I wasn't expecting much from this one, and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I think it's because I liked the four young men Gabrielle befriends.
Gabs story is cute? Oh brother! Pollonius is not trying to endear himself to Gabbers, telling her, "Stories about housework are not popular." Xena finds Gabs and tells her, "I just met up with this guy from Caramus." That doesn't settle right with me, hearing Xena saying this "guy". Xena's really shocked and disappointed when Gabrielle doesn't want to go with her. Gabs would be away four or five years at the Academy? Wow! Xena tells Gabs she only remembers one story from her childhood. What about all those stories her Grandma used to tell why sitting on the front porch that Ares now owns? Xena gets all pensive, then kind of winks and smiles at Gabrielle right before she leaves. Gabrielle is tearing up. Nice touch on both actress's parts. What's the point of having a stuttering bard? Twickenham was a nice enough guy, but why the stutter? Very clever how Gabrielle manages to get her scroll mixed in with those of the others. Wonder if she picked that up from Xena? I knew what the guy was up to when he attacked with the knife in the classroom. I've seen stuff like that in way too many of my journalism classes! I like the way Stallonus tells a story. But why not use Kevin Sorbo's Hercules rather than Steve Reeve's? Sorbo appears later in the episode in some of the clips with Xena. How would the story of what happened between Xena and Iolas in the hot tub get out to the public? I don't think Xena would tell it, which would make Iolas a big blabber mouth! Gabrielle says, "Inside all of us is the yearning to do good...to be good." I wish I could believe that, but I can't. I HATE it when Gabs lays down and muses, "I wonder what adventures Xena has gotten into now?" It's a horrible line, and never should have been included. It would have been much better to have Gabs lie down with a secret smile on her face...leaving to our imagination what she might be thinking of. Gastaceous looks like one of the cast members of MASH. I think it's Major Winchester. I kind of like Euripides. I love his line, "Then we shall join the army of the dispossessed when he and the others take a stand for Gabs. Gastaceous would like to see the girl perform. This "performance" is a long way from the one Gabbers gave in The God You Know! Just for the record, Xena throws down her sword at the end of the fight in the clip from Cradle of Hope. I will NEVER be able to figure out why! The writers seemed to have gone a bit overboard in their portrayal of Pollonius. What a heavy-handed jerk this guy was! If my dad had kept thumping me on the forehead like Pollonius kept after Orion, I would have responded the same way...that was too much! Wow, Steve Reeves had some physique! It's funny to hear Pollonius call his son, "Orion". He doesn't seem the type to use a nickname. I've never seen Spartacus, but seeing the clips makes me want to! Apparently, Gabs got the scholarship, but turned it down. Very smart move on the bard's part! Here's Gary's thoughts on this one: This has got to be the longest title of any XENA episode. I think EVE is the shortest. It is also one of the first of the "clip shows" where for budget-cutting reasons,any studio will eliminate the main star and use the co-star to "carry" the show. Renee O'Connor did this very well,considering that the show was pretty light and really lacking in the in-depth revelations that we usually saw in previous episodes. It starts off pretty well,though. Xena and Gabby discuss a story they each know where two friends travel the world over to seek the one who is supposed to be the most meaningful to each other. At the end of the journey,they discover that the other is the one each was seeking. We know this over and over in subsequent episodes,since the girls prove many times their love and friendship for each other. Gabby tells Xena that she wants to go to Athens to Bard School,and will be gone between four and five years. This is pretty nonchalant with both of them,though Gabby seems a little more broken up by her choice. Gabby says Xena will hardly know she is gone:Their friendship,just newly-formed,now looks like it is over. If Gabby stayed away for that time,she would re-join Xena near the Twilight of the Gods in Season 5. Gabby is in Athens and meets a boy who tells her of the Bard Competition. A few lucky finalists will go on for further training. Gabby demonstrates her cunning and feminine wiles by faking a scroll and sneaking past the secretary who was collecting the applications. Gabby has a funny scene where she knocks over the scrolls and slips her own scroll in the mess. She is admitted,and the scene worked.In a cuteness scale,Gabby gets a 10 out of 10 for this scene,and at the end where she gives Homer the high sign when it is his turn to compete.Who can resist her face and bubbly manner? Note: Homer was a ninth century BC poet who wrote The Iliad,about the fall of Troy,and Gabby just came back from the fall of Troy,so the timeline is really skewed in this episode.It is like Xena meeting Sappho,who was a fifth century BC Greek lyric poetess. How do these girls meet long-dead poets? Do they use a time machine? Gabby meets some stock characters. There is Euripides,a long-winded bard wannabe,Twickenham,a stutterer,Stallonus,a physical-type who acts out the action he describes,and of course,Homer,who calls himself Orion,because it sounds more heroic than his real name. There is a staged "murder" in the classroom. The teacher says it is an event,but Gabby corrects him and says it was a fake because there was no point,no moral,no reality. She corrects the boys described above,too,during her few days there. She tells Euripides to be less formal,Homer to close his eyes and tell the story,and the others to clean up their acts a bit. In effect,she is a Little Miss Know-it-all,who is there,really to LEARN,not to teach. Gabby is discovered in her deceit,and is kicked out of the school. She will leave,but the boys want her to stay to hear them. She agrees. At the competition,Gestacious,a big-time bard,is the guest,and is convinced by the boys to allow Gabby to compete. The next scene is the young bards telling of stories,mostly old film-clips from 1950s Hercules movies that I watched back then,and the great movie Spartacus. Gabby,of course,had only a few episodes' worth of XENA shows to draw from. The XENA clips were okay,but I think the best use of clips was in Forget-Me-Not,because they were used to illustrate the Gabby memories trauma. Clips are usually just plain "filler"...there was not much to this entire show. Xena is in the beginning and end for a short time,as she was in For Whom The Bell Tolls,Forget-Me-Not,The Prodigal,and Ten Little Warlords. Gabby has shown she can be the star without the lead character.. There is a small subplot,with Homer's dad being a pushy "stage mom" type,wanting him to succeed. Gabby tells him off,and convinces Homer to stay in the competition. I think that this eposode was weak,but I liked it mostly because of Gabby's incredible "cuteness". I didn't like her for being such a know-it-all,and I missed Xena. Who did Gabby force out of the competition by sneaking in and stopping that person's chances of getting in? At the end,she re-joins Xena,who does not look surprised that Gabby is back five years early. Gabby just happens to come out of the woods at exactly where Xena is on a trail.She tells Xena that she won the competition...really,a few "won" and got to go on for further studies. There was apparently nobody who could teach a young naive girl from a small village anything about telling stories,despite the fact that she herself said she needed training. There are a few thugs meanacing them,and Gabby says she would rather live the stories than write them. This type of ending would have been better for the Series Finale,and was done in Hercules,where Hercules and Iolaus go on the trail to keep on fighting for the rights of the opressed. Many Happy Returns would have been my first choice. This Athens Academy episode was okay for entertainment,but RenPics would have done better with paying some sort of attention to the timeline and could have portrayed Gabby being a little less pushy.