Xena: Warrior Princess (TV Series) Return of Callisto (1996) User Reviews

Salute to Xena - A 25th Anniversary Review

[skullface2020 · 9/10 · 11 April 2020]

Callisto breaks out of prison and goes on a murderous rampage. Perdicus reenters Gabrielle's life, but unfortunately Callisto has sinister plans for them. Gabrielle's love-centric ethos is put to the test.

SYNOPSIS

Psycho Callisto breaks out of prison in a violent escape, and she reenlists her minions so that they can go on campaigns causing terror everywhere they go. She has specific plans for Xena. Perdicus, Gabrielle's former betrothed from back home, catches up with Gabrielle and Xena. He tells them about how after the fall of Troy (season 1 episode 12) he wandered off to another civil war, but now he's tired of the violence and killing. He loves Gabrielle, and wants to marry her and settle down to a life of peace. Gabrielle is uncertain about this, but suddenly they're all met with Joxer the Magnificent (he's having a hard time choosing a title for himself) who was sent by Callisto. She wanted him to tell Xena that she's back in action.

Xena and crew go to protect an innocent village under attack from Callisto's warriors. Callisto escapes after a brief battle with Xena. Perdicus was fighting against the bad guys, but he's had enough of the killing. He walks away and Gabrielle decides to join him and be his wife. The following day she is married to Perdicus at some little temple; Xena and Joxer are the witnesses to this joyous event. Xena and Gabrielle will miss each other greatly, but they can still enjoy visits, and Gabrielle is ready live a life with Perdicus who is a good man. The celebration is short since Xena is back on the road to hunt down Callisto. When she gets to the warrior's camp she uses a pressure point tactic on Callisto's lieutenant Theodorus to find out that Callisto is gone, and she knows that Gabrielle has decided to get married. Xena knows that Gabrielle and Perdicus are in serious danger. The following morning sees Xena catch up to her friends only to find them under attack from Callisto. Gabrielle and Xena survive, but Callisto has inflicted mortal wounds on Perdicus before she escapes. Along with Joxer, Xena and Gabrielle light a funeral pyre for the deceased Perdicus.

Gabrielle is distraught, and she's dead-set on revenge. She wants to kill Callisto, but Xena is not interested in helping Gabrielle do this since Gabrielle is a peaceful being. Gabrielle tells Xena that the old peace-loving person is dead now, and she knows that love is not the strongest force of nature. Xena teaches her how to use a sword, but then Gabrielle tells her that maybe she'll go home to properly mourn the passing of Perdicus. However, this was a lie, and Gabrielle goes into Callisto's camp when everyone is passed out from partying. Gabrielle is about to kill Callisto, but then drops her sword instead; she's just not the killing type. Callisto and her men are jolted awake, and capture Gabrielle. Xena enters the camp later in the day, but she's unaware that Gabrielle has been captured and that she's walking into a trap. Immediately disarmed, Xena is tied up in Callisto's former prison chair, and she's all set to watch Gabrielle get burned alive.

Suddenly a hero runs into Callisto's camp! It's Joxer, and he sucker punches one of Callisto's men before being quickly subdued. However, even though his entrance seemed like a total failure, it proves to be invaluable. While everyone's head is turned, Xena uses her foot to pick up her charkram. This allows her to easily free Gabrielle and herself. A quick battle follows, and Callisto's hungover men are no match for Xena, Gabrielle, and Joxer. Callisto escapes on a chariot, but Xena is in her own chariot right on her tail. Callisto's modified chariot disables Xena's, and the two find themselves in hand to hand combat on Callisto's ride. They are thrown into a pit of quicksand, but Xena uses her whip to pull herself out. She refuses to come to Callisto's aid, and the evil warrior princess is completely submerged in the sand. Xena offers first-aid to wounded Joxer, and expresses her gratitude for his help kind heart. She and Gabrielle are off to reflect on the kind and good Perdicus and the legacy that he has left behind.

NOTES

Xena was worried that the old loving and pure Gabrielle would be lost in a blind pursuit for revenge, and for a moment that seemed to be the case. However, Gabrielle was able to find moral footing, and her peaceful actions are a great way to honor her deceased husband Perdicus. Joxer is indeed brave and virtuous.

A marriage made in pity. Revenge or die. Xena's justice against Callisto.

[reb-warrior · 10/10 · 27 March 2021]

Callisto escapes prison and immediately starts her revenge quest against Xena again.

Perdicus shows up and he has a pity party, then asks Gabrielle to marry him. It's astounding that Gabrielle agreed to marry him. These two had little-to-no onscreen relationship. Gabrielle had described him as dull and stupid in the pilot episode. Gabrielle wanted to travel the world and become a warrior and become an established bard. To be fair, she doesn't give him an answer right away, only later when he is all sad and pitiful about killing a warrior. To me, it seems like she feels sorry for him and wants to "fix him." Yes, there's love, but not the "in love" type.

Perdicus, whether consciously or subconsciously, has always been suspect to me. I mean go home then if you are sick of fighting. No one told you to do that(fighting). You did it to score points with Gabrielle. Apparently, she bought it. But no, he beelined straight to Gabrielle, who probably felt a little guilty given they were supposed to marry and she chose to leave town with Xena. She probably felt Perdicus' choices were because of her. I just never liked Perdicus.

Callisto is crazy and fun. She really gets under Xena's skin because of the guilt she feels about what happened to her. Later Callisto kills Perdicus. No loss there. But it did upset Gabrielle. She now wants revenge against Callisto. Guess she knows now how Melas felt in the episode 'Callisto'. She wants Xena to train her but Xena doesn't want to until Gabs keeps pushing it. I found the training scene a little cringeworthy. Xena is forced and Gabrielle is ott with her revenge excitement. In the end, Gabrielle couldn't kill Callisto anyway.

Notice when Xena escapes from the chair contraption, Callisto just stands there and watches as Xena takes out some of the warriors, "Oh, how I do love watching you work." I always felt Callisto admired Xena, despite Xena killing her family. Almost like a crush. Who knows, maybe young Callisto was a fangirl of Xena before her village was attacked.

There was a great chariot chase between Xena and Callisto. Really enjoyed that scene. Xena steps into a new struggle for herself. She allows Callisto to die when she could have saved her. What a dilemma for the character. Xena is trying to change and be good, but this is counterproductive to her redemption, and yet Callisto did the worst thing. She hurt her best friend. I suppose Xena might be thinking about how she saved Callisto in the first episode. If she hadn't maybe Gabs wouldn't be so hurt now, not to mention all the other people that were hurt or killed by Callisto and her army after she escaped.

Lots of meaty stuff here. Gabs gets married, her hubby dies, Xena lets Callisto die, and now has to live with the guilt. Joxer came through at a most important moment. 10/10.

Psycho Barbie returns...

[Chalice_Of_Evil · 10/10 · 7 March 2022]

Imprisoned, Callisto's secured to a chair contraption, takes a beating...which she's thankful for, *not* because she's gets off on it (not THIS time, anyway), but because it allows her to steal a knife to free herself with, then teaches the guards a lesson in treating prisoners properly. I liked the camerawork during her escape, including the slow-motion focus on her feet busting free (foot fetishists would've likely enjoyed that. Treasure the moment, as it'll probably be the only chance to see Hudson Leick's bare feet). Newbie guard, who's being shown the ropes, has the WORST FIRST DAY EVER on the job and is made short work of, then Callisto delivers on her earlier promise to make the "fat pathetic piece of dung"/head guard squeal like a pig after he called the inmates 'pigs' ("Here piggy-piggy-piggy-piggy." has never sounded so creepy). Although she tells her henchman, Theodorus, to free the prisoners, she clarifies only the *healthy* ones (who'll form her new army), while the weak ones are to be 'put out of their misery' (Hudson's hand gestures, covered with her victims' blood, are delightfully unhinged).

Perdicus/Perdicas (sp?) receives a welcome from Xena's fist, as he's apparently decided to make a midnight proposal to Gabrielle in the woods after being all broken up about killing three men in battle (that's all?) and somehow managing to survive in war despite his anti-killing beliefs thanks to picturing Gabrielle's face. Xena's as much in shock over this proposal as Gabrielle is...but Xena needn't worry, as he's clearly not long for this world/practically got 'Dead Meat' stamped on his forehead.

'Joxer the Magnificent' (a name he should seriously rethink, as it hasn't the same ring to it as 'Joxer the Mighty'...nor does it lend itself to becoming a catchy theme tune) is displaying his non-fighting skills to a couple of kids. Callisto shows considerable restraint in NOT offing them, but that's because she wants Joxer (who, to his credit, stands up to Callisto) to deliver her message to Xena. It's refreshing to have the villain include *themselves* when talking about whose hands every drop of blood they spill will be on (as usually they just pile ALL the blame on the hero who spared their life), thus showing she's not absolving herself of her sins. Speaking of, she's about to add another child to her casualty list when Xena steps in, catching her chakram (in a shot mirroring when Callisto caught it during her introductory episode).

There's some sword foreplay between them, with Callisto taking advantage of Xena's heart/caring about people, but she makes the fatal villain mistake of NOT killing Xena when she's at her mercy. Hudson/Lucy have great chemistry. I kind of love that Callisto not only does her signature primal scream when fighting, but also likes to backflip out of scenes whilst doing it as well. During a battle with Callisto's men, Mr. Hates-Killing kills a guy, then drops his sword/leaves himself totally vulnerable mid-battle...yet no baddies take advantage of this (not even when Gabrielle joins him), they just keep running past. This foolishness somehow convinces Gabrielle to marry his drippy self. At the wedding, there's some amusing stuff between Xena/Joxer, but most of note is Xena's/Gabrielle's not-goodbye, their hug, and their KISS. Both Lucy and Renée are really good in this scene, saying so much with looks.

Your new husband admitting he's been with other women (Gabrielle's apparently a virgin), though clarifying that he never said he was *good* at it, is something I'm sure EVERY bride wants to hear on their wedding night. Anyway, this is the scene to take your toilet break. It always amuses me when Xena tells those she puts her 'pinch' on that they only have seconds to live; yet they're alive for *minutes*/able to think straight enough to relay important information as Theodorus does here, leading to Xena interrupting Callisto's attack on the newlyweds by kicking her in the boobs. I enjoyed Callisto's "Hm?" when Xena says she won't get the satisfaction of killing her best friend...and then she basically kicks her towards Gabby's stupid hubby and Callisto does Xena the BIGGEST favour ever by offing the dope. Her "That'll do." is great, she screams by way of goodbye, and Xena's look says she's totally grateful...or maybe that she won't make the mistake of sparing Callisto's life again, I can't tell.

Gabrielle's blinded with rage, wanting Callisto dead (with or without Xena's blessing/help), even going so far as to blame Xena for never teaching her sword-fighting skills. I admired Xena's restraint in not losing it at Gabrielle when she started poking her with her sword. After some parrying lessons, Xena prays to whatever gods will listen for Gabrielle to not lose her innocence...which Gabrielle sees. She then lies to Xena's face, before going after Callisto alone despite Xena's matter-of-factly stating how outmatched she'd be. We earlier learned Callisto doesn't drink booze because she enjoys experiencing life 'in all its agonising glory'. Her chair contraption/'throne' doesn't look very comfortable, nevertheless she's asleep on it when a sword's put to her throat. Gabrielle's unable to follow through, Callisto looks genuinely confused as to why she couldn't do it, and I forget how Xena winds up strapped to Callisto's 'throne', but she tells Xena to appreciate it.

Thanks to bumbling Joxer providing distraction (by getting himself shot with an arrow), Xena frees herself, she's pretty evenly matched with Callisto fighting-wise, and racing horses along the beach seems to be their 'thing'...only this time with added chariots. It's an impressive scene that ends with them stuck in quicksand and Callisto takes solace in thinking they'll die together...that's until Xena proves just how good she is by getting herself out of it. Callisto admires Xena's skills/quick-thinking/initiative, before turning on the innocent girl voice/act, asking (then begging) Xena to save her, but Xena's learned her lesson and Callisto dies the same way she lived: screamingly. This was an excellent episode and Hudson Leick was exceptional throughout, bringing so much complexity to Callisto's character.

Return of Callisto

[Prismark10 · 5/10 · 17 March 2020]

Xena's enemy Callisto escapes from prison and wants revenge by wanting to kill Gabrielle.

Gabrielle meanwhile marries her former fiance Perdicus, bliss is short lived. Callisto kills him and Gabrielle wants revenge and wants Xena to teach her how to use a sword.

Callisto is a brilliantly cartoonish baddie. It shows from her prison scenes, the strong will join her army, the weak will perish. She is also easy on the eye.

Poor Perdicus was too much of a drip for Gabrielle. It was appropriate that the union was a short one.

I was not sure what to make of Gabrielle practising her sword fighting skills. It just did not look right her trying to be combative.

There was some Ben Hur type action with a chariots scene between Xena and Callisto which was done rather well.

Too much in too little time

[RueSailmana · 29 March 2019]

This must be the most edited episode ever. It skips from one subject to another and back and it wants to do so much in so little time. So much happens, and so many important moments are sweeped under the carpet.

It would have been better if they'd made it a two episode thingy