
Which shapes the way she now sees him, I think. She doesn't like him but she also kind of accepts him.
23) So the happy family finds their way back to the desert and Eve plays with a spider.
God, so damn cheesy.
24) Gabrielle looks at the scene unfolding before her and tells Xena, "Looks like you got your daughter back."
And Xena, out of the fucking blue, says, "No, we got our daughter back." Uh, what? I can't even really appreciate how gay that comment is because it goes against so much of what we've been seeing since they emerged from their ice coffins, when it was all about Xena's relationship with Eve. Gabrielle and her relationship with Eve were always a distant afterthought, barely even mentioned.
So, how generous of you Xena (and writers) to acknowledge what you should have been acknowledging all along.
25) Here's the real question of the episode: Should Xena really have the right to determine that the gods should die?
Who is she to make that kind of judgement? Who is the god who gave her the power?
I don't like that she has that power (I like that Xena is a super human but not a super hero and having the ability to kill gods totally crosses that line) but I also don't think it's totally out of line because, I mean, who gave the gods the right to determine the fate of mortals? If they can mess with Xena, then why shouldn't Xena be able to mess with them?
Those are my thoughts on Motherhood. I know it might not seem that way based on this review, but I actually do kind of like it. It's not great and it has a super amount of problems (Gabrielle getting a chakram to the head? And Xena never apologizing for that? Fucking outrageous). Still, I like that this storyline has been resolved and I like that moment between Ares and Xena. What I like the most, however, is that this is the final episode of season five, easily my least favorite season out of the six. And, speaking of the sixth season . . . It might just be my favorite, so I'm really happy to finally be there! So, in the spirit of that happiness, I'm going to give Motherhood 3 out of 5 airlocks.
On a happier note, I'm so excited for Samantha Stosur's win against Serena Williams at the US Open! I mean, I certainly would not have been upset had Serena won (she's ridiculously amazing to be where she is so soon after having such a scary health year that included a legitimate near-death illness) but I admit there's something about Samantha Stosur that makes my heart skip a beat. Maybe it's because she's so damn mysterious to me (even though she has her own website) or maybe it's the Oakley shades. But she's damn cute and has an amazing game. She's also 27 and playing the best tennis of her life. I love, love, love when the journeywomen of the game get rewarded for their hard efforts.
Because I don't want to have another Hope Solo like obsession on my hands, I think I need to write this review simply as a way of preventing myself from Googling and Tumblr-ing pictures of Stosur all night long.
1) When we last saw our lovely ladies, they were chasing Eve out of the temple of Eli as she acknowledged her evil ways and ran from them.
I guess they follow her all the way to the desert (wtf?) because that's where we find them: Eve all gross and sand blown, dehydrated and blowing in the wind, apparently somewhat oblivious to Xena and Gabrielle behind her, looking really lovely in the dim light with scarves about their bodies.
Xena's kind of like, "I don't really know what to do with this" but Gabrielle steps up and is like, "Let's save your daughter." Yeah, your daughter, Xena. Not at all Gabrielle's.
2) Ares is back at Olympus with a huge stick up his ass because Xena's denied him (again) and Livia has been lost to Eli and Eve. He feels justified, then, in telling his family about Livia's true identify, which really gets the crazy gods going.
Athena has a pretty good idea, though, which almost makes up for some of her immense stupidity of earlier episodes that seriously derailed her immense swag: She sends the Furies after Gabrielle and Xena, figuring that the best way to deal with them is to simply drive them mad, giving the gods the perfect opportunity to swoop in and kill Eve.
Aphrodite isn't really down with the plan, though, particularly as it relates to Gabrielle. She wants Athena to live the Gabster alone.
3) Back in the desert, some random nomads come out of nowhere and try to kill Eve, apparently recognizing her as Livia.
How is that even possible? How did these random dudes find them, first of all, and how did they identify this crusty woman as Livia?
But, whatever. What's most important is that they manage to capture her a bit and they manage to drag her behind a horse, resulting in yet another horse drag. Not quite as epic as the Gab!Drag of season three, but a drag nevertheless.
4) Xena doesn't let them get far, of course, and she kicks their asses pretty righteously. Once they're vanquished, they find yet another random woman in the desert, but she's rather friendly. She's a shepherd who recognizes Xena, apparently, as the "defender of their faith". Or at least that's how Xena's identified in their sacred scrolls.
These Elijans sure do take liberties, don't they?
Gabrielle, the bard that she is, tells all of the Elijans all about Eli but Eve's not really buying this theory of love. She doesn't believe that she's redeemable through love. Like mother, like daughter, right? Though Xena seems ridiculously pro-Eli because she tells Eve she should listen to their message.
I really don't care for this idea that Gabrielle and Xena are followers of Eli. I really, really don't. Not only because it seems incredibly hypocritical for two warriors to follow a religion that calls for complete passivity in the face of violence. But I just don't buy it, regardless. I think the only way I can accept it is as a response to their hate of the Greek gods and their attempt to see them into oblivion.
5) Meanwhile, the Furies are busy fucking with Gabrielle's mind (maybe that would explain still claiming to be an Elijan), telling her in her head that Eve really hasn't changed, that she's still Livia.
Interesting that the Furies aren't messing with Xena. Maybe they suspect that Xena would quickly identify that she was being messed with, especially after her episode with them in the third season. But, for me, it kind of ends of reading as yet another slap against Gabrielle and her relationship with Eve, because it insinuates that her ties to Eve are much less than those of Xena and that her feelings towards Eve are vulnerable enough to be toyed with.
6) So Eve decides to get baptized.
Oh, baptism. Aren't you grand? What an easy solution: Bath and hear a blessing and you're soul becomes clean!
Bonus points for Xena, who gets visited by Eli (or Eli's god . . . I'm not sure . . . Or is Eli the god? Is that what they were implying in The Way?) while Eve is under the spirituality spell.
7) On the beach, things go to shit, though. Poisideon shows up in all his horrible CGI glory as do a few others: Athena, Ares, Artemis, Discord, Hephasteus, and Deimos. It's about to get heavy.
They all fight and the gods throw their fire, but Xena manages to ricochet one of the god's fire bolts into Poisideon which . . . kills him.
Because Xena? She can totally kill gods now. When Eli spoke to her, he gave her that power so she could protect Eve.
So not only does she kill Poisideon, she also ends up beheading Discord and axes Hephasteus. It's a god blood bath. It's ridiculous. So Athena, Artemis, Ares, and Deimos get the hell out of dodge.
8) But here's one of the main reasons I hate this Elijan storyline: What the fuck is the god of love doing giving Xena the power to kill? How is that not the most hypocritical thing of all time?
It'd be cool if the show was using this as commentary against, like, radical and crazy fundamentalist religious zealots but they don't. Like, it's just always kind of acceptable that Eli's god is huge, murdering asshole in charge of a completely peaceful religion. Defended by a super hardcore warrior, spoken about by her pint sized warrior companion. No one even questions this. Not Xena, not Gabrielle, not even the show. It's fucking ridiculous.
9) After the terror, they all go to find Virgil, because Xena can kill gods now and Eve has to apologize for killing his dad and all. So they go back to the farm and Eve gets to face Virgil and his ugly leather vest.
To be fair, Livia technically killed Joxer in self defense because he was charging her in an attempt to rescue Gabrielle. I mean, semantics, but still.
Virgil, despite being an Elijan (who also fights), can't bring himself to forgive her and he storms off.
10) The three women stay at the farm. Eve is a huge annoying near-child who is way too old to be so. But she's super excited to read Gabrielle's scrolls so she can read about the wonder that is her mother. A storm starts raging outside and Xena is distracted from this domestic bliss by a tingle up her spine.
She goes outside to investigate and finds Ares.
Um, hello, Xena! Trap! I mean, duh! Admiral Ackbar would have have smelled it from a parsec away!
11) The Furies have been wreaking havoc in Gabrielle's mind the whole time and leaving her alone with Eve is exactly what the gods and the Furies want.
A younger, dead Joxer appears to her, demanding that she kill Eve to avenge his death. And if that weren't enough, Hope comes back and demands the same! (It's so obviously a wig that she's wearing, but it's nice seeing a long haired Renee.) Hope compares Xena's situation with Eve to Gabrielle's with herself. I mean, Xena demanded that Hope had to die because she was evil. Wasn't Eve evil? Why didn't she have to die?
It's a really interesting point to make because it does scream hypocrisy that Xena was so adamant about Hope needing to die but lets her evil daughter off scott free. But hasn't Xena, in many ways, gotten off scott free? Considering her past misdeeds, she's only been imprisoned for any of it . . . once? And that lasted all of a few days. So it is ridiculous that Xena isn't ever called for what she did in the Hope situation versus what she did in the Eve situation, but it does kind of follow from the past.
12) Outside, Ares admits that he loves Xena. But it's a little too late.
13) Because Xena knows that this is a trap (which makes me wonder why the hell she went out there in the first place) and runs back inside, just in time to see Gabrielle stab Eve in the back with one of her sais.
So Xena does what any reasonable person would do when the love of her life is acting completely out of character and stabbing the child she used to think of as her daughter: She fucking chakrams Gabrielle in the head.
Are you fucking kidding me? Xena, with her ridiculous aim, who can knock over a dime from a mile away, can't think of any other way to disarm Gabrielle than to chakram her in the head?
I can't even with this episode.
14) And then the shit really hits the fan and the gods show up. So there's this super big fight.
Aphrodite comes in and manages to convince Xena that she wants to help Gabrielle, that Gabrielle is her friend and she doesn't want any more harm to come to her.
Aphrodite gets out in the knick of time. Because after she takes Gabrielle away (and Eve somehow gets out, too, but I can't remember how), more gods get slayed. Hades gets set on fire by his own fireball, Deimos gets crushed by a wagon or something. And Athena and Artemis, once again, get the hell out of dodge.
Ares almost gets the chance to kill Eve, but Xena catches him just before he can.
15) Xena gets Eve and Gabrielle out of that farm. She carries Eve, who is still conscious, and drags a stiff Gabrielle behind her.
How is Gabrielle even still alive? That chakram had fucking brain on it when it returned to Xena's hand. And she's still alive?
And I could not be more sick of Eve at this point or more sick of her annoying relationship with Xena. I'm so incredibly over it. Like, for real.
16) Aphrodite shows up again. She wants to help but can't heal either of them because gods can only heal with Athena's blessing and, of course, there's no real expectation of that ever happening. Xena manages to convince her to take them to Olympus so she can strike a deal.
Aphrodite, against what I have to imagine is her better judgement, agrees, mostly because she wants to see Gabrielle safe and healed. I really like her affection of Gabrielle. It's a really nice character touch, particularly for someone who has a tendency to come off rather vapid.
17) Once they get to Olympus, Xena manages to get Ares wrapped up in Hephasteus' chains, which neutralizes him for the time being.
18) She tries to negotiate with Athena. She asks her to heal Eve and Gabrielle in exchange for not killing her.
Sounds fair, right?
But Artemis has to get all uppity and tries to kill Xena with her arrows. Xena dodges them and sends them back, easily killing her.
So lame. And such a missed opportunity. Artemis was the goddess of the Amazons but this is her first appearance (and last) on the show. What's that about?
19) Losing her sister obviously pisses Athena off even more and she and Xena engage in a fight. Athena has figured out that Xena's ability to kill gods is somehow tied to Eve and her life, so she figures that if she can just get Xena on the ropes enough until Eve dies, she'll be fine.
And it's a great plan and it actually works. Because just as Xena gets the advantages and plunges her sword into Athena, Eve dies, and Athena is fine.
20) What Athena didn't anticipate was Ares, who had been struggling to free himself from the chains well enough to get to both Eve and Gabrielle, dead (or I think Gabrielle's dead) on the ground. Once he reaches them, he uses his powers to heal them back to life. And does so without Athena's blessing.
But it's no matter. Because just as Athena is to bring down the sword on Xena, Xena tries one more time, stabbing Athena. And, with Ares' healing of Eve, this time the sword makes the connection, and she mortally wounds the goddess.
21) Ares, because he healed without the blessing, loses his immortality and godhood. Athena asks him why he would do such a thing and he tells her, just before she dies, "I"m sorry. But I got a thing for her."
It's actually rather cold hearted and it's not a line I like from Ares, who is evil-ish but not evil. And he seems to have no remorse for enabling the death of his sister for a woman who has already killed so many of his family. (Hey, is Ares the new Callisto?)
22) Still, it leads to the nicest moment I think Ares and Xena have in the entire history of the show. Once she figures out that both Gabrielle and Eve are alive and alright, she walks over to him. He looks at her, afraid at what she might do, but she has this glossy look in her eye and she just quietly tells him, "Thank you."
These two have such an interesting relationship. I'll honestly never understand Ares/Xena shippers, who actually want them in a relationship based on what they see on the show. Because, um, that would include having Xena in a relationship with someone she clearly hates. But . . . maybe hate isn't the right word. Because Ares represents everything she used to be, which is a temptation, and certainly Xena hates everything she used to be. But . . . I think she's also coming to understand that she needed to be who she was in order to be the person she is, that those evil years were necessary as part of her journey, which makes hating those years . . . a wrong kind of emotion.
Which shapes the way she now sees him, I think. She doesn't like him but she also kind of accepts him.
23) So the happy family finds their way back to the desert and Eve plays with a spider.
God, so damn cheesy.
24) Gabrielle looks at the scene unfolding before her and tells Xena, "Looks like you got your daughter back."
And Xena, out of the fucking blue, says, "No, we got our daughter back." Uh, what? I can't even really appreciate how gay that comment is because it goes against so much of what we've been seeing since they emerged from their ice coffins, when it was all about Xena's relationship with Eve. Gabrielle and her relationship with Eve were always a distant afterthought, barely even mentioned.
So, how generous of you Xena (and writers) to acknowledge what you should have been acknowledging all along.
25) Here's the real question of the episode: Should Xena really have the right to determine that the gods should die?
Who is she to make that kind of judgement? Who is the god who gave her the power?
I don't like that she has that power (I like that Xena is a super human but not a super hero and having the ability to kill gods totally crosses that line) but I also don't think it's totally out of line because, I mean, who gave the gods the right to determine the fate of mortals? If they can mess with Xena, then why shouldn't Xena be able to mess with them?
Those are my thoughts on Motherhood. I know it might not seem that way based on this review, but I actually do kind of like it. It's not great and it has a super amount of problems (Gabrielle getting a chakram to the head? And Xena never apologizing for that? Fucking outrageous). Still, I like that this storyline has been resolved and I like that moment between Ares and Xena. What I like the most, however, is that this is the final episode of season five, easily my least favorite season out of the six. And, speaking of the sixth season . . . It might just be my favorite, so I'm really happy to finally be there! So, in the spirit of that happiness, I'm going to give Motherhood 3 out of 5 airlocks.