Xena and Gabrielle meet up with Khrafstar who is being taken as a prisoner. Xena finds out that he is fighting with Boudicea against Caesar in Brittania. Xena's hatred of Caesar drives her to join forces with Boudicea. In the meantime, Gabrielle becomes interested in Khrafstar and his one god. An unexpected twist takes place.
You think the main story is about Xena going up against Caesar, but the real story is Gabrielle going with Khrafstar to the temple of the one god. This harkens back to Gabrielle, particularly in season one, going off on what some might call a boring side story while the real action is with Xena. Except it's reversed this time. Brilliant writing on catching the viewers off guard.
Xena knows Boudicea from the past. They were allies, but Xena betrayed her, ordered her killed, took her army, and defeated Boudicea and her husband when they regrouped and attacked Xena. So here we have Xena facing her past again. She's helping Boudicea this time around, yet her motivation is revenge against Caesar.
Is Xena to blame for what happened to Gabrielle? The show writes it as her hate for Caesar, and her actions of revenge in going after him are to blame for Gabs poor fate in this episode. It also comes up in later episodes later in the series. Well, I don't think so. I mean so what if Xena hates Caesar and wants revenge against him? He is a despot that was now trying to conquer Brittania, leading to cruelty and death for those people. If Xena is helping to stop a bad man isn't that a good thing despite her motivations? I say yes. I mean Xena didn't flip out with her hatred hurting innocents. She didn't go off on an extreme tangent like say......Melas in the episode "Callisto." Or herself in 'Ties That Bind' when she thought villagers killed her "father." Here, she was thoughtful, strategic, and methodical.
Furthermore, they reverted Gabrielle to her early season one status of suddenly she's not fighting beside Xena. I mean she was by Xena's side fighting in previous episodes. Suddenly she can't be left on her own and needs a babysitter? I'd argue Khrafstar was good. He had everyone fooled including the viewers. There was nothing there to giveaway this guy as a bad guy until the ceremony, and by then it was too late. As for Ares, Xena said it best when he asked her to trust him and she said "based on what!?" If only Ares had elaborated, giving the details, mayyyybe it might have convinced her but he was so ambiguous about it, I don't blame her at all for not believing him after all the dirty & dangerous tricks he played in the past.
So Khrafstar/Dahak wanted Gabrielle's innocent blood? Isn't this the same premise of the Dream Worker episode from season one? Morpheus wanted her blood innocence. In other words in both cases they wanted Gabrielle to kill in order to claim that purity. Same writer, same story, only this one is more developed and darker whilst the first was more simple and lighter. Poor Gabrielle. Everyone wants her to kill someone and lose her blood innocence. The ironic part is that Gabrielle is innocent of any wrongdoing because she believed that she was trying to save someone's life by stopping them (Meridian) from murdering Khrafstar. Guess Dahak is ok with this loophole.
So did Khrafstar target Gabrielle? And Xena too? He just happened to run into them in Greece? I mean they could have gotten this "innocent" from anyone. The majority of people haven't killed. Nope, they were targeted, most likely because Xena had become a champion going up against evil and Dahak wanted to spite her by using her best friend.
This a great episode where everything changes for the two. Loved that Xena kicked The Deliverer's butt, and loved that she got under his skin with some great dialogue delivered superbly by Lucy Lawless:
"What's the matter? A mere mortal giving you a problem? I thought your god was all-powerful or something."
"Great? Great at what? All I've seen is a lame attempt at a religion and some fancy fireworks. Are you sure he's what you think he is? Maybe he's got you fooled, too."
So Awesome!
A must-see episode as it affects the rest of the series when it comes to some storylines, mentions, and character development. 10/10.
You think the main story is about Xena going up against Caesar, but the real story is Gabrielle going with Khrafstar to the temple of the one god. This harkens back to Gabrielle, particularly in season one, going off on what some might call a boring side story while the real action is with Xena. Except it's reversed this time. Brilliant writing on catching the viewers off guard.
Xena knows Boudicea from the past. They were allies, but Xena betrayed her, ordered her killed, took her army, and defeated Boudicea and her husband when they regrouped and attacked Xena. So here we have Xena facing her past again. She's helping Boudicea this time around, yet her motivation is revenge against Caesar.
Is Xena to blame for what happened to Gabrielle? The show writes it as her hate for Caesar, and her actions of revenge in going after him are to blame for Gabs poor fate in this episode. It also comes up in later episodes later in the series. Well, I don't think so. I mean so what if Xena hates Caesar and wants revenge against him? He is a despot that was now trying to conquer Brittania, leading to cruelty and death for those people. If Xena is helping to stop a bad man isn't that a good thing despite her motivations? I say yes. I mean Xena didn't flip out with her hatred hurting innocents. She didn't go off on an extreme tangent like say......Melas in the episode "Callisto." Or herself in 'Ties That Bind' when she thought villagers killed her "father." Here, she was thoughtful, strategic, and methodical.
Furthermore, they reverted Gabrielle to her early season one status of suddenly she's not fighting beside Xena. I mean she was by Xena's side fighting in previous episodes. Suddenly she can't be left on her own and needs a babysitter? I'd argue Khrafstar was good. He had everyone fooled including the viewers. There was nothing there to giveaway this guy as a bad guy until the ceremony, and by then it was too late. As for Ares, Xena said it best when he asked her to trust him and she said "based on what!?" If only Ares had elaborated, giving the details, mayyyybe it might have convinced her but he was so ambiguous about it, I don't blame her at all for not believing him after all the dirty & dangerous tricks he played in the past.
So Khrafstar/Dahak wanted Gabrielle's innocent blood? Isn't this the same premise of the Dream Worker episode from season one? Morpheus wanted her blood innocence. In other words in both cases they wanted Gabrielle to kill in order to claim that purity. Same writer, same story, only this one is more developed and darker whilst the first was more simple and lighter. Poor Gabrielle. Everyone wants her to kill someone and lose her blood innocence. The ironic part is that Gabrielle is innocent of any wrongdoing because she believed that she was trying to save someone's life by stopping them (Meridian) from murdering Khrafstar. Guess Dahak is ok with this loophole.
So did Khrafstar target Gabrielle? And Xena too? He just happened to run into them in Greece? I mean they could have gotten this "innocent" from anyone. The majority of people haven't killed. Nope, they were targeted, most likely because Xena had become a champion going up against evil and Dahak wanted to spite her by using her best friend.
This a great episode where everything changes for the two. Loved that Xena kicked The Deliverer's butt, and loved that she got under his skin with some great dialogue delivered superbly by Lucy Lawless:
"What's the matter? A mere mortal giving you a problem? I thought your god was all-powerful or something."
"Great? Great at what? All I've seen is a lame attempt at a religion and some fancy fireworks. Are you sure he's what you think he is? Maybe he's got you fooled, too."
So Awesome!
A must-see episode as it affects the rest of the series when it comes to some storylines, mentions, and character development. 10/10.
