This season is just turning out to be too good. With the exception
of In Sickness And In Hell (which I never, ever, ever want to see
again - yuck!), I've been blown away each week, and always for a different
reason. I really wasn't expecting to like this ep at all, since I
never got into Footloose (which I saw in the theater, yack) and
I was rather frightened by the prospect of the return of La Bete Noire,
I mean Tara. I'm happy to say that my worries were for naught. :)
The final 15 seconds of this episode were great. The ending made
me forgive the utter lack of plot and the fact that Gabrielle was pretty
much useless and made to look like a moron throughout the whole thing.
I agree with whomever said that in this ep we saw Lucy instead of Xena,
but it was still a ton of fun to watch. I just wish we'd gotten to
see Xena tangoing with Gabrielle instead of Autolycus, though. ;)
I do wish the song in the music video interlude had been sung by Lucy.
It really sounded like her. It was a very cool song -- I loved
the Arabic influence in the music! It'd better be on the next soundtrack
album (heck, they could probably even release it as a single).
The subtext is baaack! The way Xena referred to Gabrielle as "my
lovely assistant" made it a loaded phrase. :) I loved the going-to-sleep
scene too. When the Warrior Princess wants to sleep, she doesn't kid around!
Other favorite moments:
-
The staff training scene. I don't know why, but I was rolling on
the floor during the whole thing. The look on Xena's face was just
hysterical. (Did anyone else notice the distinctly Kiwi "All
together now!"? Lucy hasn't slipped that badly in a long time.
:)
-
The sound effect of fatally creaking leather when Xena did the split, and
the look on her face afterwards. Been there, done that, and I was
feeling her pain!
-
Bruce Campbell's preacher shtick. "Praise Calliope!" <<snort>>
(Was the visor of his headdress made out of vinyl, or was I just seeing
things?)
-
Xena/Lucy's facial expressions throughout pretty much the entire ep.
There are too many to note here, but suffice it to say that whenever she
was onscreen, even if she was in the background I made sure to focus on
her so I wouldn't miss anything. What a goofball.
When Philemon/Autolycus first made his entrance, my lovely local station
(Fox 61 in Hartford) chopped out an extra few seconds in the commercial
break. One minute Philemon was coming through the city gate, then
suddenly there were the commercials, then the next minute Xena and Auto
were in the middle of a conversation, the first half of which I had to
guess had involved Xena letting him know she was there and asking what
in Hades he was doing. I was able to catch the whole thing on another
station's rerun later, but it was still quite annoying at the time.
(This isn't the first time Fox 61 has chopped out a bit of a scene - in
Sin Trade II at least 30 seconds were cut from Alti's appearance
at the final astral battle. One minute she wasn't there, the next
she was in the middle of an attack on Xena.) I hate when that happens.
Episode Rating: 8
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