"Past Imperfect"

The death of Borias! The birth of Solan!! Dagnine vs the centaurs!!! The Alti vision of Xena & Gabrielle being crucified!!!!

Best: The flashbacks; Xena wanting Gabrielle away from harm; no-one suspected Satrina; Evil Xena

Worst: The way Xena remembered past events was corny & over-used; That Satrina supplied the ending of the flashback memory right when needed was too much silly

Redemption score: 1.5, well there moments now & then

X&G yin/Yang score: 7, Gabrielle was too much for fighting here

Diversity score- 5

Greater good comment- Xena saves a bunch of people but also kills a lot of soldiers (they never explained who the opposing army was)

Rating: 9

"Past Imperfect"

Starts off with the Alti vision. Xena explains it all to Gabrielle. Gabrielle isn't concerned, doesn't want to change plans or worry about it.
Does Xena explain some Alti visions have already come true? i dunno. What is odd is that not only does Gabrielle seem unconcerned about her own death in the vision but also unconcerned that Xena will share a death too. This seems out of character for one who not long ago sacrificed herself to a lava pit to save Xena from Ares threat. i chalk it up to poor writing.

more later...

"Past Imperfect"

Satrina was an interesting character who should have returned, maybe teamed up with am escaped Najara. But once again TPTB blew it.

It would have been fun to see more on what makes Satrina tick & flashbacks before she met Xena. But no, never see her again.

more later...

"Past Imperfect"

Some great past event scenes highlighted this ep.

Pregnant Evil Xena- nowhere near the wimpy good preggers Xena that disgusted me in S5. She hid the pregnancy from her troops & wasn't that caught up in til Solan was born & she gave him up to Kaleipus. And we see how Kaleipus lost his one eye to Xena in a knife throw.

Borias is obviously separated from but still in love with Xena. He wants to make a treaty with the centaurs which Xena ends up breaking. Borias wants to take their son away & raise him away from Xena who he hears will turn out like her & attract her enemies.

Dagnine is back & under Xena's command. He eventually kills Borias who sees his son as Xena & Satrina leave.

It was all Satrina's plot to turn on Borias (she alerted Dagnine to kill Borias under false pretenses that Borias was gonna kill Xena. Yeah she's equally ro blame for Borias' death as much as Dagnine. This is never mentioned the first time we see Dagnine back in S2.

more later...

"Past Imperfect"

Probably the worst thing about this ep was the way Xena acted when she remembered the past. Ok at first she was tossed threw the air. But that shouldn't have affected remembering back. She has this gap mouthed, wide eyed look on her face like she never had remembered the events she did til just then. As if they were pouring into her head without her controlling it!

Nobody remembers stuffage like that! It would have been better if she just stopped and said "hmmm something bout this seems familiar" and not acted all shocked & in awe of herself or whatever, But i blame the writers for trying to add more melodrama where it wasn't needed.

"The Key to the Kingdom"

Joxer, Meg & Autolycus plan to steal a crown of Athena but end up kidnapping a baby.

Best: Um, the Gryphia/Cleades story was half-way not-too-bad but ruined in this stoopid ep

Worst: No Gabrielle; No Xena til the end; Ted & Lucy over-acting to a ridiculous extreme as Joxer & Meg; There was too much slapstick, too much poop humor; No-one behaves as these characters do...

Redemption score: 0

X&G yin/Yang score: 4, um Gabrielle wasn't in it & Xena not til the end but i give it 4 as a forfeit

Diversity score- 4

Greater good comment- Xena saves whoever needs saving at the end

Rating: 3.5 -lowest score thus far but i won't go lower than this for any ep before season 5

"The Key to the Kingdom"

Not much to discuss here. As i mentioned above:

No Gabrielle in the ep, Xena wasn't in it til the end.

Ted & Lucy were ridiculously over-acting as Joxer & Meg. It was embarrassing to watch.

Autolycus was a-typical for himself, therefore not adding anything to the mix.

It would have been better to have rerun an earlier & more interesting ep instead of this nonsense. Even an infomercial on dentures would have been better! Even a documentary on xc rearranging his sock drawer would be more exciting!

Most of this ep was pratfalls, boring chases, poop humor, cheesy over-acting, tired old plots... It was really hard to stay with it & not go do something else.

The only thing I liked about "The Key to the Kingdom" was Meg's attachment to the baby and her wanting to be a mom. I didn't think that particular acting was bad, especially that last scene with Xena. I thought that was nicely underplayed and gave a bit of depth to Meg I didn't know existed, when she said "I can't have children." That's just mho tho. The rest of the ep was meh and all those lite eps in later seasons basically sucked eggs lmao. Pointless to the extreme.

I need to re-watch "The Greater Good" and totally catch up, but I'm also hooked on Dark Shadows too lmao, and other crazy RL crapola be going down now as well. Meanwhile, thanks for keepin' the Xena thread alive, xc! I Shall Return.

i dunno, in retrospect TPTB ruined Meg's little moment of drama by her having Virgil & a slew of kids in S5. i think Xena should have told Meg that if she would grow up & stop her trollop ways then she (Xena) would help her adopt.

Maybe you should start a Dark Shadows thread, Kate? i still watch it weekdays on dvd & am in the part where Barnabas is back in 1897 and Quentin is a werewolf.

Maybe I will start a DS thread! I gotta see if my old "Minya" and/or "Cupid" accounts still work for the scrolls cuz I could always give one to John so he can scroll and add his thoughts to DS. If I remember right, I think we had to start new accounts for the Race doohaha. I'll double check, and start the DS thread in "Best of the Rest," I guess.

Ugh, I must've blacked out on Meg having all them babies later! I forget what Xena said to Meg but I thought it was advice on her ways, and maybe that she should adopt. Dunno it's been awhile since I seen the ep. Oh well.

Waaaait...Virgil was the dude that was in the cannibal ep in S6, right?? That ep creeped me right out. Yeah...I remember now, X and G lost 25 or so years of their lives trapped some damn place and came back when Eve was an adult. Ah, ok it makes sense now. S6...what a waste of a season. They should have just had 'em die in Ides of March.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Free Madness,

Virgil was in a few eps in S5 & 6.

i agree, X&G should have stayed dead after Ides of March. Or else they should have been reincarnated in other lives as the show progressed. Like a new lifetime every 6-7 eps.
Shake things up- be creative- show them throughout history changing history- but um, well, Crapert had his wife & kid by then so why bother or why bother the writers to do something that was probably beyond their brain capacity or imagination shkills?

"Daughter of Pomira"

Xena and Gabrielle help an old friend of Xena get back his daughter from the Horde.

Best: Gabrielle's insistence on getting Vanessa back which may have had subconscious meanings; Xena dressed as a Horde; Milo the bounty hunter was interesting character who almost kicked Xena's butt; good acting by all in this ep; Rahl kinda resembles Jack Nicholson!; ending turned out good

Worst: Milo would have made a good character to repeat later on but no luck

Redemption score: 5, Xena mentions her change and there are examples within the ep

X&G yin/Yang score: 8.5, back to normal

Diversity score- 5.5

Greater good comment- Xena & Gabrielle reunite families, and Xena prevents a war

Rating: 9.5

"Daughter of Pomira"

Starts off with Xena remembering her army fighting the Horde. Apparently her & Gabrielle are in the same area as that battle but not in the same area as the last confrontation with the Horde. Must be a different group.

We see a few Horde kids & teens out hunting when Milo attacks them. One of these kids is blonde haired (with a bad hair day too!). Xena says she recognizes the girl- but if she knew the kid from 10 yrs back- at least- i don't see how she would know her, especially in all that Horde get-up & make-up!

Anyway, this Horde group is known as the Pomira. Vanessa is the girl but her Pomira name is Pilee.

quote:

Vanessa: "Not-- Horde-- Pomira. W-we-- Pomira. The sky-- the-- Earth-- kaltaka-- all-- know-- Pomira, s-s-serve Pomira. And-- Pomira give-- honor."

So they're enviro-Horde. Tree huggin' hippee Horde. Kindlier, gentler Horde- less'n you mess'n with their water, sky, earth or daughter!

The Pomira leader is Cirvik. His daughter died and he took Vanessa in to replace her. In a way this group reminds me of cults from the late '60s to mid '70s. There were plenty of them in my town & i knew plenty ppl- some from my 'hood- who were taken in. Then they had to get taken out & deprogrammed. i knew a girl from a neighboring 'hood who we had to help escape a cult. The cults were slick & promised a lotta emotional & social help but that was all a come-on. Are the Pomira just a Horde cult off-shoot? Maybe. We never see them again & all we know is from Vanessa/Pilee but she sure seems taken in.

To their credit, the Pomira never throw their Horde hatchets over the village wall & kill ppl at the end. Cirvik is genuinely missing Pilee. When Xena orders the village gate open, they don't storm in killin' or anything. Cirvik waits for Pilee to explains things and leaves. He looks determined to take her but i bet he'd have let her stay awhile longer had she asked. We get the impression from Pilee's 2 families speech that she will be back.

All in all a good ending but i still think the Pomira is more than likely a cult atmosphere. Vanessa never broke away when first caught to return to her real family tho i bet she had plenty of opportunities. i'd bet she was indoctrinated by Cirvik & the others, probably thru food & sleep deprivation at first til she willingly accepted her new life.

Or maybe not. Just mho & i stick by it & will drink my kaltaka by it!

More later...

"Daughter of Pomira"

Some quotes from Gabrielle in this ep:

quote:

"Yes, of course. Look, don't worry. I know that a child needs her mother, and her father. Right, Xena?"

"We're not hunting Horde. We're trying to take a girl back to her family."

"They took her first. We're just bringing her home, Xena. I mean, doesn't she deserve to be with the people that she loves, the people that love her?"

"Well, then, the sooner we bring her back, the better."

"No. We're going to take you home. The Horde will never hurt you again."

"That doesn't mean it was right for him to kidnap her from her mother."

"Xena-- she doesn't wanna come because she doesn't remember. When she's in her mother's arms, she'll know that she belongs there. Now, how can that be wrong?"

"I know it's strange for you-- I mean, after all, you've been gone for six years. It will get easier. You know? I mean, your parents-- they're-- . What is it? Horde?"

"She's still your daughter. Tell him, Vanessa."

"You're wrong. _I_ wanted to bring Vanessa home."

"Of course she is. Under all that paint-- she still needs her father's love. She needs it now-- more than ever."

"The little girl may be gone-- every child grows up. Look-- I'm sure that she's changed a lot, but you have to give her a chance."

"I thought that she deserved to know her family-- to be able to make a choice. I thought that she'd be happier with them than she would with the Horde, and now I'm-- I don't know."

That's a lotta talk about families- about mothers & fathers needing their children. i remember back in the day there was talk here that all this conversation from Gabrielle might mean something more, something subconscious. Is it a snipe at Xena? Is it that deep down Gabrielle is resenting Xena letting her follow Xena when she should have stayed home with her folks?
This being season 4 with the spiritual quest, perhaps Gabrielle's deep rooted feelings are coming more forward. And maybe it's also to do with her having her own daughetr- Hope- taken from her, regardless that she was nothing but a vessel for evil- to quote Xena. Maybe these are double snipes at Xena for being so right about Hope while denying Gabrielle her daughter and letting her follow Xena so easily instead of taking her back home where she probably belonged.

Gabrielle hasn't been big on people staying in their home village before this. Plus i would think with her inquisitive ways that she would be more likely to side with the Pilee side of Vanessa than with Vanessa's folks. Gabrielle does have a tendency to have an interest in cults!

Towards the end of the ep we get this from Gabrielle:

quote:

"You know, you'd think I'd learn not to meddle with families."

What families is she talking about? Hers? Xena's? Hmmmm.

i do think her quotes above are snipes at Xena. Probably taking the form of getting Vanessa back to her folks. No, i ain't no shrink but i play one in my "mind"!

More later...

"Daughter of Pomira"

Milo was a pretty interesting character in this ep. He was more like Xena used to be. He hunted Horde and was a good fighter- almost kicking Xena's butt. He had some good one-liners as well.

It's too bad they killed him off so soon. i think it would have been fun for him to have gotten beaten badly and slinked off. Then maybe he could have returned with say, Satrina, Najara and Sinteres (if they hadn't killed him off). Imagine them 4 against Xena! With villains like that i imagine Satrina would be the brains of the outfit but would come into conflict with Najara's jinn. Xena either kills or dismisses the "lesser" enemies too easily. So if they banded together without her knowing about and attacked without her knowing they are working with each other, that might be pretty interesting.

But TPTB never thought that way so, oh well.

More later...

"Daughter of Pomira"

There was pretty good acting all around this ep. i was pleased with most all the ep as it could have taken stoopid turns but it didn't.

Milo should have been continued on in a later ep, that's the only squabble i have with the ep.

i wouldn't mind having a Horde hatchet- they looked pretty cool!

"If the Shoe Fits..."

Xena, Gabrielle, Joxer & Aphrodite tell fairy tales to some kid. *yawn*

Best: the hotness of Gbarielle

Worst: Another brain-dead "comedy" story written by Adam Armus & Nora Kay Foster; the fairy tale stories were neither clever nor funny, just annoying; the villains were inept- how did they ever get anything done as villains?

Redemption score: 0, nothing here

X&G yin/Yang score: 6, Xena was too goofy at times

Diversity score- 6

Greater good comment- Xena, well she did capture bad guys

Rating: 5 (that's being nice)

"If the Shoe Fits..."

Not much to discuss with this yet another silly comedy.

Somebody should have stopped Adam Armus & Nora Kay Foster from writing for X-WP a long, long time before this ep. Does nobody care how stoopid their scripts are? i know there were plenty of freelance and fandom writer who could have written much better comedy. Maybe these two either came cheap or they were related to someone on the staff.

This ep seemed to revolve around telling fairy tales to a child. How boring! The stories were based on Cinderella. Couldn't they have come up with original fairy tales of their own? Guess not. The stories were dull & predictable. Oh yeah, guess Joxer invented disco in his tale. That alone is reason enuff to kill him off!

There was a half-assed attempt to once again make Gabrielle feel worthless in her "family" with Xena. If they wanted to talk family, why not have an ep where X&G's family meet each other? Bring Toris back for the ep. Maybe Lila has a thing for him. Maybe Xena's mom reads Gabrielle's folks the riot act. i dunno. Couldn't be worse than this ep.

So how come the king & queen in this ep had distinctive British accents in Greece? How many kingdoms were in Greece in them days?

i lost interest in the bad guys quick in this ep or even why they were in the ep. Must have been Joxer's stoopid antics & Aphrodite's same ol same ol valley girl talk that bored me.

Well the India arc eps start soon. i know they were not too popular on the scrolls back in the day but i like them as they put more emphasis on the yin/yang differences between Xena & Gabrielle.

Plus no Joxer, no Meg, no Aphrodite for a few eps- yay!

"Paradise Found"

Xena & Gabrielle fall through a hole and end up in a paradise estate ruled over by New Age-like guru, Aiden.

Best: Gabrielle undressed; Gabrielle doing her breathing & stillness techniques; feral Xena; Xena's "piggy piggy" talk to Gar; Xena vs Aiden;
Gabrielle's freeing the past hurt; the yin-yang bed; the look of the paradise estate

Worst: Aiden seemed to be defeated awfully quick for someone so powerful & more back story on him would have helped

Redemption score: 7, more for the mentions of still fighting the dark side and that it might still be the real her

X&G yin/Yang score: 10!, the yin-yangiest ep yet!

Diversity score- 6

Greater good comment- Xena defeats Aiden, saves Gabrielle and Gar

Rating: 10

quote:

Originally posted by xenacrazed:
"Paradise Found"

Xena & Gabrielle fall through a hole and end up in a paradise estate ruled over by New Age-like guru, Aiden.

Best: Gabrielle undressed; Gabrielle doing her breathing & stillness techniques; feral Xena; Xena's "piggy piggy" talk to Gar; Xena vs Aiden;
Gabrielle's freeing the past hurt; the yin-yang bed; the look of the paradise estate

Worst: Aiden seemed to be defeated awfully quick for someone so powerful & more back story on him would have helped

Redemption score: 7, more for the mentions of still fighting the dark side and that it might still be the real her

X&G yin/Yang score: 10!, the yin-yangiest ep yet!

Diversity score- 6

Greater good comment- Xena defeats Aiden, saves Gabrielle and Gar

Rating: 10

Paradise Found: Best. Ep. EVER. It always was my favorite and I suspect it will stay my favorite even after I've seen all the eps.

Aidan as the energy vampire disguised as a guru light and healing teacher gave me the willies. I agree that he could have shown up again but I was satisfied with this as one ep. It was cool that the darkness had to be drawn on to save Gabrielle from Aidan's warped use of "light" energies to drain her life force. Very good writing there. Loved Gar too...and Xena re-acquainting with her dark side is always fun to see! Interesting to see her really delve into her darkness to do good! Wow, talk about a tricky bit of redemption there.

Total yin-yang everything here. Epic!

Yep, excellent ep i was looking forward to seeing again. It proves they can produce great stories when they want to!

"Paradise Found"

The ep starts out where Xena & Gabrielle are in a cave where it's storming outside. Gabrielle is topless but with her back to Xena & us. Xena has a gash on her leg after fighting some thugs. Gabrielle teases her that she was smiling while fighting them.

quote:

Gabrielle: "Those guys were scum-- I admit that. I just wonder if-- maybe your-- fighting for good has more to do with the fighting than the good part."

Xena: "Think my fighting for good is a cover for something darker? I don't know."

Gabrielle: "It's funny. We come to places like this-- you know, the spirtual places? Looking for some sort of answer. Makes you wonder."

Xena: "Wonder what?"

Gabrielle: "If instead of reaching out-- maybe we should be looking in."

Xena has the Alti vision. Then they hear a noise which Gabrielle investigates. When she don't return, Xena goes to find her but just finds a big deep hole in the ground. Yikes another lava pit repeat!

So why does Xena just throw herself into the hole where she could have died if it were not all just an illusion? That didn't make a whole lotta sense.
She could have gotten vines or a rope and climbed down.

After "landing", she & Gabrielle are in an Ilusia-looking place. They find Gar who tells them that they're in the estate of Aiden. So why doesn't Gar tell them the truth about Aiden from the get-go? Well he did say Aiden was everywhere so i guess he thought he'd be killed if he denied the boss the light from these 2 newcomers.

More later...

"Paradise Found"

Once in Aiden's estate, Xena's leg gash was healed. The main house and area looked like something out of a painting with lush green gardens & blue sculptures (really these were people Aiden stole the souls from).

X&G soon meet Aiden. We don't get much background on him. Is he guru? magician? demon?
He says he lost his wife & child but doesn't say how they died. He says he had to fight his dark side once- making it sound like he was a bad guy- but doesn't go further.

In many ways Aiden is similar to Najara in talking about the light. Where Najara wanted to get people to turn to the light, Aiden wants to steal the light from people. But both Aiden & Najara take strongly to Gabrielle (can't blame them) and both try to get Xena to leave her and tell her she will hurt Gabrielle even more and both times Xena has the Alti vision which leads her to decide to leave Gabrielle. Unfortunately both times Xena finds out on her way out that Gabrielle is left in the hands of a bad person.

TPTB just can't seem to get past this last point- that there is someone out there who can help Gabrielle instead of hurt her like Xena does and will even more so. Or maybe it's Eli who will break that chain- though he too leads Gabrielle to her doom by challenging Caesar.

Aiden talks of teaching breathing and meditational techniques to X&G which we know that Gabrielle will go in for.

quote:

Gabrielle: "Would you relax? Aidan's right. You need to just learn to slow down. You know? I'm surprised at you , Xena."

Xena: "Why?"

Gabrielle: "For someone who's seen what Lao Ma and Alti can do-- it's strange you're not curious about Aidan."

Xena: "I've seen enough to know that most people can't handle spiritual powers. And Aidan is _no_ Lao Ma."

Gabrielle: "Well, yeah, he's a bit odd. That doesn't mean we can't learn something from him. I wanna ask him to teach me his breathing techniques. Will you come with me?"

Xena: "Thanks, but I've been breathing just fine on my own for years, now. Well, you know, I could have given him another chance. After all, the guy did heal my leg."

Hmmm...Xena sure is dissing Aiden from the get-go. Maybe she sees too much possible Najara in him.

More later...

"Paradise Found"

quote:

Xena: "What is this place?"

Gar: "Well-- ha-ha-- that kinda depends on you. Ah!"

So Aiden's place brings out the real you.

Gabrielle starts on the breathing and meditational techniques to bring about "an inner stillness". Aiden warns doing this could stir up thoughts & feelings, some not so nice, that one doesn't know they have.

Gabrielle thinks about Hope, her failure as a mother, which really wasn't the case & about the rift. Aiden warns Gabrielle again about these thoughts but still she presses on. And after he tells her about his losses (wife & kid):

quote:

Aiden: "No, no, but the thing is-- facing that pain-- and coming to terms with it, and then releasing it-- it's allowed me to do all this. You wanna heal the world, right? And I believe you can. But first you've got to _heal_ yourself. It's gonna be hard-- but that's the only way you're going to access that power."

Gabrielle: "You're saying that if I do this-- that I can create-- a perfect world just by thinking it."

Aiden: "Exactly. Once you tap into that inner stillness-- you can do absolutely anything. You just envision it-- then make it real."

Gabrielle presses on but relives more of the rift over Hope, and the end of Solan.

quote:

Gabrielle: "I'm a monster."

Aid: "No, you're not. Whatever it was that you saw or you felt, it's just the past. The past has no power if you face it. Facing it gives you the power."

The yin-yang bed is awesome. i wish i had one! i like this conversation:

quote:

Xena: "Are ya sure you wanna stay another day?!"

Gabrielle [Sighs]: "I haven't felt this clean-- since before Hope was born. I think Aidan is really onto something."

Xena: "Aw, Zeus, you don't really like this guy? That's it, isn't it? You like him. I should 'a known."

Gabrielle: "That's not it. What he says to me-- about reaching for the stillness-- releasing the pain-- "

Xena: "Aw-w."

Gabrielle: "It all rings true."

Xena: "Don' kid yourself. I saw what inner peace did for Lao Ma. Aidan's way seems so numbing!"

Gabrielle [Sighs]: "I was skeptical-- until I tried it. It was incredible I realized-- I never came to terms with my failure-- as a mother. I kept the guilt in my heart."

Xena: "You did the only thing you could do. There wasn't a choice."

Gabrielle: "It didn't make it any easier. Today-- I faced that pain. I let it go. I feel so-- clear-- so light. I wish you could experience that."

Xena: "Well, apparently, my mind is just too active. Isn't that what he said?"

Gabrielle: "All you have to do is-- look at this place-- to see that it works. It's perfect."

Xena: "If there's one thing that I've learned, it's that anything that looks too good to be true usually is."

Gabrielle: "I wish you could see how right this feels for me-- how freeing."

Xena: "Another day, huh? Well, I guess it won't kill me."

Gabrielle: "Thank you."

So the yin-yang are at their extremes now.

More later...